Hostage — A Vocabulary Story
The Sunset Deadline
Captain Rao crouched in the dust outside the abandoned warehouse. Inside, somewhere, was Dr. Mehra — a doctor taken hostage three days earlier while delivering vaccines to a distant village.
Hostage means a person seized and held captive as security until certain demands are met.
The kidnappers had asked for ransom by sunset. Rao's team had until then to bring the hostage home.
He slipped through a side door. The corridor was empty. At the end, a guard slumped in a chair, snoring. Rao stepped over him and tried the locked room beyond.
Inside, Dr. Mehra was tied to a chair, blindfolded but unhurt.
"Doctor," Rao whispered, cutting the ropes. Then, into his earpiece: "I have the hostage. Stand by."
She nodded, trembling. "There are two more men by the front."
"Then we go through the back."
They slipped past stacked crates and into the alley. A jeep waited at the corner, engine running. Rao bundled her in.
"You're not the hostage anymore," he said. "You're just a passenger."
She laughed shakily — the first laugh in three days.
By the time the kidnappers realised their hostage was gone, the jeep was already past the checkpoint. Dr. Mehra would sleep in her own bed that night. Rao would file his report, drink bad tea, and wait for the next call.
The work, he knew, was never quite finished.
Word Definition
hostage
meaning
a person seized and held captive as security until certain demands are met
synonyms
captive · prisoner · victim · pawn · surety
antonyms
captor · liberator · rescuer
example sentence
The terrorists held several hostages in the building for over twelve hours.