1AFGHANISTAN
Mustapha braked gently and focused his attention on the gunfire from his right. With hand signals, he motioned his companions to advance at a tangent to their present path.
He pressed the microphone closer to his mouth as he followed his two companions. "Primo, rounds fired in the village. Vehicle exiting. Moving to intercept."
"Acknowledged. Laurent has launched. Use him as your eyes. Abdullah is five metres out from you. Engaging our friends from the cliff. Three grenades."
"Three grenades. Understood. We will engage as you clear." Mustapha held up his fist and opened it three times before pointing to his right to ensure that his companions understood that Primo would be using grenades.
"No. Get the Colonel and Sangar. I'll come to you. Primo out."
The final transmission was a whisper.
"Inshallah," the Jordanian whispered as he acknowledged the waves of Abdullah and his fellow camel thieves approaching from the east. A quick glance over his left shoulder confirmed his team was following in close support.
**
Two kilometers away, Alexandra steadied the rifle on a sack of grain and fired at any shadow or form exiting the elder's home. She blinked several times as the grain dust caused her to tear.
"Sangar, steer southwest! You should see some motorcycles approaching us very soon."
"I see them. Are they Primo's men?"
"Yes. Look for a plane." Alexandra maintained her focus on the doorway while listening to the gunfire erupting from beyond the house to the northeast.
**
In the corridor between the two houses, Christopher shuffled along the wall as he recoiled from the bullets exploding two meters to his right.
The blast of a shotgun exploding from the wall facing him caused Christopher to drop as two attackers erupted from the hole in the wall of the Elder's house that they had just created with the shotgun blast.
Brahm! Brahm!
His assault rifle recoiled as he fired two rounds into his nearest attacker.
Uuugh!
The explosion of air from his lungs winded him as the blast from the attack shotgun smashed into his left side. The assault rifle spun from his arm as his attacker pumped another round into his weapon.
Brahm! Brahm!
Christopher struggled for his pistol with his right hand as his attacker stumbled toward him spewing blood from his mouth.
Brahm! Brahm!
Christopher recoiled as his attacker keeled onto him.
He stared as an elderly Afghan villager turned and began firing into the hole in the wall at the Taliban inside the Elder's house.
The resulting return fire from the house exploded into the old man's torso.
12 ST. CHARLES STREET
LONDON
"Where to, William?" Ronan asked as he steered out of the underground garage's entrance.
"Thames House, Ronan. That's where she's heading." Sir William retrieved his Browning pistol from the glove box of the Audi.
"You're sure it's Catherine, then?"
"It's more than her, Ronan. She's just a cog in the wheel. This is bigger than you and I thought."
YOU ARE READING
The Shaddad Conspiracy
Adventure“Your murder victim was not an innocent, naive woman. She was on our terrorist watch list. The fact that she escaped from Basra and lived a normal life in London buggers belief, but she was planted here by a foreign government to wreck the Taliban p...
