When the time's right (closed)

[zydrate]

Over 3 months of investigating and travelling halfway around the world and Sarah was not going to lose this information.

She should have backed up her information on a more regular basis but things had gotten hectic and she didn't have time.

News waited for no one. If a story was developing, she needed to get to the bottom of it quickly. Before someone else did.

Downstairs she heard the first of the gunshots and she did her best not to cry out in surprise as she moved the information from her flashdrive over to a backup.... just 3 more minutes...

"Come on...come on..." she muttered, her heart pounding and hands trembling.

More gunshots.

She had reported near the front line before but when one knew the bullets were meant for you, well, they had a whole different meaning.

Shouting in the hall.

A quick email... it was her last form of communication before she was tackled from behind and her head instantly meant up with the butt of an AK47, sending her into complete darkness.

Thankfully, she had just hit send on an encrypted email which simply read "Help me."

https://i.imgur.com/h7E2nV5.jpg?1
Sarah Blackford

 

[BeachBum25]

Brandon Paulson was a former member of a Special Ops force that reported to nobody except their Unit Commander who reported only to the Head of the CIA. As part of the unit, which didn't even a name, he had been in places that people didn't want to know about and he did things people didn't want to hear about.

Now Brandon worked for a private security company. The unit had been disbanded as pressure was put on the CIA by Congress to do away with any black ops missions or units. The work that the security company got came mostly from the CIA; work that continued black ops issues, but outside of government scrutiny.

The message came to him, and he was shocked to receive it. Sarah Blackford had reached out to him when she was investigating a lead about a secret unit that existed in the CIA. Of course, he had denied knowing what she was talking about, but he had agreed to meet with her several times in order to make her think he was being straight with her. Eventually, he wanted to meet with her, because he enjoyed her company. Who wouldn't enjoy the company of such a beautiful woman.

He used some connections to try to figure out where her distress message had originated. As soon as he had that information, he was on a plane. He was shocked she messaged him, but he was going to help her.

 

[zydrate]

Right now, all she had were memories and as weird as that seemed, that's what kept her hanging on to reality...

Hanging onto reality as she watched her fellow cameraman get beaten to a pulp in front of her.

Hanging onto reality as she was yelled at as to where got her information.

Hanging onto reality as she was hit hard in the stomach several times.

But of course, she didn't say. Yeah, she knew some secrets and well, she needed to keep them safe because not only where her contacts in danger, but so were their families. All she could do for the moment was play dumb and said she didn't what they were talking about.

Thankfully her investigational information was sent else where and if they had the means to decode, it then fine, they won. But she doubted they did seeing as how they were insisted on their 'asking' means.

Oh, she knew what they would resort to but she refused to panick... refused to give into their threats. Soon, she knew she would be moved again, to where, she wasn't sure, just like she wasn't sure where she was at now.

They threw her into a small, dark room... probably smaller than her bathroom back home, in fact, if she had to guess, it was probaby four feet by four. It was hot and it was dark, that much she knew right now. She felt the back of her head, the bump was huge and her head pounded. Her nose had some dried up blood on it, as did her newly split lip.

There were dangers to her job and she knew this but for it to come to this was... overwhelming...

God, she needed a vacation.

 

[BeachBum25]

When he got off the plane, he bought a burner phone in the airport. He reached out to a contact he had in country. He was able to get information on a reporter that had been asking a lot of questions. Yea, that sounded like Sarah. She was always asking questions. Sometimes she just didn't know when to stop asking.

Brandon's connection was able to get him some firepower. The contact then agreed to work with Brandon. Brandon told him that this was not a paid job; this was personal for Brandon. The contact agreed to work with Brandon anyway, but made it quite clear that Brandon was going to owe him.

The information they were able to get was not the most accurate. Hell, as a matter of fact, he thought that the information was designed to throw them off the track. Brandon had no idea who he could trust. In fact, he wasn't positive he could trust his contact.

Finally, they received a positive lead. They found some blood and a piece of a woman's blouse on the floor of an office in an abandoned warehouse. They did not find Sarah, but they were making strides now. Their next lead took them to another abandoned building. Brandon had a feeling that this might be the place.

 

[zydrate]

She tried to get her guard to talk. She asked him where she was. He didn't answer.

She asked about what this was all about... nothing.

Leaning about the wall, she slid down to the ground and rested her head on her knees. Her fucking head was killing her.

As a reporter, there weren't many people Sarah could rely on. No, she was always working and of course, working people for information. She knew no one trusted her either. It was almost a solitary life, after all.

But then she had met Brandon. She had nearly gotten fired for pushing her sources...hell, she had even gotten death threats but that didn't stop her. It should have, but it didn't.

There was something there, that was for sure. They had met for drinks and then the next night was for dinner.

After that, she hadn't heard from him for nearly two weeks but he had suddenly showed up. So they had some more drinks and well, things from there had gotten...complicated. Thankfully, the job called them both away but he had told her if she ever needed anything, to call him.

Sarah would have probably thought more about them had they both not been that busy... and both polar opposites. He was closed off, she was open and always, always questioning.

Suddenly, the sound of gunshots got her attention. Not again. Just as she stood up, the door to her cell was yanked opened and they had grabbed her by the arm, dragging her out. "What's wrong?! What's going on?!"

Her arm was twisted painfully behind her back and she was shoved in front of the man moving her.

She knew what they were doing, they were using her as a shield as they got away from the gun fire. Oh great. She didn't have any means to get back at them, she didn't know how to truly defend herself so she couldn't break free. But she could stall... and so she pushed herself back against the man holding her and she was quickly corrected with a harder twist of her arm, causing her to scream in pain....

 

[BeachBum25]

As they climbed out of the truck, Brandon looked around. He wasn't sure what, but something was definitely up. Some people looked in their direction and then walked away. Others just walked away and avoided looking in their direction.

What was he doing here? He was half a world away from home chasing down leads looking for someone he only knew for a minute. He wasn't even certain it had come from her. Hell, it could have been someone who used her to lure him here. Well, it was too late to worry about that.

As they approached the door, a bullet wizzed by his ear and hit the ground. The shooter was in the window on the second floor of the building. Brandon took him out with one shot, but it resulted in all hell breaking loose.

Shots seemingly came from everywhere. Brandon flattened himself against the front of the building. His contact, crawled under a truck. They returned fire and were successful with putting down the first level of assault, but Brandon knew there was more coming.

They were able to get inside the building and hide behind old piles of scrap metal. They took a moment to assess what to do next, but before they could develop a plan, the next barrage of gunfire began. They moved in opposite directions and Brandon was able to see that the shots were coming from a catwalk that ran across the open factory floor.

Finding cover, Brandon began to pick off the bogies one at a time. He fired at number 4, and he saw the target go over the rail and fall to the floor below. Almost simultaneously he heard a scream. This was the right place.

 

[zydrate]

Sarah tried her best to slow down those that held her. The smell of metal and blood, yeah, she recognized that from before... The sound of the guns going off made her ears ring and for what seemed like an eternity she could only see what was going on around her. She couldn't even hear her own cries...only the ringing in her ears.

She was tired of fighting back, they were too strong, grabbing her at a bruising hold...yanking her around like a rag doll.

Then, just as she was about to give up on it all, she saw him.

Brandon.

She knew better than to call out to him or even use his name. And almost briefly, they had made eye contact before she was dragged around and behind another wall...

No, she was being led outside and saw several trucks waiting... Oh God, once she was in there, she knew she was a goner... she had to keep stalling...

 

[BeachBum25]

There she was. They made eye contact. He could see the fear in her eyes, but he could also see the determination. It was that determination he saw when she had continued to question him about black ops missions.

He watched as she was pulled behind a wall. He surveyed the surroundings. He saw a way to get to that wall. He made eye contact with Allen and let him know he needed cover fire.

Once Allen provided cover, Brandon began to move. He made a move around to the stairway. As he started to ascend the stairs, a bogey appeared and fired down at him. The bullet grazed his arm and spun him around. He was able to recover and open fire and take out the person who shot him.

He continued up the stairs, and, after reaching the top of the stairs, he looked around for Sarah. He had to be careful. He wanted to make sure that he got a clear shot immediately in order to make sure that her captor did not execute her.

 

[zydrate]

She had to do something. She hated being the helpless female but she didn't know much about how to defend herself. there was never really any need for it in the past...

With all her force, Sarah grabbed the doorframe and more shouting ensued. They hit her hands with the butt of the gun to get her to loosen her grip, but she held on.

Hopefully it was enough to help out Brandon. She wasn't sure who else he was with...hell, she hadn't expected him to come at all.

If anything at all, were she to live through this, it would make one hell of a story.

 

[zydrate]

*** Story Ended (no response) ***