"Hell, I have the same situation at home you do," Matty said. "My granddad is into Bushido big time, but my dad couldn't care less. He's a software programmer down in the Silicon Valley. My parents are divorced, and my mom and I lived with my grandparents. My granddad belonged to a society that observed the philosophical and spiritual sides of Japanese martial culture. When I was about twelve or thirteen, he took me down to his club's dojo and signed me up for kendo lessons."
"Hey, man!" Garth said, laughing. "I know that bushido is the samurai code, but what's this dojo and kendo stuff?"
"Kendo means 'way of the sword,' and the dojo is the place where they practice and learn about martial arts," Matty said. "In other words, it's a sort of combination school and gym."
"My grandfather taught me the ways of the Plains Indians warriors with a couple of his old buddies," Garth said. "They even made bows and arrows the traditional way. They used to go down to a creek back home and get flint to make arrowheads. I really learned to respect those old guys. They were pretty good and taught me to hunt. They played up the stealth part, and I learned to move silently."
"That's like the ninjas, man!" Matty said. "I studied some of that too, but more of the spiritual side than anything else."
"You know what we ought to do," Garth said, "let's exchange some of the lessons we learned as boys. It could be a lot of help out there on patrol."
"Yeah," Matty agreed. "It couldn't hurt." He began replacing the sling on his M-16.
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USS COMBS
1800 HOURS
CARL Joplin and Commanders Thomas Carey and Ernest Berringer were alone in the wardroom. They had been served cups of coffee by a waiter, and they sat around the table in earnest conversation. The diplomat and the two staff officers had read transcripts of the interrogation of the two EPWs that had been completed an hour before.
"Well," Carey said, having finished perusing his copy, "once again Aladdin proved his worth when he told us about those Arab reinforcements."
Berringer, a trained intelligence officer, had a worried expression on his face. "Those EPWs said some things that scare the hell out of me. Evidently the Iranian Special Forces effort is stepping up. They must be running hundreds of Shiites through that training."
"Mmm," Carey nodded in agreement. "Those prisoners said there were fifty people in their group before twenty were pulled out to go to Afghanistan. And there were a lot more who seem to be stationed there and going through some rather sophisticated FTXs to get sharpened up."
He was thoughtful for a moment. "I wonder why they didn't transfer some of their more experienced men instead of the bunch that included our EPWs."
"I think they're saving their best-trained people for the big push," Berringer said. "There's something sneaky going on with those fucking Iranians."
"There is one big bit of information lacking," Joplin commented. "We have no idea just how many Arabs are in the Iranians' program, and we need to know."
"We can't even make an estimate," Berringer said. "They might even have some additional training camps or programs that Aladdin doesn't know about."
"Damn it!" Carey said. "I wish there was some way we could contact him."
"Forget it," Berringer said. "He could be sitting right in the middle of the bad guys.
He sure as hell doesn't want somebody to hear a transmission from us coming in on his commo equipment. I hate to think what they'd put him through to make him talk."
"I am certainly no expert in this sort of thing," Joplin said, "but it is obvious he is on his own."
"I don't mean to be disrespectful, Carl," Carey said, "but allow me to say that I've never been too keen on this mission we've forced Brannigan and his men to take on. I'm beginning to feel like we tossed them into a boiling cauldron."
"If things go wrong it will be all my fault," Joplin said. "I made a judgment based on my experiences in international diplomacy. It just seemed to me that the Iranians don't want to have a showdown at this time and in that place. In my estimation they want to keep it low-key so we won't make a big response to their presence there on the border. They also have the Israelis to contend with."
"Maybe you played into their hands, Carl," Berringer said. "I hate like hell to say that, but with time on their side, the Iranians could build up a big enough force to roll into Afghanistan and Pakistan both. That would give them a pretty strong foothold on the eastern side of the Persian and Oman gulfs as well as north of the Arabian Sea."
"Man!" Carey exclaimed. "The former Soviet Republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan might throw in with 'em. They all have Islamic populations."
"Hell!" Carey exclaimed. "Even the Chinese Muslims in the west might join their cause."
Carl Joplin, PhD, sighed and stared into his coffee cup. "Such thoughts have also occurred to me." He raised his eyes to his companions. "Y'know, I've not been sleeping well lately."
CHAPTER 9
OA
IRAN-AFGHANISTAN BORDER
17 JUNE-1 JULY
THE operational area had settled down to one of tense observation. The last shot fired had been by Bruno Puglisi on 17 June, when he and Joe Miskoski were in their snipers mode atop the hill over the Headquarters bunker. Joe was acting as spotter, using high-power binoculars to locate possible targets on the other side of the valley. He anxiously scanned the enemy position in hopes of locating a target for his partner. Puglisi rested his eyes by keeping them closed, and was ready to turn to the telescopic sight. He had spent a couple of hours seeing it had been properly mounted and zeroed in on his AS-50 sniper rifle.
After a quarter of an hour, Miskoski spotted a careless Zaheya soldier with the top half of his head exposed to view. The alert SEAL quickly pointed it out to Puglisi, who immediately sighted in on the man and pulled the trigger. The exact moment the firing pin hit the primer, the intended victim bent over to pick up a dropped pack of cigarettes. The heavy .50-caliber bullet crashed into the side of the fighting position, then ricocheted off with a loud, buzzing whine.
A prayer of thanks must have been given to Allah that evening.
Now both sides were cautious and vigilant, keeping low profiles along their defenses both night and day. Off-duty hours in the safety of the bunkers offered the only real security when meals could be consumed, reading materials scanned, and slumber enjoyed. The only thing that kept the combatants from sinking into a state of deep lethargy was the constant danger they faced. Those on watch in hours of darkness peered expectantly through the NVGs, while the watch commanders used night vision binoculars to search out movement within the flora and boulders strewn across the expanse of no-man's-land.
This was the tedious anxiety of trench warfare exactly as it had been from 1914 to 1918, during World War One.
.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
6 JULY 1000 HOURS
WHEN Dirk Wallenger returned from the three-day Fourth of July weekend, he had a special message on the answering machine in the den of his home. The communication, delivered in an Arabic accent, was short but important. "This is Ali. Please meet me tomorrow at the regular time. However, please go to the alternate place. Thank you."
THE next morning following the call, Wallenger walked up to the taxi stand where Constitution Avenue, Second Street, and Maryland Avenue converge. He was a short, dumpy man in his early thirties with a cherubic face that exhibited childlike qualities. This effect was belied somewhat by a pair of eyes that exhibited glints of aggression. Wallenger quickly spotted the driver he was looking for and got into his vehicle. The man, not bothering to ask for a destination,wasted no time in pulling out into traffic. He turned south on Third Street, going down to Independence Avenue, where he made a right turn. Now they were settled into stop-and-go traffic, where it was possible to move along slowly while conversing. The cabbie looked into his rearview mirror at his fare. "How have you been, Mr. Wallenger?"