DAY 622 - NOVEMBER 22, 2012
American journalist James Foley is just the latest in a string of non-combatant kidnappings, including Austin Tice and Mohamed Al Saeed, that have occurred in Syria within the last six months. Both rebel and regime soldiers are guilty of the abductions. The Syrian opposition has cut off many supply routes for government forces. Furthermore, the FSA has started receiving anti-aircraft weapons from anonymous sources. Though unchecked, many think Qatar is supplying the rebels with the heavy weapons. In addition Syrian opposition leaders meet in Doha to unite different anti-government militias under a moderate cleric, Mouaz Al Khatib, from Damascus. The violence in Syria is beginning to spill into Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan as random spats of gunfire proliferate many of the border crossings surrounding the conflicted nation.
Because of Deir Ez Zor's proximity to the oil fields, you don't have to go far to heist the lucrative liquid. However, the problem is that the fields and the refineries happen to be controlled, at this moment, by Assad's soldiers. They have a lot on their plate though, the Syrian government. The rebels have always had the man advantage, it's just that Assad has the air superiority. Odds are that they are spread thin at the oil field. Just thin enough, perhaps, for your crew to get in and get out without anyone getting hurt. You are in the back of a pickup truck with another women, three other men, and twelve plastic drum barrels that are bungee-corded onto the flatbed. Another truck with a similar setup follows closely behind as you silently cruise, headlights off, through the lonely desert. When you get to the first field the ring leader, Mahmed, clips a hole in the fence with wire-cutters, just big enough for you to squeeze through. You are the third one through the hole in the fence, but the first one caught in the group as the flood lights come on and the plethora of regime soldiers start to walk toward you, pointing their rifles at nothing but you face.