The Hand of The Prophet (Adventures of a spymaster Book 4)

by James Ward

  Both men wondered who was on the ridge. Neither of them wanted to find out. Menzadah held his finger to his lips. Roche nodded. Silence would be necessary for a while.

  Roche waited in the bushes while Menzadah flanked. Within moments he had moved to a spot where he could see the bus in flames. Two survivors were in cover behind a car. Their presence would be shielded from the view of anybody on the cliff. They were bogged down by the anticipation of more fire from the cliff.

  Kourosh could not discern any other likely combatants. He counted twenty dead or dying. Circling back under cover of the roadway above, Menzadah slid beside Roche. He held up two fingers and pointed toward the turn-off. He made a signal that the two remaining unfriendlies were not a present threat. He motioned down the path toward the west. The two moved cautiously along the path keeping in cover from those on the cliff.

  A few hundred yards away from the action, the two stopped, slid out of their packs and assembled their rifles. Fully loaded, they re-mounted the back packs. Kourosh decided to risk brief conversation.

  “Those guys are not Iranians,” he began in a half-whisper, motioning back toward the bus, “they’re Arabs.”

  “Whoever they are, they were waiting to kill us.” Roche declared. “They might be working for a guy I took something from, in Ashgabat.”

  “You think they’re Turkmen?” Kourosh asked. “These guys look more like Yemenis to me, maybe Al Qaeda.”

  “That’s possible,” Roche allowed with a shrug. “Our more immediate problem is whoever’s on that ridge.”

  “That’s right,” said Kourosh. “Once we get to the main trail we can be seen from that ridge for more than a mile.”

  Roche thought for a moment. “How ‘bout we try to get a look at those unfriendlies on the cliff?”

  “It would be nice to know who they are and how many,” mused Menzadah. “Let’s think about that a bit.”

  _________

  On the cliff, the Taliban commander was satisfied that he had neutralized the ambush but he was distressed that during the fight the bus had been set on fire. He had no choice but to let it burn out. The smoke would act like a magnet drawing in any other enemies in the area. It had probably also warned off the men he targeted.

  He decided to post two men and a radio to keep an eye on the scene. He took the other nine men and scurried along the cliff toward the west. Eventually as the cliffs turned abruptly north he would have to give up the high ground and drop closer to the road. For now he wanted to get as far away from the smoke as possible without having to leave the cliff. He was lucky (or smart) that he had lost none of his men in the fight. He was worried that the men his adversaries waited for in ambush had not showed. They were his quarry too after all.

  Finally he had no choice. If he did not cover the road itself, there would be no chance to stop a car, if one came. The Taliban commander confirmed by radio that no one had come along then detailed four men down to the road.

  _________

  Kourosh and Roche had finally decided that it didn’t matter who was on the ridge, they just needed to get as much distance as possible on them before they came down from the ridge. They also did not want to be anywhere near that column of smoke.

  The two men hustled at double time down the small path that paralleled the road. About a mile from the smoke column, the path joined the main trail. This was the one that Kourosh had traveled so many times before. He knew this path like the back of his hand.

  “Stay to the right,” he instructed Roche.

  Roche could see that the right side of the trail gave them the greatest cover from the cliff. “What about over there,” Roche gestured. He was pointing toward the west, where there was a rocky topped mountain sticking up about two thousand feet from their position.

  “That’s our destination,” Kourosh declared.

  CHAPTER 44

  From the position where they had moved the fifty caliber gun, Steck could easily see the column of smoke one and a half miles to the east.

  “What do you make of that?” he asked Grundstrom, who had just seen it himself.

  Gunny hopped onto the truck bed. “Let’s have a look,” he said. He swung the gun around to point it in the direction of the smoke and turned on the electronics. He bent to peer into the sight screen. After a moment, he let out a low whistle. “It’s a bus, he said. Looks like it caught fire at a turnout in the road.” Then he added, “I think there’s been a fire fight.”

  Steck scrambled onto the truck bed. Grundstrom helped him figure how to use the gun site. “Got it,” he acknowledged.

  “Look beside it on the road,” Gunny instructed.

  “Casualties,” Steck exclaimed, “lots of them.”

  “Where there are losers, there must be winners,” Grundstrom remarked. “Look around the area.”

  “You’re better with this thing than I am, Gunny. Here, you have a look around the area.” Steck needed information, not control.

  “I got a couple of guys on the cliff above the fire,” Gunny said after a minute or two. “Two guys usually don’t take out a couple of dozen. They probably have friends nearby.”

  “Is there a way we can find them?” Steck asked.

  “Yup, there is.” Gunny switched to the infra-red screen on the sight. “Hang on while I scan the area.”

  Within minutes Grundstrom had identified four additional figures near the road a bit west of the fire. Then he found five more on the cliffs above them. “I make it twelve,” he announced.

  “Is this thing good enough to get a good shot at the guys on the cliff, one good enough for identification?” Steck asked.

  “Negative,” said Gunny, “but I have a hi-resolution fine grain scope in the truck. Let’s try that.”

  While Grundstrom dug out the intended piece of gear, Steck practiced using the infra-red optics on the gun. He watched as the four guys on the road disappeared. “Hey, I just lost the four at the road,” he shouted to Grundstrom.

  Grundstrom had the hi-res scope trained on the spot where the two guys above the fire were positioned. “Hey Steck, those buggers are Taliban,” he exclaimed, “I can tell by the turbans.” As he said this, the two in turbans scurried into a cave in the cliff.

  “Something’s messed up on this infra-red thing,” Steck complained.

  “Naw, the gear’s good,” declared Gunny. “I think they figured out we’re watching them and they’re taking cover to reduce their thermal signatures.”

  “Or that someone else is looking for them,” Steck said, indicating a helicopter that had just appeared over the ridge behind the Taliban. “That’s probably Iranian,” he said. “I think this is getting too hot for us. Let’s pull back across the border.”

  Gunny was already shouting orders. The team headed back to the border and Brandt hopped into the truck, started it up and turned around. In the scrubby rock trail, the truck had to move at a painfully slow pace. If the Iranians picked him up on their sensors, they would have company fast.

  They seemed to be in luck. The helicopter was soon joined by a second one and both swung toward the burning bus. One set down and poured out several personnel while the other hovered nearby. From a spot dead on the border according to their GPS, Steck and his team watched. The Iranians seemed pre-occupied with the aftermath of the recent events on the road, not realizing that the source of all this killing was probably watching them.

  _________

  Paul Roche and Kourosh Menzadah were still moving at a brisk pace now almost a mile away from the helicopters.

  Kourosh realized there was no way he could go back across the trail as he had done so many times before. The Iranians would keep guards on that road for a month or more. His car was probably already sealed off by the army. It was only a matter of time before either prints or some forgotten personal item would connect him with the vehicle. He figured his best shot would be to ask the people waiting for Roche to get him out of the area. Maybe, he thought, he could make a new life in Turke
y.

  The trail made an abrupt transition to ascent, emerging from the dense brush to climb nearly straight up the rock face. They had about another mile and a quarter to go, but in the next half mile they would climb almost a thousand feet in altitude.

  Roche was holding up well physically, but internally tension was high. There was no way that the burning bus had attracted two Iranian army helicopters. They were obviously looking for him. There were many groups chasing after the figurine and they all seemed to know where he was. He wondered whether to trust Menzadah. Was he aware of the value of the goods? Was he working with one of the groups that sought the figurine? Roche reached for Kourosh’s hand to help him up and over the next rock. It was best to have a partner for the climb, but he made up his mind that as soon as he was at the Turkish border, he would kill Menzadah.

  _________

  At an airbase in the United States, the information beamed back from the Global Hawk drone high over the mountains of north eastern Iran was streaming in. As it did, constant analysis of the data was processed and reduced to a description of action on the ground.

  The road that led through Maku was quiet but the one through Khoy and Qotur was alive with action both on the ground and in the air. At least thirty combatants had been identified and they had fought against one another. Two Helicopters on the scene, also with combatants on board were now being joined by three close air support jet fighters in Iranian dressage. At the moment the fighters were standing off the scene but it was clear that they could swoop down and inflict damage very quickly if commanded to do so. The blue team near the border had withdrawn to a position inside Turkey.

  As this information was shared in near real time with Langley a small group including Morgan, Lindsley and the Director were kept informed. It was decided that three sets of co-ordinates for a strike by the CIA predator hovering in Turkey over Kapikoy, near the border would be pre-loaded into its fire control system but not authorized until it became clear that any of them would be used. That would save seconds in case the situation on the ground demanded it. They changed the orbit of the predator to put it one minute from the helicopters on the ground near Qotur.

  “I think our guys are in the soup,” Morgan mused. “There’s been a fire fight with lots of casualties on that road. I’m wondering why they went so far into Iran.”

  “Those helicopters are obviously Iranian and they are at the scene of the fight. I think it’s safe to assume that they’re taking our guys into custody,” said the Director.

  “That assumes that it was our guys who engaged whoever was in that bus,” offered Lindsley. “Is there a way we can confirm that?”

  “Let’s try to raise Steck on a secure line,” suggested Morgan. He knew the Director was already thinking about damage control, wondering if the Air Force could destroy three fighter planes and two helicopters full of prisoners then somehow make it like they were never there.

  Morgan dialed the numbers and codes then pushed the speaker key. Everyone was startled to hear Steck’s voice loud and clear.

  “Steck Here,” he said without the slightest indication of stress.

  “Steck its Morgan,” Ryall answered, “What’s going on there?”

  “Some kind of fracas between Yemenis and Taliban, if you can believe it,” said Steck. Just in case Morgan didn’t believe his ears, Steck repeated “That’s Yemenis and Taliban, you heard it right. We’re watching from the Border. We pulled back when we discovered the action. There’s a couple of Iranian Helos in there at the moment cleaning up the mess. We think the Yemenis got ambushed. The Taliban are still watching from close by. Can you guys see any of that?” Steck knew that satellite and drone surveillance would certainly be part of a mission this important.

  Morgan shot a look at the Director. “Yes we can but we couldn’t see whether you were mixed up in it.”

  “Negative. We are in the catbird seat at the moment.”

  “What about the target?” Morgan was finished with diversion and wanted to get to the core issue.

  “No sign of the target yet from our position. We figure that fight we just saw was over who gets a shot at the target first. They made a lot of noise fighting each other. Knowing the target, we think that probably scared him off.”

  Morgan was satisfied that they still had a game to play. “What are your plans?” He asked.

  “We’re going to sit tight under cover and watch the rest of this sideshow. I still think the target will try to come through our position eventually, if he wasn’t scared back into the countryside by what just went down.”

  Morgan agreed and nodded ascent to the others in the room. “I don’t think that target scares so easily,” he said into the speaker.

  “Roger that,” said Steck.

  “Do you have anything else to tell us?” Morgan inquired.

  “Negative, but I have a question.” Without waiting for a response, Steck continued, “What other assets do you have for us?”

  Morgan looked around the room. No one made any moves. “There’s a company bird nearby.”

  “Thank you kindly for that,” Steck responded. That meant there was a Predator armed with precision strike capability in addition to whatever was the source of Morgan’s intel. “Can we access that asset?”

  “Through me and only me,” Morgan said emphatically.

  “Roger, Out!” barked Steck as he clicked off.

  CHAPTER 45

  Greg Liss pulled his car in to a space in the parking lot of his town house complex about one o’clock am. On the way from Susan Deet’s house he had stopped for a beer. He wanted to think about her unexpected behavior when he tried to make a move to get physical.

  Many beers later, he had worked it out. He loved Susan more than any woman he had ever met. He wanted her by his side every minute of every day. He did not understand her behavior but he respected her for being her own person. Maybe an old-fashioned girl is what he had been searching for all these lonely years. Carole Hinson certainly hadn’t been an ‘old-fashioned’ girl. If anything Greg himself had been the ‘old-fashioned’ one in that relationship.

  Greg had started several relationships since Carole. They were all based in physical attraction and seemed to follow a pattern of hot and heavy beginnings followed by disaster at the first disagreement.

  He had thought Lisa Raines was different. She was kinder than the others and more patient with his intellectual ways. The problem was she bore lots of baggage from some past relationship that she refused to talk about. She became so possessive of Greg that he sometimes wondered if she was insane. He had tried to break it off with her but she was obsessed about keeping him as her own. He had finally just let her hang around to slake her passions. He was actually worried what she might do to herself if he dumped her.

  Now everything had changed. He was in love. He was totally, hopelessly in love with Susan. He wanted her to be his wife, end of story. He hoped he could pull it off. This might be his last chance at happiness. He prayed not to screw it up.

  Greg got out of his car. He staggered slightly on the way to his front door. As he fumbled for the key, the door opened.

  “Where have you been, baby?” It was Lisa Raines.

  Greg cursed at having given her a key. “Oh, Hi Lisa,” he slurred.

  “Out with the boys?” Lisa asked playfully. “That’s okay, honey. You’ve got to have a night out once in a while.” She kissed him open-mouthed.

  After the kiss Greg faked a big yawn. “I’ve got to get some sleep. See you tomorrow?” He tried to go around her intending to head for his bedroom.

  “Oh no you don’t, big boy,” she teased. “I’m going to put big baby to bed and keep him warm.”

  Greg was not up to a big hassle, especially in the fog of half-drunkenness. He would have to confront his new reality another time. He waved an arm at her and headed for the bed. “Whatever,” he sighed.

  _________

  Paul Roche and Kourosh Menzadah stopped about a hundred yar
ds from the top of the mountain ridge where the trail was leading them. They needed to catch a breath and to eat a bit of food. The place was sheltered from the wind, but open to the scant winter sun. Though the temperature was just at the freezing line, they both felt warm from exertion. Long clouds drifted in from the north-west, a portent of rain or snow. Judging from the cold temperature, Roche figured it would be snow.

  Above them lay a rock plateau about a quarter mile wide. At the western end of that plateau was the Turkish border. They did not have far to go, but it seemed the worst part of the journey. There was virtually no cover on the plateau except for a few rock-boulders strewn here and there by some ancient geological event. If they went now it would be in mid-afternoon daylight. If they waited until after the snow they would be awfully easy to track.

  Kourosh extracted his binoculars from his back pack. He set the zoom to 24X. Using his knees as a stand to steady the instrument, he studied the spot where the bus had burned out. There was barely a wisp of smoke now and then rising on swirls of air as the cliffs to the north broke up the north-west breeze. No personnel could be seen. Down the road a few hundred yards he searched for any sign of his car. He sighed as he focused on the scene. His car was sealed with yellow material that denoted it as evidence not to be disturbed.

  The Helicopters had both flown back towards Khoy an hour ago, carrying bodies and prisoners, if any. Kourosh knew that they would return soon to look for him and for Roche. The Iranians knew the path that Kourosh had used to get where they were. They ignored it most of the time during winter because they did not expect much traffic there. It would be the path they would search first given the present situation.

  At a noise above, he swung the binoculars, swinging the zoom back to 8X in hopes of seeing what sort of aircraft was there. Three noisy Su-25s flew by in loose formation. They were flying at slow speed just traversing the area. He had heard them off and on all day, but had not taken time to have a look.

  “Those are ‘frogfoot’ jets, Roche commented as he squinted to see what Kourosh was gazing at.