VILLAGE OF BADULAH GAR
WEST OF QUETTA
Christopher and Sangar waited as the Village Elder greeted the new arrivals in a traditional Pashtun greeting.
"I recognize one of them from your meeting in the cave with NATO," Christopher muttered.
"In that darkness, he wouldn't have recognized you. Don't worry." He pulled his pakol forward onto his brow as the drizzle increased. "The rest should be arriving shortly otherwise they're going to be caught is some miserable conditions. Come, It's time we met them."
**
In the elder's family compound, Alexandra followed Shababa with her bedroll into the house's central room. The smell of drying spices and fruit peels reminded Alexandra of old dry goods stores in eastern Lebanon. She took a deep breath and stopped in surprise a new smell invaded the room.
"This is Asmara, our elder's wife. I will explain that you don't speak Pashto. Her Urdu is limited." Shababa announced as the older women pushed aside a blanket that acted as a curtain between two rooms. "The animals' enclosure has been damaged and they are keeping the younger ones and their mothers in the other room during the winter."
The smiling older woman extended both hands after placing a pot of milk on a shelf. She gestured for Alexandra to remove her headdress.
Alexandra complied as she recognized the smell of wet livestock from her childhood. "Goat's milk?" she whispered.
"Yes. She says that you have the beauty of an angel, but the wisdom of an older woman in your eyes. I told her you're Amir's wife and she thinks you're blessed," Shababa translated.
"Tell her I thank her for her hospitality and ask how I can help with the meal preparations?"
As Shababa translated, the older woman gestured for Alexandra to deposit her bedroll near the fireplace / stove.
"Thank her, but tell her that I think she and her husband should have that spot. Amir and I will be warm over here in our bedroll." She pointed to a spot near the entrance to the hut.
Asmara cackled with laughter before responding. "She says you must be shy, but you are not to worry. She understands that young people have certain urges that need to be sated. We will help her with dinner. It's lamb and rice. We only have lamb about once a month these days. Come."
12 ST. CHARLES STREET
LONDON
"Wait! I'll tell you. I kept providing information about Iraq. I was doing exactly the same thing as the State Department."
Sir William nodded. "Being a member of a cabal of thieves doesn't absolve you from the crime. Continue."
"When the Iraqis began to ignore the Americans in 2008, we knew we had a problem and the Chinese and other nations would gain control of those oil fields and the new reconstruction contracts. Then in 2008, the requests changed." Mark paused to sip from the glass. "Please tell Ives to stop his preparations."
"Continue."
"The questions changed to our operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
"What about them?"
Mark sipped again. "Military expenditures, heroin crops and mineral resources—they wanted the latest geological surveys on Afghanistan, Iran and Kazakhstan. I provided them details on these, but then they came to me last year for military assessments."
YOU ARE READING
The Shaddad Conspiracy
Adventure“Your murder victim was not an innocent, naive woman. She was on our terrorist watch list. The fact that she escaped from Basra and lived a normal life in London buggers belief, but she was planted here by a foreign government to wreck the Taliban p...
