No Man's Land

25- Just a Little Bit Concerning

Jana O****

_____

Everything rushed in at once as I opened my eyes, suddenly all too aware of everything around me. I tried to steady my breathing, pressing my eyes closed. God no, please no. 

I tested the handcuffs that pinned me to the wall, finding they had little give. The holds on the wall were a bit too high, straining my arms above my head with my legs barely touching the ground. Giving up, I eyed the security camera mounted to the upper left corner of the room. Someone was watching. 

I slumped back against the wall, letting out a sigh. It had already been optimistic to think we'd be able to get off the island, but now things were looking even more dire. This might be the end, I thought to myself.

My breath caught in my chest as the door opposite me opened, none other than Ezel Yavuz stepping through the door.

"Pozdravi, Jaeda. Or perhaps you'd prefer Jasmine or Jimena. What do you go by nowadays, Jo?" I couldn't help but laugh. Jo.

"It's J O. Jasmine Orwell, Jimena Oliver, Jaeda Osborn," I paused, looking him in the eye. "Jana." Yavuz took a few lumbering steps towards me, making me clench my jaw. Let him do his worst.

"Jana. Tell me, where is that from?" I shrugged.

"Wouldn't know."

"Then let us talk about something you do know," he said, taking a few more steps forward so that he was towering over me. "Ivana." I stayed silent. A moment after, his fist whipped across my face, sending me reeling to the side. I felt blood faintly trickle down my lip as the sting subsided.

"What do you expect me to say?" I challenged him. "That it was my fault that she's dead? Please, if you had just left her out of this-" I was silenced by a strong kick to the ribcage. I coughed, sitting back up. The moment I sat straight, he struck again, sending me back to the side, slightly suspended by the restraints above my head. I spat out blood to my side. Internal bruising, wonderful.

"You got my daughter's trust. She was the reason I breathed, Jaeda. And now she's- she's mrtav because of you." Dead. His assertive guise temporarily faltered. He seemed to catch himself, immediately bringing back his steely and uninterested expression. "I believe this calls for an eye for an eye, as you say." He drew a knife out of a sheath at his waist, studying the blade. "What are the names of the other two who came with you, and who sent them. Two simple questions and you may leave here relatively alive."

"I don't know who calls the shots. A lot is kept secret from us, no matter how high ranking," I said carefully.

"Nisam ja pao sa kruške! You will not lie to me." The first sentence was an idiom of sorts that I vaguely recognized, meaning something like I was not born yesterday. Of course, he reverted to Croatian when he was angry. If I was correct it had been his mother who was the Croatian one. He must have liked her more. 

"Even if I did know anything of importance to you, you know I would never tell you, Yavuz." I said, challenging him. Biding my time as much as I could was probably the only response that would work in my favor.

Ezel kneeled down, scraping the knife against the concrete floor.

"I have time."

_____

Parker Magdalen

_____

"Have you seen Jana?" Michael asked casually, leaning against the tree across from me. I shook my head.

"No, sorry. She isn't-"

"No." He interrupted,  taking in a deep breath. "No, she's not missing." He sent a solemn look to Chestine and Carrie who were talking at the other side of the clearing. "Not yet." Something was wrong, I thought, concerned.

"She left for a walk a couple of hours ago. She may have gotten lost." I suggested, drawing his attention back to me. He shook his head. Of course, he doubted that she had the capacity or lack thereof to get lost. 

"Which direction?" He asked. I pointed him towards the end of the clearing where a small path had been cleared away. We had only really cleared the brush for the first twenty or so feet so it would be hard to tell which way she had gone after that. I didn't doubt that she wouldn't leave any traces of herself behind out of habit. 

"Thanks," he muttered, ending the conversation. I looked back at the path Jana had taken. Where was she?

_____

Carrie glanced down at where the trail ended, letting out a sigh.

"This is bad," Chestine remarked.

"No shit," Carrie muttered, standing back up. The actual trail had ended a quarter mile back, but they had followed the broken foliage to where the signs of passage ended- a smaller clearing. The ground was ruffled and there were small indentations in the ground signifying impact, accompanied by traces of blood. A struggle. 

Michael pulled something out of the bushes, holding it with a cloth. Jana's gun. He pulled out the clip and counted the bullets.

"All six rounds are still chambered. She obviously didn't get a shot off, and if anyone discharged their weapon we may still have heard it. No casings on the ground so the blood must be from a puncture wound or maybe some internal damage."

"So let's say this," Carrie said, walking to the part of the clearing that led back the way they'd come. "I'm Jana. I get maybe this far," she paused to point at the ground, "Before someone jumps me. We toss around, Jana gets knocked out, they go this way." She said, pointing to the opposite side of the clearing where the foliage was slightly harmed.

"If they could get Jana down then they were probably large or trained," Chestine noted. He himself had a decade of MMA under his belt along with a tour in Afganistan but Jana could often wipe the floors with him. 

"Now the big question is, do we want backup before we follow?" Michael asked, looking back to them. "We rush in solo style to an unknown enemy or do we wait for backup?"

"Well, obviously we need to wait for backup. We're intelligence agents, so the bureau people probably have more of this kind of active rescue experience." Carrie said.

"How do we even know their someone to rescue, let alone somewhere to rescue them from?" Chestine argued.

"We don't."

Another late update- major oof on my part. Monday and Tuesday were pretty tough for me due to school work so I just canceled the Tuesday update. I've now shifted the style to some semblance of a James Patterson sort thing. To create a better flow, I'm seperating things into scenes. Because there are generally several scenes per chapter, this means we'll have more points of view! Yay! Perspective will also be open to change, so we'll see how that goes.

Music: Pilot with a Fear of Heights by Felicity. Just,,,, such a bop. 

-K <3