Born of War

1

- Dad, can I come, too?

- Oh!

Not till you're older.

But then you can sit

at the head of the table, by me.

Go to your nanny.

I'm very proud of Musab.

I don't want him to grow up to be a slave.

A slave like me,

like all of us.

We don't want our children to be slaves.

- No.

- No.

Okay, time for homework.

Can I go and visit my mother first?

Sure.

Musab?

Musab?

Musab!

Musab!

Hide and seek!

One, two...

They call us warlords.

Lords of what?

We are landowners,

leaders of provinces.

But what does that count for

if the government takes its orders

from Soviets or America?

We are pawns and they push us

where they choose to.

Well, I won't be pushed any further.

...14, 15...

Musab, let's go back into the house.

We can play inside, okay?

Musab!

Musab! Somebody help me!

Where is my son?

Where is my son?

Musab!

Saeed! Saeed!

Musab! We have to stop the fire.

Musab! Musab.

Musab!

Musab. Please.

Oh, please!

Who told them we were here?

Who is the traitor?

Habibi... Habibi!

Why are you here?

Why have you come

with that camera around your neck?

I... I was just travelling.

In a war zone?

There was no fighting when I got here.

But there is now.

No, I...

I ran out of money.

Khalid's offered me a job.

In his bed.

That's how you fooled him.

Spy!

Murderer!

Who told the Soviets?

Sh*t!

Who's running away?

Who?

Blood will have blood.

And then you've got a month

to work on your final papers.

Okay? All right, have a good weekend.

So do you know

who you're going to work with?

I'm working with Tanya.

Right. Okay, cool.

- It's Mina, right?

- Yeah.

Are you American?

Yeah. Well, my parents aren't

but I was born there,

so I guess the accent stuck.

Bad luck.

Mina.

Frederick.

I think these are your

coursework suggestions.

You dumped them in my pidge by mistake.

- Thank you.

- So, um...

Mum, I want to live at college.

We're only eight miles away.

I'm not asking you to pay for it.

I'll get my own job.

Mi, O don't know if we can

keep this going without you.

What about after Oxford?

I can't keep working at the farm forever.

What do you want?

My own life.

I don't know.

- Mina, what's a blowj*b?

- What?

What are you reading?

Okay, that's bedtime.

Oh, but I want to stay up.

Did you read J-17 when you were 17?

No, I read it when I was nine, like you.

Are you going to live somewhere else?

What? Who told you that?

I heard Dad tell Mum she was

getting a job at the supermarket

so you could leave and live somewhere else.

Dee,

do you really want to stay up?

Turn off the light, though. Shh.

Shh!

Okay, come on.

Come on.

Up we go. Okay.

Shh.

Shh. Sit, okay?

Leave her alone.

Tie them.

Don't touch her.

Don't touch her.

What have you got in here, huh?

Now get Mina and the girl.

How do they know your name?

Careful. Don't injure them.

- Not until we are filming.

- No!

Don't f***ing move.

Mum! Mum!

Come here.

- Get the phone.

- It's dead.

- Run! Now!

- Mum!

F*** you!

Hey!

I swear to God I'll f***ing kill them.

You would have killed them already!

Now, Mina, now!

Run, go, go! Go!

- Go. Go!

- Run!

- Take her.

- Mom!

Ring this number. Ring this number.

Just say the code.

- The phone's dead.

- What?

Right, out of the window.

To the neighbours, go.

No, Mom...

I'll stay here with Mum.

Now, don't worry. She'll be all right.

It's just a surface wound.

I'll be fine. I'll be fine.

Go. Please, for me.

Jesus.

- Go!

- Get Dee out of here now!

- Go, go, go, go!

- Mum! Mum!

Get Dee out of here! Go!

Please, please.

The village shop.

There's... There's a payphone.

Oh my God, they're following us. Dee, run!

Shh.

Sh*t.

- Help!

- Closed.

Please, no, there's someone after us.

Please, you have to let me use your phone.

- Who?

- I don't know.

Don't you recognise us from the farm?

Help! Someone's

trying to kill us!

Go round the back. Round the back.

- Please, you have to help us.

- Come on, come in quickly.

Someone's trying to kill us

and they already have our parents.

Tell me later. I'll go and get the van.

Hello. Hello. Is that the police?

Hello, yeah, I've got

two girls here that...

How are you feeling?

Where's my sister?

Dee's fine, actually.

She's... She's just a little bruised.

What...

What happened to my parents?

I'm sorry.

Look, I'm sorry, I'm going to

have to ask you a few questions.

My name's Olivia. I'm here to help you.

We received your phone call.

Now, can you describe your attackers?

You haven't caught them?

No.

They were dark-skinned.

How many?

Three.

And one of them had a tattoo on his hand.

Can you draw it? Here.

Excuse me, I just need to take this to fax.

You're not going to tell me who did it?

They knew my name!

Wait!

I'm not answering any more of your

questions until you tell me who did this.

Does the name Khalid Zeerak

mean anything to you?

Were you aware that your mother

travelled before you were born?

She told me Turkey and Yemen.

And the Wakhan Corridor.

Where it was used as a silk route

from Tajikistan all the

way through to China.

Well, she... Your mother took

some of these pictures.

She lived there for almost a year.

She never told me that.

And while she was hiking,

she ran into some bandits

who took everything and left her stranded.

And it was then that she came

to the house of this Khalid.

He employed your mother

as a nanny to his son.

Why are you telling me this?

Because Khalid is a warlord.

Do you understand?

He's a terrorist.

And...

less than a year after your

mother went to work for him,

someone told the Soviets where he lived

and they bombed his house.

And your mother escaped

and the Americans asked us

to find her a new identity

because they knew

that he would hunt her down

and kill her, no matter what.

His son was killed in the bomb.

- Are you saying that my mother was a spy?

- No.

No.

She was in the wrong

place at the wrong time.

But Khalid thought she was.

Your dad knew, too.

He was ex-army.

Why now?

Something must have tipped him off

that your mother was still alive,

perhaps when you moved over

from the States or...

Do you use any social networking sites

like Facebook or Flickr or...

- Are you trying to say that this is my fault?

- No. God, no. No, no, no.

No. I'm sorry, I...

I just...

I just want to go see my parents, okay?

I...

Would you like to come through?

Mina, this is Simon.

He works for me.

I want to see my sister now.

You can't.

You'll be twice as easy to spot together.

Why does Khalid want us, anyway?

We didn't even do anything.

His son died.

It's a vendetta culture there.

I mean, people get killed

for things their grandparents did.

They tried to kill your sister, too.

You saw it yourself.

If you know who he is,

why can't you catch him?

We've been looking for, what, 10 months?

That whole region is a

diplomatic no-go zone.

Officially we're not even there.

That's why I've hired Simon unofficially.

He's not British intelligence. He's a...

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