The Devil's Handshake

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.

“I agree!” replied Martin in support. The murder of Litchfield was something that could also cause him a problem especially if the world found out he was linked to it and as such, it was something he would be very reluctant to do.

Privately he figured that Litchfield’s security teams and the Russians would be more of a match for Wasir’s boys so they would more likely than not they would get him out quick smart during the action. That is why he didn’t bother to use any of his men for this part of the operation and had them focused on taking the President, something as far as he was concerned, was far more important.

“It is necessary, Ahmed, that your men focus on getting hold of the mobile network, Litchfield is the secondary objective!” offered Martin instead towards the bodyguard who gave a nod in return.

Like Martin, he knew the Englishman would be well protected and though he didn’t say it Ahmed agreed with the foreigner as to what was more valuable.

“That leaves us with the remaining seven armored cars to take the President’s offices something that might prove difficult as its most likely he will have support of his local militia,” Martin continued never in a million years believing he would have to face actually thirty highly trained members of Zaslon and twenty Gurkhas and five former Special Forces officers.

“These men are vastly experienced they won’t be pushovers!” added Wilson with individual analysis of the target’s bodyguards.

“Indeed, but will we have armor and superior numbers, so as long as take out the nests we should be able to contain the situation by herding them into the center of the structure,” added Martin referring to the four militia machine gun nests around the building, by pointing at them.

Again all the men sitting around the low table nodded.

The next thirty minutes consisted of a run through of the secondary targets and their locations followed by an overview of how Wasir’s should conduct himself on TV once the coup d’état was in full flow so to established martial rule and the changeover of power as quickly as possible from the President to him.

Briefing finished the ex-guardsman suggested they synchronized their watches and confirmed that the operation would begin at 04.00 hours.

“Excellent, so it looks as though we are ready to go,” answered Gourgamangi when the mark was called, playing the role of an enthusiastic Indian businessman with limited experience.

Twenty minutes later as the four of them were eating a light meal, their collective mood changed with the rushed and worried entrance of Ahmed with Mohammed in tow.

“Sharmutaada ayaa ku dhashay was!” translated in Somali as “Fuck the whore that birthed you!” said Wasir as Ahmed let him know that more Russians had just arrived on a flight from Syria and were met by three of Jawari’s advisors.

“The Russians are here for the President!” he said towards Gourgamangi.

Martin and Wilson quickly sat up.

“How many?” Martin said fearing if the number was over a hundred it would immediately tip the scales in the favor of the President.

“It appears there are twenty of them.”

“And Ahmed tells me they were unloading heavy machines gun and some other bags of equipment,” answered Wasir.

Navjot, though saying nothing still in line with his cover identity trying to show he didn’t understand the significance of the intelligence despite inwardly already processing the news. It confirmed his worst fears—it meant the Russians were deploying early.

“They are definitely on to us!” he thought fighting the urge to show his concern and knowing he needed to take control of the situation, the SAD operative coolly took over the conversation.

“We still have the numerical advantage gentleman,” as if trying to brush away the news.

“Yes but the operation is harder. I recommend that we delay and evaluate what we are potentially dealing with,” offered Martin, suddenly getting cold feet.

Fighting Militias was one thing fighting full trained Special Forces units was completely different.

“It takes four hours to fly from Syria. Assuming that they would have also likely called up military support as well that gives us approximately maybe twenty-four hours or so before the initial wave of support troops arrive,” Martin’s mind quickly worked out in an attempt to assess the chances of success of continuing because he didn’t want to give up his bonus or share of the spoils.

“It’s tight, but we can still do it,” he said, greed winning through.

“We must begin the operation now!” cried Wasir in support, having reached the same conclusion as Martin, but with a different agenda in mind.

“The Russians will send more men, and we will have missed our opportunity!” he stated excitedly towards Martin and Wilson who were now looking towards their employer for a final decision.

“I agree with Wasir we have to begin the operation now!” offered Navjot for completely different reasons to those around him.

“Where are the Russians now?” asked Andrew in the general direction of Ahmed.

“They were going to the Cismah,” replied Ahmed.

“That means we will need to change our strategy,” answered Wilson thought that some of the armored vehicles and their men would be needed to take the satellite farm, a primary objective.

“No, Tony I have a feeling that once they arrive they will go with the President to Dawalaa House de Borama,” replied Martin overruling the fears of his former NCO.

“So we need all the men with us,” he continued, sealing right there and then the fate of their operation.

Taking over in order to exert his authority in front of Ahmed and his sons, Wasir ordered Gourgamangi to return to his hotel for his safety.

Relieved, the Indian billionaire gratefully nodded his agreement as it meant it would enable him to liaise with Clara and Langley over the developments that had taken place. The last thing he needed was to have to sit around in Wasir’s compound throughout the coup having to rely on their basic infrastructure for information.

With Langley having a KH-11 KENNAN satellite tasked over Adwalland, he would get instant information from Clara and the team as to the development of the different objectives around the city in live time.

With that the three men departed the house and parted ways, Martin and Wilson headed off to the camp at Aw-Barre. Gourgamangi, courtesy of Wasir, was driven back to the Sammo in the city.

Once they had departed his house Wasir turned to his son and said, “Call Mr. Leo. Instruct him to start his operation! There isn’t a moment to lose!” He knew full well it would take the Ukrainian up to three hours at least to reach Lughaya by road.