Chapter 10

Greek Island, hidden harbor on Mediterranean Sea,

Shea tapped Sam on the shoulder. "Why don't you let me do this for a while? Aleia is fixing you a meal. I would think your mind needs to rest for a while. You need what you call a break from your duty; go for a swim and eat. This will be here when you get back."

Sam stretched as he stood. "Something is going on with al Quida. They've had no activity anywhere in over two weeks. I've never seen them hunkered down like this before. There have been no attacks, no internet activity, no phone calls we know of, and no money transfers. Everyone is worried.

"NATO intelligence noticed a number of people of interest missing. They wonder if that means anything. They've got their collective heads up their collective asses. Over two hundred known terrorist cell leaders missing at the same time is not indicative of a friendly pick up game of soccer. I don't like it at all.

"I called our friends in Iran, and they're worried too. They don't feel that they need another layer of sanctions put on them for something they can't control. They've moved the missing men to the top of their intelligence priorities, and are trying to covertly contact NATO's Central Command.

"Bill and Ada are leaving to visit Prince Steve Noir, but he's not in Jordan. They're going to Afghanistan as we speak. Bill thinks the dirty half dozen are involved. I have no idea why, but I've learned to trust his hunches.

"Israel has pilots in their planes on the runway, cancelled all leaves, and placed their reserves on standby. All border crossings are now closed, and the natives are stocking up on supplies, but there's no sense of panic, yet. It's just like they're covering all their bases. They've been through this crap before.

"In response, Syria is currently moving troops to the Golan Heights and the Lebanon border. Hezbollah is trying to get Lebanon's government into some kind of war status. Iran's government is trying to control their Hezbollah pets to prevent that, but some of the higher level mullahs are fighting the governmental efforts.

"Egypt's Foreign Minister is in the United States asking for intelligence help from the CIA. Egypt's Middle Eastern spy network is superior to the CIA's, so that shows how desperate they are. It's like Neman Marcus asking for clothes design help from Montgomery Wards."

"What is Montgomery Wards?"

"It was a huge retail department store chain that went out of business because they failed to provide what people wanted. There used to be thousands of stores across the United States. Now they're all gone."

Shea sighed and pushed him out of the room. "Get rest. Get food. Get laid. Then come back to work."

Sam stuttered, "G ... G ... Get what?" Shea just smiled and closed the door in his face.

Somewhere in Switzerland

"These are short range personal protection 'Dark Plasma' weapons," explained Mohamed Hassan to his fellows. "The attack weapons stored on this base are useless because someone from the Royal family is required to activate them. The only thing we have bigger is the base defense weapons and dual purpose weapons like the gate unit at the side of the room.

"No don't touch that!" Bacchus yelled at the student reaching for the weapon's control panel. "You could make an entire city disappear into another dimension by mistake if you don't know what you're doing. This gate weapon is very powerful and at the same time very fragile. If used properly, it is an accurate way to destroy an enemy, but if it is used wrong, it could cause untold damage."

The second group of thirty students of the new two hundred man security team looked at their trainer as the guilty student told Bacchus how sorry he was to upset their mentor. Each knew that soon they would not have to put up with these foreign devils, and that the new weapons that Allah was providing would be theirs to fight the Great Satan. The Day of Justice was close.

All ready the first thirty man squad had moved south to help their brothers, the Taliban, remove the NATO evil that infected their land. The concept was simple. NATO, no longer fearing the Soviet Union, had become a loose conglomeration of shifting power blocks. The strongest member of NATO, the United States, was no longer the accepted leader of the alliance. If the weak parts of the NATO presence could be eliminated, the rest would soon follow.

It was a simple plan. NATO members were weak and self centered. They had no purpose or reason to be there. Attack them one at a time, and they would run like scared deer. The weakest of those members at one time was the strongest and best trained warriors in the world. That is until the Great Satan destroyed their country and its morality. They were now a weak link.

German Army Camp Afghanistan

Major Barbra Babbitt, the daughter of a New York City Transit worker, was not a happy woman. The "RED LIGHT" signal was given. The asshole didn't listen. Why was it her fault she broke his collar bone with the baseball bat he used to poke her in the ass? He was violating her rights for Christ's sake. No, she ends up as a Protocol Officer in a sand pile base to the fucking Germans and asshole goes home with a promotion. Life's just not fair.

To top it off, the Officer of the Day (OOD), under the base commander's orders, had her chasing down her own bedding and supplies for her billet. A Major in the fucking army doesn't go chasing all over the base for this shit. Damn, next they'll have her cleaning latrines. She finished her Masters Degree in foreign languages from NYU and finished first in her ROTC class to do this. It did occurred to her that beating up the son of the Southern, Born Again, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee tends to take one off the Army's fast track. Fuck!

Meanwhile, Master Sergeant Willie Frunze was a frustrated man. He had trained to be the best, a German Soldier. He had decided to dedicate his life to the memory of his grandfather who was killed in an attempted assignation attempt on Adolf Hitler in early1943. The German Army was lambasted by idiots in his grandfather's time, and now they were shaming Germany's finest by making them hide on their posts in a war zone.

One of the best armies in the world was cursed again by some of the worst civilian leaders in the world. Here, they had the power to make the Afghan people's lives better and safer, yet the government kept their men hiding behind the fences so they wouldn't stub someone's toe. Over 3,000 men and women, 500 here, were hiding like children. Why in the hell did Germany have an army if they wouldn't use it when needed?

Then to top it off, the base regulations the new base commander instituted were the essence of madness. The rules would be questionable in Germany, but in a war zone they bordered on criminal stupidity. Half full clips, count bullets, and only hand weapons outside of security post was nuts. Something bad was going to happen because of this. Where did this idiot come from?

He had to get these thoughts out of his mind. He was the post's senior NCO and today's Sergeant of the Guard. The post's attitude was bad enough without his mood making it worse. As he made the rounds of the perimeter guard posts, he pulled the picture of his wife and two children from his BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) and looked at his family. The picture of little Fritz saluting his father while Anna, his wife, holding his year old daughter, Hilde, looked on always brightened his day.

The walk was doing him some good. He normally made his rounds in his staff car with his driver. Today, he wanted to walk himself out of his funk and sent his driver to the next post to visit with his squad mates after the driver ran some errands. The decision saved his life. Willie walked around a large storage building as he saw his vehicle arrive at the post. Suddenly the guard tower started to fall and then his car blew apart. The only sound, though, was the collapsing tower, the ripping metal, and the dieing screams of his driver.

Willie stood in stunned silence as the two men in the guard tower jumped from the tower to face the unseen danger. As he started run to the aid of his guards, he again froze in amazement. One moment the guards regained their balance from the fall and the next their head separated form their necks.

People walking on the road started to run to the tower to help what was left of the men there. The first bystander to arrive suddenly stopped looked down before his lower half fell one way and his top fell another. Willie watched as two more people were literally chopped up as if by some unseen knife. Soon everyone was running from the fallen tower

A line of destruction slowly walked its way through the fence. Building facades begin to crumble at the height of a man's chest. Observing the waling line of death approach as if he were watching it in a movie, Willie's mind fought a desperate battle to move out of shock into the real world. It was not to be. Just as the invisible beam was to strike, something hit him in the back.

As quickly as the attack started, it stopped. A haze of disbelief filled the air. What happened? What was...

Willie suddenly came out of his little world to the sounds of a woman screaming in American English. "You God damn son of a bitch! You trying to get us both killed? What in the hell were you looking at? Mother Fucker that hurts."

He then heard the screams of the wounded and the base warning sirens' wails. Willie felt the woman roll off his back so he followed her movements. He turned to see a woman wearing the utility uniform of an American Army Major. He started in broken English, "Thank, mam, save my life..."

She replied in strained, but perfect conversational German, "It is not a problem, Sergeant. I am sure you would have done the same for me, but I believe I hurt myself on your back."

Willie looked at the woman's useless dislocated left arm and waved down a passing ambulance. "Take the Major to the infirmary."

The driver looked at Willie's bleeding arm and shook his head. "Not without you Sergeant. Not without you."

Later that afternoon

The post commander looked at Major Barbra Babbitt, USA. The two officers were the only ones in the room. Willie was being interviewed by the Executive Officer (XO) in a separate floor of the building.

"Major, let's start again. Did you see what happened?"

"Not all of it, I came out of the storage building about the time the guard tower came down and the staff car fall apart."

"You mean explode?

"No, sir, that's the funny thing about it. I didn't hear any explosions or gunfire. Everything just seemed to happen with the volume control set on mute."

"Are you sure your shoulder was all that that was injured when you took out the good sergeant? I have to account for ten dead people and thirteen wounded. These people were cut into pieces, and we do not have an idea how it happened, or who did it. No one will believe this story."

"I understand Commander, but all I can do is to tell you what I observed. I will not be part of any cover up. What I saw was strange, but it was what I saw.

"You know, Americans make me so angry some..." The commander's rant was ended before it could start by the wail of the post sirens. "Let's go," he ordered and raced from the office with Barbra.

They met with Willie and the XO on the sidewalk outside the office. While running to the command bunker, Barbra saw two men wearing native dress standing behind a car. She saw them point something at the group.

"Down!" she shouted and pulled her non-regulation Colt 1911 45 Caliber. At the same time she tripped the frozen commander and turned to see the XO fall with blood squirting from what was left of his forearm. Two shots rang from Brenda's automatic and the two men behind the car flew into the wall of the building behind them each with a third eye in their heads.

Willie yanked the XO's belt from his pants and formed a crude tourniquet above his elbow. The flow of blood slowed as Willie tightened the belt with the handle of his combat knife. Another man in Arabic dress rushed to the group but stopped and held out his arms when Barbra trained her weapon on the man.

Willie placed his free hand on Barbra's leg. "That's the Jordanian Head of Intelligence. Major. He's on our side."

Barbra holstered the Colt. In Arabic she offered, "Sorry Sir, things are a little hectic here, and I did not know who you were."

In German the Jordanian replied, "Major, you did nothing I..." He looked at her uniform again and started over in accent free English, "Major, you did nothing I wouldn't have done if I were in your shoes, and since you had the composure not to pull the trigger, you have nothing to apologize for.

"Now, Sergeant, let's see how much I remember from med school," he continued as he switched back to German. "Let me see that arm."

"Yes Sir, Prince Noir."

Now that conditions seemed to get calmer, the commander got up and brushed himself off. "How dare you discharge a weapon on my post? Where did you get the idea you could carry a loaded weapon here? We have rules to prevent Cowboys or in this case Cowgirls from panicking and killing innocent civilians like you just did!

"You will face charges for this. Give me your weapon! Murder is not..." Before he could finish or a stunned Brenda could react, the post attack warning system sounded again. The commander turned white, turned around, and ran to the command bunker.

Prince Noir pushed Willie away from the XO. "Willie, I'll take care of your officer. You take care of your people."

"Thank you Prince Noir."

Willie pulled a command radio from its holder. "N5A this is Frunze. I need a status report. N5A report." There was no reply.

"E5A report!"

"E5A, situation is nominal."

"S5A report!"

"S5A, situation is nominal."

W5A report!"

"Willie, this is Helga. We had a breach of the perimeter. I don't know what has happened. One moment it was calm, and the next the guard tower collapsed and the fence just flew apart. We had about 75 Taliban fighters in the breach when we ran out of ammunition. If it were not for an American convoy unloading to a nearby warehouse, we would have lost the perimeter.

"As it is, we are using their 9MM ammo and some of the Afghani women workers are reloading our clips. Thanks to them we have stabilized the area.

"Wait! The Americans are going through the dead Taliban. One of the American drivers just brought me a copy of the half clip rule. She told me it was in the pocket of one of the infiltrators."