Free Paths of Courage by Mike Woodhams

big risk. He worried how the doc was coping. He was plagued, too, with all the uncertainties a break-in of this type could bring, but kept reminding himself that this was specifically what they were trained for. So just do it!
    The four reached the building; the large contingent of soldiers seen earlier seemed to have thinned out. Lights shone from rooms on the ground floor and some on the second. On Ryder’s signal they split. He and Chol moved to the far flank and the other two took the nearest.
    They stealthily encircled the front building, keeping close to the walls well within the shadows, eventually meeting up again without incident in the bush and trees at the rear. A courtyard fronted two dimly lit single-storey barrack buildings, with three open military trucks parked to one side. Small groups of soldiers milled about the yard, all coming and going in and out of the buildings. The truck drivers stood by their vehicles, smoking. Through the windows of the nearest building, Ryder could make out a number of people standing in a large open area filing towards officials, who were sitting at benches. Using binoculars he could see only a handful of soldiers in the room as he scanned for Grace. Then he saw her.
    â€œShe’s there. We need uniforms to get inside,” he whispered to the others. Those around her, mostly women, sobbed or stood in a robotic trance. She looked desperate. He looked again at the soldiers milling about the courtyard and the three by the trucks, his mind calculating the risks.
    The nearest were the drivers. Ryder pointed at them, then signalled to Song and Bom for a silent kill. “We need those uniforms unmarked.”
    They acknowledged and the three slunk away under cover of perimeter bush until parallel with the trucks.
    Suddenly a soldier broke away from a group nearby, sauntered over to one of the drivers and spoke to him. All four soldiers had their backs to the bush, watching the building entrance.
    Ryder waited, hoping the man would leave, but he lingered. He signalled Chol to join them.
    When Chol arrived, Ryder signalled for Bom and Song to take the nearest two whilst he and Chol took out the others. The four waited to make sure all was clear before moving silently forward between the vehicles, each steeling themselves for the kill. There could be no room for error. The soldiers had to die quietly and without fuss.
    It was all over within seconds; each soldier died without knowing what had hit him. Their necks were broken with a swift, brutal twist, before any could make a sound. The four lifeless forms were then dragged silently into the bush.
    They hurriedly stripped and donned the uniforms. In the uniform Ryder had put on, he found a packet of cigarettes. He was very tempted to light one, but crushed the packet instead and threw it away into the bush. When completed, he and Song shouldered rifles, pulled caps firmly down on their heads and left the bush, striding confidently across the dirt courtyard and into the building. Bom and Chol occupied themselves with hiding the bodies well amongst the scrub, hoping they would not be found until they were all well away.
    Inside, the low murmuring of the seventy-five or so detainees, broken by the occasional wails and the background sound of marshal music, filled the high-ceilinged room. From a separate area off the far side, closed off by a pair of large double doors, the two men could hear muted screams. Ryder counted at least ten soldiers lining the wall behind the officials under the portrait of the ‘Great Leader’ and several more spaced around the room. Lucky for him and Song, there didn’t appear to be an officer in charge. In the light of the room, Ryder’s disguise would now be truly tested.
    He watched Grace, who looked terrified, as she glanced about in despair.
    With no game plan in place, both men stayed close to each other, waiting to determine what action to take. Some of the women, after processing,