Harare, Zimbabwe

Despite the complications near the border, the convoy trip was uneventful the rest of the way, we had managed to refuel in Gweru and had arrived in Harare sometime later. Before arriving at the State House, Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi changed cars to his old Toyota Century to be presentable as an important diplomat.

Upon arrival at the State House, a motorcade was waiting for us, the typical protocol for visiting heads of state, nothing out of the ordinary, well maybe the fact that the convoy of several cars arrived with some bullet marks on the sides.

The truth is that I was impressed with how relatively easy the job had been, so it was about time something went wrong for a change. This time it happened that while the meeting was taking place inside the building we were keeping an eye on the place, Mokgweetsi sent for us, it was urgent. When Mokgweetsi Masisi and Sizwe Mabena came in, it seemed that real bad news had arrived.

Taking advantage of the absence of President Mokgweetsi in his country, the rebels moved their plan, launched a major offensive that somehow managed to overcome the defenses and the power of the Botswana army. The Kalahari Crusaders have taken over several military bases, if before they were miraculously well equipped, now it is a certainty that they got more and better weapons. The country had gone from a slightly tense moment to a real civil war. Mokgweetsi was angry about what had happened, but even he had no time for that, for something worse had happened, and why he was calling us.

His son Kabelo Masisi was at his cottage in Chobe National Park when all this happened he had high security, but they have not communicated since. Most likely he was one of the first places the rebels attacked, which also means that it is likely that the 13-year-old boy was being held to have something to negotiate with Mokgweetsi. The idea was clear, the president wanted both Fenrir and I to go there and rescue his kidnapped son.

Viktor responded by indicating that the job he had been hired for was to escort him to Harare and he was not about to do charity work. The president then turned to me, seeming to remember our discussion before the old man and responded with a counteroffer, indicating a new price in exchange for rescuing his son, a rather generous one. Fenrir's group accepted the new job and so did I, for if there were more of us we were much more likely to be able to earn the money. Mokgweetsi Masisi would now be safe under the protection of the Zimbabwean government, so we could fully focus on the rescue.

This time we set off immediately as time is of the essence in missions of this type, we traveled back to the Botswana border, where we arrived at a Zimbabwean military base to exchange our cars for others that Sizwe Mabena was kind enough to lend us. Although our cars were excellent for combat, they had one small problem, they looked like a huge fucking tanks, they were not built with finesse in mind. If we even got close with those MRAPs the rebels would have an easy time knowing that we were on our way to rescue the president's son. It was best to go with small, civilian cars that could easily be mistaken for others in a parking lot.

Chobe is a little further west than the Plumtree outpost, so it was a quick trip. The problem when we got there was to get information on where the boy was being held, the only solution? look for a group where we could find rebels more or less celebrating their recent victory like in a bar and kidnap three or four of them for interrogation. Our victims were a group of friends, two young guys and two older guys who seemed to be their superiors, we stayed a little far away watching them get drunk during their little celebration, and when the group was about to return to their post, Hammer and Bulldozer beat them up and put them in the trunk of our cars.

We sped out of there and went to an abandoned warehouse just outside of town, where we tied them to a couple of chairs and separated them from their friends. I was standing next to Viktor and Blitz interrogating one of the old men.

"Do you think he'll talk?" asked Blitz.

"I really doubt it."

"But maybe if he starts yelling loudly he'll make the youngsters shit and they'll talk instead," replied Wolf.

"If that's the idea then why slow him down with intruductions."

"Best to save us the time."

"Let's move right away to the electric submarine" I added, with a bit of experience in quick interrogation.

"Good idea!"

"All right, Submarine it is."

"Blitz get the car battery."

Blitz brought as requested the car battery as well as several wires with jumper cables connected. I filled a couple of buckets with water and Viktor threw our prizefighter to the ground while I tied him up even more, then put a cloth over his head so he couldn't see and I threw water in his mouth trying to drown him, enough to make him really suffer for a breath of air. Just as I stopped and the poor man threw water out of his mouth struggling for a breath of air, Blitz put one of the electric wires between his legs and the other in his chest, giving him a cruel electric shock that made him shake hard. As soon as he stopped Vickor again put the cloth on his head and I threw water on him again trying to drown him, he repeated the process twice, each session even longer before finally asking something.

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"Where is Mr. Mokgweetsi Masisi's son?"

"Where are they keeping him?" Wolf said as the poor thing was still drowning in the water.

"I......I....I Don't...... know!"

"They..... didn't.... tell....... me."

"I don't care, fuck you" Blitz said before he put an electric pincer on his chest again.

The poor man was severely shaken by the electric shock.

Outside in the corridor next to the room where we were, we could hear the loud screams of one of the younger boys, with his sounds it seemed that he was having a worse time, if it were not for the fact that at the door we had, we barely had enough space to try to breathe badly. Only the sound of a gunshot quieted the screams of agony that could be heard in the corridors.

"Hey Blitz, go tell Hawk to wait for a response first," Wolf said, seeming to sigh a bit at what had happened in another interrogation next door.

Although he was also curious, right now the most important thing was to project a brutal force to break any will our prisoner might have. It was difficult to predict what kind of morale these troops might have because on the one hand, they were poorly prepared and trained, but the idea of fighting for a cause that seems just makes people look for strength where there is none. In our case, with our prisoner it seemed that he had no luck and we ran into someone who really didn't know anything or was hiding it very well. The biggest problem we had was that the more time that passed, the more likely it was that the rebels would realize what we were planning and respond unexpectedly, so we had to speed things up a bit more.

I took my gun and put it next to the exhausted old man's leg, Viktor took the cloth off his head so he could see what was going on.

"Last chance and you can be able to walk home tough guy."

"Where's the kid?" I asked him to his face.

"Fuck you, fucking bitch."

"Bad answer."

I fired the gun at full blast, blowing a huge hole in him, the man screamed uncontrollably from the pain. Still I took no pity on him, I put the gun a little higher and again prepared to shoot.

"Once again, where is the boy?"

"........."

"That doesn't help."

I fired the gun fearlessly again, the man had a new wound.

Again I put the gun even higher on his leg, this time in the thigh, and threatened him again.

"Come on, I can go on like this for a while longer."

"You still have another whole leg left that I can fill with holes as well."

"You on the other hand......"

"You have what left? 20 .... 40 minutes before you bleed to death?"

"It's okay!!!"

"Stop it, stop it!"

"I'll tell you! But I want a doctor first!"

"See, spoken is how people understand each other."

"There's no need to be uncivilized" I said, mocking the irony a little bit.

"Sparrow! Can you come over here for a moment?"

"I need you to treat our guest" Wolf said down the hall.

The paramedic arrived with a first aid kit in the room and saw with horror what had happened in just a few minutes. She saw the blood and immediately rushed to the man in the emergency room.

"What the hell did you do to him!"

"This is torture!"

"The truth is I don't care"

"In the real world being the always right moral hero will never get you anywhere besides more trouble in the long run."

"What's the worst that could happen? Pissing off the international community?"

"That means nothing, one picture from a photographer on internet, maybe 3 comments."

"The guy is a nobody from Africa, not a celebrity, by the time the sports section of the news comes on everyone will have forgotten about him." I replied tired of hearing these complaints all the time in my life.

"What if it were you in their place?"

"Would you like to be treated that way?"

"When I was in their place, not even saying what they wanted didn't stop their torture."

"No one rescued me, no one came to help"

"You know what got me out of there, take advantage of a little carelessness and kill the guard."

"I did not agree to participate in this!"

"I said I'm just a paramedic!" The girl went on to talk to her boss when she realized that talking to me would get her nowhere.

"And that's exactly what you're doing."

"You're not the one who left him like a cheese."

"You just came to the scene to take care of him."Viktor said as he checked his watch.

After the poor wretch spoke, we managed to realize that he was still kidnapped in his house because it was a big mansion in the middle of a large plain where it would be easy to notice if someone approached because there was simply nothing to hide in, the battle to rescue the boy would be a crap shoot. After treating the prisoners we tied them back in the chairs and left them some food and water, they would probably be found by tomorrow morning when they would warn the other rebels of our plan, we had until then to have already taken the boy out of that place and be on our way to Zimbabwe.