America Town

Day 1; 4:15 a.m. (Afghani Time)

          A truck pulls up to a construction site

with the night sky still overhead. Grabbing his

toolbox a man hops out of the truck, turning on

a flashlight. The American man puts some

blueprints on the hood of his truck and

overlooks them. As he is ready a car drives

down the dirt path, leading to the construction

site. Thinking nothing of it the American

continues looking over the blueprints, marking

things with his pencil.

          The window to the car rolls

down and an Arab looks at the man. Speaking in

an Arab accent the man says, “Are you American?”

          Catching the man off guard he

jumps, but calms immediately. Cautiously

reaching down to his belt he takes his

pistol out of the holster, being extra careful not to be seen. “Why?”

          “My child is ill, can you help

us get American doctors?”

          “I don’t think I can, I’m just

here as a contractor.”

          “Please, sir! You are

American?”

          “I’m not military.” The man

tries to get back to work, but he is still being

bothered by the strangers.

          Without warning someone clubs the man

on the back of the head. The American falls to

the ground and three Arabs rush out of the car

as the fourth man, holding a bloody club, stands

over him. They all four toss the unconscious

American into the backseat and drive off.

          As the man is being kidnapped

there is another one being prevented thousands

of miles away. It’s 10:28 A.M. in the American

capitol, early enough where some people are just

waking up. For Mike Russer it’s been a long

night, as he finally locates the house he has

been looking for all night.

          “This has got to be it,” Mike

says, looking out the window of the van. His

eyes stare at the little house across the

street. “We’ve been chasing this guy all

night. It’s time we stop it.”

          In the driver’s seat is another

FBI agent, going through some papers. “This guy

has wasted thousands of dollars in child

pornography from Russia. I didn’t realize how

bad it was until I broke it down piece by piece.”

          “He’s a sick bastard.” Mike

pulls his gun out and checks the ammo. “We

ready for this?”

          “Yeah.”

          “Knock on the door, I’ll go

around back, through the door, he won’t see me

coming.”

          Mike sneaks around back and

waits for the signal in his ear piece before

sneaking through the back door. The door, as

expected, is unlocked and he quietly moves in.

From the kitchen counter he can see the suspect

talking to the other agent, acting like he has

no clue why the FBI is at his house. Just as

he’s about come up from behind and arrest the

man he notices a bloody knife on the floor, next

to the basement.

          Slowly moving down the stairs

he finds himself in the dark basement, hearing

the conversation between the suspect and FBI

agent in his ear piece. As he turns the light

on he sees something worst than he ever could

have imagined. It takes him several seconds to

even realize it’s real and not a hallucination.

          In the corner of the basement

sits a 9 year old girl, tied, gagged, naked, and

bloody. Mike slides over to her and unties

her. He shows her his badge and tries to calm

her, but she is too frightened to say anything.

As he tries to lift her he hears a gunshot

upstairs.

          The man then rushes down the

stairs and sees Mike, holding the girl in his

arms.

          “You’re a sick bastard.”

          “Who are you?” The man is

confused and angry.

          “FBI and you are under

arrest!” Mike lays the girl down as he pulls

out his badge to show the man.

          As Mike is pulling his badge

out the man charges Mike. Falling to the cement

floor Mike drops his badge and his gun. With

the man on top of him Mike pulls his gun out and

fires a shot into the chest.

          With the man on the floor,

dead, Mike crawls over to the innocent

girl. “It’s okay now, honey. I promise he

won’t hurt you anymore.” Mike waits, but there’s

no response from her, she is in tears as she

tries to cover her naked body with the tiniest

towel she found. “Do you know who this man

was? Did he kidnap you?”

          Her hands shake as she covers

her eyes, while Mike holds her close to his

chest. It makes her feel some comfort, but she

can never recover. With her voice trembling she

whispers an answer to Mike, “He was my dad.”

11:02 A.M.