Vanished!

Chapter 6 - The Search

On the other side of world about 100 miles inside of the Sudan, Sonja Percy awakens to another beating. There wasn't a place on her body that didn't hurt. She never let on how much Sudanese Arabic that she actually knew but she understood they were calling her a bleeding pig because it was her time of the month. It was only during these days in her cycle that she had relief from the beatings. They determined her to be 'unclean' and kept away from her because touching her would make them unclean as well.

Suddenly two women appeared. They brought in rags to help through her need. Since the men weren't around they had no idea of the extra things that the women brought in with them. Sonja hid the extra food and bottled items in nooks and crannies in the cell that she could consume during the month when they nearly starved her with little food or often rotten food.

She had gathered that while they suspected she was a spy that they had their doubts because no woman in their mind could do that job and because there had been no chatter about a female agent missing. While they finally decided that she must be someone's wife who had been working in Egypt, they tortured her just for spite. But when she would not break, the torture got worse. While they poked and prodded her body, the supposed Iman who was with them would not allow them to violate her. He reminded them that most westerners carried diseases that might kill them.

She had lost track of the days but knew she must have been there at least seven months because she had had seven periods.

The guard came back and insisted on chaining her up today. Evidentially someone big was coming and they wanted to show how they treated the pig. Shortly after the women left, she heard a ruckus outside. Suddenly there was gun fire then she thought she heard what might be a helicopter. Without warning there was an explosion the door. As the smoke cleared armed soldiers came through the hole left by the explosions. It wasn't until they hollered her name that she realized they were speaking English. "Agent Percy is that you?" "Yes", she mumbled trying to stand. "I'm chained, I can't move". Two of them approached her. One stood between her and the wall while the second one smashed the chain holding her to the wall. "Can you walk" someone asked? "I don't think so. I think my leg is broken". "I'll get her" someone said and suddenly picked her up bridal style. "We got her let's get out of here". They ran for what seemed like forever then suddenly there was dust flying everywhere. Once airborne she realized that the dust was caused by a helicopter. "We got you Agent Percy, we got you. We're going to get you home!" Then she blacked out.

Sonja awakened to an array of confusion. There were lights and a lot of noise around her. Nothing was making sense.

"What's going on doc?" "I thought she was going to talk to us but she's not conscious now". "The corpsman said she talked to them in the cell but I see several cuts on her head and this looks like she was hit in the head with something like a crow bar". "Alright, get me some scissors so we can cut her out of these rags. We'll need to stop the external bleeding before we take her across the hall for pictures. God she can't weigh more than 80 pounds. What was she before she was captured?" "It says 97 pounds on here". "Make sure we get a nutritionist to meet us at Landstuhl".

18 hours later

"Hey Colonel. You look like you need some rest as well. Why don't you go get some sack time. She's in her room with her team now. I wanted you to know that her family, her repatriation team members and two more CIA operatives will be arriving at about 0500. You know those spy guys still scare the shit out of me." "Me too Michael".