by K. T. Tomb
Ishtari had been correct in her estimation that by the end of one cycle of the moon the forces of Assyria would enter the lands of Babylon to seek revenge against the royal couple for the apparent attempt that had been made on Kashira’s life by the queen. The news had also followed shortly to Ishme-Dagan’s ears that Hammurabi had not punished the queen for her indiscretion.
That had enraged him the most; the thought that his supposed ally had condoned the poisoning had made his blood boil in his veins and he had summoned the generals of his army to him. To not take immediate and decisive action against him would be to admit that Assyria was inferior to Babylon and worthy of her conquest. He would die before that happened.
Now, he sat on his beautiful Arabian stallion and watched as the army he had sent out in front of him was being decimated by flank after flank of Hammurabi’s soldiers as they descended on his ranks from the surrounding hills. Dagan would never have gone directly through the valley if he’d had any idea that they were aware of his impending attack.
Even as the retreat was being sounded and his generals shouted at him to turn around and ride for the border, he remained hopeful of a win. Eventually they had to take the reins from his frozen hands and lead his galloping horse away from the advancing Babylonian troops.
Hammurabi smiled and nodded to his horns man to sound the advance. More troops marched forward from behind his line and joined those in the valley to follow the retreating Assyrians. They would harry them all the way to the border and cross it right behind them, preventing them from reforming their ranks and turning to fight again. Hammurabi and Ishtari were guaranteed that by the time they arrived in Nineveh, Dagan and his army would be ready for a full and termless surrender.
They pressed forward and, in accordance with Hammurabi’s great laws, no citizen of Assyria or their towns and possessions were harmed by the troops as they passed through the land. There would be more than enough to sate the soldiers’ desire for loot when they arrived in the capital which, as a purely political move, the king and queen planned to sack and completely destroy. It would be the last time that this country would rise against them; or for that matter exist outside of the Babylonian Empire.
Messengers were sent ahead to the city’s temples advising the citizens to take what they could and return to their villages if they would survive the attack and the news was returned to Hammurabi that the people were leaving the city wall by the caravan full when they heard that all the armies of Babylon were approaching.
They camped outside the city and exchanged messages for three days as was customary and in full accordance with the laws of waging warfare. One could not justifiably destroy another king’s capital city without even attempting to come to a peaceful resolution. The fact that Dagan was desperate to save Nineveh and his life and Hammurabi had already made up his mind to attack the city was not important to the process. There was no surprise when on the morning of the forth day; the Babylonians had formed their ranks in the valley outside the city gates. King Ishme-Dagan looked down at them from the top of the city wall and shook his head before returning to his throne room.
At his instruction, the city gates were opened and the Assyrian soldiers laid their weapons down. Hammurabi and Ishtari rode their horses into the palace and through to the throne room, not even dismounting when they came before Dagan seated there waiting for them. He stood with his head lowered and removed the great crown from his head, walking forward towards them. When he stood beside the king’s horse, he raised his hands and offered the crown to Hammurabi. He took it from Dagan and handed it to Ishtari in disgust before turning to his general and signaling to him that the man was to be taken from the palace to the city center and immediately beheaded.
***
Chyna was in the middle of a strategy meeting with Agent Hamilton when her phone rang.
They had finally gotten a location on the white van. Its occupants had given up on them leaving the embassy for the night and returned to what was possibly their base in central Baghdad. A scout team had confirmed that the warehouse was abandoned and that heat sensors trained on the main portion of the building identified more than sixteen people inside it. Nine bodies were huddled in a room to the rear of the building while seven others moved around in the space towards the front. She was certain it was the American scientists and their captors.
“Hello, Stone speaking,” she had answered, not recognizing the number that came up on her caller I.D.
“Miss Stone, this is Ananda Spearheart, Liaison Director at UNESCO in Paris,” said the woman on the other end.
“Yes, Miss Spearheart. How may I help you?”
“Director Le Gal has gone missing. We haven’t been able to locate her for two days now. She was working late a couple nights ago and she hasn’t turned up for work since.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake! What the hell is going to happen next on this damn case?” Chyna swore, without even thinking about it.
She was beginning to lose patience with the whole affair.
“I apologise, Miss Spearheart. Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do to help you at the moment. We literally just managed to get a location on the scientists and the combined team is planning a simultaneous extraction of the hostages from both locations as we speak.”
“Well, at least you’re making some progress. We don’t know what could have happened to the Director, so we’ve already called in the police. That’s actually why I called you, Chyna. This is going to hit the news fast and furious; it won’t be long before it’s on the airwaves over there as well.”
“I understand fully, Ananda. Thanks for the heads up.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Listen,” Chyna continued before the woman could hang up the phone. “I’ll make a call to a friend and see if he can get you some extra help over there. As soon as we’ve got everyone out safely, I promise we’ll come to Paris to help if you still need us.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m very obliged to you for the offer.”
“Okay, I’ll call you in the morning.”
Chyna hung up before Ananda could say another word, and returned to the table where the rest of the team were studying the blueprints of the two buildings and planning the rescue operations. Chyna volunteered to cover the entrance to the dilapidated hotel that Lana and the European hostages were being held. There were no outlying buildings around it, only a few trees, so the best snipers would have to perch in them to cover the others. She decided to take an L115A3 AWM sniper rifle and compound bow from Agent Hamilton’s arsenal for the job, in addition to her trusty pistol.
At her insistence, Sirita and Oscar would hang back until the agents had secured the locations; Eli and Asha as well. Thorin and Demetri would hear nothing of it and they both injected themselves right into the middle of the action forming up the offensive teams that would be the first to enter. As they loaded up the vehicles with the last of the gear and buckled on tactical vests, Chyna stepped aside to call Tony.
“Hey, Babe,” came his familiar voice on the other end.
“Hey there,” she replied, smiling at his usual greeting.
“How’s it going over there with Hamilton and his guys?”
“We’re just about to head over to get the hostages out.”
“Oh, yeah? How are those plans coming together?”
“Pretty solid, I’d say. Hamilton has a lot of really well-trained guys here and once we’d gotten a confirmation on the second hold location, we basically put a plan together quite quickly.”
“That’s good to hear. I wish I were there to help, Babe. I feel bad about that.”
“Don’t apologize, Tony. There’s nothing more you could do for us here. In fact, that’s really why I’m calling you.”
“Oh, okay. Shoot, kiddo.”
“I want these people out of Baghdad as soon as we can get them out of these buildings, any chance you could arrange a couple of choppers?”
“I don’t see why that would
be a problem, Babe. I told you I could get military assistance if you needed it. Give me the details.”
“Okay we’ve got nine in the warehouse they’re all Americans; and there’s eight, including Lana, at the abandoned hotel. I’ll send you the coordinates.”
“That’s easy enough. What time do you start moving in?”
“We’ll be making entrance at oh-one hundred.”
“They’ll be there.”
“Thanks, Babe.”
Chapter Seven
The entire operation was complete by one fifteen the following morning. Chyna and another sniper, Agent Collins, had positioned themselves in close-by trees and had taken out three offending sentries allowing the operatives from their team to quickly gain access and neutralize the kidnappers.
With Lana’s help, Agent Hamilton was able to identify and isolate the group’s leader, a man named Aziz, and take him back to the embassy for questioning. The others were taken either to Baghdad Central Prison or the morgue.
At the warehouse the agents had stormed the building from both the front and back, breaking down both doors and surprising the hostage-takers on the ground floor without any casualties. They hadn’t thought to place any lookouts around the building neither had they left anyone in the upstairs room where they had put the scientists to sleep for the night. Oscar had radioed Chyna with the progress report as soon as they had handcuffed all the kidnappers and checked to see that the hostages were all accounted for and healthy.
As soon as Chyna had received his call, she had given Tony the go ahead and ten minutes later Black Hawk helicopters touched down to retrieve the UNESCO personnel and take them directly to the Victory Base Complex for final transport back to Paris.
Back at the embassy, Chyna and Lana, still unable to let go of each other, scanned the busy parking lot for Oscar and Sirita. The two came bursting out of one of the black FBI panel vans and ran full tilt towards them. They hugged each other and Sirita burst into tears.
“Promise me you won’t do that again, Lana. I almost had a heart attack over this.”
“I won’t. Trust me!”
“I’m sorry to bust up the happy reunion,” Agent Hamilton said, walking up to the group. “But that Iraqi has been singing like a canary and whether what he has to say is actually the truth or not, I really think you want to hear all of it.”
Chyna raised an eyebrow.
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Aziz claims to have colluded with a UNESCO official in Director Le Gal’s office to kidnap the site personnel. Apparently, the plan was to ransom them back to UNESCO and the United Nations and ruin Ilea’s reputation when the shit hit the fan and the subsequent media feeding frenzy began.”
“He’s right,” Lana confirmed. “That’s what he told me, too.”
“You spoke to him?” Oscar asked, puzzled.
“Sure thing, cowboy.”
“How?” he asked.
“I speak Arabic as well as five other world languages, son. You don’t know all of Lana’s tricks yet.”
They all laughed at her joke and turned to follow Agent Hamilton inside to hear exactly what Aziz had to say for himself.
“Did he give you any idea of what all this was all about? Outside of the ransom, that is?” Chyna asked her.
“Well, it’s also about the altar the archaeologists uncovered. There was something about the small snake idol I was cataloging that had bothered me. It seemed as if it had originally been attached to another piece but everything else in the altar seemed complete to me. It was clear that the site had been robbed before, possibly prior to the start of the Persian Gulf War, but when the fighting broke out, whoever was there probably didn’t have the opportunity to take the rest of the statues.
“Aziz confessed to me that when UNESCO declared the ruins to be a World Heritage Site in 2004 and funded the rest of its excavation, someone close to the Director was contacted by a Ukrainian billionaire who claimed to have purchased an unprecedented piece from Babylon, but it was incomplete. There was a piece missing and he was looking to purchase it. The man offered six million Euros for the piece.”
“Okay?”
“I think the missing piece of the larger statue is the hematite basilisk. I doubt they’ll find it now, much less any of the other pieces that I crated for transport back to Paris. All I have left are the photographs that I saved to our server. I’d give anything to see that statue; I’ve been wondering what it could be since I first laid eyes on the altar.”
The next morning, Chyna, Oscar, Lana, Sirita and both bodyguards were on a plane to Paris. They left Eli and Asha behind to gather the result of the various interrogations in order to make a complete report to Found History on behalf of Rashid, the Watchers and the Foundation.
“We’ll see you two again very soon. Agent Hamilton has all the details for your flights back to Istanbul.”
“Thank you, Miss Stone. We will see you when you get back there. Inshallah!” Eli replied.
Asha just nodded her agreement, as usual.
On the way to the airport, Lana placed a call to Ananda Spearheart.
“Ananda?” she said, when the woman answered the phone.
“Lana? Is that you?” she replied, the disbelief evident in her voice.
“Yeah, it’s me, Ananda. How are things?”
“Oh, it’s great to hear your voice, my love, but I’m sure Chyna’s told you what happened.”
“She sure did. Listen, all the site personnel are on their way back to Paris later today. They’re all at the Victory Base Complex getting ready for their transport; FBI Special Agent Hamilton at the Baghdad embassy is coordinating that so I’d suggest you touch bases with him so you can make the proper arrangements for their arrival.”
“Thank you for that, Lana,” she said. Then she let out a long sigh and continued, “We still haven’t located the Director. We’re going to have to alert her family members and the media about it today.”
Chyna could see from Lana’s face that the situation with Ilea was still not resolved and when Lana looked up, she saw Chyna motioning to her to pass the phone over so she could talk to Ananda.
“Hold on a minute, Ananda. Chyna wants to speak to you.”
“Ananda,” Chyna said, “Listen, I don’t want you to do anything until we get there this afternoon. There’s at least one mole that we know of in Ilea’s office and we don’t want you to spook him. I’ve contacted operatives at the Paris embassy and they’re sending over a couple of agents to keep an eye on our suspect until we get there. Okay?”
“Sure thing, Chyna.”
“Just sit tight and we’ll see you this afternoon.”
“Thank you.”
Chyna hung up the phone and looked at her team. After a moment, she laughed and shook her head.
“Why is it that every assignment we take ends up turning into two…or three?” she asked, rhetorically.
Her four companions couldn’t help but laugh as well.
Chapter Eight
On the afternoon of Hammurabi’s return to Babylon, the entire city came out to greet the king and queen and their triumphant army of men. They’d had an extremely successful campaign in Assyria; crushing the country’s administrative powers and destroying the capital city, leaving it in complete ruin.
As they approached the city, the citizens saw that the king’s horse was pulling something behind it by a long rope. As they came closer, there was a loud cheer from the walls of the city as the people realized what the heavy object was. It was the center stone from the main gate archway of Nineveh. Dragging that stone back to Babylon indicated that the king had completely devastated Nineveh and that it would never be rebuilt without his permission. When he gave that permission he would return the center stone to the assigned builders.
The queen also brought her spoils back to Babylon in the form of Ishme-Dagan’s palace slaves. Behind her horse there walked two lines of them; one line of males and another of females. The crowd shouted deafen
ingly as their rulers rode through the city gates and up to the steps of their royal palace. There would be no early rest for them that night; instead there would be much feasting and celebration for their return.
They climbed the steps hand in hand and took their seats on the curule chairs that had been elegantly placed on the top step. The makeshift dais was elaborately decorated with tiger skins and colorful rugs. Flowers and beautiful plants had been brought down from the royal gardens by the dozens in an effort to transform the area into a sort of forest around the king and queen.
Astounded, they took their seats and watched as the crowd below publicly stripped the Assyrian slaves, washed them and dressed them in Babylonian palace livery. When the food began to come out for the feast, they were made to serve it to everyone who was present from the highborn citizens to the lowest common man who was gathered in the crowd. After everyone had received bread and dried fruits, the people broke into various groups based on class and clique to wait for the rest of the feast food to be presented.
The concubines of Hammurabi’s court were also out for the festivities. They stood to the far side of the top step in a group and watched the proceedings in relative silence, only clapping their hands occasionally when something amused them. All except Kashira, of course. She had begun wailing the moment she had laid her eyes on the Stone of Nineveh and still cried unrelentingly. She cried because she knew her father was dead and if the stone was here in Babylon then it was true that the city had been destroyed as well.
Just then dancers emerged and began to perform for the court. They were exquisite beauties; fit and lithe from years of conditioning and practice. They wore sheer gauze tunics in red and yellow and blue. On their heads they wore the elaborate wigs that performers were known for and a wonderful array of jewelry about their neck, wrists and ankles. Bells tinkled from their bracelets and anklets with every move they made.
