The Devil's Handshake (51 page)

Not fear for himself but fear for the little
girl in front of him if he didn’t come back.

“
Mama will keep you safe!”
replied his half Turkmen-English daughter with her mother’s eyes
staring back at him as she leant up to kiss his cheek and hug him
firmly. Holding her for a few moments longer himself for now it was
his turn let her go reluctantly. Releasing her, he turned and left
his daughter, his eyes changing in the process as he did
so.

61

Nouakchott International Airport

As the old 737 cargo plane taxied into
Nouakchott International Airport using the cover of a charter to
carry out the gold that had been mined by one of the Canadian
mining companies that operated in the country, all the men on board
knew that they would have less than one day to complete the
mission.

Igor’s team with the support of the local
resident had established that Wasir’s villa, though near the main
road, had only a team of ten guarding him. That meant that with his
team of fifteen on site and all posing as many NGO’s plus Thomas
and this team who had all insisted that they were coming with him
that doubled the advantage over the team protecting the pirate.

Using the plans of the villa that had been
registered at the Department of Works and Buildings that the
Resident obtained, they worked on the premise that it was unlikely
the internal walls of the villa would have changed much.

To save time, Igor had sent these plans to
Mikhail so he and the team could get themselves familiar with the
structure via the photos.

Getting off the plane, the five Canadians
posing as security officers for the gold shipment presented their
passports at the immigration desk at the private aviation
department of the small airport.

Checking their passports twice making sure
the visa was correct, the disinterested immigration officer found a
free page in each as he slammed stamp after stamp to reflect their
entry and then took the $200 entry fees from Yossi.

“
Welcome to Nouakchott,”
said the officer in French.

“
Merci,” replied Yossi said
taking back the passports back.

Picking up their kit, containing their
equipment of Heckler and Koch UMP Machines guns, hunting knifes and
a rather unique one, a Kukri Ghurkha Knife owned by Thomas, stun
grenades, night vision, body armor, and headsets. All of which had
passed through the turned off x-ray machine with the help of a $200
U.S. dollar bribe to the young police officer. The five Canadians
made their way out of the small building where they were met by two
of Igor’s team and their newly purchased fourth hand white KIA
Gallopers.

“
Good to see you again,”
offered Aytrom towards Mikhail

“
Likewise Aytrom,” answered
Mikhail in return as he shook his hand first then following up
quickly with everybody else.

Upon reaching Thomas, though, he held on
firmly looked at him straight in the eyes.

“
We will settle the debt,
Fama,” he said, determination coming through in his voice instead
of the usual condolences he received from everybody.

“
Thank you Artyom,” replied
Thomas towards the Zaslon officer.

Releasing his hand, the seven men got into
the four-wheel drives and drove off for the short trip towards the
base hotel.

Taking just ten minutes not one member of the
team said anything in the short trip. Instead they choose to take
in the sights and sounds of the neighborhood as they made their way
through the city down the Avenue Gamal Abdel Nassar.

They arrived at the Residence Imam, and
unloaded the kit. The men went through the hotel up into lift two
at a time and rode up to the third floor, exited and made their way
along the corridor to the suite.

Once inside, greetings and introductions out
of the way the strike team assembled to go through the plan around
the dining table.

“
The villa is near the main
road. According to our intelligence the only presence outside
appears to be the two guards on the main gate,” Igor said starting
the briefing by showing them the images on screen that had come
from Anton.

“
So Vitali and Emin will
take them out with their sniper rifles,” Igor said looking towards
his men before continuing with the briefing.

Ten minutes later briefing finished. The team
set about stripping down their weapons to clean them before
reassembling them ready for action.

“
Are you really sure you
want to be part of the main assault team?” Igor asked Thomas
sitting down by the side of him. Sergei had told him to make sure
that no harm came to him despite him insisting that he was to be
part of the assault team. The fallout they would receive from their
President if anything did, would be the equivalent of driving
around Dagestan in an open top Jeep to quote his commanding
officer.

Mikhail looked towards the Zaslon commander
and gave him a shake of his head to signal that he shouldn’t bring
it up.

“
Igor, thank you for your
concern. This is a debt of honor that I must follow,” replied
Thomas firmly, his eyes full of steel towards the young commander
as he clicked his firing pin back into place on his UMP. “So don’t
worry I won’t let you or your men down!” he added finishing the
conversation.

“
Don’t worry Igor. I will
make sure he doesn’t!” offered Mikhail in support.

Nodding in return, accepting that he had been
put in his place, Igor grabbed Thomas’s shoulder.

“
He is as pig-headed and
stubborn as a mule,” he offered in Russian, earning a smile in
return from Mikhail if not one from Thomas, who was in the
zone.

With the city asleep and dawn still
forty-five minutes away the assault team, dressed in black head to
toe and with facemasks, took up position.

Eight hundred yards away further down the
road and waiting for Igor’s mark, two snipers were in place ready
to release their shots.

They didn’t have to wait long. Giving a fist
pump then a forward pointing motion, a silent thud escaped from
their barrels and instantly both guards fell to the ground like rag
dolls. Moving quickly within seconds upon reaching the gates Yossi
placed two extra shots in the heads of the fallen guards from his
muffler attached UMP to make sure they were dead.

Taking up position outside the solid metal
gate Aytrom pushed through the middle gap a small camera.

Looking on the small monitor, they found four
guards outside the entrance of the villa, sleeping on chairs.

To signal to the assault team what threat
would greet them he held up four fingers to signal four targets
then two fingers to signal the split followed by pointed hand moved
left and right to signal the deployment.

Igor nodded in return.

Quickly another Zaslon team member placed
about seventy grams of RDX explosive on the bolt. He gave his
signal to indicate he was ready to detonate the charge so to allow
the teams to move either side of the gate to take up their
position.

“
BANG!” the explosion
careened around the sleeping streets.

Pushing the gate open either side, the split
assault team began their attack.

First the two guards either side of the gate
were downed. No shot was fired in return. Again, as Yossi had done
outside the gate, one of the Zaslon commandos followed up the kills
by slotting the guards on the floor with four single thuds to the
heads.

Still not a word had been said.

Reaching the villa front door from the side,
within seconds Aytrom placed a further ball of RDX on the lock. He
then stepped to aside and detonated it, just as four of the team
went either side of the building to take up their entry points into
the villa. While this was taking place another of Igor’s team took
out the generator to ensure they could use the darkness and their
night vision classes for the assault on the villa.

Still not a word had been said…

Seconds later, kicking the door open from the
side Igor’s team entered the building.

Immediately machine gunfire was let loose at
the door for just a few seconds as the loud bangs when off at the
side entrance of the structure. This had the effect of causing
confusion while both Benny and Aytrom chucked two assault grenades
inside.

Once they heard the loud thud, the team
entered the building, releasing a volley of shots into the hall of
the villa followed by Yossi, Avi, Mikhail, and Thomas doing the
same.

When the shooting was over the first voice
erupted over the short-wave radios of the assault team.

“
OCHISTIT,” meaning “clear”
in Russian, shouted Aytrom as he proceeded to shoot one of Wasir’s
sons in the head who was lying wounded on the floor.

Additional shouts and thuds continued to ring
out across the villa followed within seconds by shouts of “CLEAR”
to signal the assaulting teams that targets were being taken
out.

“
OCHISTIT,” shouted one of
the men after clearing the rest of the room.

Awakened from the first loud bang and
realizing they were under attack, Ahmed pushed the young girl who
was sharing his bed aside. Grabbing his pistol he made his way out
of the bedroom.

“
Ybeeldaaje,” he shouted
twice towards the bedroom of Wasir just as he saw the shadows of
men dressed completely in black moving and shouts of words in
Russian, following each loud bang.

He only managed to get off one shot towards
them before he felt a volley of bullets rip through his naked
torso. The last thing he saw was a man in black standing over him
as the bullet ripped through his head.

Again the shouts of “CLEAR” echoed around the
house. Igor checked his G-Shock watch. So far the operation had
taken five minutes. They had planned to be in and out within ten
minutes. The operation was ahead of schedule.

Upon reaching the door of the master bedroom
at the top of the stairs, one of the members of the Zaslon team
placed RDX on the door. Again they detonated and threw a shock
grenade and as soon as it exploded they entered the bedroom. It
took out one of the occupants of the bedroom in the process.

“
I surrender, I surrender”
came the voice of Wasir who was in a state of shock, naked with his
hands in the air by the side of the dead companion who had been
sharing his bed. Another innocent caught in the wrong place at the
wrong time.

“
We have VIPER!” cried Igor
into his mic.

“
OCHISTIT,” came the similar
call from one the men who had just cleared the on suite bathroom.
Just as he did so, Thomas walked into the bedroom.

Terrified, Wasir looked up towards him with
his hands on his head as he did so he proceed to pee himself with
anxiety.

“
I surrender!” he said,
hoping it was enough to save his life as he focused on the man in
front of him taking off his mask.

The sounds of the Imams calling to dawn
prayers began to ring out across the small city and ripple through
the air as Wasir suddenly recognized the eyes staring back at
him.

“
Englishman!” he said
shocked, the strange looking knife he had spotted in his mind, as
he felt his head being violently grabbed upwards by
Thomas.

“
Please, I beg!” offered
Wasir weakly but loudly towards Thomas, whose eyes were like a
demon.

“
Seniň mertebe bolmak meniň
mertebe!” Thomas whispered in prayer towards the woman he loved as
he took the head of Wasir from his torso in one movement with his
Kukri.

Epilogue

The death of the infamous warlord in
Mauritania made news across the world. Much was made off the fact
that his beheaded body was found but not his head. Speculation was
rife amongst the bloggers of the world. Quickly followed up by
several media sources that he had been taken out by Russian Special
Forces in retaliation to the events that took place in
Adwalland.

The media tried in vain through a full
frontal assault of James Weston to get a comment from the famous
Oligarch on the death before disappointingly giving up when told by
the PR Man that he would not be making any comment.

Standing over the grave of her lost love in
the small village crying, was Rebecca, for earlier in the morning a
special delivery had arrived at her parents’ house in St. John’s
Wood.

“
Rebecca I have a delivery
for you that came by courier,” her Mother had informed her down the
phone.

Immediately the alert intelligence officer
had told her not to open it.

“
Does it have a sender,
Mummy?” Rebecca had asked quickly before she got ready to make a
call to the Service to advise a suspect package had just been
delivered to her parents’ home.

“
It says it’s from Sir
Thomas Litchfield, darling,” her mother had answered slightly
confused. “I didn’t know you knew him,” she had then said in
reference to the fact the man had been all over the
news.

A now much relieved Rebecca told her not to
worry, and said she would be around to collect it later after
making up a story that it was related a trade delegation trip she
was setting up.

“
Oh I see!” her mother had
said. “Why did he send it here?”

“
His assistant must have got
the wrong address,” Rebecca had said guiltily because she was lying
to her mother. Maybe it was time to tell them the truth.

She sat in her car emotionally drained after
having finally told her parents the truth as to what job she did,
yet feeling much better because her parents had told her how proud
they were of her and had forgiven her for lying to them all these
years. She had opened the package to find a dark polished walnut
box, very similar to a cigar box.