Code Red

At last

It had been merely 12 hours since Georgie had last seen Alex after he failed to return home from work. Her former captain, Charlie, now nothing more than a dear friend who was there to comfort her.

Georgie's mind was imminently filled with negativity. Looking back on everything now, her life with Alex had been far from easy. Whenever they felt they had settled down and finally things were working out, something would always go wrong. Just lately she felt like everything was against her and that maybe she didn't deserve to be happy. Her life just recently had turned out to be a complete mess. It took every ounce of her strength to keep it all together.

She sat on the sofa curled up in a ball with a blanket draped loosely across her shoulders. She watched as little Jacob laid on his baby mat fascinated by his own feet. She usually felt lucky every time she saw her little family but with her husband missing and no trace of him anywhere she couldn't even appreciate the things that appeared to be good.

***

"What's your name?"

Alex stared aimlessly around the room as he racked his brain for the cover story that had been drilled into him.

"Jack Hilton." he finally replied. He worked on the local oil rig, single man, never married. It was just a made up alias that he was going by for the purpose of staying undercover.

The truth was that Alex was completing one final mission. Upon hearing who the primary was, he felt an immediate obligation to team up once again with the special forces and help his brothers in arms. Despite him making a deal with Georgie that he would withdraw, he hadn't come to a final decision yet and when duty calls a soldier always heeds the call.

In a small Scottish town 300 miles away from Lancashire was where the final phase of "Operation Safeguard" would be executed, marking the end of a mission that had been meticulously planned for months. On paper it was simple, escort Alex's ex wife to a safe house in the countryside. She had been subjected to death threats and head hunting from numerous different gangs for years, but only recently had it now become a threat to her life. Living everyday in constant fear and peering anxiously out the window to make sure you are not under surveillance every second is no real way to live.

Sadly though, for the sole purpose of the mission, Alex was not allowed any contact with Georgie - not even a text to say we was safe. At least just for now, whilst the whole mission was still hot.

Glancing back over the mission plans and finalising every small detail to ensure the mission was a success; Alex removed all memory of Georgie temporarily from his mind. Missions like these were organised down to every last detail and the team needed him to have full focus on the mission. Which meant he couldn't let any home issues interfere.

***

Having travelled a few 100 miles in staggered intervals throughout the day, they finally arrived at the safe house. A whole special forces unit being spotted in a small countryside neighbourhood would almost certainly rouse too much suspicion and prove detrimental to the whole operation. If the gangs discovered where the units were they would have the primary tracked within minutes. So before they could jump into action, the first task was to be sitting ducks and just wait for the cover of darkness, much to everyone's dismay.

*Hours later*

Shuffling cautiously along the side of the walls, Alex gently pushed the hinge of each door in the house open, triggering any booby traps before he walked in; should there be any. He then unscrewed a small light bulb from a dusty old lamp he found abandoned in the bedroom, crushed it in his hand between two pieces of fabric so he didn't cut himself and scattered the shards of glass outside the front door. He did this so that the crunching of glass against the ground would alert him if anyone tried entering the building whilst he cleared it out.