3. Pain

Reaper you have an emergency call at HQ. Over," Adrian heard over the talkie in his pocket. He quickly reached for it and promptly replied. "Copy that. I am five minutes out. Over." He looked over at his best friend who was on watch with him. He had this annoying smile on his face. "Seems like somebody from home misses you," Lee teased. "When are you going to tell Lizzy you like her? One day you are going to go home and find she is married and then you will feel like an idiot."

"She is like my little sister idiot," Adrian replied leaving his friend's mocking laugh behind trying to hide the stupid smile on his face. Adrian had a face that pulled women to him like a veritable magnet. His good looks, chocolate brown skin, brown eyes, six foot one tall, his lean muscular body and he was a certifiable lady killer. Combine those qualities with his career of choice requiring him to wear a soldier's uniform and no more words needed. The truth was he loved being a soldier sometimes it seemed like being a soldier was made specifically for him. Because of his love for it when he joined the army at eighteen, he had quickly made his way to Kenya Defence Forces as fast as he possibly could. In his heart he was a true patriot and defending his country was his dream job. The training had not been easy but for some reason he passed every test with flying colours. To say he was excellent at his job was an understatement. The KDF did not receive a lot of missions outside the country or even inside the country so he decided to step up his training and finally he was selected to join the special ops programme. With every mission they were sent on he proved his worth and skills and earned the code name Reaper amongst the other operatives. He also learnt that KDF special Ops was not something many people in Kenya were aware of its' existence. Actually, the only people who knew of their existence was the president and a single Commander in the army at any one time. The president is only informed of the special ops when he comes into power by the Commander and if by chance anything happened to the Commander and another is appointed a failsafe is triggered to ensure the Commander is made aware of its' existence. When the KDF is needed in numbers to protect the country, the special ops team joins them, case in point the situation they find themselves in at the moment. KDF had been deployed to Somalia due to the terrorist's group, Al Shabaab, based in the said country. Its mere existence proved to be a threat to Kenya's economic and political stability. Three years was a long time to be away from home. The barren lands, the rough roads, the warlords fighting each other and together fighting against the installation of a proper Somalia government. There was truly no end in sight. Sometimes he wished the president would order the forces back home and leave Somalia to its fate but he knew if the terrorists went on unchecked Kenya being at its border would suffer the consequences.

Adrian finally made it to HQ which was really a big camouflaged tent where the commander and all the fancy equipment were housed. Big Sam, as they called him, the communication expert directed him to the phone. Yes there was a woman at the other end of the line and she was in a panic, her words barely coherent, but not the woman he had expected. She was crying in hysteria and something akin to grief. She recognised the woman's voice. It was Faith Wanjiru, Lizzy's mother. All she said in a continuous loop was, "They killed her. My God they killed my little girl." Those words were like a storm that hit him so hard and drove him right up against the rocks. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't speak for the first time in his life he was speechless, he was lost and it hurt to breathe. He knew who she spoke off after all the woman had only one child and not due to lack of trying. He placed back the receiver without a second thought and walked outside in a daze. He fell to his knees and heaved but nothing could push away the grief that was consuming him. There was this annoying continuous ringing in his ear and all he heard in his head in a continuous loop was, they killed her. For the first time in his thirty years of life, Adrian Maliekhe fainted.