Impossible Odds

fills you with the pain of an intense fight-or-flight adrenaline dose, it forces the muscles themselves to strain against the brain’s demands to act, act, act.
    If I had allowed myself to scream I wouldn’t have been able to stop. I had no power to keep the tears out of my eyes or prevent them from running down my face, but I refused to openly cry. The only source of dignity left in that hour was to deny this man the satisfaction of goading me into some sort of hysterical response.
    I glanced over at Poul and saw him crying, too. I think even the biggest and strongest man could be reduced to childhood emotions when sustained evil is done to him and he is powerless to fight back. I had seen interviews with war heroes who claimedanyone can be broken in captivity, no matter how strong he is, how well trained, how macho and defiant. They talked about how we all have the tiny and frightened child we once were still residing somewhere inside us. These guys had found ours with a few simple phrases.
    “You die here!” and “I send Mohammed your head !”

Part Three

D ANCE OF THE G REEN -T EETH Z OMBIES

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
    From the first FBI phone call with Agent Matt Espenshade, Erik was informed that the situation would be monitored “at the highest level” of the U.S. government, and that if any military action came down in the form of a secret raid on foreign soil, the order had to originate from the Oval Office itself. It was helpful to have the chain of command explained to him, but there was no way to determine how much conviction stood behind the words. Was that explanation only a way to tell him the U.S. government was either too distracted or too uncommitted to help?
    Everyone on the Crisis Management Team assured him the international diplomatic implications were disastrous for the United States if Jessica died before they got her out, or if any mission to save her and her colleague failed. Still, the list of obstacles facing any potential rescue team offered little chance of success. The same victims whose rescue was intended could easily become casualties amid the chaos of battle with a panicked band of drug-fueled fighters, most of whom had nowhere else to go and little to lose.
    In the daily briefings, whether with Matt and the FBI or Dan and the CMT, Erik always made it a point to have questions ready, aimed at getting the others to consider things they might not have thought about yet. He repeatedly raised the question of risk topotential rescuers, the ones who would actually go into harm’s way if there was no other choice. He spent days running around to the pharmacies and doctors to get her necessary medications to send to Jessica’s captors. But the results were discouraging. He was able to be fairly certain the packages were getting as far as the town of Adado, near the kidnappers’ camp, but at that point he had no way to know that the kidnappers were convinced there were tracking devices hidden inside the medicine packs, and therefore refused to let any of it near her, no matter how sick she became.
    In the meantime he also used his knowledge of the Somali gossip line to deliberately spread rumors, especially when he was on a work trip in Somaliland, saying negotiations were going on but that the family had no idea where she was. He sent out another rumor saying both families were selling off private possessions to raise money, struggling for every dollar to raise the ransom money. The intent was to encourage overconfidence in the kidnappers and tempt them into relaxing their guard. He sent word via the local clan grapevines: There was no reason to panic or do anything rash; the kidnappers’ plan was working so far—the families had no idea what to do and were raising money as fast as possible. It was a blind effort, blowing a fog of confusion toward the enemy, but he knew the landscape and trusted it to function.
    Erik also worked to discourage Jess’s family and friends from losing patience and expressing their frustration to the media or anyone outside their circle. Everything about this situation forced him to consider how the smallest slip of electronic information between two private people could be hijacked for use by distant criminals. His experience with local politics made him leery of discussing the case with anyone who might use it for personal promotion without regard to Jessica’s welfare.
    So far, no one could be certain the Somalis had any intention of selling off the