Page 9 of Duty Bound

"You can have it. I brought it for you." His voice was back to being calm and conversational. "Once you tell me what I need to know."

Want to know, she thought savagely. You don't need to know anything. You want to know so you can prevent the former Afghani officials from monitoring your activities here in Helmand Province.

The opium-rich region had been terrorized by the Taliban for decades. Local farming communities were divided—half slaving in the fields to line the tribal leaders' pockets while the other half tried to make an honest living without being killed for it.

Since the coup, she'd heard rumors that girls would no longer attend school and women would not be allowed to work. The Taliban were going to renege on everything they'd promised before assuming power.

Lily clamped her mouth shut even harder.

After a long moment, the chief got up and sighed. "I'm sorry you feel that way. You are making things very hard on yourself." He picked up the water flask and left the cave.

She spent a miserable day—alone, frightened, cold, parched, and starving. He returned later that night, this time with a plate of food in addition to the flask of water, as well as some blankets and a lantern. It was freezing in the cave now that the sun had set.

To make things worse, an icy wind buffeted her from the side, colder than any AC she'd ever felt, but when she peered in that direction, all she saw was shadows.

Gazing longingly at the blanket, she imagined wrapping it around herself, protecting herself from the draft.

As she'd done earlier in the afternoon, she kept her eyes lowered and refused to speak. The man left again, taking everything with him but the lantern.

She still hadn't gone to the toilet or eaten or drunk anything. Her last bite had been earlier that morning in the village, when the robed woman had brought her the tray.

Food and drink she could last without for a while longer, but the same couldn't be said for a bathroom. She desperately needed to pee.

Their plan was as clear as day. They expected her modesty to make her beg them to take her to a toilet, then they'd refuse unless she gave them the codes. The same went for the food and water—she'd get nothing until she cooperated.

What they didn’t realize was she didn’t give a damn about modesty. Not in a situation like this. Lily Devereaux was made of sterner stuff. And deprivation was way better than being tortured. She’d heard Joe and his father talk about waterboarding and other ways of extracting information from prisoners. They’d been trained to resist interrogation, to survive in situations such as this, but she hadn’t.

Still, she didn’t want to think about that right now.

Shuffling in a semicircle, she positioned herself as far from her previous spot as she could get. Her ankles twisted painfully in their metal bindings, but she didn’t want to have to sleep in a wet spot, so she stretched as far as she could, pulled down her trousers, tugged her underwear to the side, then relaxed.

Luckily, the cave had a gentle slant, so the liquid ran away from her.

Take that.

They couldn’t use that against her anymore.

She resumed her position, hugging herself to generate some heat, grateful for the lantern that offered a glimmer of light in the darkness. Without it she might have succumbed to the fear. She’d never been fond of the dark, not since her mother’s accident. Joe always left a light on in the hallway for her.

The cold was her biggest worry. If they didn’t give her a blanket or light a fire, there was a very real possibility she might succumb to hypothermia during the night. Then again, if she froze to death, she couldn’t give them the codes. That would stump them. Her snigger was tinged with hysteria.

The man didn’t come back again, obviously deciding to let her stew overnight. In the morning, when the cold, hunger and thirst had taken its toll, he’d try again.

Lily shut her eyes, giving in to the exhaustion. It would help if she could sleep through the worst of the cold. She was just dozing off when she heard a loud ruckus outside.

What was that?

Heart pounding, she squinted into the gloom. The lantern flickered in the draft, creating shadows around the cave. What the hell was going on out there?

There were a series of loud bangs.

She gasped. Was that gunfire?

Fully awake now, she huddled against the wall, trembling. Was this part of their plan? Had they come to frighten her, or worse, to harm her in some way in an attempt to get her to cooperate?

She yelped as she heard another burst of gunfire. It wasn’t continuous, but rather several short bursts followed by shouting and sporadic blasts of return fire.

Were they being attacked? Had the Afghan forces found her?

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