Murder My Shadows

"Tell me Secretary Gant, do we know just how many different nationalities are involved at this point?"

"I believe the count is at eight at the present time, but we are unsure as the captives haven't been seen since they entered the caves yesterday. For all we know they all could be dead at this time," he answered.

"And just who is this lucky individual they have selected to deliver the ransom if it is paid?" she asked.

Without a word, the Secretary pulled out a newspaper from Mexico about three weeks old and laid it in front of the President as she stared down at it. Then he added a copy of the latest issue of Newsweek Magazine on top of the paper so the President could see the cover shot.

It was a picture that she had seen countless times in the past few weeks as it was considered the journalistic masterpiece of the year. It told the story of how two professional cavers from the United States had been on a life-saving mission to Mexico to rescue a group of cavers who had been trapped for days under the earth. They had been assisted by several members of a Navy Seal Team. The mission had turned ugly, as they discovered a large group of natives that still practiced the old Aztec's ways of religion had been the ones to cause the cave-in, and had trapped the intruders in their sacred chambers below the earth. Somehow all the hostages were saved and as the team returned to the surface, they were once again attacked and again several members of the team were wounded and one killed.

But just as the team had started to surface with one of the two professional cavers in tow who had been seriously wounded, a lone native again attacked trying to kill them both.

However, an alert underwater photographer happened to turn around and saw the man coming toward them. As he backed away he saw the unhurt member of the cave team do what appeared to be impossible. In the light of the bright sun shining down through the clear water, he saw her raise her pistol and shoot the man right in the face just as he raised his knife to plunge it into the body of her fellow diver she had clamped her legs around. The picture had so much detail in it after it had been enhanced that one could easily see the determined look on the diver’s face as she raised her gun and one could even see the surprised look of the man as the 9MM bullet took the back of his head off in the water. Since then it had appeared in every newspaper and magazine around the world as well as on television around the world countless times, winning every award of the year for its graphic nature. In fact, it was so vivid that on closer inspection you could see the empty shell casing flying out of the gun after the shot was fired. With the colors so natural and the type of action it portrayed, it made an instant celebrity of the shooter as well as the man who had taken the picture.

The President then looked up and exclaimed, "Don't tell me, let me guess! They want the girl in this picture to deliver the money!"