An unsurprising alliance is formed
a complete waste of his time, second his team ran the patch of country on the border with Tajikistan and
since they didn't have a helo that meant a ridiculous drive of at least 10 hours. Since the poppies were due to
give up their elixir soon the gutless weasels who represent our government wanted to have him dance for
them and describe the situation up in Opiumville. ODA 024 was part of a new idea to assign teams to serve
as part of a Theater Command so they weren't assigned to their own Group, they worked for the Central
Command. No Special Ops type wants to report to the Regular Army and even worse the missions were
dictated by politics as much as military usefulness. All in all it sucked well and truly and now he had to go
listen to a bunch of diplomats, leg officers and of course the freakin' CIA stick a light up his ass about
everything his team had done in the past six months.
Not that there weren't some situations to talk about, I mean his dumbass medic JC did get caught bangin' that
UN hotshot's wife and Dirk and that crazy Frenchman busted up a couple of illicit bars when they ran into
competitors of Akhnard's. But that was garden variety stuff and Hanson knew that basically they had a near
perfect game going as there was no scrapping among rivals and no press nosing around so there should be
no bitching as far as he was concerned.
Several hundred years later, by his reckoning he and Bluto, as the team sergeant MSG Belushi was
understandably known arrived at the Embassy in Kabul.
"Jesus Bluto they better play nice with us or I might just send them Dirk and JC next time they want a briefing.
That would teach 'em some manners huh?"
"Sir I don't know if even these jagoffs deserve that treatment." Bluto answered. "Let's just go smile at these
fuckers and get some hotel time"
"Right on, right on" Hanson agreed.
When they had checked through security and stored their weapons they headed to the conference room and
Bluto instantly spotted his least favorite Kabul denizen Ferrell from State's counter-narcotics division. He
didn't know why he hated the bastard but it was deep, Bluto considered that his greatest gift. He knew from
the first time he met someone where he stood both in that person's eyes and how he felt about them. He
could have seen Ferrell squashed like a bug and simply assumed there was something about him that
deserved it. It didn't help that he was the one most responsible for putting politics in the mess as the State
Department's rep with responsibility for drugs in the country.
"What's up Ferrell, you sorry son of a bitch?" was Bluto's opening gambit.
"Nice to see you too MSG Belushi and CPT Hanson. I hope you have been able to compile the information we
requested last month, the Chief of Mission is very concerned that we don't have it yet." Ferrell shot back.
"Jesus Christ Ferrell that shit isn't even due for two weeks and here you are trying to make us help you kiss
the Chief's ass." Bluto parried.
"Chill out Bluto, think room service and satellite TV, Sports Center, right? " CPT Hanson reminded. He looked
around and saw that CIA was there with the perfect antidote to Ferrell's pettiness, Rajiv Ghandi. Rajiv was the
son of an Indian diplomat and an American professor born in Pakistan, spoke whatever language you could
think of and was possessed of the least common trait of government officials, common sense.
"Rajiv, It is mighty fine to see you here representing our intelligence compadres. How's tricks?" Hanson
inquired.
"Always a pleasure Captain" Rajiv replied. "Things are lively but not overly dangerous from my view. How is
the harvest prep going?"
"Looks like gravy so far" Hanson answered "both Akhnard and Sheik Hariri seem content to make their bank
and not mess with each other and so far no screwing around from the Tajiks. Although we are checking on
that."
Right then the Chief of Mission, Christopher Guest walked in and all took their seats except Hanson and Bluto
who moved to the podium.
"Shall we begin?" Guest intoned.
"Certainly sir" Hanson replied and the next 10 minutes was taken up with a concise and fact-filled account of
the current operations, strengths, weaknesses and strategies of the their two warlords. Hanson spoke
punctuated by Bluto banging the map and occasionally expanding on Hanson's commentary. As he finished
and uttered the, in his mind,completely unnecessary "Are there any questions?", he knew there would be and
unsurprisingly Ferrell wanted first shot.
"Excuse me CPT Hanson, given that there are only two high value targets in your AO it seems you know a fair
amount about Akhnard Ben Akhnard's situation, but precious little about Sheik Hariri. Can you enlighten me?"
Ferrell sneered.
"I think it self-evident that given two targets we would have more success with one vice the other wouldn't you
Mr. Ferrell?" Hanson answered happy that Bluto was sitting this one out verbally. "What deficiencies do you
see in our knowledge of Hariri's operations?"
"Well looking at the information on Akhnard you have detailed info on his smuggling routes, timetables and
methods, yet all you have are speculations about the likely tactics of Hariri." Ferrell replied.
"So instead of looking at our tremendous success in penetrating Akhnard's group, all you can do is complain
about our only "good" work with Hariri." Hanson shot back testily.
"Easy gentlemen" warned Guest. "Let's not turn this into a dick joust" he added in a lame attempt to appear
less than the stuffed suit he was. "The Captain has done a fine job Will. Any more questions?"
Rajiv asked "Excuse me Captain, what do you consider the likely actions of both the Tajik government and
also the warlord Romanov regarding the drugs that will be moving through their territory?"
"Well Romanov almost always makes a play to try to scarf them up, but he really hasn't gotten any more
sophisticated and I doubt he gets anything from Akhnard and little if any from Hariri." Hanson answered.
"Regarding the Tajik Army, we haven't seen any probing cross border and our sources have seen little sign
of them near the border on their side."
As the meeting broke up in what for Hanson seemed record time Rajiv grabbed his arm and asked "Captain I
have some things I would like to discuss with you offline, are you and MSG Belushi staying over?"
"Oh yeah" was Hanson's reply. "Me and Bluto get to do damn near the same thing for CentCom day after
tomorrow so we are going to do our best to drink the Al-Hussein dry in the interim. Why don't you meet us for
dinner say six?"
"Excellent" was Rajiv's reply as he walked off.
As Dirk and Jean neared the surveillance point Jean explained what he wanted. "Hakmed you and Hakmed
look around and see what we have for water and wood and shelter for the clowns or whether they hump it up
the mountain every day. Dirk and I will locate and survey the best spot to watch the trails and set up the gear.
I think there is a cave not far around the hill to the west see if you can find that."
Jean and Dirk dismounted and tied the horses before tromping off to the edge of a point on the hill. "There is
the south trail" Jean indicated "And there the North, this will do just fine." Dirk went back to the horses and
began pulling the pieces of the base station, radios and cameras out of his saddle bags. Soon he had
checked them all for functionality and they were safely in waterproof containers under a camouflage tarp. He
and Jean remounted to go and install the sensors leaving the Hakmeds to set up camp.
Once they were back riding in a rhythm Dirk couldn't resist "So what the fuck can we do man? C'mon at least
give me an idea so I can start schemin'."
"Dirk you have all of my favorite qualities from America in one body, OK here is some ammo for your machine
gun brain. We always bring a tenth of all the processed heroin back and stash it at the eyrie in case we lose
the rest. Akhnard has always offered me a share to sell as I saw fit or a lesser amount of gold once the rest is
sold. As I am a simple man" which prompted a snort from Dirk "As I am a simple man I have always taken the
gold but with the prices the black now commands" another Gallic shrug.
"Yeah, but sell it to who Jean, sell it to who?" Dirk reminded.
"A Russian." was Jean's answer.
Bluto and CPT Hanson were safely ensconced in the cocoon of the western side of the Al-Hussein. Since
drinking and other diversions were frowned upon, upscale hotels like the Hussein often maintained seperate
areas for these things. The Hussein's favored the old school British club style with tall backed chairs and
Bluto decided to go with it and was was squeezing the lime into a Gin and Tonic, while Hanson drank a
Heineken. Rajiv was due shortly and Bluto asked "You got any fucking idea what Mahatma wants to talk
about?"
"No clue buddy, but he's about the only one here in Kabul I trust." Hanson said. "Hopefully he's got some
useful info."
They sat about another half a drink and Rajiv walked in and joined them. "Tonic and lemon if you don't mind"
he ordered.
"Gentlemen today Ferrell wasn't just being a prick when asking about Sheik Hariri, there is something going
on. We heard from our station in Dushanbe that Hariri has made a new friend in the Tajik Army. Ferrell knew
that and I didn't think to clue you in before he could try to show you up. I apologize."
"No need Rajiv" Hanson let him know "I always assume Ferrell will play his games and as long as our game is
tight, punks like him can't hurt us"
"Very true" Rajiv agreed "but this development with Hariri is something we must act on. We don't know if this
is a move on Akhnard or greasing the wheels for his own product, or worse. Hariri is a fundamentalist and this
General, Khan is his name, walks down that road himself and he is known to have contacts with Muslim
seperatist groups"
"See that's been the problem all along with this Hariri guy." Bluto barked " The guy is such a tight ass and so
are all his boys, the best we get is tea and crumpets and politely shown the fucking door. I mean Akhnard is
easy, he's westernized and that fucking Frenchman is a godsend. He tells my Sr. Weapons all about their
whole operation, that's why we know so damn much about Akhnard."
"Well the time is come to figure out how we will get in the head of our Islamic friend." Rajiv informed.
"Let me talk to Dirk" Bluto said "He mentioned that the frog told him both he and Hariri's security guy recruit
their gunslingers from the same two tribes, just different villages and families. But he said it is pretty murky
and he thought we could pretty easily get a guy inside that way and then hopefully some devices."
"Do it" said Rajiv "I will follow up with you in a week and I hope to have more assets and actionable ideas at
that time. Please brainstorm this with your team and let me know of any other possibilities you may come up
with."
"You got it Mahatma." Bluto tossed at Rajiv as he stood to leave, causing Ghandi to crack a brief smile before
heading out.