The Devil's Handshake (39 page)

“
The tribal elders would
never go with the breaking of the contracts with the Russians,
despite convincing his Indian friend otherwise, nor would the
Russians receive their loss of their base lightly,” he thought at
the time over drinks with his friend at the Burj Al Arab. “For this
to work I need to ensure the Americans replace them,” he concluded
as his mind thought over the problem of the Russians’
response.

He had seen what they had done to his pirates
when they captured them. That meant he had to ensure the Americans
entered the country before the Russians arrived. Knowing full well
that would be the only way the Russians would accept the change of
the status quo, if somewhat reluctantly, thus enable him to broker
his own deal with the Americans by using his Indian friends
connections to bring in new partners to replace the Englishman and
his Russian friends.

That is why he needed to have someone conduct
his side operation that wasn’t directly linked to him or his
militia. The Ukrainian in front of him with his son represented
such a person. If his plan worked he would blame it on the Upper
House Clan members of the President’s allies, Rooble Ali’s and
Dudeh Jawari’s militias.

The fact that some of his Clan was going to
have to die in the process so to ensure the outcome was the price
he would have to pay.

“
That’s a lot of people and
some of them are very high profile,” was the straightforward
response from Leo.

Seeing by the look on his face that the
hard-nosed Ukrainian wasn’t going to budge on the price and with
too much at stake for him to argue, Wasir released the girl he had
been playing with and offered his hand to him to imply his
acceptance of terms.

The experienced mercenary looked at him again
with no emotion before he finally took his hand.

“
Up front,” he
repeated.

“
Of course,” replied Wasir,
before telling his son to go and get the Ukrainian his cash before
ordering the young terrified child upstairs.

Parking her Land Cruiser next to the new
offices of their Charity in the Dila district of Borama in the
early evening, Clara Martinez stepped out of the vehicle to the
sounds of the small local mosque next to the building calling the
faithful to Prayer.

Stopping for a few moments, she chose some
limes and grapefruits from the little boys parked outside their
three-story building, checking as she did so to see if she had been
followed. Satisfied she hadn’t been she paid the boys, collected
the fruit, and then climbed up the stairs to the second floor of
the building.

She knocked on the door twice to give a
warning to the residents inside who was outside, and she was
alone.

Once the door opened, the sight of Pete who
had let her in and Joe who had the pleasure of monitoring the
communications and listening equipment greeted her.

“
So what’s up?” asked Joe
referring to Navjot’s decision to arrive on site, something he had
only advised them of this morning.

Earning a shake of her head then in return to
reflect her own disapproval she explained that he was sure that the
Russians were on to the Martin-led operation due the fact that they
had organized for the gunship to be impounded in Bissau.

Like her they both expressed surprise that he
chosen to come into theatre, as he where front and center of this
operation, but ultimately unlike her they dismissed it. Navjot had
always been a man who liked to lead from the front, so who were
they to be questioning his judgment?

“
Anything else happening?”
she asked, changing the subject.

“
Basir reports that one of
Ukrainians that arrived on Saturday went off with one with Wasir’s
sons,” offered Pete referring to one of the Special Operations
SEALS they had on loan from Djibouti who was monitoring the base of
the Turaegs for them posing as a goat herder. The young Petty
Officer from Queens, New York was of Sudanese descent fit in
effortlessly and so far hadn’t raised any suspicions.

“
Mike reports Litchfield
received the President and a couple of the tribal elders over at
his villa,” he continued referring to the other SEAL in more
tradition clothing of chinos and t-shirts of the NGOs located at
the hotel and was observing the coming and goings around the
Oligarch.

Clara nodded that wasn’t unusual, as when the
wealthy Englishman was around the President was always close by,
for he was the money.

“
Any news on who, these new
security members are?” Clara asked for although she knew they were
almost certainly members of their Russian counterparts at Zaslon,
she disagreed with Navjot’s summary that they were there to provide
security to him. It was quite common for the unit to be used in the
role of diplomatic protection, not just counter-intelligence
functions, so she figured they were the advance party for the
arriving Ambassador.

“
No names, but they have
been matched to a team that had been operating in Syria,” answered
Pete, referring to the information he had received from one of the
analysts at Langley who in turn had gotten it from the
Israelis.

“
Okay, I will pass that
along to the Boss,” replied Clara before heading to the kitchen to
put her limes into a cup of tea.

Outside and unknown to Clara, one of the
little boys left his friend on the fruit stand to call his foreign
friend on the burner mobile he had been given to let him know the
woman was now at her office, earning himself a hundred U.S. dollars
for his family in the process.

40

Roschinsky

Stationed at Roschinsky in Samara is a unit
that is drawn from the elite of Russia’s Special Forces, known as
the 3rd Guards Spetsnaz Brigade GRU. Formed in the 1960’s,the
primary goal of the unit during the Cold War had been
infiltration/insertion behind enemy lines, either in uniform or
civilian clothing, usually well before hostilities were scheduled
to begin and then, once in place, to commit acts of sabotage plus
the assassination of key government leaders and military
officers.

Since 2011 though, the unit’s role was to
provide fast support in the field as when directed. The unit was
led by a battle hardened division commander, a tall, striking man
of thirty-eight with dark hair and deep brown eyes called
Podpolovnk Alekseyevich Valeri Stukalov who had seen service in
Dagestan and Chechnya and more covertly a few other places in
between. A Hero of the Russian Federation, an award he had won for
his bravery when he single-handedly engaged and overcame the enemy
after his team had been ambushed on the operation in the 2005 he
was a unique individual who inspired loyalty in his men and fear in
his enemies.

Walking into the conference room on the base,
his platoon commanders immediately stood up at attention and on
reaching the front of the room he ordered them to sit back down
again and began his briefing.

Clicking past the Operation Code Name of
KANJAR of the PowerPoint presentation, he stopped at the picture of
the map of Adwalland.

Never one for small talk he went straight to
the point.

“
Gentleman the operational
codename is KANJAR!” he said, adding the mission in his no nonsense
manner. “Our orders are to provide support to the President of the
Country codenamed HARE and our command authority will be the Zaslon
commander in the field codenamed MONGOOSE!” he continued, clicking
on the key players.

“
In your packets, you’ll
find briefing notes on the threats to the mission coming from the
Interior Minister code name VIPER, the capital’s choke points and
also an overview of the American divisions stationed at Camp
Lemmonnier codename TOMBSTONE,” he continued referring to their
encrypted orders being downloaded into their battlefield Getac
laptops as he spoke.

“
It is a fast moving
situation, so there is a chance we might have to HALO jump if the
airport is not secure,” he added without looking into the faces of
the young men he commanded. “If the airport is secure then we will
use the Grasshopper tactic,” he stated.

41

Borama

Outside the residence as the cicadas, the
hated foe of the hotel’s gardener sang together in the gardens,
Thomas and his team were standing huddled together away from their
villa.

“
Boss!”

“
I got some more information
that I think you might find interesting,” Barak said in Hebrew as
Thomas went about lighting his cigar.

“
My young housekeeper that
works at the Sammo just told me that earlier today she saw a
certain white lady entering the Indian’s hotel room,” Barak
continued.

“
You’re right, that is
interesting Barak,” answered Thomas to the ex-Policeman from
Israel’s Border Police known as the Yaman.

“
It sort of proves who’s
pulling the strings,” offered Mikhail linking the dots of Barak’s
intelligence sources.

“
What do you want to do?”
Barak asked his principal.

Thomas took a long pull on the cigar so he
could think for a few moments, allowing the rich smoke from Cuban
tobacco to float upwards to the night sky.

When he finished he said, “You and Yossi go
with five of the Gurkhas and take them down nice and quiet. Once
you’ve got them take them to our compound,” he carried on without
much ado, sensing they would make useful bargaining chips although
he was just not sure yet why, how or when!

“
Oh! Barak, we will need
them alive,” Thomas then added accompanied with a wink before he
departed to find Paul so he could steal five of his Gurkhas for
their own covert operation.

“
You’re not telling Igor
about them then?” asked Mikhail once they were alone.

“
No. We might need some
insurance,” he answered.

“
From what?” Mikhail asked,
wondering where Thomas was going with his thoughts.

“
Don’t know yet!” Thomas
answered honestly to his old friend and trusted
bodyguard.

Impromptu clandestine meeting over, the pair
walked back into the villa together whereby Igor informed them that
Units C and D had just arrived and were now on their way to the
hotel and would be with them in about twenty minutes or so.

“
Badr’s people took care of
the formalities at the airport, but I am pretty sure Viper will be
notified of their arrival,” Igor added before telling them that
Command had issues orders to the 3rd Guards Brigade, and they also
would arrive on-board two Il-76 in Adwalland airspace around 0800
hours.

“
If they begin the operation
at dawn that means we will have to hold for two hours,” said
Mikhail grimly calculating the time in his head.

“
I have already advised them
that they might have to come in hot!” offered Igor, acknowledging
Mikhail’s statement and facial expressions indicating with a
resigned look of his own admitting that it was going to be a close
run thing.

He turned to Jawari.

“
Mr. President, as soon as
my teams arrive I suggest that we move to your offices and take up
defensive positions.”

Less edgy, now having just received
confirmation that the Russians were sending troops to support him
and having been told by Badr that is family was safe, he answered
that would be acceptable.

Cardamom infused Coffee and Shisha Pipes
laced with Rose Water impregnated the air as the two ex-Welsh
Guardsmen, sitting in Wasir’s Villa, walked through the plan once
more with the Interior Minister, Ahmed and their paymaster,
Gourgamangi.

“
Mr. Ahmed how many men will
you have on the main roads to and from the city?” asked the former
Colonel.

“
There will be twenty men at
the airport, the Dilla Road on the North and South exits
respectively, and twenty men on the Billa Road to the West and the
East exits,” answered the former Somali intelligence
officer.

Andrew nodded.

“
We will send a personnel
carrier to the TV Station, another to the telephone exchange and
one to the Hospital. Once these places are secured that should give
us control of the principal buildings,” he said as he pointed to
their respective locations on the map for Gourgamangi benefit, if
not his.

“
Ahmed’s Land Cruisers with
five Tureags in each will then seek and secure the President’s
principal allies in the city. These are designated as the Natural
Resources Minister, the Imman of the Mosque, The Economic Special
Adviser, plus the central council elders to show the various
militias that we are in charge,” pointing now to their respective
locations on the map.

“
We will also send ten men
to Litchfield to secure his satellite farm,” ordered Andrew
pointing to the map.

“
These men will then also
secure Litchfield and the bodyguards,” he added figuring that was
where the English Billionaire would be when the coup d’état
happened.

“
What’s the plan for
Litchfield?” asked Gourgamangi.

“
I want him dead!” answered
Wasir before Martin could reply, determined to punish him for the
insult he had given him on his yacht despite being paid millions of
U.S. dollars by him.

Surprised at the level of venom the outburst
contained the Indian looked at Wasir for a second.

“
Killing off one of the
world’s wealthiest men would produce an enormous amount of media
attention on the country and its new regime for the Englishman has
a lot of friends not just the Russians,” he offered to try to calm
him down.