The White Feather- A story of infinite worlds

The Hunt Begins

“Where in the f**k is the god damn package?” Gabriel asked Tony.

Both of them were standing outside the hotel, sipping coffee and searching for a box since past half an hour. It was five in the morning and there wasn’t a single soul on the streets. The receptionist told them that the soldiers scanned the city at night and killed whoever they wished. Well, so much for being the 'safer' side of the city.

The truth was, the atrocities on this side were more than the other side. But the world didn’t know this, because the governments owned the media. The terrorists however, didn’t have this luxury and suffered massively on the digital scale. But the agents were safe though, because no one in the army dared to touch an American.

“She said it would be dropped at the hotel by this morning.” Tony said. He suddenly had goose bumps from the intense cold.

When asked whether anyone entered the hotel at night, the receptionist declined seeing anyone. But the truth was that he was simply too drunk to remember. So Tony decided to check the hotel anyway.

“I don’t remember keeping that box on the shelf.” Gabriel said, looking at the alien carton in his room.

Tony noticed Emma, who was sleeping on Gabriel’s bed. He looked at Gabriel and smiled.

“Heat treatment?” he said.

“Indeed, heat treatment it is. I gotta say, however absurd it may seem, that sharing body heat s**t definitely works.” Gabriel said and went to the box.

Tony was cautious and kept his distance while Gabriel opened the box, but he stepped in as soon as Gabriel started pulling out some files. Tony looked at it and couldn’t believe his eyes. This wasn’t just an intel about some petty general, it was a f*****g gold mine.

“This contains every movement of the terrorist army, ranging from Yusuf’s whereabouts to the secret test facilities!” Tony said, opening one of the files.

“And it was just lying here, waiting to be opened.” Tony said and scoffed.

“It says here that Yusuf’s base headquarters are on the far side of the city, inside the Khalq’s stronghold. Getting in should not be a big deal, but getting out alive, with Yusuf, is nearly impossible. If we are going to pull this off, we better think outside the box.” Gabriel said, throwing away the file.

“Don’t worry, we have time on our side.” Tony said and looked at Emma, who was starting to wake up after hearing the loud discussion and the sound of a file splashed on the table. But she soon started snoring again.

“Damn, she’s a deep sleeper.” Tony said with wide eyes.

“Yeah, you should have heard her when she snores. I personally prefer staying up all night rather than hearing an old tractor engine humming in my ear while I sleep.” Gabriel said and laughed.

“So how do we proceed?” Gabriel spoke again after some time.

“We must start with some recon missions around his territory and find out weak spots from where we can enter the premises, if there ARE any weak spots. As soon as we have it figured out, we have to get an inside man who will inform us if the plan changes at the last moment.” Tony said.

“How will we get someone from their side to work with us? They are extremely loyal people and even if any one of them wanted to help us, they would be too scared to lose their life if the beans were ever spilled.” Gabriel said, not understanding Tony’s approach.

“Then we take something which is more precious for them than their own life. You get what I’m trying to say?” Tony said.

“You want us to kidnap their family?” Gabriel asked with his eyes almost popping out of the sockets.

“Not all of it, just a kid or two who he loves the most. Grandchildren works the best in these scenarios.” Tony said and shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal.

“It’s gonna be really risky and someone WILL see us taking their kids away. And it isn’t very hard to locate four American tourists in Baghdad. This is not exactly a place which attracts a lot of tourists.” Gabriel said. I gotta say, the man had a point. And we better hope that Tony had a plan to solve this.

“Yeah, that’s why we’ll use bad men to kill bad men. It's quite simple, where there’s a war, there are contract killers. They would be more than happy to do this for us, provided that we pay them good. We won’t show them our faces and we will use public booths to call, so that we have no loose ends.” Tony said, shaking Emma to wake her up.

“What do you want?” Emma said in a low moaning voice.

“Wake up, snipers are supposed to be active.” Tony said, pulling the blanket off her.

“Yeah whatever, enough of the lectures. Go spread your wisdom somewhere else, Gandhi.” Emma said and pulled the blanket. She was surprisingly strong for a woman of her build.

“Come on now, Emma. We have work to do and less time to do it. Every second you spend in here sleeping, our agents spend in torture.” Gabriel said, brushing his fingers through Emma’s hair.

Emma cried again in discomfort, but finally got up after some time. Tony saw this as disrespect to his order.

“Looks like you’re taking orders from someone else now.” He said and smiled teasingly.

“Jealous much?” Emma said and darted out of the room.

“Damn! She wakes up in a really bad mood. I wonder how she became a sniper. That girl's a real firework.” Tony said, a little surprised by her reaction.

“So what do we do?” Tony asked in the afternoon after lunch.

They spent all morning trying to figure out a way to get a contract killer and choosing which officer would be their victim. They were in the meeting room now, and Tony was standing on the window, looking at the crowd of people walking outside while he was smoking a cigarette.

“We have to go and physically check out the area for ourselves to get a good knowledge. The blueprints will show the structure BEFORE the terrorist occupied it. who knows what they have done to the vicinity by now.” Olivia said.

“Americans will be killed as soon as they cross the 150 meter mark around the campus. And we can’t trust anyone else to give us the precise knowledge. Options?” Tony said again, declining the overly ambitious proposition.

“I guess I could hack a military drone and get it to fly around the area. It would be much safer and deeply accurate.” Olivia said.

“Yes, but in order to do that, your watch must be at least in a thousand meter radius of the drone facility. And to do that, we have to go to the government military base. And in case you are forgetting, I must remind you that we don’t have a clearance of that level.” Gabriel intervened.

“Yes, but YOU are forgetting that we have the most efficient pass of all time, capable of getting us almost anywhere in the world.” Tony said and turned around.

He was flashing the card he was wearing over his neck. And all of a sudden, everyone got what he was trying to say.

“Of course, we’re reporters. And reporters are supposed to interview military officials. That should get us close enough to the drone facility.” Olivia said and her face shined with delight.

This was a better idea than any of them had had all day, so Gabriel had no choice but to agree with it. And hence, they prepared to start off for the military base, which was on the outskirts of the city.

So they set off right then, to reach the base before the entry was closed. They rented the hotel car (it was the car of the manager’s wife, who had died some time ago and he didn’t know how to drive. So he decided to rent it out to make some money off the stupid Americans) and set off on their journey. And in case you're wondering, they were carrying real cameras this time.

“Stop the car right there!” A soldier said and kneeled down, pointing the M-16 rifle in his arms straight at the car's windshield.

They were standing right in front of the gate of army base delta, the biggest Afghan and American coalition army base in the country. The place was secured with electrified fenced on all sides and watch towers on every few hundred feet. It was immense, and was a spitting image of the army’s power.

“Hey, chill dude we are on your side.” Tony said, getting out with his hands up.

“Don’t come any closer. You are going to step away from the vehicle and we will search the car after we search you. If you move, we'll shoot and if you try to run or resist, we'll shoot. Are we clear?” The soldier said.

“Yes yes, we are absolutely clear. Come on guys, do what the man says and let's get this over with quickly.” Tony said and signaled the others to get out, and the latter followed.

“What is your business here in the military base?” The soldier asked after the agents were finally searched.

“We actually travelled all the way from America to interview Colonel Moses on the situation of the battlefield. Our plane landing was delayed due to some circumstances, so we couldn’t come earlier.” Olivia said, taking over the charge from Tony.

If you're a boy, you know that men can’t really talk sense or contemplate situations whenever they are around beautiful women. The poor soldier was no different. He was looking forward to questions and have some fun before he let them in. After all, it was boring around the camp with no new people and all. But as soon as Olivia charged on him, he lost his voice. He simply nodded and cleared the way for them to pass.

“Welcome, if you would have announced your arrival in advance, I would have made good arrangements for you.” Colonel Moses said, getting up from his chair to greet the ‘reporters’.

“It’s quite all right. We came at last moment’s notice, so I guess it’s nobody’s fault.” Olivia said, shaking hands with the colonel.

“So what do you want to ask me?” The colonel asked.

“Actually, we were hoping that you could show us around the camp while we ask you. The change of backgrounds would be more captivating for the viewers, and they would also like to see how well their army is prepared against the enemy with no morals.” Olivia said smartly.

“Funny you say that, because I was just getting ready for an inspection around the base. I would be pleased if you would care to join me.” Moses said and got up.

“It would be an honor, sir.” She replied and got up too, followed by her teammates.

“So this right here is the airstrip. We use it to land our cargo planes and sometimes the stealth bombers. It is one of the most vital resources in this camp.” The colonel said, walking alongside the airstrip.

“Attention!” A major in a cap yelled at his soldiers as soon as he spotted the colonel coming their way. They were cleaning a forklift, which seemed to have jammed.

“At ease, how are you kids doing?” the colonel asked.

“Perfectly fine, sir!” All of them cried in unison.

“Good, let’s continue on and now I’ll take you to our ammunition depot.” The colonel said, looking at Olivia.

After a lot of roaming and some bullshit, they went past the drone reserve, at a distance which was enough to get them logged into the system. They stalled the colonel in some interview bullshit which the rendering was complete, and then continued on.

“Damn! This was a loooong day.” Tony said, cracking his knuckles and stretching his back.

They were on the way back to the city and Olivia was scanning the car to see if the military intelligence had rigged any wires to the car. As soon as they were clear, she logged into the drone’s mainframe from the back door. Then, she gave it independent control, making it lose any contact with the base network.

“Well guys, now we have our ace in the hole.” Olivia said and smiled.

“Then it’s time for the hunt to begin….” Gabriel said and pushed the acceleration pedal to the floor.