My Descent into Slavery Ch. 02

This is the only chapter of the entire My Journey series written in the third person. It ties into the last chapter from Voyage of Submission (Back to Africa) from everyone else's perspective after Beth is taken. While it would have been possible to do with the various parties explaining to Beth what happened after she was rescued, it would have been awkward and tedious. I don't like awkward and tedious. This chapter also doesn't contain any sex. It is more of an overview from several different person's perspectives. More details of the planning from Edgar's, Joshua's, Sahar's and particularly, Richard's point of view can be read in Becoming a Cuckold, Chapter 12. That also includes sex. I'm submitting both of them at the same time. This ends on a cliffhanger, so sorry. Thanks to JohnnyGalt for editing.

My Descent into Slavery and Eventual Resurrection, Ch 2 -

Searching for Beth

When Edgar got back to the helicopter alone, Roberta was already there.

"The other helicopter pilot is already up in the air searching West, Edgar," Roberta reported. "Leo is fueled up and waiting for you and whoever you're going to take. Radios are working. Smitty and Joshua have already been notified. Smitty's guys hit the other group pretty hard from behind, and they broke off the attack."

"It wasn't an attack. It was a diversion. All they wanted was the women. Fuck, we need more ammunition. I need to go back with Leo to get the other three. Jake's unconscious, Art can barely move, Buck stayed with them, and I need Manuel ASAP."

"Smitty's guys should have plenty of ammo," Roberta said. "Take Leo to get Manuel, get more ammo and a couple more guns, then Leo can drop you in on the others and Manuel can start treatment. I'll let Smitty know they're not to move yet. It's going to take time to get everyone here. They have too many people for the trucks they have."

"Make sure the non-combatants and Joshua have a heavy guard, and they can start back on the trucks. The rest of the guys can hoof it here. Tell Joshua to have Miranda put whatever government resources she can on this and Joshua needs to get a lot more helicopter transport. We need to move everyone fast. Stuck here in the middle of nowhere doesn't do anyone any good. Fuck! Did they take any casualties?"

"Couple minor wounds. They're already patched up. Manuel is ready to go."

"Stay here, brief Joshua, tell him if worse comes to worst, we need a lot more than Smitty's guys. An assault on Mahmoud will probably take three hundred men at least. We'll need someplace to train, and building mock-ups. Smitty will know what we need. He can tell Joshua. I've got to go. Make sure Manuel doesn't move. I'm coming for him and ammo."

"You got it."

Edgar ran over to Leo, who had the preflight already done. As soon as Edgar was on, he engaged the rotors, and Edgar told him to head for the house to get Manuel. During the flight, he called the other helicopter pilot, Jeremy.

"Don't just search straight West, Jeremy. If they were smart, they'd head South or North at some point, then head West again. Do wide circles, about 120 klicks out. Look for vehicle caravans, or anything moving at a high rate of speed. If it looks interesting, follow it. The cavalry will be coming, as fast as we can."

"Roger. Wide circles, 120 klicks, caravans or fast movers."

When they got to where they'd left the others, Leo lowered a winch for Manuel to hook to and Edgar reeled him back in. The look on Joshua's face had such pleading on it when Edgar saw him. Edgar shook his head no and gave him a thumbs down; they didn't know where Beth was. Joshua dropped to the ground, Fatima and Sahar sitting with him with their arms around his shoulders. They lowered the line again and Smitty gave them a couple ammo cans filled with 5.56 mm ammunition and they hauled that up, then Leo headed for where Edgar had left the others. Edgar lowered Manuel down, then they circled while Manuel checked the wounded men.

"Edgar, Jake needs a transfusion fast," Manuel reported over the coms, now working after Abdul's men left. "He needs air transport."

"Fuck! We need this bird. Any word on more helicopters coming, Leo?"

"Two coming from Algiers, driven by Algerian pilots, ETA is thirty minutes."

"Manuel, can Jake wait for thirty?"

"We need to leave now, closest hospital. There was one in Djelfa, ten minutes by air."

"Hook him up. Can Art wait?"

"He's not in danger of dying. I gave him some pain killers."

"Just you and Jake then. The others can wait for a ride. Shit!"

He lowered the line and it was hooked to Jakes ballistic vest. Manuel hooked on too, and Edgar started reeling in the winch line. Before the other two men were in the cabin, Leo had started to Djelfa.

"I'm going to leave you with Jake at the hospital, Manuel, so you can tell the docs what Jake needs, but I'm leaving. Arrange for Jake's transportation to anywhere else he needs to go. You arrange with the others to get back to the ship. Maybe the Algerian choppers can pick you up when they get the others. Leo, we need to go back and get five more guns, then we're going hunting."

"Aye, aye, sir."

The hospital in Djelfa had a helicopter landing pad on the roof with a red crescent, the Muslim equivalent of a red cross. There were two people waiting with a stretcher on the roof when Leo touched down. As soon as they had Jake loaded on the stretcher and everyone out of the way, Leo was up and headed back to Hassi Bahbah. By the time they got back, two trucks were back at the landing site with Joshua and the others.

"Any word on Beth's location?" Joshua asked.

"No, sir. Not yet. I was able to give Beth a tracker, which she swallowed. I've not turned it on yet in case they swept them for trackers. As soon as Leo gets topped off again, I'm heading out too. They had radio jammers set up, so this was a well planned operation. I don't want to take the risk of turning it on too early, but we can fly five times faster than they can drive.

"I don't think we can use Algerian pilots for an armed incursion in whatever African countries we're going to be fighting in. I'd like a jump plane with the ability to carry twenty or more paratrooper as fast as they can get to Rabat or Casablanca with parachutes. If we can get to Beth and the others before they get to Mahmoud's hideout, we have a chance to take them out without the women getting hurt. If they make it to Mahmoud's, we'll need at least 300 to assault. Get the ship headed towards Morocco. Eventually, we need to get there. It's time to call in every favor you can, in Algeria, Morocco, the pentagon, NSA, NRO, anyone."

"This is when I need someone like Hannah to help."

"Lynn's kid, Richard. Isn't he Thornhill's PA? See if you can borrow him until we get Hannah back. See if Thornhill has any favors he can call in. I'll leave you to it. Shed, Manny, Rafe, Palmer, Sahar, with me, tac up, full loads, helmets, the works, extra ammo in a pack. We leave in ten."

"Sahar is good," Shed said, "but she's never done small unit ops. Is she the best choice you have."

"Has anyone else completed the skyscraper scenario by themselves?"

"No."

"Then she's going."

Sahar smiled at Edgar. "Don't worry, Shed, I will only shoot slavers," she said. She rushed to get more gear.

Edgar grabbed loaded magazines for his assault rifle, six of them, water, a first aid kit and the tracker tracer for the tracker he gave to Beth. He grabbed armor and a rifle for Leo.

When he handed it to him, Edgar said, "Sorry, man, but you may end up a shooter this mission."

"I keep in practice."

"And I appreciate it for times like these."

They were up and headed west for about two hours when Jeremy called. "I've got two military type troop transport trucks headed north towards Sougueur."

"Let me do a quick check on Beth's tracker. Keep it in sight."

Edgar risked turning the tracker on for five minutes to get a position on her. Beth was nowhere near Sougueur. He turned it off.

"Those trucks may be Algerian, or they may have some of Mahmoud's guys on them, may even have Hannah or Jìngyi on it, but Beth is near Laghouat. I say Abdul will probably keep the women together unless he really trusts his men. Head south, we'll head there too. We're maybe a half hour away. There's an airport at Laghouat. Refuel if you need to."

"It's going to be dark soon," Jeremy said. "If we chase them, they're going to hear us miles away and possibly kill the women. We need to get ahead of them and lay an ambush for them."

"Agreed. There are a number of different routes out of Laghouat. We'll see which one they take and hopefully get ahead of them."

"Roger."

Leo got there before Jeremy did. They refueled, not knowing how much longer the chase would last. Edgar checked the tracker again and Beth's signal had gone South from Laghouat.

Edgar conferred with the others. Sahar didn't say anything but watched and listened closely "We probably want to hit them at night in a non-populated area. At their current rate of travel, we probably want to hit them around here." He pointed to a map. "That's assuming they stay on this road. They eventually have to head west again if they're going to Morocco. I just worry they might not remain on the main road south because there are too many intersecting roads."

"The next road west is down here. There's nothing off of it for miles and miles of nothing," Shed said. "That might be the place to hit them."

"Agreed. That probably means we hit them tomorrow night some time. We've got time. We could get some shuteye."

"Do we want to leave the women with those bastards that long?" Manny asked

"They can't do that much to them while they're traveling. The real bad shit happens if they get them to Mahmoud's. They're not virgins, they've had sex before. Beth told me when she took the deal that she knew what would happen because of her work with the freed slaves. She said she was a sex slave and used to things like punishment. She even told Hannah and Jìngyi to obey their captors and she'd try to draw their attention to her because she could take a punishment. She's a brave girl. I'll let Joshua know we've got a bead on them and we're looking for a place to take them down without the women being hurt."

They slept in the helicopters for the night, eating food at the airport. Edgar woke up and checked the tracker a couple times during the night. They were up at seven and Edgar checked Beth's location again.

Edgar reported, "They kept going until pretty late, got about two or three hours of sleep in the middle of nowhere and headed out again. They're still heading south. We can saddle up. Shed, Manny and Rafe, go with Jeremy. Sahar and Palmer stick with me."

"Think about this for a second. If they continue traveling at around fifty kilometers an hour, like they have been," Shed said, "they have to go West on this road, and by tomorrow night, they should be here around six. They only stopped for a couple hours last night. They'll probably stop earlier tonight, just from fatigue and thinking they lost us. I'd guess they stop right around here," pointing at the map, "grab at least six hours of sleep and then head out again. Past there, there are too many alternate routes again. Instead of an ambush, sneak in on them right after dark. Get ahead of them. See where they stop. They won't hear the choppers because we were ahead of them and set down. If it's close to where we think, we can hike back on down the road a couple klicks and hit them when they only have one guy doing guard duty, the rest of them dead tired. Less chance of anyone hurting the women."

"Makes sense," Edgar said. "We'd have to be pretty close on the guess where they stop, but we can cover five klicks in an hour of hiking, so anywhere close to that, should be a piece of cake."

"We probably need to refuel at Mecharia before hitting them tomorrow night. Have a full load of fuel on board. We'll head straight for the ship once we get them."

"You're responsible for the birds, but I don't want us refueling both at the same time. One helo needs to stay within thirty minutes of Beth's tracker at all times."

"Roger that. We'll do it in shifts."

That morning, both of the helicopters topped off in Mecharia at different times, getting more food at the same time, including what passed for sandwich type things in Algeria to eat later. Shed, Rafe and Manny stayed on Jeremy's bird. The rest remained with Leo. They took off cross country, staying away from the road, heading for the anticipated stop location, setting down near there. Edgar continued to check the tracker for signs of any changes in speed or anticipated direction.

As they waited, Edgar started briefing Sahar on what they needed to do that night.

"We can't go in guns blazing if we can help it. We do that, they could kill the women. We plan to sneak in close after dark. While four shooters keep them under our guns in case they're alerted, two of us will crawl in and try to kill as many as we can with a knife. Soundless, starting with anyone on watch. The four shooters will have their guns trained on anyone still breathing. I'm not sure how many men they'll have, but try to have two or three picked out you'll take out. Point them out to me silently, so we don't have four people shooting the same schmuck while three others pull guns out."

"What is schmuck?"

"In this case, it's a hapless bastard who's going to hell when we shoot him."

"I will remember schmuck. Good word."

"We don't have silenced weapons. Shooting the rifles will wake everyone up, which is why we want to avoid them if possible. Before we sneak in, put ear plugs on. You'll still be able to hear commands, but it will help with the noise of firing. I want you to be one of the shooters. You're one of the best we have, except you're not used to live fire. It's different from playing on Hogan's Alley. When real bullets are flying, most people get nervous. Your adrenaline spikes and you tend to get tunnel vision, see only what's in front of you, so keep your eyes moving.

"At night, you actually see better out of the corners of your eyes. If they have a fire going, don't look at it; it destroys your night vision. Don't shoot the women. The last we saw of them, they were naked, but it's cold out here at night, so they may have blankets or some clothes. It's possible they'll be sleeping with some of the men, which is why I'm hoping for close in knife work. Please don't hit the women if they're with someone. The bullet can penetrate another person, so if a guy is fucking one of them, you could kill both of them with a single shot.

"We don't have a medic out here, but everyone else has had basic combat first aid. When the bad guys are dead, we can call the helicopters in for transport to the nearest hospital. Leo and Jeremy are looking for airfields and hospitals now so they can head for the nearest one if we need to.

"I'm sending Rafael and Palmer in for the knife work. Don't shoot them either. They're both former SEALs so I trust them to be quiet. I'd like to go myself, but I'm also one of the best shots, and I want overall control of the mission. They'll only have their handguns and knives when they sneak in because the more metal you're wearing, the more likely you are to make noise. They can do lots of damage with a handgun if shots get fired. They'll be shooting at the ones closest to them because they're the easiest targets, so you'll constantly be adjusting to targets further away.

"We'll try to form an arc of shooters around the camp. I don't want misses or ricochets hitting one of our guys on the opposite side. I don't have time to give you all the hand signals we can use to speak silently, but this one means circle around," waving a finger in a circle, "which in this case is just to spread out and put some distance between us, not get on the other side of the circle. Pointing to your eyes, and then pointing at your targets means you've identified the first persons you plan on shooting if things go to shit. If your first targets get knifed, switch to other targets and point them out to the others. Always have your next targets picked out, but be willing to switch if someone is quicker in responding to our attack and is picking up a weapon faster than your original choice. Any questions?"

"No. I just want to say I've wanted to kill these fuckers more than anything, and I thank you for giving me the chance to come with you."

"You earned your chance. I didn't give it to you. You work harder than anyone."

Sahar nodded.

Everything remained copacetic until Abdul's men stopped for lunch. Since they were stopped, they all ate the food they got in Mecharia.

The next time Edgar checked the the tracker, it was speeding off on one of the few intersecting roads heading south at a very high rate of speed.

"Somethings wrong. They're heading south and they sped up. Crank the engines boys, we need to figure out what the hell they're doing, because they're not following our plan. Jesus, they're moving eighty miles an hour. How the hell are they even staying on the road? That's got to be a bumpy ass ride. Where the hell are they going?"

Leo said, "There's a small town down there, doesn't even have a name on the map. Maybe they're headed there for some reason."

"Why so fucking fast?"

"Some kind of emergency, perhaps," Palmer said

"You think someone got hurt? Maybe one of the women?" Sahar asked.

"I think the town they're headed for is too small for a hospital. I think the closest hospital is in Tiout, which is west of them. Farther to drive, but bigger," Leo said.

"Catch up."

They were about ten miles from the small town when the track stopped briefly, then continued on at a more sedate pace.

"What the hell was that all about?" Palmer asked.

"And why are they still headed south if we know they need to go to Morocco?" Edgar asked.

"How good was that information?" Leo asked.

"I thought it was pretty good. We're leaving the Atlas Mountains behind. Everyone agreed it was in the Atlas Mountains. There was snow at the higher elevations. There's no fucking snow down here. Leo, you need to pull alongside the vehicle we're tracking. We need to lay eyes on what it is."

"We might give ourselves away."

"No help for it, but Jeremy, don't follow us, head back towards where they turned south. Look for more troop type trucks or fast movers. Leo, try not to approach too close, stay to the rear, but I think something's wrong."

Leo followed along and they soon found what looked like a farm truck motoring south at a reasonable rate of speed.

"Shit! Pull up alongside and let me see how many people are in the cab of the truck?"

Leo did and Edgar put his binoculars on the truck. One man, no women.

"What's going on?"

"They found the tracker. That was when they headed south at high speed. Putting distance between them and where they found the tracker. In the town, they dumped the tracker in this farm truck. We have no fucking clue where the hell they are now. We don't even know what they're driving. We're screwed. Leo, let's head back to that dinky town, take a look around and see if there's anything that seems off, then we'll head to Tiout, and points west. I'm going to call Joshua and tell him we've lost them and we're looking, but if we don't find them by dark, we have to go to Plan B, a fucking assault on Mahmoud's headquarters if we can find the damn thing."

By dark, they knew they'd lost their quarry. Joshua told them to head for the ship, steaming full speed toward Rabat. They caught up with the ship near Oran, Algeria.

******

Joshua called Miranda immediately after Edgar left.

"Miranda, Mahmoud has got Beth, Hannah and Jìngyi. Edgar is out looking for them, and Beth swallowed a tracker, but he's delayed turning it on right away."