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

maintenance crews came in and out of while working on aircraft requiring maintenance. Nothing looked out of place. There were two black closed vans waiting with their rear doors open. DJ could see from his window on the C-130 that the vans were security types with grated cages inside. Not knowing what was going to be required on this trip with the IBAR guy, DJ changed to his tactical vest and black swat coveralls and boots. He could always change back if the conditions changed. His duffel bag was getting lots of air miles on it and so far, it had been with him on every stop. Military baggage handlers are sensitive to baggage tags with the Homeland Security Agency emblem attached.
The Sikorsky Superhawk was sitting by the edge of the taxiway and the doors were open and the crew was outside waiting on their passenger. AS DJ came down the ramp at the rear of the 130, he was met by a blonde six footer in Camis who introduced himself and directed DJ over to the Superhawk. They could get details together while the chopper flew its mission to Pakistan. AS DJ climbed aboard the chopper, he saw five other individuals sitting in the seats forward all wearing full HAZMAT protective gear.
They lifted off and Tim Moore started his briefing . DJ was impressed with the sound level in the interior of the new Superhawk. As a standard practice when boarding a chopper, DJ had learned to pull his ear plugs out of the small container he always had on his tactical vest and place them in his ears. He was surprised that Moore did not have any plugs in his ears yet he had the small medical corps container hanging from his belt loop. Moore described what the Pakis had found at the bridge crossing and the scene downstream from there. They would stop there first so DJ could get a first hand look. Moore cautioned DJ on touching anything or going outside the decontaminated areas marked with the vibrant yellow and black tape without wearing protective clothing
“How large an area we talking about here?” Asked DJ
“Right now, we have the distance between the bridge where we think the bio was injected and the middle of the city of Lahore. About twenty some miles to the city and once inside the city, the river goes for another five miles through a cement lined canal. At the end of the canal, we have run some tests and it looks like the stuff loses its lethal effect after about twenty five miles of river travel considering this current and flow for this time of year. Nasty stuff. Some of the bio team that have been working on this today seem to think that it may be temperature sensitive.”
“In what respect? Does it accelerate or dilute or whatever you guys call it when it changes.”
“Dissipates. It starts to break down in the colder spots of the river and that is not very often.
“So this stuff can be controlled by lowering the temperature of the water and making it,fade?”
“Not conclusive at this time but Yes, it looks like if we could dump a bunch of colder water in on this contaminant it would halt the process somewhat.”
The Skyhawk started its descent into the LZ established by the Pakistani emergency teams. As the chopper set down fifty yards form the bridge that was still closed, DJ began to get the horrific picture of what this nightmare could become.
“We have the body of the young man that was in the back of the van that was caught under the bridge in a body bag over here. “
“Lets take a look at this sad piece of humanity. I want to see what someone that could do this to their fellow man looks like.” Cursed DJ as they walked to the area.
“Body is still pretty much intact except for the usual water damage. When this bio kills, it evidently just takes the life out of its victim by sucking the oxygen from the blood. Everything else remains unchanged. No rash, deterioration or unusual marks. When they opened the body bag, DJ looked at the corpse. The man was in his early twenties a bit younger than DJ and still dressed in the western Levis. DJ took out his satcell and dialed a number that Danny answered immediately from his desk in Arlington.
“Dan I’m going to take a satcell picture of this tango that was in the van with the bunch from Faisalabad and I want you to see if you can ID him. I know its not very good photo quality but we’ll have to wait on the crew to get here before we can use the better quality equipment. You ready?”
“Transmit DJ.”
He had just finished taking the pictures when Tim Moore came over to him and introduced him to the local EOC director who was just completing a call to the Military Commander that was airborne and on his way there from Karachi
The commander described what the scene was like here and downstream and into the city of Lahore. DJ was unaware that Badra had made use of the accident by making the video and claiming responsibility for the attack until the commander told him the story. The TV studio that first ran the video had made a public service warning the first ten minutes that got the film. The police confirmed that there was some kind of disaster happening on the upper part of the canal and started getting people to leave the area. This was not easy to do with his limited manpower even after they activated their emergency response teams. He estimated that as many as three thousand men, women and children were dead as a result of the attack. A small tribal village between the bridge and the city of Lahore, in a very secluded part of the canyon where the river flowed into town had been completely wiped out. Every person in the town had perished. The women washing clothes along the banks of the river, the people that had taken drinking water to their homes and used the water to prepare food. Cattle and goats as well as any pets that drank or touched the water were now dead. The International Red Cross had gone to that small tribal village as the villagers had no medical facilities or doctors. When they arrived it was, indeed a ghost town..
“Lets go over to the area where the van went over the side of the bridge Tim. I need to get this picture in my mind how this contaminant got dumped at this time. Was it an accident or was this their sick way of testing if the crap was truly as potent as advertised.”
“The areas pretty clean now according to my scrubbers Lt. But I would not pick up anything or walk in the mud of the banks of the river much, we don’t know what the lethal life of this compound is We need some more full cover suits here so we can recover more of the bodies.’
“Roger. We’ll be heads-up Tim. Thanks.”
DJ picked up his satcell and called head shed for either Danny or Penny. “Dan here Lingo, what’s up?”
“Bad scene here Dan and they need protective clothing for their crew here to go into the river and recover bodies. This is quite a way from Kabul and not very accessible. This disaster location is in a deep valley and would be difficult to make an air drop.” “DJ-we can use some of the new JPADS GPS guided chutes for that-no problem. Give me the GPS coordinates and stand back.”
“Make it happen Danny. Sheepherder out.”
DJ observed that the footprints and marks on the riverbank on the upstream side of the bridge were not disturbed much. The would-be rescuers of the young man had worked from the downstream side of the bridge. Something caught the eye of DJ in the afternoon sun. The banks of the rivers were usually strewn with rubbish and junk from the trucks and traffic crossing into India and it was common to see all sorts of items on the banks, especially after a recent flood or heavy rain, but this was rather unusual. It was a small hand made box with rope handles. It also had straw laid on the inside as if to cushion the now removed contents. DJ looked at the box a second time and decided he needed more help in placing this crate into the puzzle that was presented here but he was positive this crate was of significant consideration. He called Tim over and asked him to have his scrubbers test it for chemicals and then box it for return on the chopper with him to Kabul.
DJ’s satphone rang twice. It was Danny.
“Good news, bad news Lingo.”
Now even Danny had started using the nickname lingo that was hung on him when he first started the interrogation on the prisoners.
“I’ standing here with three hours sleep out of thirty six Danny, it won’t make any difference which you give me first.”
You remember the group of young recruits that left Tikrit Iraq your Da,…..The General had a file on? Your guy was one of them. Name was Amir Johunni. This is the one they called “actor” in the group.”
“Ok so he bit the bullet for Allah and there is one less tango to contend with. What else?”
“This is the part where our luck really turns brown DJ.”
“Just tell me Dan, let me make the analysis.”
“Amir was our asset in the group.”
“Great! Just when we could really use some direct intel where these guys are headed. He must have known that by this time in the operation. You think he was compromised?”
“You mean, were they on to him that he was sending-or supposed to send Info?”
“Yeah, something like that Dan.”
“Don’t think we’ll ever know that until we get another one of that bunch and they start to sing. Speaking of singing, smile, you are on candid camera—CNN to be exact. Look behind you by your chopper over there.”
DJ looked over his shoulder and saw the CNN chopper and while he still had the phone to his ear he asked Dan;
“How’d you know that? I know this satcell doesn’t transmit pictures that well?
“We have your area on satsurv for the next hour DJ, I just asked for a close-up of your area while I was talking to you. Incidentally, don’t be any too surprised if you start getting some spam calls from people here in D.C that will want to know WTF you are doing there. That all comes from the CNN camera crew so just thought I’d give you some no-charge heads-up on media relations.”
“I won’t be here Dan, I’m on my way back to Kabul to work on those remaining prisoners.”
“There you will run into CBS DJ. They found out we captured Raj and they made a b-line for the Air Afghan ticket counter”
“I’ll handle that when I get to Kabul. I assume that big brother eye in the sky you play with there is watching all the mountain passes and roads from Pakistan here into India-Right?
“I could make a lot of busts for the DEA guys if they wanted to know how the majority of the opium gets from Pakistan into India DJ but nothing that looks like our elusive nomands.”
“Ok. Keep looking. Now tell me who wants to look at my travel expenses or whatever back there. Any names I should know?”
“You’ll be just fine DJ—no problem. The VP, Sally O’Malley is a great friend of the Generals