The Charismatic Charlie Wade

He landed in a small courtyard, with only three dilapidated adobe houses.

Charlie used his reiki to penetrate and search the buildings for signs of life, only to find them empty.

He crept through the courtyard and between the homes, slowly making his way towards the center of the village where the four helicopters were parked.

Charlie figured Zoey and the other hostages should be detained near them, as the position would be the most heavily defended and hardest to escape from.

As Charlie crept towards another courtyard, edging along one of the house walls, he heard the sound of footsteps not that far ahead.

Quickly pulling back, Charlie concealed himself behind the first courtyard wall.

He immediately saw two middle-aged soldiers wearing desert camouflage, casually holding their guns, and chatting with each other as they walked towards his hiding spot.

Charlie was surprised to hear them talking in English instead of Arabic!

Due to the constant influence of western military forces over the last decade (through training and guidance provided by European and American military instructors, as well textbooks and manuals) English became an almost unofficial second language amongst the various government and paramilitary groups within Syria.

Even though Charlie was unaware of this, speaking English was very common amongst these groups.

said to another “Command said over the radio that five people were killed on the western mountaintop by a lightning strike, three

as spoke

current fuel supply is dangerously low, the helicopters can only be used in

just to fly to the mountaintop and back

He sighed, and continued.

offensive against us, otherwise our helicopters and

a majority of the world’s oil being in

The other soldier laughed.

crude oil production, we have no way to refine it! The commander wants to use the ransom money from the Americans to purchase the equipment necessary, then we can refine all the fuel we need!” The soldier

eight people come from

if they

cut in “What’s the problem? Just get rid of them.” The soldier then lowered his voice as he continued “The commander said that if the Americans don’t pay today, we’ll

all of the major media outlets globally, and

in the shadows, and he watched as one rubbed his hands together

“I haven’t yet

then let out a depressed

him a lewd smile and nodded, “Yeah, but