Impossible Odds

into confirming my identity? The magical effect of that American voice was gone. My brain couldn’t accept it. The optimism well was dry.
    The only thought I had for myself was if this turned out to be a takeover raid by Al-Shabaab forces, then the one thing in the world that could make things worse than they already were was happening at that moment. The survival drive is such a powerful engine; I struggled and screamed with all my strength. Even though I expected them to kill me soon enough, I fought back out of instinct. Then I heard it:
    “Jessica! This is the American military. We’ve come to take you home. You’re safe.”
    Not “Jesses” but Jessica . My American name spoken by an American voice.
    The light went on for me. It finally registered. I got it, got it, got it.
    And those words were more beautiful than any piece of music I’d ever heard. “Jessica, this is the American military. We’ve come to take you home. You’re safe.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
    Beginning with the second week of the kidnapping, attempts were made to get care packages to Jessica via different couriers and different routes. A new one went out every few days. Each was a knapsack filled with toiletries, basic first aid, snacks, anything they thought she might need. They kept on sending them all through those three months—fifteen care packages in all.
    One method was to send the package to Galkayo, where the NGO’s staff then gave it to a taxi driver to transport down to “The International City of Adado,” where people had been located who promised to deliver it, for a fee of course. Not one of the packages ever reached her. Information came in saying several of the care packages actually got through to the kidnappers, but they also knew from Jessica’s remarks to the family communicator that the kidnappers refused to pass such sources of comfort along to her. All those efforts did no good at all, other than to confirm the level of inhumanity her captors were willing to display.
    They also got a package through to the “doctor” in Adado who was supposed to carry it to her when he went to do a checkup on December 21, but even this “doctor” proved unable to convince the kidnappers of the importance of it, just as he couldn’t find it in himself to do any actual doctoring. Thousands of dollars wentinto these repeated and maddening efforts simply because there was no way to know if they would work at all without trying again and again.
    On the morning of January 25, Erik had finally managed to get back into a state vaguely resembling sleep after waking up too early and pacing the floor. But the sleep wasn’t the kind that makes you feel rested. He found himself back in the land of tormented dreams.
    He dreamed the phone rang and it was Matt calling to tell him there had been a rescue attempt and another one of those terrible disasters had taken place. He ran from the dream version of Matt and his terrible news by waking himself up, but the fearful impulse driving the dream followed him. As soon as he began to drift off again, the same dream repeated. Ring, ring, bad news calling. It was so realistic that he thought he was awake and answering his phone.
    Again he heard Matt’s voice on the other end. The sound of his pain at having to make this call was already telling Erik everything before a single detail came out. A clean rescue had been too much to hope for, after all. The unpredictability factor always rears its ugly head at the worst moment, and obviously this is what had happened with the rescue team.
    The voice switched to Jessica. She sounded as clear as if she were calling from the building next door. There was no static, no background noise, nobody else talking over her. Every word she spoke was crystal clear while she screamed that Erik had failed to keep his promise. Instead of coming for her, he had listened to Matt and the Crisis Management Team and left the love of his life to the torments of those criminals. And as he feared, her voice revealed she had a mountain of rage and bitterness toward him for letting her down.
    “Why did you listen to them?” she demanded. “Why didn’t you ignore them and come for me? How could you leave me here?”
    And with that question, the dream that seemed real gave way to a waking world that didn’t. He sat on the edge of the bed in the early morning light and tried to think of a way to answer those questions if they ever got her