| General Fiction posted November 17, 2018 | Chapters: |
...10 11 -12- 13... 
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The flashback story moves forward to 1991.
A chapter in the book Baker's Dozen
Flashback 3
by Bill Schott
End of the previous Baker chapter...
Looking back into the crate, he saw a detached grenade pin. Ivan's life passed through his mind again. Someone hollered the word 'Grenade', it may have been him. He thought of all the scenarios of grenade defense he'd ever heard or witnessed. As he ran out of the netting, carrying the bag of grenades as far from his friends as he could, he hoped that he would somehow save the day and live to tell about it.
Baker heard the explosion and smiled.
==============================
End of previous flashback chapter...
Barely conscious, Joseph saw the blurry image of the man in front of him, who kneeled down and pulled the bayonet from the corporal's pliant hand.
Managing to muster a bit of clarity within the venom-tainted haze he was in, Joseph muttered, "Didi mao." (Make it quick.)
===============================
Flashback 1991 Kuwait City
An Do moved quickly from building to building. A streak in the night, barely sensed, then gone; he had lived a life of midnight intrigue and secret situation altering, which had created change within a shadow world.
Armies had finally all arrived and had been staged in Saudi Arabia. The invasion orders would soon be given for the allied forces to wedge through the miles of land mines laid down by the Iraqis, and attack the multiple targets on the other side.
An's job was to silence any Republican Guard operatives who might have information that would compromise what was about to become Desert Storm.
On the northern end of the city, Greg Joseph pulled his K-bar out of the Iraqi soldier's kidney. The second slice across the throat would quicken the process. Another loose end had been neutralized, and the bait and switch, shock and awe would begin.
Having seen the Kuwaiti bodies suspended from light poles, entrails hanging six feet from the severed abdomens, there was little mercy in his veins tonight.
Both An and Greg had been hired to do the silent secret work that even the CIA and special forces found too risky or plain impossible.
Both men were around forty years old, but looked and moved no differently than when they had first met almost twenty years earlier, in Vietnam. They had saved each other's lives back then, and had worked together, off the grid, ever since.
It was just after midnight the seventeenth of January; the rapid dominance operation would begin at three a.m. An and Greg were scheduled to meet up in Green Island as soon as the major bombing subsided. They could enter the bay there and find a way across the twenty-five miles of water to Failakah Island east of Kuwait. Extraction had been arranged from that vicinity unless their mission changed.
Everything went according to the United Nations' plan and within a week, the major fighting was over and months of slow negotiations had begun.
An and Greg lived among the ruins on the island. Ancient stone temples were to be housing, and stranded Kuwaiti tourists, runaway Iraqi soldiers, and some Pakistani workers were the only other occupants.
"Ban van con no toi mot ngan do la." (You still owe me a thousand dollars.)
"C'mon, An. I must have paid that debt off twenty times by now."
"Cau da lam the nao vay?" (How did you do that?)
"I taught you Arabic."
"Ana balfel 'atakalam alearabiati. laqad ealamatni kalimat qudhrat fi
alsarianiati. shukraan ealaa lashi." (I already speak Arabic.
You taught me dirty words in Syriac. Thanks for nothing.)
"I introduced you to your first wife."
"Noi va»? hoan va»n." (Talk about payback.)
"Okay, listen, An. I have a new gig coming up in the Clinton Administration. I can toe-nail you in, no sweat-i-da."
"Clinton? No way! Dis easy war makes Boosh goot for four ma yeez."
"Hey, An. Ain't you heard? It's the economy, Stupid."
"Bain van con na toi mat ngan Ao." (You still owe me a thousand bucks.)
End of the previous Baker chapter...
Looking back into the crate, he saw a detached grenade pin. Ivan's life passed through his mind again. Someone hollered the word 'Grenade', it may have been him. He thought of all the scenarios of grenade defense he'd ever heard or witnessed. As he ran out of the netting, carrying the bag of grenades as far from his friends as he could, he hoped that he would somehow save the day and live to tell about it.
Baker heard the explosion and smiled.
==============================
End of previous flashback chapter...
Barely conscious, Joseph saw the blurry image of the man in front of him, who kneeled down and pulled the bayonet from the corporal's pliant hand.
Managing to muster a bit of clarity within the venom-tainted haze he was in, Joseph muttered, "Didi mao." (Make it quick.)
===============================
Managing to muster a bit of clarity within the venom-tainted haze he was in, Joseph muttered, "Didi mao." (Make it quick.)
===============================
Flashback 1991 Kuwait City
An Do moved quickly from building to building. A streak in the night, barely sensed, then gone; he had lived a life of midnight intrigue and secret situation altering, which had created change within a shadow world.
Armies had finally all arrived and had been staged in Saudi Arabia. The invasion orders would soon be given for the allied forces to wedge through the miles of land mines laid down by the Iraqis, and attack the multiple targets on the other side.
An's job was to silence any Republican Guard operatives who might have information that would compromise what was about to become Desert Storm.
On the northern end of the city, Greg Joseph pulled his K-bar out of the Iraqi soldier's kidney. The second slice across the throat would quicken the process. Another loose end had been neutralized, and the bait and switch, shock and awe would begin.
Having seen the Kuwaiti bodies suspended from light poles, entrails hanging six feet from the severed abdomens, there was little mercy in his veins tonight.
Both An and Greg had been hired to do the silent secret work that even the CIA and special forces found too risky or plain impossible.
Both men were around forty years old, but looked and moved no differently than when they had first met almost twenty years earlier, in Vietnam. They had saved each other's lives back then, and had worked together, off the grid, ever since.
It was just after midnight the seventeenth of January; the rapid dominance operation would begin at three a.m. An and Greg were scheduled to meet up in Green Island as soon as the major bombing subsided. They could enter the bay there and find a way across the twenty-five miles of water to Failakah Island east of Kuwait. Extraction had been arranged from that vicinity unless their mission changed.
Everything went according to the United Nations' plan and within a week, the major fighting was over and months of slow negotiations had begun.
An and Greg lived among the ruins on the island. Ancient stone temples were to be housing, and stranded Kuwaiti tourists, runaway Iraqi soldiers, and some Pakistani workers were the only other occupants.
"Ban van con no toi mot ngan do la." (You still owe me a thousand dollars.)
"C'mon, An. I must have paid that debt off twenty times by now."
"Cau da lam the nao vay?" (How did you do that?)
"I taught you Arabic."
"Ana balfel 'atakalam alearabiati. laqad ealamatni kalimat qudhrat fi alsarianiati. shukraan ealaa lashi." (I already speak Arabic. You taught me dirty words in Syriac. Thanks for nothing.) "I introduced you to your first wife." "Noi va»? hoan va»n." (Talk about payback.)
"Okay, listen, An. I have a new gig coming up in the Clinton Administration. I can toe-nail you in, no sweat-i-da."
"Clinton? No way! Dis easy war makes Boosh goot for four ma yeez."
"Hey, An. Ain't you heard? It's the economy, Stupid."
"Bain van con na toi mat ngan Ao." (You still owe me a thousand bucks.)
The flashback has leaped ahead to 1991. Desert Storm. An Do is the unnamed character from Flashback 2.
"It's the economy, Stupid." Refers to Bill Clinton's catch phrase for why Bush was being beaten in the polls leading up the the election which denied Bush 41 a second term.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. "It's the economy, Stupid." Refers to Bill Clinton's catch phrase for why Bush was being beaten in the polls leading up the the election which denied Bush 41 a second term.
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