Tess Awakening

by Andres Mann

  Two government F-16’s finally appeared behind his Falcon, but Amir was able to enter Kuwait air space before the confused Iraqi pilots could decide on what to do. He headed toward Kuwait City but had no intention to land there. He just wanted to get out of Iraqi airspace as soon as possible and go to Bahrain where he had friends in high places. He could stay there until he figured out what to do next.

  Back in Iraq, when Amir’s troops realized that he had fled, his officers grasped that fighting the government was futile. There were a few skirmishes, but the fighting quickly ended. Amir’s officers surrendered and were arrested. The troops were disarmed and confined to barracks. The coup had failed.

  Chapter 69

  Debriefing

  Jake, Tess, Carmen and Nicola met at a restaurant in the Green Zone. Jake started the conversation. “That was close, guys. If it weren’t for you two ladies, we would probably be pushing up daisies by now.”

  “Happy to be of help,” Carmen quipped with a smile. She always enjoyed a good shootout.

  “Tess took a sip of her drink. “We were just lucky to be in the air when Amir’s choppers attacked. Jake is right, this was very close. I would like to know who betrayed us so I can strangle him.”

  “It was Kasim Qureshi, one of the ministers that we met at the strategy meeting. They now have him in custody.”

  Nicola was still processing what happened. “How about Nizar Hamdani, have they found him?”

  Jake nodded his head. “Yes, they found him in one of Amir’s basement cells. He is battered, but he will live. He is in the hospital right now.”

  Tess added “Let’s go see him when we finish here. At the very least we should express our appreciation for the risks he took. He was severely tortured and almost lost his life.”

  “I have already seen him,” Jake added. “He is in good spirits. His dream for payback against Amir came real. He is jubilant even though he is in pain.”

  Jake sported a worried look. “I hope we did the right thing. It seems that Amir has quite a following that believes that he would make a better leader than what they have now.”

  Tess interjected. “Amir is an experienced leader, and he probably would have done some things right, but he is a pathological narcissist; he doesn’t really care about the welfare of the people. He would invest more in the Army so he could amass even more power and take a leaf from Saddam Hussein by becoming a nuisance to Iraq’s neighbors.”

  Carmen munched on a bread stick. “Too bad he got away.”

  “I am not surprised; the guy was smart enough to have an escape route. So far, all we know is that he headed south in his Falcon Jet. The Iraqis have made diplomatic inquiries but so far nothing has surfaced, or perhaps they are being stonewalled.”

  Jake picked up the menu. “I hope that this means the end of Amir in Iraq. Let’s drink to that.”

  “I am still worried about what he has up his sleeve this time.” Tess pondered. She was still thinking about Aara, finally accepting that she would not see the child again.

  Chapter 70

  Penitence

  Amir was safely ensconced in Bahrain as the guest of one of the government ministers, a long-time friend. He fully admitted to his friend that he had attempted a coup because, he said, he was a patriot and hated to see Iraq mired in conflict. Now he expected conflicts and insurrections to further afflict the country. The Army would continue to be ineffective and the insurgency would become more aggressive. Plus Syria was facing a rebellion against Assad, which might spill over into the neighboring countries.

  When he retired to his luxurious hotel suite, Amir poured himself a finger of his beloved cognac and started to process what had happened.

  When he was informed by one of the ministers who attended the strategy meeting with Jake and Tess that the government helicopter task force was practicing tactics to move against him, he had initiated the coup earlier than planned, and it would have worked it hadn’t been for Tess, his nemesis.

  If her helicopter had not surprised his squadron, they would have been able to annihilate the government helicopter forces on the ground. She had literally saved the day for them at his expense, causing the loss of most of his choppers and alerting government forces to react. Now most of his trusted men were incarcerated and ran the risk of being executed for treason. His running away, thus abandoning his troops to their fate, would not look good. In fact, he was very much aware that he had now gained a host of new enemies.

  The situation was bad. He fully expected that he would be hunted down by Iraqi operatives no matter where he went. This meant that he would have to increase his personal security force and curtail his public activities until things settled down. He concluded that all three of his houses in Europe would not be safe at this time. He needed to disappear for a while and decide on what to do next.

  He slept fitfully, and his obsession with Tess continued to plague him. He still lusted after her, even after what she did to him. Now he dreamed of her in S&M garb lashing a whip on his back, inflicting pain and igniting his passion at the same time. He woke up in a sweat and decided to follow his cravings.

  He logged on an exclusive web site that managed high-end prostitutes. Their skills were listed by category. Amir clicked on S&M and landed on a subcategory called BDSM. The informative site provided the definition as ‘a practice formed by joining the term B&D (bondage and discipline) with S&M (sadomasochism).’ He chose Extreme.

  He made a call and invited a woman to his room. When he heard a knock on the doors, he welcomed a blonde wearing a loose black coat and carrying a black bag. Without a word, she tossed the coat aside, revealing a tall, statuesque body in a skimpy black rubber suit.

  “Where are you from?” Amir asked while pouring cognac into a glass. The woman removed some implements from the bag and put on a mask. “I am Russian, Sir, and I am not gentle. I am here to give you pain.”

  Amir smiled. “You seem to mean it.”

  “My name is Galina and you are my slave. You will do what I command. Now remove your clothes.”

  Amir usually was the one to command women, but this will be different, he thought. He removed his robe and faced the woman.

  “I want you to face the wall,” Galina demanded. Amir complied. This was different, he thought. You can always learn new things. Suddenly, the woman cracked the whip on his back. Amir felt the sting. This was not playing, she was inflicting real pain. She lashed him again on the buttocks. He turned around, and she whipped his torso; he struggled not to scream.

  Galina was ruthless. “Get on your knees!” Amir complied. He couldn’t believe that he was submitting to this treatment. Usually, it was him that doled out the pain. A crack of the whip on his back made him gasp.

  Strangely, he was now getting into it. “Hit me again,” he screamed. The woman obliged. She gave him another lash. “Hit me again and again.”

  The lashes kept coming and Amir now understood what he was doing. He was seeking punishment for losing Tess and his son, for failing to accomplish his political goals and for a litany of other crimes. He saw the shadow of Kejal, standing in front of him, tormenting him with her icy stare. He saw his men going to the gallows, cursing him for cowardly abandoning them to their fate.

  “Galina was not done. She strapped a huge dildo on herself and commanded: “Get your ass up in the air! Now!”

  Amir was game for whatever she had in mind until she grabbed his hips and shoved the implement up his anus in one swift movement. Amir screamed. She grabbed his hair and started pumping. Amir tried to get her to stop, but the woman was strong, vicious and relentless. She kept pounding him until, against his will, he had an intense orgasm, spewing his seed on the floor. The Russian kept whipping him, even after she withdrew.

  Amir was now in a frenzy, exhorting Galina to continue hitting him. With each lash, he was now paying for his past sins. He finally collapsed on the floor. Galina packed her gear and left.

  Kemal came in a half an hour later and fo
und Amir still on the floor, naked and bloody. “I will get a doctor, General.”

  “No! Amir screamed. Just help me up.” Kemal complied. Amir was dazed, the lash marks burning like hell, but he was strangely satisfied. The pain had cleansed his soul. He was now ready to move on. Kemal helped him clean up and applied antibiotic cream on his lash marks. He had never seen Amir like this. He did not know what to think. The man had always been in control. What happened to him? Was he losing his mind?

  Heavily drugged, Amir finally went to sleep. Considering what had happened in the past few months, he should now have focused on reordering his life, but that would not do. His need for revenge propelled him relentlessly to take action. ‘Amir al-Saadi does not lose, in the end he always wins,’ he kept telling himself. Tess was his nemesis, responsible for everything awful that has befallen him. He used to be in control of his world and everyone around him. Tess would not comply with his wishes. She rejected his love and respect. Instead of expressing gratitude, she turned into the Gorgon of Greek mythology, whose hair was made of living, venomous snakes, turning to stone those who beheld her horrifying visage.

  Tess had given him a night of unparalleled delight, but ultimately turned vicious; not only she repeatedly inflicted grievous injuries on him, but also withheld his son from him, his heir and pride. She was responsible for foiling his attempt to take over the government. When he woke up in the middle of the night, he took more painkillers and drank some more, unable to accept that his own behavior and actions were the real source of his troubles.

  Chapter 71

  Retreat

  Jake, Tess, and the gang continued to train the Iraqis on the expensive military hardware provided by the largesse of the Americans. Progress was not satisfactory. During project reviews with the team, the same themes kept coming to the surface. The troops lacked motivation; they were going through the motions but were showing little enthusiasm due to a dearth of leadership. The Americans military was still fighting the insurgents much too often while the local government troops assiduously avoided defending their country. The resistance from the Sunni areas intensified, its leaders incensed at Shiite militias raiding their cities and towns. The government still resisted distributing weapons to Sunnis for self-defense. Whenever the Shiite militias became involved in Sunni areas, instead of liberating them from the terrorists, they engaged in abuses and killed people. They were not protectors. Their appeals falling on deaf ears, Sunni leaders started to gravitate toward other insurgent groups.

  Syria was now engulfed in a terrible war, the government dropping bombs and chemicals on the general population of the rebel-held areas. What started out as a civil protest now had degenerated into various factions fighting Assad’s regime. Most of the turmoil had to do with the ham-fisted response of the Syrian government toward the legitimate demands of mostly moderate sections of Syrian society. Now they had a full-fledged civil war in their hands, the north of the country having been taken over by Islamic extremists.

  The President of the United States was reluctant to become involved in Syria. Assad was never a friend; in fact, the Syrians were known to sponsor terrorism. To intervene, it would have meant putting troops on the ground and getting involved in another quagmire like Iraq and Afghanistan. The other problem had to do with the various rebel groups outside of Damascus. Which ones were moderates and which were radical Islamists? This question became more troublesome as time went by. The primary consideration was that the U. S. could not possibly consider doing anything that would help Assad’s government. In the meantime, radical Islamists started to spill over in Northern Iraq.

  Complicating matters was the deteriorating relationship between the U. S. and the Iraqi government. The American offered to keep some troops in Iraq but demanded that they would not be subject to Iraqi law. The Iraqi Prime Minister did not agree with this, so the American troops were withdrawn, leaving just a token force to complete the training of the troops. Later it was revealed that the top Iraqi leadership had made a deal with Shiite Iran for military assistance against the Sunni insurgents. Iran demanded the departure of the American troops as the price of their involvement and that is exactly what happened.

  A key mission for U. S. forces, before they left Iraq in 2011, was the training of the Iraqi Army and other security forces. The United States spent about $25 billion to train and equip Iraq’s security forces and provide suitable installations. Iraq spent additional billions of its own money to acquire or order F-16 fighter jets, M-1 battle tanks, Apache helicopter gunships, Hellfire missiles and other sophisticated weapons.

  Jake and Tess saw that continuing to work in Iraq would no longer make sense. This decision was based on Jake’s assessment that chaos would increase due to the failure of the Iraqi government to develop Iraq’s armed forces into an effective organization. A significant source of concern was that many of the experienced Sunni officers, having been denied commissions in the new army, had started to join the various insurgent groups. The impact of their participation was felt by the Americans as well. Well-organized operations by properly led insurgents now became more deadly. The antiaircraft fire directed by disenfranchised leaders became more accurate, forcing Coalition choppers to adopt even more defensive measures.

  Jake concluded that the chaos in Syria and in Iraq would only intensify because the insurgent leadership was now relatively cohesive and committed to bringing the fight to the Iraqi government forces, who were still weak and poorly led. The morale of the troops was still low, and the level of training and organization had gradually declined. Much of the expensive and sophisticated American equipment acquired by Iraq, M1 tanks, helicopters and armored personnel carriers started to break down due to poor maintenance. The insurgents now increased the use of effective Russian-made antitank weapons which pierced the armor of tanks committed to battle. Instead of adjusting their tactics, it now appeared that many of the Iraqis became reluctant to use the hardware.

  Jake and Tess decided to withdraw their team from further training projects and over a period of a month, all of them were repatriated.

  Chapter 72

  Lawyers are Happy

  Amir managed to keep a low profile for a while. He joined Fadime in Buenos Aires, licked his wounds and visited doctors who continued to work on his scarred face. It took almost a year, at the end of which plastic surgery mostly restored his previous good looks. He still sported a few scars, but he no longer cared. He was now working toward new objectives, first of all, to relentlessly harass Tess in court for custody of his son.

  Initially, it seemed that he might not be able to enter the United States due to his being sought by Iraqi authorities that wanted him to answer for his aborted takeover. His lawyers argued that the actions of the Iraqi government were political in nature and that it was essential for Amir to attend court dates on his son’s custody case.

  Eventually, he was cleared to enter the country and he went to testify in Family Court accompanied by his lawyers. Tess was already sitting at a table with her legal team. Jake was behind her.

  Tess and Amir looked at each other, their mutual hatred evident. The case had progressed to the point that it was necessary for the principals to testify in front of the judge. Amir was called first. After the usual swearing in procedures, Amir’s lawyer started to ask him questions.

  “General al-Saadi, we have already established that you and Ms. Tess Turner had a relationship that eventually produced a child. It has also been proved that you are the biological father of the child. Your relationship with Ms. Turner ended. Previous testimony indicated that Ms. Turner advised you of the birth of your son after the fact and that you were able to see the child only once during a visit to Ms. Turner’s apartment in New York. During that visit, Ms. Turner indicated that she intended to retain custody of the child and that you, as the biological father, would not be allowed to see or interact with your son from that point forward.”

  “That is correct,” Amir stated.

&nb
sp; “Further, you now allege that the child is in physical jeopardy due to Ms. Turner’s violent disposition and for that reason, you seek to remove the child from her custody. Would you please explain your contention that the child would be in mortal danger if he remains with his mother?”

  Tess had resolved to stay cool, calm and collected during the proceedings, but the outrageous allegations sorely tested her patience. She glared at Amir, who smiled at her as if nothing of import was happening. Immaculately groomed, wearing a tailored suit and a very expensive watch, he looked like the epitome of a reputable gentleman.

  The lawyer continued. “General al-Saadi, would you please tell us why you are concerned about the child’s safety?”

  Amir looked deep in thought, and the lawyer had to prod him. Finally, he spoke. “Ms. Turner is a violent, vicious soldier with extraordinary martial arts skills. Her inability to control her temper makes her very dangerous, particularly when she is around defenseless young children.”

  The lawyer followed up. “What evidence can you provide that what you said about her violent temperament is of concern?”

  “I met with her in Iraq to discuss amenable custody arrangements that would be acceptable to both of us. Not only she refused to discuss the matter, but she viciously attacked me. She ruined my face and almost killed me. It took over a year and several surgeries to restore the left side of my face to a semblance of what it was before. I still bear the scars as you can well see.”

  “Based on what happened to you, you are alleging that it is only a matter of time for Ms. Turner to lose her temper and grievously hurt your son?”