Strike Matrix
Page 37
Pierce’s expression remained impassive despite his concerns. The fanatics’ story contradicted Idris Walsh’s earlier claims.
Someone was lying.
“You’re Ansar Dine?”
The leader grinned, impressed by Pierce’s guess.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’” Pierce knew Ansar Dine were a sect of jihadist killers aligned with AQIM, or Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. A terrorist organisation with no regard for the life or liberty of others who didn’t follow their ideology. “Who is your master?”
“I am in charge,” the wide-eyed man chuckled as he scratched his oily beard.
“No,” Pierce demanded, his gun lined up on the fanatic’s chest. “Who is your regional commander?”
“Brother, don’t make me laugh.”
“Everybody has a boss.”
The insurgent smirked. “Hilarious. Why should I tell you?”
“Because he owes me, a reward for killing these infidels.”
The insurgent considered Pierce’s demand. “I think you should forget compensation my friend. I serve the will of the Sand Leopard. You know of him? Yes? No? If you don’t, you’ll soon wish you did not.”
Pierce nodded. The Sand Leopard. The name gave him chills. Pierce kept his face impassive and said, “I know of this man.”
The Sand Leopard’s real name was Kashif al Shalgham. He was a powerful and psychopathic regional commander of Ansar Dine and former officer of the Libyan Army. In his early days he’d tortured political dissidents for Muammar Gaddafi. His favorite drug was sodium thiopental used as a turth serum but also to incapacitate his victims while transporting them from one torture site to the next.
When Gaddafi’s regime collapsed, he fled the country. Turned up in Syria years later training Islamic State fanatics to fight as real soldiers. Now with Islamic State all but decimated in the Middle East, Shalgham had reappeared in the Sahara, leading his army of Ansar Dine killers pledged to terror and barbarity. A high-profile terrorist no one had succeeded in assassinating for over a decade, although many Western powers had tried.
Ansar Dine’s headquarters were the Adrar des Ifoghas, a vast and arid mountainous region on the border between Mali and Algeria. Three hundred kilometers north of Pierce’s current location, it was not an easy location to reach or explore, and more difficult to leave again. Shalgham’s wandering bands of insurgents murdered trespassers who strayed too close.
Shalgham himself had fought long and bloody battles across Mali and Algeria. His aim was to enforce Sharia law across West Africa. There were reports he had reignited the practice of crucifixion. He’d bound countless men, women and children to X-shaped crosses erected in the hottest regions of the desert, disemboweling them to die in the heat and the sand. Pierce wished only to meet this sick excuse for a human through the sights of a sniper rifle.
“You should forget the Sand Leopard,” the wide-eyed insurgent responded. “It will displease him you interfered in his operations. You know what he does to men who betray him?”
Pierce stilled his breath. He’d heard enough.
“You should be grateful that we will kill you first. No one inflicts more pain than the Sand Leopard himself—”
The fanatic didn’t get his chance to finish his threat. No longer interested in this pointless conversation, and now that the man had voiced a clear threat, Pierce switch targets and fired a full burst into the reflective metal he had seen earlier; a landmine, two meters from the leader and untouched since the convoy’s arrival. The CIA team died because of these hidden explosives. Why assume there was only one mine buried in this location?
Pierce hadn’t.
The sky grew thick with noise, flames and black smoke. The landmine detonated with an explosive force greater than expected. Perhaps three or four mines clustered together and triggered simultaneously.
Three technicals and their occupants catapulted into the air. The leader suffered the quickest death as his arms, legs and organs scattered across the desert. The HEAT rounds in the SPG-9 Kopye-mounted Ranger fueled the first detonation, shredding the Triton into tiny fragments. One of the Land Cruisers caught in the explosion rolled and flipped crushing the men and the machine gun in the tray.
Pierce staggered on his feet as the blast wave hit him. He struggled to breathe for a few seconds as the explosions sucked oxygen from the atmosphere. None of this slowed Pierce as he’d prepared for the pressure wave. He ejected the AK’s first banana shaped magazine, locked in a second and pulled back on the charging handle. In under three seconds he fired controlled bursts toward the four intact technicals, pining them. When the magazine emptied, he sprinted for his Toyota Hilux while reloading a second magazine, and clambered into the cabin.
Once behind the wheel, he engaged the ignition and drove fast, south the way he had come.
Soon he was pushing eighty kilometers per hour on the dusty, gravel road.
He glanced in the cracked rearview mirror.
Another dust cloud materialized from the smoldering wrecks.
Four remaining technicals, three with machine guns and one with a recoilless Koype rifle, chased him.
THANK YOU
Thank you for reading Strike Matrix. If you enjoyed this book, would you please consider leaving an honest review on Amazon? Reviews are critical for helping independent authors bring their books to the attention of readers who might enjoy them. I would truly appreciate it, and it can be as short as you like.
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HAVE YOU READ THEM ALL?
THE SHATTERHAND SERIES
FOREIGN HOSTAGE
Cripple a global terror network or save Africa’s last elephants. Simon Ashcroft must choose.
THREAT INTELLIGENCE
The Shatterhand Code Book 1
Cyber-terrorists impersonate the U.S. President to provoke a global war. They frame Simon Ashcroft as the culprit.
STRIKE MATRIX
The Shatterhand Code Book 2
Two superpowers battle for dominance of the global information networks. Can Ashcroft know which side he’s fighting for? (Coming Soon)
THE THOMAS CAINE SERIES
SANDFIRE
In this explosive mission from Caine’s past, can he prevent war from consuming the Middle East?
DEPTH CHARGE
A rogue Chinese submarine. A defector with a secret. A deadly cargo, heading for America’s shores…
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AIDEN L BAILEY BIO
Aiden L Bailey is an international bestselling author thriller author from Australia. Formerly an engineer, he built a career marketing multi-national technology, heavy industry and construction companies. His various roles have included corporate communications with the Australian Submarine Corporation, technical writing for several defense contractors, engineering on a petroleum pipeline constructed in the Australian desert, and a magazine editor and art director. He has travelled widely in six continents and his experiences are the basis of many of his stories. Aiden lives with his wife and daughter in South Australia.
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