The eighteen wheeler pulled to a stop in front of the bunker. Tommy was surprised when Cramer climbed down from the cab. He was smiling as he approached Tommy, as if they were old friends. His right hand was extended in friendship.
“One thing about you, Captain,” he smiled. “You are proficient.”
“Wasn’t nothing to it. There were only thirteen of them,” he stated frankly.
Cramer shook his head in amazement. “Only thirteen of them, he says! What a character. So, were we right? Is old Saddam’s treasury here?” he finished, turning serious once again.
“Come see for yourself.” Tommy replied, then turned and led the way to the stash.
Cramer stood in shock for a moment before he started walking through the underground vault. He nearly fainted when he saw the pallets of gold bullion and tons of diamonds in the boxes.
“You know I’ve been wondering about something for a while now,” Tommy stated in a bewildered tone, studying Cramer’s face seriously.
“Yeah, what’s that?” Cramer replied, as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
Tommy looked at him wonderingly, as if a light bulb had come on inside his head. “How in the hell did they get it all in here. I doubt they carried it,” he added.
“Oh, I doubt they carried it,” Cramer agreed. “So, there must be another way in here. If we look around a little we may find it, too.” he added, beginning to look around.
“Well, start looking Captain. We can’t carry it up the stairs. That would take us a month. And we surely don’t have a month. We’ll be lucky if we get a few hours,” he continued, beginning to search the wall in front of him.
Tommy was looking along the back wall. Something about the wall didn’t look right. He was no structural engineer, but something didn’t look quite right to him. “Cramer, come here and look at this. It doesn’t look right to me,” he finally said, believing he had found a secret.
Cramer walked over and Tommy pointed to what didn’t look right to him. Cramer agreed and they both began to look closer. Tommy was searching along the wall when he found an indentation that looked suspicious. He stuck his fingers in and felt a switch of some sort. He pulled it and the wall began to slide back. It concealed a loading dock with a hydraulic ramp and a forklift as large as he had ever seen.
“Well Captain, you win the prize,” Cramer said as he walked through the opening to the forklift. He climbed up on it and turned the key. It started right up. He turned it off and climbed down. “There’s got to be a ramp around here somewhere,” he said looking along the wall carefully.
Tommy had already spotted a red lever on the side wall. He walked over and pushed it to the ‘up’ position. The bottom of the wall began to slide forward and the top began to lower. The entire wall was a loading ramp. It continued to drop and level out until they were looking at the blue sky a few yards away.
They walked up the ramp and looked out. Then, turned around and looked down the ramp. It was too steep to back the trailers down and then pull the load out again. They would have to drive the forklift up and load the trailers outside.
Tommy saw another lever. He pulled it to the side. The wall began to lower more. The ramp was adjustable to fit the height of the trailer doors.
“Well,” Cramer smiled. “Looks like of Saddam was thinking ahead after all. So, the only thing to do, I guess, is to get it all loaded. Then skedaddle! Right?”
“Right,” Tommy said softly.
Suddenly he was feeling very strange about the whole affair. Something didn’t feel right about this. He was expecting at least a platoon of American soldiers to accompany the truck as guards on this much money, gold and diamonds. “Where are the guards for the transport?” he asked curiously.
“This is a ‘Top Secret’ mission, Captain,” Cramer replied smoothly. “The fewer people who know, the better. Right?”
“Right.” Tommy agreed, still hearing the alarm bells going off in his head.
“I’ll get the trucks around and start loading,” Cramer smiled, placing a friendly hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “Relax, Captain. You’ve done your part. Now, we’ll do the rest.”
True to his word, Cramer worked nonstop for the next three hours loading the eight trailers, stacking the pallets two high from front to back. He loaded four pallets of currency first, then four pallets of gold bars, then four boxes of diamonds. Then repeated the process until all eight trailers were loaded and the warehouse was somewhat depleted but far from empty.
The last two trailers were loaded with nothing but currency.
The pallets of gold bars had been so heavy that he could only load it one pallet at a time so it took twelve trips per trailer just for the gold alone.
When the last of the currency was loaded into the last trailer, Cramer and Tommy began to set thermal charges throughout the whole underground complex and set the detonators to ‘on’. All they would have to do was flip the switch and the bunker complex was history.
From a mile down the road Tommy and Cramer stood beside the trailer with the remote detonator. “Here, you do the honors, Captain. Conclude ‘Operation Clean-Sweep’. You captured it, you destroy it,” he smiled handing over the remote.
Tommy took it and then made a major mistake; he turned his back on Cramer. When he flipped the switch and watched the bunker blow, his own lights went out and he fell to the ground.
“Sorry Captain,” Cramer said, as Tommy slumped to the ground hard. “The fewer people who know, the better. Be thankful I didn’t just kill you. I’ll let the ragheads do that little duty for me!” he laughed, then turned and climbed up into the truck, started the engine and shifting gears with a roar, sped down the road, his double stacks blowing black smoke into the crystal blue sky of Iraq.
Chapter 3
When Tommy woke up, he knew he was in deep shit; up to the top of his ears, to be exact. There were no less than twenty Iraqi soldiers standing around him with their AK-47s pointed at his head. They each looked like a cannon barrel as he stared up them. Each of the Iraqi soldiers looked at him as if they would like nothing better than to slit his throat and drink his blood as he died. They seemed to be arguing bitterly among themselves. Then, after each had his say, he would look down at Tommy and grin evilly, with murder lurking on the surface of their eyes.
Tommy could only lay on his back and stare up at them in silence. He didn’t move, didn’t blink and most of all, he didn’t show fear. He knew the worst they could do was kill him. And they could only do that once.
However, if he could have known just how wrong he was, he may have chosen to make a fight of it there and then. But, ignorance is bliss and he lay there and hoped for the best. He didn’t know their best was hell on earth.
Finally, their arguing seemed to be done. At least it was over for the moment. He noticed one of the soldiers, he presumed the leader, looking at him earnestly. He stepped over and knelt down beside him. He spoke with a Pakistani accent. His breath smelled of garlic and sage.
“My brothers are very angry with you, American. They say it is not enough that you come to our country, kill our people, take our oil, deny us food and medicine, kill our leaders and Holy people; but now, you have helped steal our country’s wealth, as well! Money our President has earned in honorable ways and holds in trust for his people. My brothers wish to kill you and let your friends escape with the money they have taken. But, I tell them, you are an honorable man and will tell them where your friends take the money, yes? Is this not so, since your friends have betrayed you as well?”
“I do not know where they have taken it,” Tommy replied honestly.
The Pakistani soldier translated what Tommy said. The arguing resumed, both louder and more animated. They each cast evil eyes of hate at Tommy. They seemed to take turns kicking him and poking him with the barrel of their weapons. Finally, having reached a decision, the soldier knelt beside Tommy and said, shaking his head sadly.
“I am very sorry for you, American. My brothers
say you must ride the dead camel and allow the living camel to ride you. I am very sorry. If only you would tell my brothers where the money goes, perhaps, they will change their minds and kill you quickly.”
“I do not know where the money goes,” Tommy said, but thought, ‘If I live through this, rest assured that I will find out and vengeance will be mine, sayth Tommy LeSade!’
The soldiers picked him up roughly and loaded him into the bed of one of their pickup trucks. They all, as many as could be fitted into the bed of the truck, sat around him and used his body for their foot rest and also to hold him down. They then lowered the barrels of their AKs onto his body, trying to scare him he guessed. It didn’t work. He was not afraid of death. He was more afraid of what the very near future held in store for him. If the hand gestures some of the soldiers were making were indications of what lay in store for him, he was in very, very, deep shit!
He began to prepare himself mentally. He could not prepare physically.
There was no physical preparation for what he feared lay ahead. All he could do was endure, hopefully from a place very far away.
By the time the pickup stopped, Tommy was ten years old again. He sat on his toes and heels in a kneeling position if front of Master Chang, his martial arts instructor and mentor.
Master Chang, a North Korean, had been raised in a Buddhist temple in the mountains of Tibet. He was a master in the arts of self-defense. Not just the physical aspects, but also the mental. He had passed his wisdom on to little Tommy LeSade. He had seen in Tommy an empty vessel; a dry sponge that needed water to survive. Master Chang was the water that needed a dry sponge to fill. By filling Tommy with his wisdom and discipline, Master Chang insured his survival into the next life.
He had taught Tommy that the human body was in fact, two separate but coexisting entities. The body and the mind. Each could survive without the other. The mind used the body and the body used the mind. The body being the host of the mind and the mind being the master of the body.
Through years of practice and discipline Tommy had become a master of separating his body and mind. As he lay in the bed of the pickup he began to separate the two.
When the pickup stopped in a village he was completely divorced from his body. He existed totally inside his mind. He was unaware of the punishing blows and kicks from his captors. Instead, he sat silent in front of Master Chang and soaked up the knowledge and wisdom being offered by his mentor.
He occasionally asked an insightful question, then sat in silence and absorbed the knowledgeable answer.
Master Chang calmly told him what was being done to his body and how to accept it without succumbing to it. To succumb, he said, was to admit defeat and surrender.
“I will never surrender to them, Master Chang!” Tommy swore, his voice a pain filled whisper that was drowned out by the excited cries and loud shouting of his captors.
Some saw his lips move but had no idea what he was saying. Furthermore, they didn’t care what he was saying, they were busy preparing the ‘dead camel’ Tommy was to ride until he told them where the money had been taken.
The ‘dead camel’ was a fully stuffed camel penis. It was approximately sixteen inches long and as big around as a man’s wrist. The engorged head was nearly the size of a baseball. Tommy was to be slowly lowered onto the upright penis and skewered through his rectum.
He was unaware that he had been lowered to his knees. He was also unaware that he was being tied in such a way that he was unable to move his hips in any direction except up and down.
He was unaware that he had been weighted with sand bags around his shoulders. Each bag weighed approximately fifty pounds. He carried two in front and two in back. He was unaware that the ‘dead camel’ had been placed in position beneath him. It had not been greased or oiled. That would have made the invasion of his body less painful. After all, the idea was to create as much pain as possible and make him suffer enough to talk.
Or at least make him suffer; he was an Infidel Pig! An unbeliever! An enemy of Allah! And most of all, an American invader!
He was unaware that the weight he held on his upper body had forced him lower and had brought his anus into contact with the giant penis.
He was unaware of the pain and stretching of his sphincter muscle as the strength of his legs gave way and he began to be impaled upon the penis. He was unaware that only one hour had passed since the weights had been placed upon his shoulders.
He was unaware of the laughs and taunts, the smiles and comments, the pointing and exaggerations of the men around him, as they watched the entire process happen.
He did not hear or understand their comments. He was unaware of the periodic lowering of the rope that held his hands above his head, so he would slide farther down the enormous penis.
He was unaware of the knife slashes across his back and torso; bleeding him out so that he would lose strength faster.
Master Chang told him of the carelessness of his captors.
Master Chang told him to endure until his captors became relaxed and were convinced that he was beyond recovery.
Master Chang would tell him when to act and how to move to eliminate his captors, torturers, and how to escape.
He was unaware of the fullness of his body, as the large penis entered deeper into him.
He was unaware when his sixth hour of captivity had passed.
He was unaware that half of his captors had left and that half of those who remained were bored and falling asleep.
He was unaware when the eighth hour of his captivity had passed.
He was unaware that it was three o’clock in the morning and that he had been impaled for four hours.
He was unaware that his body began to slowly rise up and off the ‘dead camel’.
He was unaware when it slipped from his anus and his hands freed themselves from the rope binding them overhead.
He was aware only that Master Chang guided his every move and counseled him constantly in his recovery and escape.
He was not aware that his fourteenth hour of captivity had passed when the last rope fell free from his waist.
He only became fully aware when Master Chang released him and told him to let the killing begin!
When awareness came back into his eyes he was standing erect in the middle of the dimly lit room. Around him twelve Iraqi soldiers lay sleeping peacefully. In front of him dangled a rope. At his feet lay more rope and the giant, bloody and feces coated penis.
His rectum screamed with burning pain from the invasion. He mentally turned off the pain receptors there and began to systematically kill the sleeping Iraqis, silently and proficiently with his hands and feet.
He became a blur of action as he moved from soldier/victim to soldier/victim and sent them to Paradise, ending their life instantly and virtually silently.
One man made it to his feet. A side kick to his chest slammed him against the wall, and then continued inward to crush his sternum, rib cage and heart against his spine and the wall.
The rest died virtually painlessly from broken necks, skulls crushed against walls, crushed larynx and severed spinal cords in the neck, ruptured hearts and crushed temporal regions.
The entire killing spree lasted less than two minutes. The room was silent, smelled of fecal matter, urine, blood, death and raw meat.
Tommy stepped to the door, eased it open and peeked out. He looked left and right.
Outside, two Iraqis stood guard. They acted unaware of the slaughter inside as they looked up and down the street. They held their AKs at their sides by the pistol grips.
Tommy silently opened the door and stepped out. He looked left and right to insure there were only two guards around. That was all he could see.
He silently approached the men from behind.
They were completely unaware that death was upon them and he was furious. One of them saw movement in his peripheral vision, but it was far too late. They died instantly while still standing in place. H
e lowered them to the ground and squatted beside them. He continued looking left and right like a predator over its kill. He quickly searched them. They had nothing he needed. He stood and began walking silently down the deserted road and out of the village.
As he walked down the road, he entered each dwelling and slaughtered the adults without mercy, both men and women. He spared only the children. No one suffered, they all died instantly.
By sun up, he was the only living adult in the entire village, with the exception of one young woman in her early twenties. She hid, trembling and praying to Allah for deliverance from His Angel of Death who He had sent to punish His village for their unrighteousness. She stared at the white, blood covered American devil as he walked trancelike from the village. Allah answered the young girl’s prayers.
Tommy found a pickup with the keys in the ignition. In the back were his clothing and gear. He also found and took a brand new AK-47 rifle and a case of ammunition. In the cab were maps of Iraq. He would dress later, he decided, getting in the pickup and driving from the hell he left behind.
As he drove out of the village the young girl came out of hiding. She stood in the middle of the street her arms raised to Allah in supplication. She wailed her sorrow into the early morning sky to a God that failed to answer her most adamant prayer; ‘send lightning from the sky and kill the American devil that killed her family before he escaped to kill the rest of the Iraqi people!’
Now, a village of one young woman and twenty seven children alone, whom would all suffer the trauma of this night for the rest of their lives. Yet, they had witnessed not one single killing. However, they had found the bodies of the village adults and that was enough.
* * * * *
Tommy had been driving for several hours after leaving the village behind. He followed the map as closely as he could. He figured as long as he was traveling southwest he would eventually reach safety. He was not far from wrong.
He saw a large plume of dust in the distance ahead of him. He pulled the pickup to the side of the road and stopped to wait. He got out and armed himself to the teeth. If it was Americans he would be safe. If it was Iraqis he would be dead before the fight was over. He began checking the weapons in the back of the truck, they were all fully loaded. He began to mentally prepare himself for his death. He wondered how many he could take with him before they got him. He waited.