Interdiction, W.Addison Gast [room on the broom read aloud .txt] 📗

box had been damaged and one of the glass jars was cracked and a green fluid was ever so slowly pouring from the side. She quickly pulled the two jars that appeared intact from the box and let the remains float away in the river. People had started a rescue attempt to get Actor from the entrapped van and were yelling to him to come to the window. Several men had entered the water from the opposite—downstream—direction trying to move under the bridge to free the young man inside the van. Now there were more people in the water trying to free Actor from the van. Badra quickly took the two glass jars and wrapped them in Goat’s jacket and started up the bank to the roadside. As the three reached the top of the roadway on the opposite side of the bridge from where they had approached, Haydar looked back to see if Actor had gotten free. He was nowhere in sight. Some people had positioned their cars and trucks as well as using flashlights to illuminate the area around the bridge.
“I have to get Actor—keep climbing to the road where it is not so slippery and we will be with you soon.” Said Haydar.
“No-No” Screamed Badra at Haydar almost financially.
“Let him be—he is dead” We must go-hurry”.
How could she know he was dead? In such a slight amount of water he was able to keep his head above the rushing current Haydar thought. It was then that Haydar looked back at the scene below on the riverbanks. People that had gone into the water were nowhere to be seen. Others were screaming that the people were being washed downstream and they were wading out into the river to assist. More people came out from under the bridge and were lifelessly floating downstream. Haydar could not get the picture out of his mind. It was horrible. He wanted to yell at the people;” Do not go in the water, you will be killed” But he knew that no one would understand.
A man driving a small stake truck with goats in the back was sitting back at the end of the line waiting to cross onto the other side of the river to Faisalabad when Badra opened the passenger side door and as the man looked over at her mud covered face she raised the nine millimeter pistol and blew out the mans brains. She then quickly placed the jacket holding the two glass jars on the floorboard and instructed Haydar, Goat and Ali Baba to get in the back with the goats. As they followed her instructions like obedient Rottweiler, she shoved the dead Indian in with them and ran to the driver’s seat where she turned the vehicle around and headed the opposite direction back toward Lahore. It was early Saturday morning when the truck entered the city. Badra had stopped by a long expansion bridge several miles from Lahore and dumped the dead driver over the side. It was an unusually busy morning and the streets were very crowded for this time of day. Then Badra saw the reason. The banner over the street entering the park read “FESTIVAL OF SHALAM AK AL AMAR RASHID today at the park. It was a local holiday where the population gathered at the park and celebrated the memory of one of the countries ancient warrior Kings. Lahore was not a popular place for the Taliban. It was the city fathers of Lahore that just two months ago turned over twenty Taliban fighters that had come to Lahore to seek refuge from the Paki and Afghan terrorist coalition. Badra was surprised when Haydar who was sitting in the rear of the truck with the filthy goats started banging on the cab and motioning for her to pull over. She did and as she stopped by a vegetable market Haydar jumped into the cab beside her. He was excited and talking rapidly and very animated.
“We can not be here. We can not take part in what will happen here today. We will be captured and executed immediately in the square if they find it was us who poisoned their water. We either have to warn them somehow or get out of the area. I do not want to be caught here and accused of the terrorism.”
“What are you talking about Haydar—make sense—what terrorism are you speaking of?” She actually did not have a clue what was about to take place! Haydar thought
“The stream—the river where we broke the deadly container that killed Actor—it flows directly into this cities central canal where thousands will be swimming and cooling off today. They will all die.”
The look on Badra’s face was both the realization that what Haydar had just told her was true and that there was no way they were going to warn the people of Lahore She decided on a different plan. One that would let her brother and sister Talabanni know that she was still very much in the fight.
“Get in the truck Haydar. Tell Ali Baba to come up front and ride with me in the cab of the truck.” Commanded Badra.
As soon as Ali Baba changed places with Haydar the truck pulled out slowly from the market place along the side street. Three blocks later, Badra stopped the truck in a small gas station and after filling the truck and getting some water for her passengers and Ali Baba returned to ride in the back with Haydar and Goat so that he could inform them of what Badra wanted to do.
The truck moved slowly through the center of town and then as the traffic became lighter and she could drive faster, Badra started looking, looking at the people coming into town for the festival. There was what she needed! It was perfect. The Pakistani grandfather was taking video of the kids walking to the park. They were all happily moving down the street together when the truck stopped thirty feet in front of them. The three masked youths in western clothing jumped from the back of the truck and grabbed the video camera from the bewildered grandfather and back on the truck. The truck sped down the street and turned onto the main highway exiting the city of Lahore. It was now almost eight am in the city. More people were coming into the park. Some were in the water already. The truck pulled over at the shaded area alongside the highway and Badra got out and walked with the three men over to a bench that had a stone wall behind it that was similar to many in the city. With the stone wall as a background, Badra had Ali Baba hold the camera on her veiled face as she spoke;
TODAY THE PEOPLE OF LAHORE WILL BE REPAID FOR THE DISLOYALITY THAT WAS SHOWN TO MY BROTHER TALIBAN RECENTLY. IN THE FUTURE WHEN MY BROTHERS SEEK REFUGE OR ASSISTANCE TO ESCAPE FROM THE INFIDEL AMERICANS AND BRITISH, GRANT IT TO THEM. ALLAH IS GREAT, ALLAH IS GREAT.
Badra removed the tape from the camera and was about to throw the camera in the trash can when a police car pulled into the shaded area. The officer on the passenger side immediately exited the patrol car and went inside the relief station marked MEN. Badra gave Haydar instructions and then as Haydar went inside the men’s room where the policeman was, Badra approached the patrol car with the officer inside. His window was up. He was enjoying the air conditioning and as Badra approached and smiled, the window came slowly down. Badra could now see that there were only the two occupants in the patrol car. The one in the restroom and this one. AS the officer looked up at Badra and returned the smile, the nine MM cracked twice and the officer’s brains splattered against the passenger window of the patrol car.. Almost immediately after the second report from the gun, there were three shots heard from the men’s room. Haydar came running out of the small brick building carrying the policeman’s radio in one hand and the nine MM he had acquired at the airport in the other. As they jumped into the truck, Badra placed the video tape on the dead officers chest and keyed his shoulder mike shouting; “ALLAHU AKBAR! ALLAH IS GREAT!”
They all returned to the truck and sped onto the highway and headed for the border with India

Chapter 18
Holding area for the prisoners, Mazar I Sharif

Oatmeal, eggs, fruit and buttered toast for breakfast in a combat zone is almost unheard of. But then, DJ was running the operation here and the team respected what he had done for them in the prior day’s operation. They knew he was a leader and leaders like a good breakfast with hot coffee. After a gentle knock on DJ’s quarter’s door, cowboy’s voice told him that “The pigs are here sir”
For some unknown reason, that remark had a ring of humor to it and DJ acknowledged the information and picked up his cup of coffee and was out the door into the main area. The soldiers had done well on making room for the squealing livestock. Around the bottom of the cell they had placed a series of sandbags that would confine any mess generated by the animals as best possible. There was a wooden feeding trough at the corner of the cell and it was filled with corn stock, tomatoes, and some unknown yellow substance that the soldiers said was left over chicken chow mein from the chow hall and noodles. The pigs were making quite a noise outside the front door and when the soldiers opened the gate to the rear of the truck, they all ran into the building. Their direction was confined to heading to the rear of the building by the sides of the iron bars on the cells. As they headed to the rear of the holding area where the cell door was open for them to enter, they were squealing and snorting at the top of their lungs.
So were the prisoners.
As soon as the fifth pig entered the cell, Scorpion slammed the door and locked it. The pigs were in the cell between the five prisoners and chomping on the corn cobs like it was the first meal they had been given in a week. Grunts, squeals and pigs sliding already in shit was the scene. DJ walked casually back to the cell where the first two prisoners that he had interrogated the day prior were climbing the cell wall opposite where the pigs were and yelling.
DJ told Scorp to bring him the prisoner that, the day before had nodded he would cooperate. This prisoner had done this while they still had their hoods on and therefore the others had no idea he had indicated his cooperation.
When they entered the interrogation room DJ noticed that the man had evidently showered and had on a clean set of orange overalls.
“Have you been fed?” Asked DJ in Pashtu.
“I have. Do not return me to that evil place with those animals. I am only a technician and not a Muhadeen. I have killed no one.”
This can’t be this easy. Thought DJ. I ask the guy if he has had breakfast and he starts pouring his heart out to me.?
“Well Punjab, you are on the right track. Yesterday you indicated to me that you had something to tell me. Lets hear what it is. You know that there are some things we know and some things we need to know. You will not know which so I will know when you are lying. Where was the woman and man headed that stopped by the room the evening of