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After his quick meeting with Tariq Amin, the guard drove Abdula Nassir from the mountain cave back down to the checkpoint building on the main road in Ismailly. Abdula got out of the jeep and slammed the door in disgust.
His two men quickly came over to find out why their boss was so upset.
“Tariq isn’t going to pay us for three days, he said that he wants to make sure that we weren’t followed,” Abdula said as he kicked a tire on the blue rental truck.
“What are we going to do now?” one of his men asked worriedly.
“I don’t know, maybe I should take these canisters to the West Bank, or to Iran, or to the Philippines, their money is just as good,” Abdula said loud enough for the checkpoint soldiers to hear.
The soldiers just laughed among themselves at the ranting Abdula.
“To hell with this place, let’s go into town and enjoy our selves,” Abdula said as he opened the truck door and climbed inside.
After the new predator was airborne, and everyone was back inside the CIA’s RV, Leslie threw a switch on the console and new video showing the blue sky and the earth below was once again seen on the console monitors.
“We need to get our bearings,” Leslie said, “I’m going to load in the last known coordinates that were transmitted from the first predator before we were so rudely interrupted.”
When Leslie entered the commands, the predator immediately banked out of its current circular flight pattern two thousand feet above the RV and soared two miles away to the position above the terrorist checkpoint where it again started circling in a tight pattern at 2500 feet.
“Now this looks familiar,” Brad said.
“Okay, let’s find the trucks,” Hoskins said.
“After a minute, the predator’s camera’s updated the screens and David said, “The blue rental truck is gone.”
“The other truck that came in later is still there,” Brad said.
“I’m still getting a signal from the blue truck,” Frank said as he checked the monitor in the cab of the RV, “And they’re still close by.”
“Let me gain some altitude and move over the downtown area,” Leslie said.
Leslie typed some commands and the predator climbed to three thousand feet and its camera took an aerial shot of the streets of Ismailly. The monitor showed some light traffic, some buses and a good number of ant-sized people just moving about the town.
“There’s a blue truck,” David said, “It’s going down that street toward the downtown area.”
Leslie zoomed in the picture for a close-up of the truck.
“That’s our boys,” Frank said.
“I wonder if they transferred that cargo?” Hoskins asked.
“Do you think they would transfer it and leave the other truck sitting out in the open like that?” Brad asked.
“Why not, if they think they were being followed, they could leave the bait out there without implicating the major players up in the cave,” Hoskins said.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out for sure,” Frank said.
“You’re right, Frank, let’s wait till it starts to get dark and you could take David with you and check it out.”
Frank drove the CIA’s RV closer to the town of Ismailly and parked it on a farm road about a mile from the terrorist checkpoint building where the trucks were parked.
As dusk began to set in, Frank and David left the RV and started walking toward the terrorist checkpoint building. As they got closer, Frank pulled a small bottle from his coat pocket and said to David, “It’s a good thing Leslie keeps a good supply of these, when was the last time you had a good stiff drink of Russian vodka?”
“About eight years ago when I was going to the State University in Georgia, I....”
“Here, shut up and start drinking,” Frank said as he handed the bottle to David and pulled out another for himself.
“We’re on duty, won’t we get in trouble?”
“Calm down, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re in a foreign country, approaching a terrorist compound, in search of some highly toxic radioactive dust. Could you think of a better cover than two drunken local citizens?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Besides that, I remember what it was like on my first mission, it’ll help take some of the edge off.”
“Seeing that David was still reluctant to drink, Frank tried not to laugh when he said, “It’s okay, you don’t have to drink any, but I need you to play the role, let me spill some on you.”
David put his hand up to stop him, took a large gulp and said, “Okay, I’m ready.”
“Good, now listen up, I only see one guard up there now.”
“Yeah, right before we left the RV I saw the other soldier take the jeep up to the cave.”
“That’s very perceptive, we have to get you out of that lab and into the field more often.”
“Thanks, Frank.”
“When we get up near this guard, I want you to take my bottle from me and push me toward the truck so I could take a look around.”
“Okay, let’s do it.”
As they got within voice range of the guard, David started talking in Russian, “Give me that bottle before you smash it, you drunken idiot.”
He took the bottle from Frank and then shoved him toward the truck. Frank expertly staggered and toppled to the ground near the rear of the truck. Acting like he was in a drunken stupor, Frank laid down groggily like he was too drunk to get up.
“Get out of here you drunken fools,” the guard yelled and pointed his rifle to scare off the two men.
“Okay, don’t shoot us, let me get my friend up and we’ll leave.”
David went over to Frank who pretended that he was too drunk to get on his feet.
“He’ll get up in a minute,” David said, “We’re going to a party in Ismailly and I’ll kick his ass all they way into town if I have to.”
David nudged Frank with his foot.
“We’re going to drink and dance with the women all night, hey, why don’t you come with us?”
“You see I’m on duty, just get the hell out of here before my sergeant gets back.”
“You’re a brave soldier and I proudly salute you,” David said as he drunkenly toasted the soldier with a gulp from the bottle of vodka.
David handed the guard Frank’s bottle and he looked up and down the road before quietly saying, “Here, salute yourself with a well deserved drink, no one will see you, go ahead, you earned it, risking your life every day for your country.”
The guard looked around to see if anyone was watching and said, “Okay, maybe just one.”
After the guard took a drink, Frank drunkenly got to his feet, staggered around dizzily and said, “I’m going into the woods to take a piss, hey, where the hell is my bottle?”
“I got it, just hurry the hell up, I want to go into town,” David said.
“You watch my bottle, then we’ll go into town. Hey, you, with the rifle, shoot his ass if he drinks from my bottle, I’ll be right back,” Frank said before he fell over again, got back up, and continued staggering out into the wooded area.
David and the guard started laughing at him as he staggered away.
David handed the guard the bottle again and he took another drink as they started a friendly chat about the nightlife or lack of it, in Ismailly.
Once he was out of their view, Frank doubled back through the woods and sneaked up to the back of the truck. He scanned the back door of the truck until he found a small gap between the door and the floor of the truck. He slid a thin, flexible, fiber optic camera probe in the gap and took some pictures of the cargo hold of the truck. He then quietly worked his way back into the woods and checked the pictures on his handheld monitor that showed that the back of the truck was empty. He started staggering back toward David and the soldier.
“What the hell are you doing, that bottle better not be empty, you thieving bastards.”
“We’d better go before he causes a ruckus, are you sure you can’t join us?” David asked the guard as he pulled Frank away.
“No, but thanks for the drink.”
“Look for us downtown when you’re off duty later,” David yelled back.
Frank and David staggered away from the checkpoint building until they were out of the guard’s view. Frank pulled out his cell phone, dialed Hoskin’s number.
“The truck’s empty, Jack.”
“Good work, Frank, we’re locked in on the blue rental truck right now, it’s about three blocks north of your current position.”
“Well, since we’re that close, I guess we might as well go downtown and see what they’re up to, I’ll call you back.”
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