Globusz^® Publishing 

As darkness had fallen on the port City of Baku, the CIA’s armed predator spy plane was flying in a tight circular pattern at 2000 feet above the bay. Jack Hoskins and his group in the CIA’s RV were continuing their surveillance of terrorist financier, Tariq Amin’s mansion and his yacht. Hoskins called agent Henry Carr who was heading the CIA assault team to check on the events for that evening.

“Have you seen any changes on the dock, Henry?”

“There are now six guards on the yacht, they finished loading the cesium canisters into the bombs, and sealed the bombs in the wooden boxes.”

“I guess we could presume that they’re bound for four different destinations,” Hoskins said.

“That’s probably their plan, but I’ve got news for these people,” Henry said, “The only place that those bombs are going is to our safe area in Germany.”

“You’re a man after my own heart.”

“The soldiers on the yacht are focusing on the dock area, and I haven’t seen any of them go near the front of the boat, or look out to the sea. This works for us because we have a Navy Seal team of eight men scheduled to climb aboard the yacht at 9:00 P.M.,”

“Sounds like fun to me,” Hoskins said, “I won’t let you waste any more time talking to me, we’ll continue aerial surveillance and await your orders,” Hoskins said before he hung up the call.

At 8:00 P.M. three hundred miles away in the middle of the Black Sea, the Seal team boarded a helicopter on the Aircraft Carrier Constellation and they were quickly flown to their drop zone on the Caspian Sea a few miles east of Baku. The helicopter pilot was in constant contact with two F-14 fighters who were escorting them. The helicopter was flying at a below radar low altitude approach while the F-14’s were at twenty-five thousand feet and scanning the radar as they waited to be called into action.

When the helicopter reached the drop zone and the Seal team jumped into the dark waters and quickly boarded their inflatable motorboat and proceeded toward their target. When they got within a few hundred yards of the yacht, they cut the engine on the motorboat and all of the Seals with exception of the boat’s pilot, dove overboard and began to swim in toward the yacht. As planned, the Seals surrounded the yacht and silently attached suction rings on the side of the boat and quietly prepared to climb up the side.

The Seal leader talked to his men in the water and the CIA agents on land via intercom radios in their scuba masks.

“On my command, we’ll board the boat and take out the nearest hostile targets, we don’t want any gunfire near the cargo. If there’s no resistance, we could take our time unloading the cargo, if they cause a stir, we’ll have to move out pronto.”

The Seal leader checked the time on his watch and said to the motorboat pilot, “Home base, we are climbing up on the target in five seconds, you could come in now.”

The Seal boat pilot started the engine and began to move in slowly toward the yacht as the Seal Leader began his countdown.

“Five, four, three, two, one.”

The Seals moved up the sides of the yacht and with silenced guns, proceeded to kill the five soldiers before they could get any shots off. Four of the seals immediately started hauling the wooden boxes over the side of the yacht to the inflatable motorboat that was now waiting below. Two Seals kept watch, the Seal leader and another searched the rest of the yacht. When the two Seals went down into the lower deck, they were caught by surprise when the sixth soldier unexpectedly came out of a bathroom. The Seal leader plunged a knife into his chest killing him instantly.

In the CIA’s RV, they were silently watching the proceedings on the video and were barely able to see anything because of the darkness. It wasn’t much after 9:00 P.M. when they did see the heated bursts of gunfire after the Seals boarded the yacht and began to take out the soldiers that were on the deck of the yacht. A monitor then showed the Seals as they lowered the bomb crates from the side of the yacht down to the motorboat. Suddenly, on another monitor three soldiers were seen leaving the mansion and getting into the military truck that was now parked outside the garage. Frank was quick to get on the phone to Henry.

“You’d better hurry your men up, they’re going to get some company real soon.”

“Damn,” Hoskins said, “Who would’ve figured they’d have a shift change now.”

“Roger that,” Henry replied as he picked up his radio to call the Seals.

“Delta leader, you will be getting an unfriendly visit in approximately ninety seconds. Can you make it out of there in time?”

“We’re unloading the last box now,” the Seal leader replied.

“Good, I’m engaging radio silence, good luck,” Henry said.

As the Seals carefully lowered the fourth box onto the inflatable boat, the military truck pulled up near the front of the dock. The Seal leader, who was the last to leave the yacht, spotted the truck right before he jumped off the bow of the yacht and into the water.

With the soldiers less than a hundred feet away, the Seal leader told the boat pilot to cut the engine, and instructed his men to get out of the boat push it out to sea by silently propelling it with the fins on their feet. Amin’s soldiers were joking around and smoking as they leisurely walked down the dock to the yacht. As soon as they walked onto the yacht they discover the grisly scene.

One of the soldiers ran to the bow of the yacht, turned on a spotlight, and began scanning the dock area. It was not long after he started scanning the sea area when he spotted the Seal’s motorboat about two hundred feet out. As soon as he saw the beam of the light reach them, the Seal leader yelled for the pilot to start the engine and for the Seals to climb aboard quickly. On the yacht, the soldier who was manning the light was now screaming for his comrades.”

When all of the Seals got on the boat, the pilot gunned the engine, but the weight of the men and the four heavy boxes was bogging them down to very slow speed. The terrorists were now on the front of the yacht shooting at Seals. The Seals immediately began returning fire until they were safely out of range. One of the terrorist soldiers barked out orders for the others to start the yacht’s engine and detach the rope dock lines. In no time, the yacht pulled out of the docking area and kicked in its two powerful propellers to pursue the Seals.

From his position on top of the Maiden’s Tower, Henry Carr heard the roar of the yacht’s engines and immediately got on the radio.

“Delta leader, at your current speed, you’ll be overtaken in less than five minutes, you’d better blow that yacht now.”

“It’ll be my pleasure,” the Seal leader said as he pushed a key on a transmitter and looked back at the yacht.

“Damn it!” the Seal leader said when there was no detonation. He tried repeatedly, but to no avail.

“Delta leader, don’t delay, you’ll be intercepted in four minutes.”

The Seal leader keyed his radio and replied, “The receiver’s firing mechanism on the underwater explosive must be bad, or my transmitter got wet, you’d better do it.”

“Roger that,” Henry said before he futilely tried to transmit the same firing signal to the explosive.

“You’re right, Delta leader, the firing receiver must be bad.”

“Maybe we should ditch this boat and the cargo before they do it for us,” the Seal leader said.

“Do you have any other weapons that could take down that yacht?” Henry asked.

“Negative, we’re carrying light, besides, it looked like the upper hull of that yacht was armor plated.”

Henry picked up his cell phone and called Hoskins.

“Jack, you’d better have the predator take out that yacht ASAP if you want to keep that cesium dry.”

“I read you, Henry, tell your boys to lay low.”

Hoskins looked at Leslie who heard the conversation on the speakerphone and said, “It’s all yours.”

Leslie immediately typed some commands on the keyboard and the predator pulled out of its circular flight pattern 2000 feet above the dock area and dove out over the sea to pick up speed.

“We have maybe ninety seconds until the yacht reaches the Seals,” Frank said.

“I think we have enough time,” Leslie said, “I’m going to take them from the west to keep the Seals in front of me.”

“Go for it,” Hoskins said.

Leslie pressed a button marked manual and moved away from the keyboard on the console and grabbed the manual control stick with one hand and the throttle lever with the other. Using the video from the front of the predator, she was focused on the spotlight shining from the yacht and flew the predator directly over the yacht and the Seal’s boat at about one thousand feet. As the predator reached a half-mile ahead of the boats, Leslie engaged a sweeping 180-degree turn and headed straight back toward the two boats using the yacht’s spotlight as a homing beacon. Leslie dropped the predator down from 1000 feet all the way to 100 feet to gain speed. She locked on to the yacht’s spotlight and fired a missile.

The missile soared over the Seal’s motorboat, the Seal Leader said, “What the hell was that?”

Before they could register that thought, they heard the explosion and turned to see the yacht engulfed in flame and the rest of it raining down in pieces on the sea.

A mile away, Abdula Nassir was exhausted from the day’s events and dozed off while sitting in the captain’s chair of the stolen yacht. The gentle rocking and rolling of the waves was too much for him as he tried to keep an eye on Tariq Amin’s yacht.

The explosion sounded like a loud shot of thunder as it echoed off the flat Caspian Sea. It jolted Abdula from his slumber with his pistol at the ready. He quickly gathered himself as he looked off the right side of his boat and saw a fire on the water a mile or two out in the sea. He then heard another explosion and he looked through his binoculars to get a closer look at the fire that was burning even brighter. He could barely make out the white bottom hull section of the burning yacht that looked more like a cup of flames sitting on the sea. He then focused the binoculars on the dock area and immediately saw that Amin’s yacht was missing. He cursed himself for falling asleep and started up the engine of his boat to cruise over to get a closer look at things.

At his mansion on the hill overlooking the bay, Tariq Amin was in his first floor study leafing through his mail when he heard the same explosion echoing off the sea. Thinking that it was either thunder or maybe fireworks from down on the bay he didn’t give it much thought. Soon, there was the second explosion that unknown to him was from the exploding fuel tanks of his yacht. Amin got up from his chair to see what might be going on, and he looked out the bayside picture window and saw the ball of fire on the sea. He grabbed his binoculars and surveyed the fire, again not thinking much of it, until he casually looked down toward the dock area and saw that his yacht was missing.

“No, it can’t be,” he said as he quickly picked up a phone to call Max Landau, but before he could dial the number, four members of Henry Carr’s CIA assault team burst into the room and subdued him.

Within five minutes, Amin, his remaining soldiers, and servants where tied up and held in the living room while the entire mansion was searched.

With things well under control, Henry Carr took a nice slow ride up the hill to Amin’s mansion, and was looking forward to getting a firsthand look at the billionaire terrorist. The idea of grabbing the old man by the windpipe and choking him to within a second of his death was one of the thoughts that entered his mind when he drove through the now open gate and onto the circular driveway. As he pulled up in front of the mansion, he looked through his rearview mirror and thought that he may have saw a shadow move among the trees in a small grove. He figured that the shadow was probably caused by one of his agent’s flashlights as they were scanning the grounds. Henry continued to walk toward the front door of the mansion and let on that he didn’t see anything in the grove. When he got to the door, he turned back quickly and saw Max Landau bolt from the trees toward the southern wall of the grounds. Henry gave chase and was surprised that the uniformed man who ran with a limp was fairly quick on his feet. As Landau approached the wall, he used a small tree near the wall to gain a few feet and grab the top of the wall with his hands, and being in good athletic condition, he was able to pull himself up until he was waist level. As Landau threw his good leg on the top of the wall he heard Henry say, “That’s far enough.”

Landau looked back and saw Henry about fifty feet away in a shooting position with his pistol aimed directly at him. He slowly turned back at the wall and sized up his chances of lunging over before Henry’s bullets get him.

“Go ahead, you could make it,” Henry said, “But I promise you that you’ll have two bad legs before you touch the ground on the other side.”

Landau could feel his grip slipping and knew that he wasted a lot of his strength by stopping, and probably wouldn’t be able to leap over the wall.

“Don’t shoot, I’m getting down.”

He lowered his good leg from the wall and gathered his balance by getting his feet back over on the tree, before he jumped back down on the ground. Landau stared at Henry for a few seconds and a shocked look came over his face as Henry fired two shots, putting bullets in each of his shoulders and sending him flat on his back writhing in pain. Two of Henry’s men come over and asked if he’s okay before they tended to the helpless Landau.

“I’m fine, guys” Henry said, “But keep an eye on him, and take those knives off him, he has one under each of his shirt sleeves.”

As Henry walked back to the mansion he reached over and felt his bandaged side that was still sore where Tafar Rasulon’s knife grazed him. He’s pleased with himself that Landau could not send the two throwing knives at him. He walked into the mansion and found his way to the living room where some agents guarded Amin and the other prisoners.

“Tariq Amin, on behalf of the international community, you are under arrest for crimes against humanity.”

Within fifteen minutes, Amin, Landau who was now on a stretcher, and the remaining soldiers were handcuffed, led outside, and taken aboard a rented mini-bus that would take them to a Navy transport helicopter that was in route to the airport for them.

As Henry watched his men pack up and leave the area for the airport, he made a call on his cell phone.

“Jack, Amin and his men are now in custody and will soon be taken to our carrier on the Black Sea, I’ll let you know when they take off.”

“Good work, Henry, did the Seals and the bombs get picked up okay?”

“That’s affirmative, they’re already airborne for Germany with an F-18 fighter escort.”

“Well, I guess there isn’t anything left for you to do now, Henry, why don’t you come up here and join our victory celebration.”

Henry continued talking to Hoskins on his cell phone as he walked outside the mansion, chained and locked the front door behind him, and got into his rented car.

“I guess that’s an invitation that I can’t pass up, how do I get to your location?”

“All you have to do is follow the armed escort that we’re going to give you.”

As Henry drove down the driveway to the gate entrance, the predator swooped in at a low speed about a hundred feet above the road and rocked its wings in a waving motion and flashed its landing lights.

“This is great,” Henry said, “I’m definitely not used to these kinds of conveniences.”

As Henry drove away from the mansion to follow the predator, he was unaware that a surveillance bug was planted under chassis of his car.

Abdula Nassir was hidden behind some trees in the mansion’s grove, as he watched Henry drive off. Now realizing that the CIA probably tracked him all the way from Tbilisi, Georgia, Abdula said to him self, “I’ll show you arrogant bastards that two can play this game.”

After checking around the outside of the mansion to make sure that everyone had left, Abdula proceeded to pry open and enter a side window of the mansion. He moved furtively through the house and found his way into the garage area. He searched through all of the empty wooden boxes with Pakistani labeling on them but found them all empty. He rifled through all of the cabinets and storage areas in the garage until he found the small wooden box stored on the top shelf of cabinet. He took the box, put it on a workbench, and removed the lid and saw the miniature version of the bombs that were loaded onto the yacht. He grinned as he held and looked over the one-foot long cylinder before putting it back in the box.

Abdula was the one who had recommended Amin to the Pakistani bomb builder he had worked with for many years. The Pakistani sent Amin several small prototypes to see if they would meet his needs. Fortunately for Abdula, he not only received a commission for the Pakistani bombs, but he also remembered the conversation he had with Amin when he called him to see if he was satisfied with the bombs. Amin told him that he experimented with two of them and kept the third one in storage at his Baku mansion.

Abdula always prided himself on paying attention to detail. He was primarily a salesman, and what salesman worth his salt does not pay attention to the tiniest or most insignificant details about his customers.

Abdula put the bomb back in the wooden box and proceeded to leave the mansion, stopping only to take a bottle of wine from Amin’s rich supply on his way out.