It
was late at night, but way too hot to sleep even though he only wore a pair of
boxers to bed under the light cotton sheets.
Patience was one thing he had learned over and over again with this
job. He had trained for Special Forces
and liked taking care of problems right away.
When he had joined this group he had understood that sometimes he would
be out in the field for months without being able to have the satisfaction of
quick action and without contact to his superiors. It had proven true more times than not, but
this had been his longest stint in the field yet. He contemplated the fowl mood he had been in
all day as he stared at the ceiling.
Over the past couple of months he had seen some horrendous things, some
of which he would never forget.
He
tried to change his train of thought and bring it back round to the business at
hand. The last time he had called his
brother, as he had to call his contact, they had informed him that a friend
would be meeting up with him to give him information on the group of operatives
who were to be the people interested in purchasing the items his boss had for
sale, mostly dirty bomb material. They
had taken time to set up and he knew it.
They had been in contact with his boss for the last two weeks. Usman Khan was not an easy man to fool, and
he was not stupid either.
Once
contacted, Streak would be fed some of the names of the group. They would have to be damn good, both the
agent that was going to contact him and the plant that was going to purchase
the items. This guy had sniffed out two
other plants and promptly disposed of them.
He had been lucky to stay in the job this long. The CIA had lost a couple of good men, but
they hadn’t been good enough he thought leaning up on one arm on the bed as he
grabbed for the carafe of water. He had
left the balcony doors open so that he could get something of the breeze that seemed
to move as fast as the tortoises he had seen in Africa on one of his other
assignments. When there was a breeze in
this hell hole there always seemed to be a good amount of dirt and sand that
also came in with it, so much so sometimes that he would have to close the door
just so that he wouldn’t feel as if he would be buried alive while he
slept.
The
compound itself was located in a very dicey area of the northern part of
Afghanistan although it would be considered a very safe area for terrorists. The grounds themselves were very nice. Once someone left the compound the poverty
and the decline were apparent. Add the
gunrunners and other mafia types that ran rampant in the provinces of Kandahar
and Hemland and it was amazing. What was
also amazing was the number of people that would help them for a pittance just
to stay alive. There were guards placed
every twenty feet or so around the compound as well as in it, and they all had
been equipped with the latest and greatest that there was to offer on the
illegal arms market. Night vision
goggles were just the beginning. Each AK
had been equipped with laser scopes just in case a spray of bullets were not
enough to disable the enemy and they felt like doing a little target
practice. They had been better equipped
than any small army in any third world nation.
Although
he had been allowed relative freedom of movement they had watched him the
entire time he had been outside of the compound. He had gained some of Usman’s trust, but not
enough. Then again there was only one
man Usman Khan trusted, Ata Errol. That
was how Streak had gotten involved so deep so fast. The old adage of who you knew and not what
you knew held even in this lowly business.
He had spent years building up this persona, Razz Crnobog, as a gun and
weapons runner that would and could deal in anything that caused death and
mayhem. The man had become a legend
working under all the major dealer’s radars.
Streak had made sure that the name Razz Crnobog had caught his attention
a few times. Razz had spoiled and stolen
a few deals that Ata Errol had set up.
The last time he left a calling card that Errol couldn’t miss and his
number. He knew that signing him onto
his team to get his skills and connections would be a coup.
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