by Bobby Akart
“Sure, mate,” replied Brown. He hugged Janie and Mac, then quickly made his way to the side door with a handled grocery bag filled with the remaining colistin. Khan opened it for him and, after checking that there were no surprises in the alleyway, assisted Brown to the rear entry of the vet’s office while Hunter watched the front of the alley.
Although it took less than thirty seconds for Brown to cross the alley and disappear inside the building, Hunter found it odd that he didn’t observe any movement on either end of the narrow alley. Am I wrong?
Despite his second thoughts, Hunter did know they were in a dangerous situation as society collapsed around them. The embassy would be safer, but on that American Airlines flight bound for Miami tomorrow afternoon would be even better.
Back inside with only the four of them crowded around the front door, Hunter took one last look outside and confirmed the presence of their watchers. He debated with himself as to which side would take the first shot. He was about to find out.
Chapter 60
Day Nineteen
Guatemala City
Hunter flung the door open and Khan quickly moved through the entry, taking up a position at the rear of the Explorer with his guns pointing from side to side in search of a target. First Mac and then Janie darted to the passenger side of the truck, using the Caravan for cover. They shoved the cases through the rear doors and over the back of the passenger seat before sliding in.
The men surrounding them began to cry out in Spanish, alerting their companions to move in. “¡Ándale! ¡Ándale!”
The sounds of men running toward their position caused Hunter to look in all directions to assess the threat. There were at least four men rushing towards his side of the truck with weapons raised.
“Here we go,” shouted Hunter as he fired the engine and threw it into reverse. He squealed the tires in the loose gravel and spun into the middle of the street. Suddenly, two men burst in front of the truck and held shotguns. The speed and unexpectedness of their sudden appearance caught Hunter off guard. His initial reaction was to continue in reverse toward oncoming traffic.
“Look out!” shouted Mac as cars passed them on both sides, horns screaming in displeasure.
The close call caused a temporary distraction for the two men in front, but it allowed others to close in on them.
“Ladies, stay down. Khan, it’s all you, buddy.”
Khan lowered his window and fired in the direction of the two gunmen, causing them to scatter. The powerful engine of the Chevelle roared to life in the vacant lot and its headlights immediately illuminated the side of the Explorer, providing an easy target for the shooters standing nearby.
Bullets riddled the left front fender of the truck, causing sparks to flicker in the darkness. Hunter lowered his window and fired several rounds in their direction as he mashed the gas and sped past.
The Chevelle whipped out of the vacant lot and gave chase. Suddenly, a second set of headlights appeared behind their truck. The Chevelle dropped back, allowing a raised pickup to take the lead. The truck closed on the bumper of the much slower Explorer and then turned on a set of fog lights, blinding Hunter.
Khan dropped his arm out of the passenger window and fired several rounds in the direction of the pickup. “I can’t get a clean shot!”
The truck sped forward, the gangbangers now firing at the Explorer from both the truck bed and through open windows.
“We can’t hold them off!” shouted Janie from the rear seat.
Hunter suddenly realized that he was headed away from the embassy. “Hold on!” he shouted and took a hard left in front of oncoming traffic. The trailing cars had to slow to cross traffic, but within seconds they were behind them again.
“Does anybody know where the embassy is?” asked Khan. There was no answer.
“I’ll pull it up on Google Earth,” shouted Janie over the wind noise and the honking horns. “I don’t think it’s—”
Before Janie could finish, the sound of a shotgun blast caught them off guard as pellets riddled the rear window of the Explorer, throwing pieces of glass throughout the interior of the truck.
“This is bull—” began Mac before another blast caused her to shriek. The shooter was effectively using birdshot to pepper the Explorer in an effort to slow it down, confirming to Hunter that the assailants wanted the contents of the truck intact.
“Turn left in three, two, one—now!” shouted Janie. Hunter whipped the wheel and threw his passengers hard to the right side of the truck. The abrupt maneuver did not, however, lose the two chasing vehicles.
Khan continued to fire but was unable to stop the gangbangers’ progress. Mac reached into the front seat with her right hand. “Hunter, give me a gun, now!”
“What? Do you—”
Mac cut him off. “Now, Hunter!”
He handed her one of the P320s. “Stay down, Janie!”
“Don’t worry!” she shouted back.
Mac fired off three quick rounds into the grille of the pickup truck, causing it to slide back. The Chevelle sped up and attempted to pull alongside the Explorer’s passenger side. An arm waving a pistol hung out of the small rear window and fired wildly toward Khan, but missed.
Khan returned fire and hit the attacker’s arm, causing the weapon to hit the pavement and break into several pieces. The Chevelle slowed momentarily and then whipped across the Explorer’s rear bumper before making a run on the driver’s side.
“We’ve got traffic ahead! We’re gonna get boxed in!” shouted Hunter.
Mac didn’t hesitate. She fired at the windshield of the Chevelle, shattering the passenger side. Undeterred, the passenger avoided getting killed, and when the Chevelle pulled alongside the driver’s side of the truck, he unloaded half a dozen rounds into the rear door, blowing out the glass.
“Hold on!” shouted Hunter, who jammed on the brakes, sending the Chevelle sailing past, but allowing the pickup to close on their bumper.
“Take any right, Hunter!” shouted Janie. “We’ll try the back entrance.”
Hunter veered to the right, narrowly missing several locals standing just off the curb. The screech of the pickup’s tires could be heard as it tried to navigate the sharp turn. The pickup hopped as the brakes were applied until it slid into a parked car.
“Left, left!” shouted Janie, and Hunter obliged. They roared down an alley, crashing into several plastic trash cans along the way. “Keep going straight!”
Hunter checked his mirror. “Mac, are you all right?”
“Yeah,” she said, rising out of the backseat. “I think we lost them.”
She was wrong. Out of the corner of his eye, Hunter saw headlights speeding toward them from a side street. The muzzle flash told the rest of the story. His left rear tire exploded and immediately shredded around the wheel well, disintegrating rapidly. Within seconds, the rim was grinding into the asphalt and the Explorer was about to grind to a halt when it lurched to the left and struck a dumpster.
Then the sound of a car plowing into a block building could be heard. Metal crunching and a gas tank exploding were the last things Hunter could hear before the air bags filled the front seat, instantly trapping Hunter and Khan in position. The bags quickly deflated and the two men regained their composure from the low-energy impact.
Hunter exited the vehicle first and took up a position to cover the rest of the group. “Hurry, everybody out!”
“What happened?” asked Khan as he joined Hunter’s side, prepared to shoot at anything that moved in the alley. The Chevelle had burst into flames.
“What a waste,” Hunter lamented.
“Great car, wanker driver,” added Khan.
Janie rolled her head around her shoulders as she emerged from the backseat. “Where’s Mac?”
Hunter turned around and found Mac crawling through the broken rear window, picking glass out of her palms. She wiped the blood onto her khakis.
“I had to get my gun,” she said. “It flew in th
e back.”
“My gun?” Hunter chuckled.
“Mine now,” she responded. Hunter could tell she was serious.
He grinned at her and then turned to Janie. “How far is it to the embassy?”
“Four blocks.”
“Who’s up for an evening stroll?” asked Hunter.
Chapter 61
Day Twenty
Las Virginias, Chihuahua
Northern Mexico
Hassan arrived at the Las Virginias ranch to a hearty greeting from Mahmood Khabir, a longtime ISIS operative who had been imbedded with the Juarez cartel since the early days of the relationship being established between the two organizations.
For years, the Juarez cartel controlled the largest percentage of cocaine traffic from Mexico into the United States. Their wealth generated loyal foot soldiers, and by the late nineties, they were the dominant player in Central and Northern Mexico. The death of Carlos Fuentes at the turn of the century brought the beginning of the decline of the cartel, which relied heavily upon the ties between Fuentes and General Pablo Gutierrez.
Like all quasi-political entities, the Juarez cartel installed new leadership and set a new course to make its profits—human trafficking. Gone were the days of recruiting drug mules. A loosely formed relationship with the Los Zetas and the Gulf cartel was formed whereby the Juarez cartel reduced its cocaine operations. Cocaine became a secondary source of revenue, while smuggling migrants into the United States was their new cash cow.
Their best customer in recent years had been ISIS. The group paid handsomely—fifty times the cost of a common migrant from Central America. As a result, they were given preferential treatment and virtually guaranteed entry into the U.S., complete with near perfect false identification documents.
Mahmood had personally cultivated this relationship, and when he called upon Joaquin Fuentes to assist in the massive effort of exporting over a thousand jihadists into the U.S., Fuentes jumped at the opportunity. But along came the Federales in an unexpected drug operation coordinated with the DEA a week ago, and Fuentes attempted to pull out of the deal.
Hassan didn’t anticipate this issue arising, so he was blindsided at first. But in the days traveling northward, he determined that money was no object in the pursuit of the Final Jihad.
Besides, it would be worthless soon anyway. Only the massive amounts of gold taken from the Iraqi banks in Mosul would be of value. This had been anticipated by the leaders of the terrorist group for years. Years ago, a film was released titled The Rise of the Caliphate—Return of the Gold Dinar, touting the one billion dollars’ worth of gold held by ISIS. The original plan was to push the world economy toward a renewal of the gold standard, causing countries like China and Russia to dump the American Treasury bills. The result would be a complete collapse of the U.S. financial system.
The plan never came to fruition, but a collapse of another sort would certainly hasten America’s already fragile financial system into collapse. Therefore, Hassan willingly paid more to the Juarez cartel to accomplish his goals.
Hassan stood alone on the terrace of the Fuentes hacienda, admiring the mountains and valleys that lay in the hundred miles between him and the Great Satan. Tomorrow, he would set foot on the land that would be ravaged by disease over the next several weeks. He would do his duty to serve Allah, but he also hoped that he would survive the scourge.
He wanted to live to see the day that the banner of the eagle, the Black Banner of the Islamic State, hung on the side of the infidels’ White House.
Chapter 62
Day Twenty
Refugee Transit Center
Edirne, Turkey
From the BBC World News Wire…
German Chancellor Frieda Müller arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, today, kicking off a high-stakes visit aimed at boosting a refugee deal struck with Turkish President Erdogan, a deal that has now been plagued with ethical and legal concerns.
The chancellor, joined by European Council head Franz Zimmerman, met with the beleaguered Turkish President, who recently scrapped the agreement with the EU and began systematically closing refugee camps across the northern border shared with European nations Greece and Bulgaria.
Tensions escalated between the geopolitical allies after the camp closings began without notice, prompting Zimmerman to cry foul. The relationships were further strained when the chancellor’s jet arrived in Istanbul to begin the high-level meetings, only to be greeted by a huge banner draped across the airport building, which read Welcome to Turkey, the world’s largest refugee-hosting country. This banner, in and of itself, was not what raised the ire of the visitors. It was the words added below by a supposed vandal, which read NOT FOR LONG.
The closed-door meetings between the European leaders and President Erdogan were said to be tense and ended abruptly. The Turkish President, in an attempt to show his humanitarian side, suggested a hastily arranged trip to the northernmost part of the country near the Greek border to visit a refugee transit center.
The diplomatic contingent then traveled to Edirne, a city of nearly two hundred thousand Turks and home to several thousand refugees in transit to Europe. What they found there was certainly not what President Erdogan had in mind.
The German chancellor was reportedly horrified at the dreadful conditions of the refugee transit center. Reports of the refugees being badly beaten by Turkish soldiers and stories of starvation immediately surfaced. One man came close enough to the chancellor to speak with her directly.
The man, only identified as Ahmad, displayed his broken arm to the chancellor. Through an interpreter, he explained how he’d been beaten for refusing to return to Syria as instructed, and then was refused medical treatment. When asked who told him that he was required to return to Syria, the man could only feebly point at the guards who stood between him and the chancellor.
This revelation is of particular significance because under the non-refoulement principle of international humanitarian law, a state is prohibited from deporting individuals to a war zone, especially one where the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers might make them subject to prosecution.
The visit by Chancellor Müller did have one touching moment, however. Some of the transit center’s younger residents pushed closer to the entourage at one point in an attempt to display their coloured drawings. One young girl who caught the chancellor’s attention showed her a picture of beautiful grass-covered mountains, a sparkling blue river, and the sun shining brightly overhead.
“Deutschland! Deutschland!” the young girl shouted, pointing to the artistic work, much to the delight of the largely German contingent. With the guards’ permission, the young girl ran to Chancellor Müller and proudly presented the drawing as a gift. Overcome with emotion, the chancellor embraced the child and the two traded kisses on the cheek. The chancellor was seen touching her hand to her cheek in appreciation of the gesture before subtly wiping the tears from her eyes.
From here, Chancellor Müller and Herr Zimmerman will travel directly to Washington, DC, for a meeting with President Garcia whom she will encourage to accept more refugees amidst this humanitarian crisis.
Seven days later, the young girl died in her mother’s arms from respiratory failure. She never made it to Deutschland.
Chapter 63
Day Twenty-One
The White House Rose Garden
Washington, DC
The Rose Garden was a formal flower garden created by President Woodrow Wilson’s wife, First Lady Ellen Wilson, in 1913. Once occupied by horse stables, Mrs. Wilson envisioned a grassy area with a variety of plant material to provide a more suitable backdrop for outdoor gatherings. Over time, the space was used for press conferences in the sunny, open garden with the West Wing of the White House colonnade as a backdrop. It was in this idyllic setting that President Garcia and Chancellor Müller walked to their respective podiums.
During his morning briefing with Chief of Staff Morse, President Garcia was advised of th
e outbreak of illness spreading across Guatemala. This health crisis in Guatemala had not yet grabbed the attention of the mainstream media in the U.S. With the fever warning issued by the New Mexico Department of Health due to the discovery of the plague-stricken feline, it was a matter of time before news outlets made a proverbial mountain out of a molehill, as Morse quipped. The media would always find a way to exploit an international story to make it all about the U.S.
If the truth were known, the timing of Müller’s visit was horrible, but the President suspected she was using that to her advantage. In a matter of days, he was scheduled to make a major policy speech on immigration, one which was intended to please the electorate temporarily. But it would also displease his European allies, who were pressuring the U.S. to accept more Syrian refugees.
The briefing by Morse on the Guatemalan situation and the doggone cat in New Mexico were only the beginning of a bad news day for the President and his re-election campaign. An incumbent President never wanted to create a campaign issue in the final months before an election. Rule one was never provide your opponent an issue to pounce on, and rule number two was don’t provide the media fodder for speculative and sensationalistic news reports.
His behind-closed-doors meeting with the chancellor didn’t go well. She practically called him a spineless coward for not living up to his agreement to accept additional refugees into the States. President Garcia countered with the fact that through an arrangement with the Canadian prime minister, America was taking ten to twenty thousand Syrians via Canada, a method that flew under the radar of the media. Despite his promises, his counterpart in Germany felt his public refusal to accept more refugees sent the wrong message to his friends in Europe, Australia, and Canada, who were doing their part. In effect, she said as the meeting came to an end, the President was no different than Erdogan in Turkey. He kicks them out, and you, she’d said, refuse to let them in. Sounds protectionist to me, she had grumbled.
