Mad Dog

by William Fegan

  -Harvey, can we give the SAS the order to attack, after all we now know what they’re plans are? asked Charlie. -

  -No not yet. I want to be sure we keep the element of surprise, I don’t want to run the risk that Hari manages to advise them and that they accelerate their plans, not as close as we are. –

  At eleven fifteen Jennifer, Peter, Henry and Julian were led out of the bedrooms with their hands tied behind their backs. They were then forced to kneel in the middle of the room each with the exception of Jennifer having a guard behind them. Rashid was at the end of the line behind Julian, Hassan was behind Henry and a smiling Jamil was behind Peter leaving Jennifer alone at the end nearest to the table where Hari was seated. Each stood in silence wearing Al Qaeda military style clothing and headgear, each holding a scimitar across their chest. To the right of the line stood Tawid, machine gun cradled across his chest and belt of ammunition crossing in the opposite direction and behind Hari stood Abdul dressed in an identical fashion to Tawid.

  A video link had been established directly to the operations room where Harvey watched impatiently.

  -No, don’t move until I say so, he’s going to give us a diatribe first. Only move if I give the order or if the children are in imminent danger. Am I understood? –

  -Understood. –answered Court.

  On a second screen Harvey was watching the Al Jazeera channel and the moment the lighting was established in the room their transmission started focusing on the four children and then slowly panning out to show the guards before focusing on Hari.

  -For years we have tried to negotiate with your leaders a peaceful solution to our differences, for years we have sent you warnings of what could happen if you do not attend to our petitions, but what have you done? What have you done in the name of Peace and Democracy? On September 11th 2001 2,973 people died and you denied the legitimacy of our demands, you declared war on us ! On March 11th 2004 191 died in the Madrid bombings and their new government condemned us but bowed to our demands that they remove their troops from Iraq, only to send them to Afghanistan in order to placate the demands of their true bosses , the Americans. On 7th July 2005 52 died in the London bombings but your government did nothing other than intensify it’s commitment against us. In total 3,216, a lot you may think but not when you consider that there were 3,201 road deaths in the UK alone in 2005 AND NOT WHEN YOU CONSIDER THAT since the invasion of Iraq on 20th March 2003 95,315 civilians have been murdered as a result of your allied offensive. Your decision to free it’s people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein and remove the threat of weapons of mass destruction has resulted in over two million Iraqis living without a water supply, over three million being without a reliable electricity supply and the entire population living without political stability. You have given freedom to them, the freedom to suffer, the freedom to starve, the freedom to live in an occupied land, but you gave them no freedom to choose if they wanted your freedom! You have driven the country into the most abject of miseries and you found none of the weapons of mass destruction that you used as your excuse for invading them. We are believers and we fight in the cause of Ala, you reject our faith and fight in the cause of evil. Our goal is the glory of God; you’re goals are revenge, personal glorification and enrichment.

  -Sir. –interrupted Agent Bradley, -sorry to bother you but we’ve got a problem, I’ve tried to contact Director Alfredo Saenz at the CNI and they refuse to pass me through, they say that he’s about to give a news conference and cannot be disturbed. –

  -Don’t worry Hari´s only warming engines, he’ll be at it for quite a while yet, he’s still explaining the first note, this is his moment of glory and he isn’t going to let it pass lightly. Pass me through to the PM. –

  Within moments Harvey had been passed through.

  -Yes Sir, -confirmed Harvey, -I’m watching it as we speak, he’ll be at it for a while yet,……….Yes Sir it’s likely to be as long as Ahmedinejad´s letter to President Bush, if not longer……….Don’t worry Sir we’ve got the situation under control, nothing will happen to the youngsters. Sir, I need your assistance with something. We’ve advised the CNI that the explosion this morning was a diversionary tactic and we’re trying to get in touch with them to advise them of the imminent danger that they face and we are getting the brush off, can you take a hand in the matter? –

  -Leave it to me. –

  Two minutes later with Hari still droning on in the background, Alfredo Saenz called Harvey.

  -You wanted to speak to me? –

  -Yes, - no greetings, no pleasantries, straight to the point, -I understand that there is a reservoir and a dam near to you. –

  -Yes the Atazar Reservoir and Dam, why do you ask? –

  -Because that’s where the terrorist’s real target is, they’re going to poison the water supply; its eleven twenty and you have precisely ten minutes to stop them. If it’s any help to you, here they are going to attack the pump station, I would suggest that they are likely to do the same there, the effect will be more immediate! –

  -Thank you we will attend to the matter immediately. -

  As Harvey finished his conversation with Alfredo Saenz the SAS helicopters arrived at the Pumping Station for the Honor Oak Reservoir.

  -Sir,-said Baker who was in charge of the ground operation, -The van is parked in front of the building, were going to land in the pub car park fifty yards away and hope the noise in the Pumping Station is sufficient to give us cover. –

  -Affirmative, times tight, there’s no other option. –

  In the name of “peace” you have invaded Afghanistan, a country that has never been conquered and never will be, for each Afghan civilian that you kill claiming him to be a Taliban fighter, ten more will appear, a hundred more will convert to the cause. Since you invaded Afghanistan tens of thousands of civilians have died either directly from military action or from the consequences of the displacement, starvation, disease, exposure, lack of medical treatment, crime and lawlessness resulting from the war. Your media concentrate on the activity of the “insurgents!”, INSURGENTS indeed, these are Afghans trying to free their country from the grips of an invading power. Were the French Resistance considered INSURGENTS for fighting against the Germans in the second world war or where the Taliban considered insurgents when they fought against Russian troops with American backing in the 1980´s. The answer is no, they were freedom fighters the same as they are now! It is typical of your propaganda machine that you deny the truth that we are freedom fighters by creating the lie that we are insurgents and responsible for the death toll in our country. But you must understand that we cannot be defeated, that we will still be there long after you become tired of the war and leave. We tell you continually that the only way forward is to follow the true faith, the faith that fades. Your Governments and religious leaders mocked us but as each year goes by your governments lose credibility and your religion sinks deeper into the mire of its own depravity, greed and corruption, We however remain firm, remain strong. You no longer mock us, you fear us and therefore you violently oppose us, you ban our rituals, you ban our dress, you ban our traditions, but we remain firm and strong, ever stronger and finally you will accept the truth and accept it as we do, accept it as obvious.

  Three minutes later the SAS teams entered the car park of the Pumping Station. The building was larger than they had expected. A monument to red brick Victorian architecture it was a listed buildings due to it’s white brick arched windows that were faithfully reflected in the construction of the reservoir below their feet, the reservoir itself being a labyrinth of redbrick and marble arches. In its day it had been the worlds largest and even now was the largest in Europe and supplied water to over eight hundred thousand people daily with a capacity to serve a million.

  -Sir we’ve secured the perimeter about to enter. –

  Harvey listened as the two groups silently entered the Pumping Station one taking the spiral staircase in the centre of the hall which led to the
underground reservoir whilst another team took the stairs to the upper Pump Room floors.

  The team that entered the labyrinth of arched tunnels were stunned by the magnificence of the tunnels but also by the level of sound that the water produced rendering it totally unnecessary to take precautions. The same occurred with the team on the upper floors, the noise from the pump machinery was deafening and they struggled to even understand each other through the headsets that they wore. The team in the tunnels quickly passed from tunnel to tunnel systematically securing each but finding no sign of the terrorists. The team in the Pump Room was having a similar lack of success. Separating in order to quickly cover the enormous mangle of machinery they were rapidly coming to the conclusion that they were not going to find anyone in the Pump Room when Baker spotted the small door in the very centre of the room that led to the interior of the central column that they had initially taken to be solid. MAIN PIPE ROOM, AUTHORISED PERSONEL ONLY, stated the small almost illegible sign in the middle of the door.

  -Collins, Bryant come with me. –ordered Baker.

  The door was ajar and the difference in sound level between the Pump Room and the stairwell that it led to caused Baker to immediately close the door again.

  -We need to enter quickly and silently, -instructed Baker, -once inside there must be no verbal communication, understood? –

  -Affirmative, -replied Collins and Bryant in unison.

  -Right, then lets go! –

  Once inside the stairwell the silence was deafening, the contrast between it and the Pump Room causing their ears to whistle. They had descended what appeared to be three floors when Baker signalled that they should stop. He had heard something or rather someone!

  Your greed knows and respects no boundaries, you invade the poorest countries under the pretence of helping them develop an industrial base and infrastructure but the reality is that you do nothing other than abuse them, making them work in atrocious condition and providing them with the minimum levels of education and sanitation possible. Once they cease to be of use to you they are discarded and left with Industries they don’t know how to run, costs they cannot absorb and a urban based population that they cannot support.

  There are almost three billion people who survive on the minimum levels of water supply 20 litres daily or less, 80% of these people live in the “Poor” or “Developing countries”, the “Poor” have sufficient problems and few resources to resolve them but the “Developing” countries have the added problem that you are helping them develop which means that you use the scarce water resources that they have in your factories and return it to them polluted and undrinkable.

  They say in Africa that one drop of water is worth a thousand drops of blood because without water they have nothing and when you have nothing the value of life becomes negligible, the spilling of blood lacks importance. The population of Africa and the Middle East is approximately the same as that of America and Europe, yet America and Europe use six times more water than their African and Middle Eastern counterparts. The United States of America use 600 litres of water per person per day, a staggering thirty times more than the three billion that live on or below the water poverty line. You claim to send “humanitarian aid” to these countries, yet how can you claim to be humane when you send only $235million in aid for the development of water supply projects in Africa yet spend $2,5billion a year on bottled water alone.

  Your gluttonous consumption of the world’s resources must end. The second of your “deadly sins” is gluttony yet you continue down your deadly path. We believe that we eat when we are hungry, and drink when we are thirsty but do neither to the point of being full, Allah has taught us that a stomach should never be full of more than a third food, a third water and a third air. We abide by his teachings and therefore remain firm and remain strong, your society is plagued by obesity the end result of gluttony, in our society it is virtually non existent and so we remain firm and we remain strong.

  As I speak, we are in the process of teaching you the value of water. The British developed VX Gas in 1952 and it remains one of the deadliest weapons of mass destruction known to mankind. VX Gas operates by cutting off the nervous system causing asphyxiation We have managed to bind it to the Protein Toxin Botulinium and have created a clear odourless, tasteless liquid that binds itself to water cells and when pressurized converts to gas. The pressure of the release of water through a tap will in many cases be sufficient to complete the transformation and the effect of inhaling the gas will be almost immediate, difficulty breathing, dizziness and finally failure to control functions before the inevitable death which brings an end to the suffering. For those that merely drink the contaminated water the death is just as inevitable but can take up to two weeks. The only antidote is atropine but supplies of this are very scarce and will be saved for those who occupy exalted positions in your society.

  Here we have four examples of your society, four sons of leaders of society, four privileged children who don’t know what it is to suffer but who today will serve as an example to you all of what will happen to those who do not turn to the true faith.

  Vasalam Ala Man Ataba'al hoda. (Peace only unto those who follow the true path).

  Hari rose from his seat and grasped his scimitar heading toward Jennifer when three things happened almost simultaneously. Almost but not quite and the difference was vital, a short burst of machine gun fire, the lights going out and the walls imploding upon them.

  As the walls exploded the CRW´s sprang through the gap wearing their heat sensor night view glasses, -STAY DOWN, -barked Court to the hostages who had obediently thrown themselves to the ground the moment the lights had gone out. To their surprise the three terrorists that had been behind the hostages had already been shot and they applied a final bullet to each of them, -THREE DOWN! –Court who burst through the wall next to where the table had been stumbled over the prostrate form of Abdul Qassin Shirazi who didn’t have a chance to react before Court put a bullet straight through his forehead –FOUR!- announced Court. The flash of the gunshot was just enough to give Hari a focus point and he flashed his scimitar in what he guessed to be the direction of the soldier that had fired the shot. The blow crashed into the rib cage of Court who fell backwards under the force of it’s impact. Hari raised the sword high above his head ready to apply a further, fatal blow to his victim, a blow that he never managed to make as Briggs seeing the initial blow to his leader, Court, took aim and as Hari raised his arms high above his head, released the bullet that entered through his armpit, tore through his heart and smashed it’s way through his lungs before lodging itself in his third rib. Hari crashed in a heap never knowing what had become of his so called victim. –FIVE, -shouted Briggs. As they turned searching for the sixth terrorist they heard the name “Bahiyaa” emerging from the rubble behind them. “BAHIYAA” came the voice more firmly. –DON´T ELIMINATE! - ordered Court, who, struggling to his feet and tentatively feeling the torn outer layers of the armoured jacket that had saved his life, headed in the direction of the voice, before bending down and dragging the prostrate form of Tawid from the rubble.

  -Tawid I assume? –

  -Yes, nice to meet you. –

  -You too, your father told me to look out for you. Good job! –

  -Thanks. –

  -I’m sorry but I have to ask you to show me your right armpit. Harvey’s instructions. – he said with a shrug.

  Tawid slowly and painfully lifted his robe until the tattoo under his right arm came into view.

  -What does it mean? – asked Court.

  -It’s my mother’s name, it means Beautiful and Radiant. -

  -Come on, keep the hostages hooded and lets get out of here. –ordered Court as they collected the hostages and carried them back through the walls and to safety.

  Tawid had waited nervously, finger twitching on the trigger of his machine gun. He was sure there would be a rescue attempt, he had seen the camera on the wall above him, but it didn’t arr
ive. When Hari rose from his seat he decided that he could wait no longer and fired into the backs of Rashid, Hassan and Jamil but didn’t get a chance to turn towards Hari and Abdul before the wall imploded on top of him- As he lay dazed the image of his beloved mother being mercilessly stoned to death flooded through his mind and he uttered and then shouted her name BAHIYAA! (Beautiful and Radiant) lover of a young British Officer called Colonel Harvey Jacobs, his father!

  Tawid had never forgotten or forgiven the death of his mother and his tortured youth as Kafir the infidel. Harvey had done all he could to persuade his son not to get embroiled in his world but it was a futile struggle and Tawid (the disbeliever) left the UK and his studies to be recruited into the ranks of Al Qaeda and enter the Al Ghuraba training camp.

  Baker, Collins and Bryant edged slowly down the stairs towards the sound of the urgent voices, they appeared to have a problem, something was going wrong. When they reached the foot of the stairs the main room remained concealed to them but with the help of an extending mirror they could see the cause of the terrorists annoyance, they couldn’t get one of the bolts on the inspection cap to the pipeline to open. Jiriyis was bitterly haranguing Hazy who he considered responsible; after all he was the maintenance manager, whilst Latif and Rasin took turns to try to dislodge the offending bolt. Bryant touched Baker on the arm and pointed to the light switch that was only inches away from them. Baker pulled down his night sights not needing to indicate to the others that they followed his example. He turned, smiled, flicked off the light switch and stepped into the room. The only things that Jiriyis, Hazy, Rasin and Latif saw were the faint green light that the glasses emitted, they may have seen the flash of the gunfire but that is a philosophical argument. If the information that enters through the eyes never reaches the brain can it be considered as seeing? What was not open to philosophical debate was the fact that the four of them lay dead on the floor around the still unopened inspection cap.