Ant sucked in a breath as he glanced around the room at the faces of his men. Each of them had served faithfully by his side, they all had each others backs, they all moved as one. 

"I can tell you all now, we have a confirmed helo exfil at 2300- ten hours time," he paused as he gathered himself for the rest of his speech. "I can also tell you, DEVGRU have detained Paige as an official person of interest and a potential threat to US national security," the faces staring back at him were not ones of shock; they had seen the scuffle in the courtyard. But they were grim, and full of unspoken anger. "For Paige's sake I will tell you she is not a threat to anybody's livelihood. She has not been affiliated with any form of extremism. She has been exposed to intel the US government will go to great lengths to keep quiet, and that is why she's been taken into their custody. Because of our relationship with the States it wasn't in anybody's interest to immediately fight this. But I am working on every possible way to make sure she comes back home with us," Ant said every word with deliberate enunciation, his own way of trying to rationally explain the situation. "Don't ask me any questions about it, I can't give you anything other than that," he finished, finally dropping their figures from his gaze. He walked swiftly out of the room, heading straight down the corridor to the bathroom. 

Ant twisted the tap until water groaned through the pipes. The sink filled, slowly and splutteringly with flecks of dirt and debris swirling inside the basin. Ant cupped his hands and let the water pour over the sides of his fingers until it overflowed. With a deft movement he threw the contents over his face and rested his palms against his skin. What a mess. His command was AFI for now. Await further instruction- that was all they had to say. They hadn't even pushed back the exfil, and he wasn't certain if that was a brilliant or terrible sign. Either they were certain the situation could be remedied their end within a few hours, and she would finally get to go home. Or they knew the likelihood of freeing her from the Americans was so low there was no point in keeping their assets here longer than they needed to be. Ant swallowed hard and sniffed, beads of water on his face already evaporating in the heat. 

The hallways of the main building seemed infuriatingly long as he pounded his boots against the fractured tiles, desperately wishing he didn't feel the anchored sense of obligation that consumed him. With Paige across the other side of the compound, despite knowing Rob was with her and wouldn't let her out of his sight, Ant felt an agonising tug of duty pulling him back to her side. Ten hours... what would he do in ten hours? 

He rapped his knuckles against the middle door of the cell block building and with a laboured swing Perry hauled it open. It led to a dark horizontal corridor, no windows illuminated the filth covered walls, and immediately in front of Ant was an entrance to another room; the one in which Paige was fearfully awaiting her fate. Ant glanced to his left down the length of the narrow space to a bolted entryway. He knew al-Raheem was behind those walls, slowly wasting away. 

                                                                                            *

I yanked my head upwards in alarm as the door opened, but only Ant stepped through the threshold to my new prison. I kept trying to process it, to make sense of the twisted humour of the universe, but I couldn't get there. I knew I was less scared than I had been the first time. The first time. I'd thought that had been a one off, a horrible dose of bad luck paired with naïve decision making, and now I was on to capture number two.

"How are you feeling?" Ant assessed me from head to foot with his icy glare. 

"It's strange..." I started. I knew how I felt, but it made no sense. "I feel maybe the most calm I've felt since I've been here." 

Ant grinned ruefully and shook his head. He was far less intimidating when he smiled; his eyes sparkled luminously even in the dark room, the hard threatening features of his face softened. 

"That makes more sense to us than anyone else you'll know," Rob smiled pensively. 

"That's what happens when you experience... horrors. Normal life doesn't make sense. The slow pace, everyday conversation- it makes you stressed. You spend a lot of your operation thinking of home, and when you get there it doesn't feel like you thought it would. You start to think you can only function if there's adrenaline pumping through your veins, your mind becomes conditioned to the intensity. Now you're back in a hard situation it's familiar, and familiar can be comforting," Ant looked down at me caringly, his tender wisdom made so much sense. 

I was glad for the mental clarity, even if I knew it probably wouldn't last very long. I was still hopeful I could implore Jase to see reason, but to do that I had to know how to appeal to his better nature. At this point, I wasn't entirely sure he had one. He hadn't even detained me himself, he'd gotten Sonny and a lackey to do the dirty work. I wondered when he would burst through the door and demand whatever else he wanted to know. What else did he want to know? Did he just want me to admit everything, out loud? Everything that I saw? The file- the heading in bold Arabic script, more text alluding to the truth- broken phrases I didn't understand, the box with the image worth a thousand words. A diagram of two skyscrapers, side by side. The blueprint plans looked as though they detailed floor by floor where explosions were to occur. Soon the time will come when the world will know. I'd been certain it was a conspiracy, right up until Jase had pushed the handwritten paper towards me. 

                                                                                                *

Jase grimaced as he set the walkie back against his shoulder. Thirty two hours, he had thirty two hours to successfully dispel any suspicion against Paige's name. And if he couldn't, well... he didn't want to think about that. He paced the putrid shack as he wracked his brain. How, how could he satisfy them in the least possible harmful way to Paige. They wanted video evidence, so there was no way to provide a false report. He considered for a fleeting moment letting somebody else do it, and then almost instantly shook that idea from his head. If he did it himself, the CIA would know it had been done properly. And if he did it himself, he could control every element to ensure Paige was as safe as possible. He had to switch himself off. He had to hurt her. 

The thought of putting her through the standard enhanced tactics was nauseating. He couldn't waterboard her. He couldn't scream in her face. He could deprive her of sleep, sure. But they only used that as an additional method to ensure the subject was kept confused, emotional and exhausted. If he had to get this thing done within a couple of days, he had to do it right. 

A rap at the door shocked Jase out of his frantic thoughts, which he dismissed as he paced to the door. Perry stood to attention, squinting in the harsh sunlight. Jase gulped in a breath of hot air, glad of the respite from the suffocating dinginess of the shack. 

"What is it?" He addressed Perry coolly. If he'd only gotten to Perry sooner, when he'd radioed Sonny... 

"Pai- the priso- she wants to see you Master Chief, she says it's important," Perry said weariedly. Jase nodded in response, wiped the sweat from his brow and stalked towards the cell block. 

"You wanted to talk?" The door swung shut behind him as he stepped into the small dimly lit room. This was the least cell-like place he could come up with. Jase wouldn't have had her in the interrogation shack, or in with al-Raheem. But he needed to move her from the interview room as a conscious display to her that her situation had changed, and she needed to cooperate. 

"I did, I..." Paige glanced between Rob and Ant, who wordlessly understood. 

"We're right outside," Rob stated as he pulled the door to a close behind them. 

"Well?" Jase decided to focus on her ear. That was an old trick for the socially awkward; if you didn't want to make direct eye contact, look at their ear and they'll think you're looking at them. 

"I just... wanted you to know I really don't have anything else to hide. I didn't mean to keep anything from you, I just... I panicked. I don't even believe what it implied! I didn't, anyway... but I don't know anything else that could help you, I swear it. I'll do the polygraph to attest to that, I'll do it right now," Paige spoke in a nervous flurry, swells of pink rushing to her cheeks. 

Jase sighed heavily. What could he say? That it didn't matter? That she could never be free from absolute suspicion now? 

"It's too late for that Paige," he said darkly, his voice low and words heavy with the weight of their impact. He looked up to the top of her head, avoiding her anxious gaze. "I'll send for you when I'm ready."