| From: | "Michael R. Goldberg" <mrgoldbe@**.NETCOM.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | A mind sailing free admist the sands |
| Date: | Fri, 14 Nov 1997 23:36:06 -0600 |
>>>>>[
+++++ include: Journal_Entry_1
[This entry is in handwritten Japanese.]
It's only been three days or so since I was home, but it feels like a
lifetime. The sun is as strong as ever, and the light feels good. The
night out was a busy night. I got into an argument with my friend. It
wouldn't be much of a pursued friendship, but her ex-husband implored
me to look after her and his child. We were discussing the realities
of my surprisingly new business opportunity. As it stands, if it
wasn't for the fact that I'm resolving favors and guaranteeing that I
will have the Yakuza's support in my other endeavor, I would have said
no.
I must say, it was quite a clever conversation because we didn't want
little Nicole to figure out what part of my former job was. So of
course, she (my friend) knew what buttons to push to make me feel
horrible.
I guess it was mighty convenient that kitsune was traveling out via a
route that took me across the path of an old associate. I repaid my
debt to at least her (assuming her barkeep passes the credstick along),
and be shipped out. Luckily for me, there was more than enough tension
within the sooty air to distract me from my normal concerns.
Kitsune lives up to his usual brand of magick. He told me earlier,
that we will be traveling most of the way in luxury accommodations,
which would deteriorate the closer we got to our destination. Frankly,
a Hercules is not luxury accommodations, especially, after air-to-air
refueling while strapped in backwards. On the plus side, he and I got
plenty of time to talk. We used the target language to try to help the
old kitsune learn the language better. After doing this for a while,
you tend to pick up the local language pretty quickly.
When we got tired of shouting, I pulled out my spare copy of the Koran.
I figured it was as good as time as any to peruse it considering I had
not much else to read, and where we were heading. Close to our arrival
time, we changed out of our civilian attire, and got into clothes more
suited for the task at hand. We then did one final gear check before
our jump.
The jump was about what you would expect jumping into hostile territory
in the dead of night. Since we were jumping alone out in the middle of
nowhere and there were no patrols from the heretic within kilometers,
it was a very peaceful night jump. About an hour later, we
successfully made contact with the Lieutenant, and met him at a meeting
site.
The meeting site was arranged by him, although we approached with our
standard caution. He eventually spotted me, and I him. He only
spotted kitsune after I had given the all-clear signal as if to no one
in particular. As we expected, our new commander took it well.
Another surprise that he doesn't know yet, is that I can speak a little
bit of the language he was using to elder kitsune and somewhat followed
the very brief conversation that took place before he switched to
English.
We quickly agreed that when making plans we should use English to avoid
any potentially fatal miscues. However, for the rest of the time, we
should use Arabic so that the others (the commander and the kitsune)
improve their skills in it. Since we all knew each other from hearsay,
we got straight to business. Our commander, already had the first
battleplan pretty much mapped out. He was to take out the command
center, kitsune was to cripple communications, and I was to create
chaos. It worked well, although I did not particular relish kitsune's
slightly late warning about dodging incoming grenade mortar shells. In
the disintegration of the enemies camp, we had ample time to escape.
Interestingly, beforehand, we were told to make contact with our
commander, and failing that, act as someone's eyes and ears in the
area. In meeting our commander, it has changed to sabotage the enemy
enough that the besieged mercenaries can withdraw, regroup, and
counter-attack. We are still debating the value of setting one of us
up in the main camp as a mole. Due to my linguistic skills and
knowledge of the Koran, it seems like I'm an ideal candidate. It will
become useful if we decide we need to remove the heretic Akbar. I will
loathe the day I have to convincingly state that I believe Akbar is a
prophet of Allah. Such is the price one pays for saving innocent
lives, then I guess I will do it.
Well, it's time to close -- Kitsune wants some sleep while the sun is
still up, because tonight as a deceased friend of mine said a long time
ago, "Tonight Allah wills the sands to run red because he has a
heretical follower who does more damage than good in his name. Who am
I to argue with the logic of such a great one?"
I couldn't fault his logic such as it was. It is hard to argue with
fanatics, which is of course, why I will kill some more of them
tonight. On their feet or on their backs, we'll make them listen to
reason. ]<<<<<
-- Midnight <05:34:22/15-NOV-58>
