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Hall would not get a chance to carry out the plan.

Just before his execution on June 13, the militants tricked him, telling him that he was going back to Canada.

Then they slapped cuffs on him before he was able to put up any resistance. They allowed Flor to give Hall a final hug and then led him away. Ten days after Hall’s execution, they freed Flor.

Photo by AFP/Getty Images

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Over that summer, negotiations intensified to secure Sekkingstad’s release. One of the leaders issued a blunt warning to negotiators.

“If he doesn’t get more money he’s going to chop my head off,” Sekkingstad said. “If he gets a little more, they cut my arms off. If they get a bit more, they can send me off with one arm. This goes on and on.”

Meanwhile, Sekkingstad, who had lost 20 kilograms over the past year, said he continued to be treated like a slave, forced to carry the group’s equipment, including a heavy munition that looked like something you shoot out of a bazooka.

Sekkingstad remained skeptical when members of the group told him they were preparing for his release.

Then one day in September 2016, the group spokesman, Abu Omar, asked him the meaning of the name of his boat, Wiskun. Negotiators needed to be sure that the man who was about to be released was indeed Sekkingstad.

The following day, when a group leader asked if he had a clean shirt, Sekkingstad knew the end must be near.

The militants gathered about 50 fighters to escort him away from the camp, down to a rendezvous point.