The Devil's Handshake

55

Aden Isaaq International Airport

The ever-present call to prayer rippling across the city joined the men in welcoming the Falcon that was taxiing into the hanger.

Once parked up, a door opened to allow a man to walk down the steps of the aircraft.

He was a very different person to one Thomas had first met in the early 2003 when he was trying to sell his Russian Oil interests. That man had been overweight and heading for a heart attack. This man was fit and lean.

Earlier when Fielding rang him and told him that the Americans were sending Rob Ashley, the trusted representative of the Sheikh of Dubai, to receive delivery of his employer’s Indian partner and their people to expedite matters by acting as their proxy as well in the handover of the officers, it had completely taken Thomas by surprise. Up to that moment he had assumed that it was Americans that had financed the coup d’état. Rather, it appeared now that it was the Sheikh who had covertly backed the regime change.

Only to have this assumption changed back to his original hypothesis, when Benny walked into the office after seeing the man’s passport details arrive over the wire as part of the aircraft flight plan.

“Boss, I know this guy,” Benny said holding a copy of the man’s passport details.

“So do I, he works for the Sheikh of Dubai,” Thomas answered, thinking that was what his trusted bodyguard was about to say.

“No! I know him from my time at the Institute,” Benny replied making reference to his service in the Mossad before going on to explain how he had delivered a mobile phone to a CIA asset that killed the Hamas commander on behalf of Israel due to the short time constraints in the city.

“Rob Ashley did that!” offered Mikhail shocked and not to mention impressed before offering up to Thomas that the man Ashley had killed was the bastard who ordered the murder of Hannah’s brother along with thirty other souls in a café in Tel Aviv.

“That means Gourgamangi has to be an asset as well!” Thomas inwardly reasoned but kept that to himself.

“If that is the case that means the CIA is now actively engaged in securing natural resources!” he further theorized on the implications of what that intelligence had just given him.

“Either way we soon find out,” he thought as the smiling Fixer walked up to him, offering his hand.

“Been a long time, Sir Thomas,” Rob said.

“Indeed” answered Thomas noting the Glock under his shoulder over his white linen shirt as he took his hand firmly.

“You look well,” said Mikhail shaking his hand also referring to physical appearance.

“Amazing what a sexy personal trainer and giving up the booze will do for you!” said Ashley in return in an attempt to break the ice.

Seeing Thomas’s continuing lack of a smile, he quickly decided to end the small talk.

“I don’t suppose the Boss can have his friends back now could he?” he asked instead, keeping the façade of his cover intact.

Thomas turned towards the team and gave them a nod.

At which point Avi and Yossi turned on their heels and went to obtain the prisoners, leaving the three of them to stand in awkward silence in the process.

Less than a minute later, Rob’s face instantly changed the second he caught sight of Benny walking out with the five prisoners with their hands behind their back in FexiCuffs.

Mikhail broke the silence, having caught the nod between Benny and Rob.

“Rob, my thanks to you on behalf of my wife’s brother in getting that bastard!”

“Don’t mention it, Mikhail,” replied Rob knowing that his cover was blown and what Mikhail was referring to.

As they were handing over the five to Ashley, the now uncovered CIA officer suddenly drew his pistol, pointed it at the head of Andrew Martin first and released two shots. The sound rippled across the hanger in loud thuds as he did so in quick succession into the Guardsman’s head. Then without hesitation did the same again into the face of a wide-eyed Tony Wilson who were all rooted to the spot in stunned silence from shock,

Again the thuds echoed around the hanger.

Execution over, Rob coolly reapplied the safety catch and replaced his weapon back into its holster under his shoulder.

“Orders, Sir Thomas,” Rob offered as he turned back towards Thomas and Mikhail to find weapons pointing at him as to the justification of why he had just executed the two men in cold blood. Ignoring them, the Fixer turned again, this time towards the other equally wide-eyed prisoners at his side.

As he did so he could see by the look in their eyes to a man and a woman, they were still in shock and terrified from thinking they were next.

Instead, Rob coolly walked behind them one by one and cut their bonds with his Swiss Army knife.

“Let’s go guys,” he ordered to them.

“G, I think it’s time for me to come home,” Rob said to his Indian friend as they walked up the steps of the Falcon together leaving the two dead bodies of Martin and Wilson for Thomas and his men to clean up.

“Let Badr know they tried to escape,” Thomas said as he watched the plane engines started up feeling nothing because these two men were the architects of the deaths of his Gurkhas.

The next day Sky News exclusively reported that Andrew Martin of Xerulla and his former Sergeant Major from the Welsh Guards a Tony Wilson working in partnership with the Interior Minister were actually the masterminds behind the whole plan to overthrow the government and were, in fact, the ones responsible for the massacre at the Mission, not The President’s Militia.

“All done so they could steal all the natural resources rights by getting the Americans to serve as their security proxy while they tore up the agreements with the Russians,” said the shocked journalist.

“Mindboggling!” replied the experienced anchor.

The Prime Minister promised to investigate and hold a public enquiry in the actions of the various security companies that employed former military personnel stating in Prime Ministers Question Time.

“Men like Martin and Wilson cannot bring nations to the brink of the war in the pursuit of commercial gain!” to sounds cheers and “Hear!” “Hear!” coming from both sides of the House.

The widow of Andrew Martin and the English family of Wilson desperately tried to tell the world that it was an Indian Businessman named Gourgmangi Singh who was actually behind the plot, but, unfortunately, for them, nobody was interested.

The Presidents of United States and Russia promised to work together to ensure that incidents of this nature never happened again between them, and Thomas flew to Nepal to attend the funerals of the five Gurkhas whereupon it was reported in the local media that he had set up foundations in their names and would be providing the men’s villages each a new school, hospital, and scholarships for the children of the fallen.

The Ambassador of Russia was met by Igor as he arrived to take up his post in Borama, quickly followed by a thousand Russian ‘advisors’ to assist the President’s security forces in rounding up Wasir’s criminals.

The United States of America announced that it would be opening an Embassy in Borama to support the growing interest in the country generated by the three American Natural Resources corporations who had applied for and had been granted several exploration licenses.

“The former Interior Minister remains at large, despite his assets in Dubai being frozen,” reported the MGN journalist from Dubai.

The Movers column on the Hotels.com website reported that the development officer of Sheikh’s hotel group was leaving after thirteen years for a new job in Hong Kong.

A Tuareg shepherd watched by his sons shook hands on new additions to his goatherd in Mali.

A Frenchman of Ukrainian extraction went shopping in his local Carrefour in Lyon.

The UN personnel murdered by Wasir were buried in the respective countries.

The world commodity markets stabilized.

The world returned to normal, or its previous version of it.