Step Back - Part 21

The remainder of Saturday was quiet.

On Sunday morning the sky was clear over the town of Najaf in Iraq.  On a residential street an apparently slovenly man of arabic appearance opened a briefcase and brought out a device.  In some respects the device resembled a small movie camera without a film magazine.  The man looked through the viewfinder at a particular house.  With the red dot in the view was lined up on a specific house he pressed down on a button.

In a low orbit over the region the spacecraft Kite, sister ship to the Falcon, was at action stations.

On the command deck a sensor operator spoke.

“The target is illuminated.”

Lieutenant Douglas Siekmann, the commander of the vessel, responded.

“Commence fire.”

The sky over Najaf lit up as multiple laser beams instantly flashed into and out of existence.  When the ashes and rubble of the house had reached the level of the street the barrage of light stopped.

Under the cover of confusion by the local authorities the slovenly man quietly packed the laser  designator in it’s case and departed.

On the command deck of the Kite, Lieutenant Siekmann spoke.

“The monster is down, let’s return to base.”

On the morning of the following Tuesday a brief meeting was held in Teheran.  The Shah of Iran met with the ambassador from the Republic of Iraq.

“Your Majesty, there has been a terrible incident in Najaf.  We have been attacked by the Sky People and one of your subjects, the Ayatollah Khomeini was killed.”

The Shah raised an eyebrow.

“So?  How does this concern us?”

The ambassador was taken aback, he expected some appearance of sympathy from the Shah.”

“Your Majesty, a senior cleric from this nation was murdered by the Sky People, this is clearly an attack on Islam!”

“No Mr. Ambassador, this was the elimination of a monster.”

The Shah had read the information package brought to him by the CIA.  He had been appalled to read of the dark age misrule and general destruction brought upon the nation by Khomeini and his followers.  A specific point of disgust was the use of children by the Khomeini regime to clear minefields by deliberate detonation in a clearly useless war. 

There was simply no excuse for their actions.

“Mr. Ambassador, Khomeini was an inhuman monster, he was clearly what our Western friends call an Enemy of Mankind.  And apparently your government has not been notified of the future destruction that this monster would have brought on to your nation.”

The ambassador was struck speechless.

“Was there anything else, Mr. Ambassador?”

The Shah’s next meeting was with the head of SHAVAK, the imperial security service.  It was here that he gave the order to start the planned operation to round up and execute the remaining followers of Khomeini. The information package from the CIA was quite detailed as to the members of this group and the adverse effect they would have upon the nation.  By the next sunrise of not one of the men so targeted would remain alive.

In Carson City, Nevada on that evening Yuri and Josef, the two Soviet intelligence officers, were departing from another casino after having cleaned out a third table of American suckers at poker.

They were met in the parking lot by four very large Sicilian Gentlemen.

Fuck your Mother, thought Yuri.

“You boys have been very lucky, too lucky.”  Said the lead goon.

“Well, your luck has run out.”  Said the second goon.

Yuri responded.

“Look, if you want us to leave, we’ll leave.”

“Yes.”  Said Josef.  “We’ll leave, no problem.”

“Well there is a problem,” said the lead goon, “it’s the money you took from the suckers, our money.”

The second goon spoke.

“We want it, we want it all, right now!”

Yuri made a decision.

“That’s too bad.”  He said.

This was one of their agreed upon code words for the use of deadly force.  Both officers brought out their weapons, Browning High Power pistols quietly bought by their agencies on the open market and quickly performed the what would eventually be called the Mozambique Drill on the four goons. 

Two rounds to the body and one to the head, each.

“Now what?”  Said Josef.

“We leave, right now!”

With Josef at the wheel they departed from the parking lot of the casino and returned to their own lodgings.  In the parking lot of their hotel they discussed their next move.

“So what now?”  Said Josef.  “Our respective missions are blown.”

“How can you say that?”  Said Yuri.

“We’re supposed to set up a forward base and try to recruit people inside the Uptimer base to work for us, all while on the run from both the police and the local mob?  How can we do all of that?”

“Well we can’t go home.”  Said Yuri.  “We would be taken out and shot.”

“You would be taken out and shot.”  Josef replied.  “Our officers are incinerated alive with the office trash.”

Yuri stared in shock at his GRU counterpart.

“Yes,” said Josef, “when we start duty at the Aquarium they show new intelligence officers a film of an officer being burned alive with the trash.”

“I believe you.”  Said Yuri.  “What do we do now?  Drive up to their front gate and ask them for sanctuary?”

“Why not?”

Well, why not?

With that they drove off to Area 51.