The Road to Masiaka

[Jacques]

Word reached Lt Kamenashi and the man and his team of locals rounded up the confused children hidden away within the offices of the Red Cross workers. The sudden commotion around Azubuike and Ayo further distracted the government troops from the back half of the Chinese refinery, and the with some effort they were able to sneak out with the children, vanishing into the surrounding forest. Theirs would be a long walk through the thick forest until they would reach a possible safe haven where they would wait to be picked up by Legionnaires from another make-shift camp.

Separating the children from their parents was not Jacques' first choice, but it was the best he could do under the conditions. For the moment at least, the parents simply trusted that their children were safe in the building, out of sight of the soldiers; none were aware that Jacques had secretly ordered his men to sneak them away. He trusted that the 'soldiers' working for Interim President General Wallace Johnson would not notice the children were missing; the mind played convenient tricks on itself at times, and the absence of most of the children in the camp would likely be willfully ignored by the men in light of what they were to do once any foreign witnesses had left.

-----

Natalie was already walking on thin ice with Lt Folami, and chasing after him would likely have been the breaking point. The government troops would not be so foolish as to harm her directly, but they would have no qualms over punishing others for her transgressions. Jacques needed no further justification for what he was planning; letting Natalie continue unchecked was not necessary.

He caught her arm as she moved to stalk after the Lieutenant, towards Azubuike and the girl. "There is nothing more I can do here, Mademoiselle Grey. Words will not win this argument. It would be too costly to force this."
He and his men could win the battle; he had faith in the skills of his Legionnaires that if it were to come to blows, even without his ace-in-the-hole that was Legionnaire Vanders, his men could take the government troops, although many of his men would be killed in the process.

He could win the battle, but it would cost him the war. So long as the fool Wallace-Johnson thought Jacques and his people could be controlled, Jacques still had a chance of seeing Sierra Leone at peace again. As much as it pained him, what would transpire at the refinery was necessary to allow him to do what he planned.

Jacques signaled to some of his men, who moved towards those same offices to begin moving the Red Cross staff to the waiting vehicles; the ride back would be tight, to say the least. Vehicles were moved around the compound so they faced the open gate doors, and his men slowly moved in to form a protected lane for those civilian workers to move through, keeping the slowly panicking Mende and Temne refugees from mobbing the aid workers or their vehicles; government troops did the same, but with far less patience or remorse, gesturing threateningly with their weapons at any who tried to draw too close.

-----

Lieutenant Folami approached Azubuike and Legionnaire Carpenter with one hand still resting on the grip of his holstered pistol, a half-dozen soldiers on his heels. The man seemed equally angry at the distraction, and strangely eager for what it might entail. He cast an amused gaze at Jay as he hobbled towards Azubuike and Ayo, then pointed threateningly at the Legionnaire as he caught the "Whitey! You foreign scum have caused enough trouble already. Go hide under your boss-man's shadow."
He glanced at one his men and smirked, "They use cripples and retards to watch children! The great mercenary heroes are not so immortal as they want us to think!"


The soldiers laughed at Jay's expense, then Folami turned on Azubuike and Ayo, pointing at the man, "What is going on here! Child, has this Temne dog hurt you?"

[Lawrence Monday]

Lawrence didn't need her glass-cams to prove the unraveling that was Jacques's control over this situation. She had her own two eyes, granted they were hidden behind black lenses, but they were wide and focused. She drank in everything, which from her banishment to the car, was quite a good view. When Jacques grabbed Natalie's arm, a flash of heat sizzled across her skin, although outwardly, only a brow lifted. So Danjou could be forceful when he wanted. It gave cast a new light on the otherwise softhearted soldier boy.

[Jay Carpenter]

Jay was not ignorant of Folami's posturing as he stalked over. It just simply didn't phase him. Even with the web-like cast on his leg, Jay was mobile enough to defend himself (and Azu) if need be. Folami wisely stayed just out of arm's reach of the former marine, but not Azu. Azu might take a punch to the gut or the butt of a gun to the temple, but Jay's reading didn't suggest the lieutenant was quite ready to execute the Temne without provocation. That gave Jay the advantage here, because Jay was more than willing to put down the man. However, like Folami, Jay would need some sort of provocation. And calling him a cripple was not it.

His smile was cold. "Oh, don't concern yourself with me, Lieutenant."
Jay glaced up and down the man's makeshift 'uniform' before deciding to call him by his rank. Even if it was obvious, he wanted to make him think he appeared to be less than he was. Then he lowered his voice, implicating, but not threatening. Jay didn't need overt threats to get his point across. "all men bleed."
He held the man's gaze until Folami was forced to turn to the child to break it.

Folami's attention toward Ayo meant Jay was forced to place himself in front of her like some kind of shield. Moving her behind him as he did. "I can tell you have a soft spot for the kids. I'll assure you she's fine. Just a misunderstanding. But thank you for such concern as to check on her yourself. Isn't that right, Ayo?"


His gaze flicked briefly above the lieutenant's shoulder - easy since the man was tiny in comparison to the tall, broad american before him. He prayed Jacques would keep Natalie out of this. Anything she did would only endanger her. Keep her back, Danjou.

[Lawrence Monday]

Something about the situation at this whole compound didn't sit right with Lawrence. What was Jacques doing here in the first place? Why was a Red Cross debutante along for the ride? The Chinese refinery story fell flat on her astute tongue, like there should be more.

With a bit of a distraction going down with the Leonean troops, the locals, and a Legionnaire, Laurie found herself quite freed from spying eyes. She took advantage of the situation and shoved off from the car. A flutter of heartbeat and a lick of the lips, she loved this part of her work. As soon as she was out of earshot, she sent her intern a message, asking if he'd found anything interesting.

He had, and she was on her way.

She found him waiting on the back side of the building. A gaggle of little people were being herded toward a hole in the fence that seemed to dam back the encroaching jungle threatening to spill over its edge.

"What's going on?"
She asked quietly of him. It was apparent, but she wanted to hear it from him.

"Alright. Get back to the car, they were ordering us to get in the vehicles but I managed to slip away. Stay with the Legion and Danjou, and I'll send you messages as often as I have satellite signal."
To that end she snapped a picture of a little girl whose dress was snagged on a piece of the fence wire.

Before anyone could stop her, she was escaping right alongside the kids.

[Natalie Grey]

NPC: Azubuike Timbo

Azu was uncharacteristically silent. The bravado of acceptance shivered as fate finally faced him square, but it was not fear that held his tongue so much as the vain hope of making himself forgettable - a target not worth the kick. The legionnaire spat fire Azu could not afford from his own lips, much as the inference that he would harm a child stoked anger in his gut. The tension sparked as dangerous as the dull glint of machetes, and Azu was desperate to avoid the shed of blood.

He might have found comfort in Legionnaire Carpenter's protection if he were not so aware of its imminent expiration, and as such he remained suitably cowed, eyes focused on the dirt. Once Jacques Danjou and his men had departed, this lieutenant could string him up a rebel and none would so much as blink at his execution, except to turn their attention away and thank god it was not them. He refrained from looking properly up, in case the eye contact were taken as confrontation. Equally he would not risk a glance at the legionnaire, not even to express gratitude for the man's efforts.

Behind them, Ayo's sobs cleaved his heart in two, but he dare not touch her lest she flinch away and condemn him for a crime he had not committed. Neither could he leave her, though; he would not allow her to be claimed under the soldiers' protection, to extinguish what little light there was left of her innocence.

"Speak, child,"
he urged quietly, aware of the axeman's swing against the hairs on the back of his neck. His throat dried out waiting for her response, but she only sobbed, curled into the ground like she hoped it might swallow her whole. It was all too much, and she was too young for all this horror. Interrogation by the surrounding men with guns did not help. He turned to Folami, wary, but his voice came firm.

"I am a teacher at St. James' school in Masiaka, sir. We were attacked by rebels searching for Natalie Grey. Ayo saw her brother murdered by rebels."
It was a blend of truth and assumption - Kofi had been gravely injured hours before the rebels had hit, and he had not strictly been stabbed by one of them, but it was approximate enough; he hoped it would satiate the lieutenant's attention, that he would move on to other sport. Though if the soldiers tried to shove passed the legionnaire to take the girl into their protective custody, there would be trouble.

---

Her bicep clenched under Jacques' hold, but Natalie did not move any further forward. Neither did she relax enough to suggest the moment he released his grip she would not continue to charge down her apparently destructive path. When Jay hobbled into sight, her heart inexplicably bottomed out. Her initial fear for Azu heightened to something intolerable. Natalie wore the Red Cross emblem, but she was hardly a bastion of the cause. She did not care for the cost of one over many.

The world had sharpened in clarity; colours vivid, painful in their intensity. Scribbles of light illuminated her peripheral, writhing and power-soaked. She was dizzy with it, like her skin might burst from the building pressure. Unknown patterns undulated like shining ribbons, propelled by fiercely protective emotion, until she realised with alarm that she had no idea what would happen when the intention released.

Control slammed down abruptly. Threads severed inelegantly, and something snaked loose. But nothing happened. Exhaustion nipped her consciousness when the light winked out. The day was hot, and she was sticky with heat, but her skin suddenly felt sheened with cool. For a second her vision wavered, like she might black out. The moment passed.

Her pale stare did not break from the scene ahead. She still made no move to retreat of her own volition. "If they touch him after we've gone, I will blame you, Jacques."

[Jacques]

Lieutenant Folami was a bully. An educated bully, or at least what passed as one in the Sierra Leonean military. He was intelligent enough to know when he was being threatened, and worldly enough to know the reputation of Legion Premiere. But reputation was only worth so much in Lt Folami's eyes, and when he had an army at his back, the threats of a lone wounded Legionnaire were tempered, at least somewhat.

"I do not enjoy repeating myself, Paṅgu. This is not your country. Limp home and hold the hands of old ladies."
The phrase was Bengali for 'lame,' a stab at Jay's bad leg. Of course, if the Lieutenant did not have the upper hand at the refinery, his bravado would have been found lacking.

Azubuike's posture was exactly the sort of thing to appeal to a man like Folami. Quiet and afraid; he cared little about the girl other then for what her words could excuse him to do. "Your people are leaving now, Paṅgu. So hobble along and leave this to us."


-----

"I shall be blamed for many things before I die."
Jacques whispered that mostly to himself. He had bought all the time he could. His men were away with the children, but even the presence of the reporters would not temper the...enthusiasm...of Wallace-Johnson's hand picked men for much longer. Especially with so many people willing to stand up to them so blatantly. Of course, his men were not the best simply because they were good fighters. They were moral men. Ones who wanted to do good, an opportunity he did not frighten away from providing them, usually.

He gave Natalie's arm a tug, aiming her towards the waiting vehicles, and waved for some of his Legionnaires to round up the rest of the Red Cross staff. Whatever slim chance of a peaceful future for the refinery-turned-refugee camp had been lost with one scared child's foolish accusations, a reality the girl would have to live with, should her young mind even be able to truly grasp what she had done.

The Legionnaires, for the most part, tried to put on a strong face for what was transpiring. It did not sit well with any of them what Jacques' orders meant, but they trusted their employer.

"Legionnaire Carpenter. Miss Grey and yourself shall be riding with me. Legionnaire Vanders, you are on the guard rails. Everyone, mount up."
It would be a long drive back to Freetown for many of his men who would have to stand on the rails mounted on the sides of the vehicles. They could buckle on of course, but it still meant standing and death-gripping a handrail on the outside of the vehicle. Dangerous even when there wasn't a chance of someone shooting at you.

His tone had hardened. He was done playing; the longer they delayed now, the more likely it was the government forces would realize the other children were missing. And that would lead to questions he did not wish to answer. It would be bad enough for the parents whose children were 'missing,' but there was going to be no happy ending to the story. He couldn't win every battle.

-----

Lt Kamenashi and his few selected local men had little trouble ushering the children through the gap in the fence and towards the treeline a short distance away. The children were confused but cooperative; they had learned to trust the Lieutenant in the few days they had been under the care of him and his men, and the promise of a field trip to pick fruit and hunt some game, appealed to the children. A chance to help, the promise of adventure. Anything to take their minds off of what had happened. None of the men noticed the reporter, Monday, on their heels.

[Jared Vanders]

Jared kept on a strong face with a practiced ease. As it was when he was a cop, he had to put on a face that everything was okay, despite feeling completely uneasy. Miss Grey and Jay were nearby now, and Danjou was attempting to convince Miss Grey to leave. As she had been when Jared had delivered the message, she seemed unhappy about leaving. There was nothing more to be done here.

Jared kept close to Jacques until orders were given. They were really heading out. His feet didn't move for a few seconds. It wasn't his orders to be on the guard rails that caused the hesitation, however. Something was going to happen when they left, and Jared didn't like the feeling that they were going against his intuition.

Jared waited until everyone inhis vehicle entered before taking position on the guard rails. He summoned his mana, everything becoming clearing. The torrential energy roaring inside of him matched his mood. Right now,.hewasfollowing orders. He hoped his commander knew what he was doing.

[Jay Carpenter]

If Folami's jabs were the best he had, he sorely needed a lesson in proper put-downs. Twenty-four hours into infantry school and he'd been flayed alive by his CO. Before then, he'd never considered himself an easy goad - after all, Carp was the one that goaded everyone else - but soon enough every single one of his soft and squishy spots were filled in with slabs of aching muscle. The ones that remained didn't show up until years later, and luckily, Folami was no where near one. Particularly because they had nothing to do with anything this backward 3rd world asswipe could say. And what was that word? Pan-jew? Now that was just downright anti-Semitic.

But Folami did have one good point. The Legion was backing out. He used the proclamation as an excuse to survey their surroundings. Legionnaires were withdrawing, check. Jacques seemed to keep a leash on Natalie, thank God. No sight of anyone skipping out on the kids, good. That red-head reporter seemed to have disappeared, shame, but probably best for her sake. "You are absolutely right. Let's go Azu."
He squeezed the teacher's shoulder like a brotherly pat and turned him away from the hopped up gorillas. Ayo, nudged with the toe of his boot to follow. "Come on."


He couldn't leave them there. That was certain. They may not be lost kittens he could fit in his pocket, but Jay wasn't going to leave them there to be trampled.

But Jacques' orders didn't take them into consideration. So with the CEO distracted with doing all his chief executive officer'ing, Jay pointed out a place for them to huddle in the back of a truck. Azu could hold Ayo in his lap, and the man was already small, Jay imagined he could fold himself up to be the size of any old ruck sack.

Eventually, he had to part ways. Whether or not the man complied or ignored Folami and actually climbed on board, Jay couldn't make him. When standing between a firm order and making people want to save themselves, he had to go with orders. That's all he could do. He lowered his voice and met the man's somber gaze, "Come on, Azu. Try to fight back. For her sake."


One last moment and he left Azu behind to his fate. He climbed in the vehicle with Jacques and Natalie with relative agility despite the dull throb of pain behind his knee. Inside, he was quiet, and watched the world passing by through gaps in the windows. He made himself avoid looking at Natalie - and Jacques for that matter, but his jaw was tight. Nothing about this day sat well with him.

But who was he to judge? It wasn't his operation.

[Jacques]

The Legionnaires pulled out without further complaint; many of the men were clearly shaken by the orders, but they trusted in Jacques' leadership, and refused to question his decision. Most understood, at least in part, his motivation. They might have won the battle, but would have lost the war. Their hold in Freetown was tenuous at best, and had they drawn Wallace-Johnson...Interim President General Wallace-Johnson's ire, the troops under his command would have been more then enough to squash the Legion Premiere presence there.

There was more to it then that, of course, but Jacques would keep his sin close to his chest. He knew what was going to happen at the refinery-turned-refugee camp in the Legion's absence, and intended to use that to justify his coming decisions in the world's eyes.

The refugees became restless as the Legion began to leave and the government troops grew more confident in their control of the situation. None realized that the refinery's cameras security cameras were still on, the feed streamed to the Legion headquarters in Morocco, and played on a small pop-up on Jacques' Landwarrior glasses. He would witness what would transpire there. He owed the refugees that much.

Azu refused to turn his back on his people; many of the refugees were his schools' staff and their families after all. Others looked to the man as their leader, no matter what trouble Ayo had caused in her childish accusations. Without parents of her own at the camp, stuffing Ayo into the waiting vehicle was easily done; the girl was too tired by that point to put up any more resistance, and went quietly.

Lt Kamenashi's group made no comment of Monday's presence with them. There was little they could do about it after all, and one more adult in the group, even if she were a reporter, only made it easier to herd the confused children away from the refinery. The cover story, of going out to look for some fruit and other food for the evening's meal, was thin and even the children were soon able to reason out that that wasn't what was going on.

The Legion officer kept near the front of the group, dropping to the side occasionally to do a head count, while relying on the handful of local men as guides. They knew the jungle in the area well enough to walk the group to the meeting point some hours away, where Jacques would have vehicles waiting to bring them and the kids to a different camp further from Freetown.

The jungles north east of the refinery were close enough to Masiaka that there were foot paths and vehicle trails, but the group mostly avoided those and kept to the thicker brush, at one point walking a few hundred meters along the bed of a lazy shallow stream. The children were quiet at first, but soon the older ones began to ask questions, the youngest began complaining.

A half hour away from the facility, the group stopped for it's first break, and Lt Kamenashi finally spent a moment to speak to the children. He fed them lies...comforting lies. They were going for a walk, then a car ride. Their parents were going to meet them at the new camp. A better one. Safer, with more food. Yes, Azubuike would meet them there, and the other teachers too of course.

It was during the break that Lt Kamenashi also finally spoke to Monday, in a more serious, and quiet, tone. The children weren't safe at the refinery camp, not with the government troops there. Jacques had surmised that Wallace-Johnson would send someone to follow them, and that it might have been necessary to sneak the children away, at least until the worst of it had blown over. So they were being moved to another camp for the time being, just until it was safe to reunite them with their families. That last was said with little actual hope of it being a possibility.

He shared with her the location of the rendezvous, made sure she had a means of tracking her way there, then returned to the front of the group. The break was over, and it was time to move on. The children were roused to their feet, Lt Kamenashi and his men readied their weapons, and the group set off once more.

Only to immediately draw to a stop; the sound of breaking branches, rustling leaves. The sound of a large group of people moving, as quietly as could be managed for so many, through the jungle, and coming towards them. Four men in the uniforms of the Sierra Leonean army, minus flags and unit emblems, which had been torn or cut free, emerged from the jungle on the bank of the shallow river, and everyone froze.

It wasn't hard to surmise that they were General Katlego's men, the rebels. There was a tense moment of silence as the four soldiers looked over the group of children and armed men in their company, eyes flicking towards Monday with more interest. But that interest was broken as Lt Kamenashi took a slow step towards the four, raising one hand in a calming fashion, although he never released his grip of his weapon.

He was about to speak, to try and talk their way out of the situation, but never got the chance. A fifth and sixth soldier stepped onto the river bank, one bearing the rank markings of a Captain. The man gave the group one quick glance then drew a pistol and fired at Lt Kamenashi, catching the Legionnaire in the hip.

Chaos erupted as Kamenashi fell onto his side in the shallow water. The rebel officer's chest was punched through by a burst from one of the Legion auxiliaries escorting the children, leaving the man's chest a wreck of red meat. Children screamed, some dropping to their knees or standing dumb struck, while others tried to run for the illusion of safety, the jungle on the opposite bank, away from the rebel soldiers.

More rebels appeared on the bank, taking a knee to fire indiscriminately down at the fleeing children or armed guards, and the only thing that saved many was how poorly trained the men were. Long bursts of fully automatic weapons fire climbed the barrels up, shredding earth and leaves on the far bank, then tearing into tree trunks, far more often then the rounds found flesh.

The water flowing past Kamenashi was dark red; blood was pumping from his shattered hip alarmingly fast, but the man still tugged free his sidearm and propped himself up against a rock, from where he could fire at the rebel soldiers, dropping two in quick succession before glancing towards Monday, "Run! Get them out of here!"


Yelling and shouted commands could be heard in the jungle, signs of more soldiers rapidly approaching. The firefight would easily be heard at the refinery as well, alerting the soldiers there that they only had so much time with which to finish their persecution of the refugees before they had a fight on their hands. No Temne refugees would be spared; fighting the rebels with Temne rats at their backs simply wasn't strategically sound. Better the Temne refugees were dead before the rebels arrived.

[Jay Carpenter]

Every single man in their vehicle had a job to do. They weren't sitting on their rumps going for a guided tour of the jungle. Jay kept his gaze piercing through the jungle as they proceeded and his ears tuned to the noises beyond the rumbling engine of the vehicle. Ambush was likely to wait around every corner, but he otherwise kept a relaxed posture. He wore too much gear to slump in his seat, but he wasn't tense paranoid soldier either. He was doing his job. Even if everything in his gut screamed that it was the wrong thing to do, his head told him to trust to orders.