Into You

Chapter 67

Lauren woke up to bright sunlight streaming in through the windows of Normani's office, burning through her closed eyelids with a pain that made the feeling that she hadn't had enough sleep even worse.

Rubbing her eyes clear of sleep, she looked down at her watch to see it was barely 7 am; not exactly early by her standards, but early enough considering the late night that she'd had. In fact, it was more than early enough. Feeling worse than she had in weeks, which was certainly saying something, she blinked and looked around her; the carnage in the office testament to the frantic planning that they had done until the very early hours of the morning.

She got to her feet and stretched noisily, the aches and pains reminding her of far too many awkward sleeping positions in the army and on the streets. There was, however, no time for grumbling about that. She needed two things immediately, the bathroom and a coffee; the bathroom for obvious reasons, and the coffee to jump start her brain.

"Morning, Lauser," Dinah said as she walked into the kitchenette that served the offices, "Coffee? I've made it fresh."

"Thanks, boss," she said flopping unceremoniously into one of the wooden chairs, still exhausted. She took a sip of the lifesaving liquor and looked around me. "Where is everyone?"

"It's still early, kid, no one's in yet," Dinah replied with a happy sigh as she sniffed at her own mug. "Andy and Simon are in the conference room, probably still asleep on the floor."

"Yeah, it was a late one," she replied as she blew over her stingingly hot drink, "but I think we have a half decent plan."

"We're going to need it, Lauren, unless the negotiations work. You know that our people are not going to make an incursion into Pakistan from India, don't you?"

She nodded somberly; Dinah was right and she knew it. If Camila was being held in the mountains of Afghanistan, there was a chance that a rescue mission could have been initiated; after all, it had been done before. People didn't always hear about them, but aid workers, charity representatives and ordinary people trying to rebuild the country had been rescued by allied forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan and rather more secretly across the borders into other countries. They didn't always work, but the victories more than overshadowed the defeats; and more often than not, the teams left no one alive to tell the tale, both for secrecy and as a lesson to others that thought to try the same thing.

There was no fucking way that would be happening here, though. Not unless they did it; it was the wrong place, the wrong time, and the wrong side of the country. The politics of the situation were immense and there was no way the US Government were going to get involved in it. India and Pakistan had pretty much been at each other's throats since the Partition, and things had not become any easier over the years, not really.

It was this tension that had led to the threats against Cabello Industries from 'Khuddam ul-Islam', a group that to all intents and purposes, violently opposed to the West and India and anywhere that wasn't a radical Islamist state. It was all fucked up and her Camila had been caught up in the middle of it all, targeted because of what she did.

"I had a look at what you're proposing," Dinah said breaking the silence suddenly. "Don't you think your plan is a little overcomplicated?"

"It'll work," she said finally, "the hard part is getting on the ground and close to the buildings; there's not a lot of cover and we think that is the only sensible way in."

"Speaking of cover, Lauser, you really think splitting up the team like that is a good idea? It's not like we're going in mob-handed, you know,"

"We need someone to take out any patrols or guards while we make our entry, boss, and I can't think of anyone better right now."