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A jeep pulled up and parked in front of an expensive home at the end of a street in Ismailly, Azerbaijan. Paramilitary officer Max Landau rang the doorbell and was let in by a guard who saluted him as he entered. Landau proceeded through the home and knew exactly where he was going. The stately old home was staffed with an array of servants and adorned with expensive sculptures and paintings. Landau always got upset when he saw them and thought about all of the military equipment he could buy with the money that these luxuries cost. He knocked on Tariq Amin’s bedroom door.
“Come in?” Amin said as he stirred out of his sleep.
Landau opened the door and peeked in and said, “Pardon the interruption, Tariq, but we have bad news from our brothers. The four canisters bound for the Sudan have been seized by the American CIA.”
“Damn those devils,” Amin said before he threw a glass of water smashing against a wall. When he gathered himself he asked, “What about Tafar?”
“We have not heard from him, so we’re not sure whether they got him or not.”
“And Ella?”
“We have not heard from her either.”
Amin looked skyward and said a silent prayer before he got out of bed and started pacing slowly around the bedroom as he thought about the situation.
“Is our other delivery still on schedule?”
“Yes, and Abdula said that to the best of his knowledge, he is not being followed.”
“Of course he would say that, but we certainly cannot take the chance that he is. We must move at once to the mountain cave. Keep two of your best men down at the checkpoint and have them tell Abdula to load the canisters in the garage behind the building when he gets here.”
Tariq opened a drawer and started counting out some money that he put into an envelope and handed to Landau.
“Give this to the guards, it’s ten percent of the fee that we owe Abdula. They could tell him that he is welcome to stay at the hotel as my guest for three days, after which I will pay him in full.”
“As you wish, Tariq.”
“We must make absolutely certain that the canisters were not followed before we take them to Iran.”
“I will make sure that Abdula gets the message, but you know that he’s not going to be happy about this.”
“That’s too bad. I will not risk my entire operation because of Abdula. That’s the reason we hired an arms merchant so that they could assume the risk and we could remain anonymous. We will not take possession of the goods until we are certain that the CIA did not follow them here.”
“As you wish, Tariq, I will make sure they tell him this.”
“He must understand that we must all make our share of sacrifices for the greater good of Islam.”
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