Chasing Tomorrow Read online

  “Ah, yes,” Monica replied. She looked over at Kevin. “I see you have a camera man with you. I’m willing to talk to you, but a lot of what I say will be off the record. I don’t want anything released I don’t explicitly approve.”

  “You have my word. And yes, this is Kevin Baxter. He handles all the audio and video for me. We won’t record anything you don’t approve.”

  “Very well then, what questions do you have for me?”

  Arianna pulled out her notebook and held it up for Monica to see. “I would like to take a few notes if you don’t mind…for my eyes only, of course.”

  Monica nodded her consent.

  “Thank you. So what can you tell me about the cause of these demonstrations? We saw protestors in front of your office today. Are they related to your article?”

  “Yes, and no. I’m sure you are aware of the large influx of refugees coming from countries to escape the terrorists in their homelands. Yes, families have come, but there has also been a strong surplus of males between eighteen and thirty who have arrived. In the countries they come from, there are many restrictions on women and a lack of respect for females is the norm. Regretfully, these men have brought this misogyny with them, and it is causing many problems here in Germany.”

  Arianna looked up. “Such as?”

  “Recently, many women have been the victims of sexual assault. In the Arab world, there is something called, Taharrush gamea. Large groups of men surround women and grope and assault them. The women are taunted and have their veils torn off by gangs of young men. Sometimes it even escalates into rape. Taharrush gamea is a modern evil, and it’s being imported into Europe.”

  “Wow, that’s some game. Don’t know why they call it a game. It’s terrible, and you say this is happening here? What kind of numbers are we talking about?” Arianna asked.

  “Yes, during a holiday celebration this year, hundreds of women were attacked in one evening. Groups of men surrounded some women while a second group stood by and prevented passersby from intervening. The men groped the women everywhere…their chests, between their legs, everywhere. Some had their clothes torn away, and some were actually raped. ”

  Arianna had stopped writing and looked up in disbelief. “That’s horrible. What is being done to these perpetrators?”

  Monica shifted in her seat. “Oh, that’s the problem,” she scoffed. “The assailants disappeared into the crowd and avoided identification, so they were never punished. This has greatly divided our country.”

  “Divided it how?” Arianna started writing again. ”I would think you’d be united over how horrendous this is.”

  “Women do not feel safe anymore, and we are furious because little has been done to stop the attacks. In fact some have even tried to cover up the scale of the problem. Many women have been marching in protest. You saw one of the marches in my article. I must tell you however, to speak out against this is to be called a racist.”

  “Racist? I don’t understand. How could you be a racist for denouncing this activity?”

  “Unbelievable, but true. You see, some have sided with the refugees. One group said the victims brought this on themselves by dressing in a manner these men were not accustomed to. It is shameful…blaming the women. And another group said we needed to ban alcohol in order to prevent future attacks. Can you imagine…Germany, the home of Octoberfest, banning beer?”

  Arianna looked over at Kevin, who was shaking his head. “You’re kidding, right?” he asked. “They weren’t serious, were they?”

  “Oh, quite. Germany is divided between those who want to look the other way and welcome these migrants, and those who see them as a major disruption to Germany’s way of life and want them gone. It is very political, and protests have broken out everywhere.”

  “I need to get close to one of these protests so I can get some first-hand interviews. Is that possible?”

  Raul’s ears perked up. “Ah, hold on…you might want to rethink that.”

  Arianna looked at him and shook her head. “No, I understand your concern, Raul, but I have to go where the story is. I will go. You can do your thing and tag along, but I’m going after this story.”

  “You’re very brave, Arianna,” Monica said, “but be careful of when and where you go. You will be a target. And, also, if you report this story, you will make many people in the Muslim community very angry. You will become a target of their hatred as well. I know. There are protestors in front of my office every day because I dared to speak out.”

  “I understand, but I can’t let their intimidation stop me from doing my job. I’m going after this story.”

  Kevin looked over at Raul. Get ready. Here we go again.

  SYRIAN DESERT: OUTSIDE THE VILLAGE OF DEIR EZ-ZUR

  Two pickup trucks with ISIS flags moved closer and closer to the location where Zach, Tony, and Juan were sequestered under their combat burqas, the state-of-the-art stealth clothing which was designed to keep them hidden from sophisticated surveillance systems.

  “Keep your heads down, and trust this equipment to do its job,” Zach said. Designed to be impervious to infrared body scanning, if it worked, they’d be fine. If it didn’t, then they were sitting ducks.

  The trucks got larger and larger in Zach’s scope, and his heart was doing pirouettes in his chest. Safety off, he kept his finger on the trigger of the weapon, ready to fire in an instant. Sweat dripped off his face in the hundred degree heat, and as he checked the monitor of the RD 100 Hornet drone, he saw the battery was almost dead. He’d need to pull it back soon, or it would die and fall on the spot, alerting the occupants of the house to the fact they were under surveillance.

  “Whadda’ you think?” Zach heard in his earbud from Tony. “You think they’ve spotted us? I have the man on the right in my sight. Say the word, and he’s gone. Juan, you got the guy on the left?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Negative.” Zach said. “Hold your fire. Do you copy?”

  “Copy that,” came the reply from Tony, followed by an affirmative from Juan.

  The vehicles, several hundred yards out, came to a stop and a man got out of one of the trucks. He walked around to the back and put his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun. He seemed to be searching for something.

  “I think they spotted us.” Juan clicked the safety off his weapon and chambered a round. “You think they spotted us?” he asked again over the comm system, a sense of urgency in his voice. “I want to smoke ‘em, Zach. Permission to fire.”

  “Negative. I say again. Hold your fire.”

  “We have a visual on your pos,” the men heard Commander Haji say over the mic. Haji and his team at home base had been monitoring their movements from a drone above. “We don’t think they’ve made your position, but we’re going to create a diversion to pull them off you anyway.”

  “Roger that. Get on it, then. If they get any closer, I’m going to give the order to fire,” Zach replied.

  The man from the truck took a couple more steps in their direction, then stopped, pulled his pecker out of his pants, and started to pee.

  “Ooow, man” Zach scoffed. “What’s the magnification on this scope? This is more than I can take.” He heard a couple hisses and chuckles in his earbud.

  “Jesus. Come on, buddy,” Tony moaned. “Finish up and put that thing away.”

  Seconds later, an explosion was heard in the distance. Looking eastward, Zach saw a ball of fire and smoke billowing high in the sky. The man quickly finished his business, got himself back together, and turned to look at the eruption in the distance. Running back to his truck, he yelled at the other man, indicating they should go. Dust flew sky-high as the truck’s tires dug into the sand, and the vehicles sped off toward the distant explosion.

  Zach didn’t waste any time watching their retreat. As soon as the pick-ups drove away, he grabbed his control panel and worked to pull the Black Hornet drone back to his location. “Gentlemen, get your birds home before the
ir batteries die,” he said to Tony and Juan. “We need to get this batch back and send in three new ones.”

  Before they could retrieve their drones however, another explosion rang out. This time it was in the direction of Deir ez-Zur, right in the middle of the search area for the jihad executioner.

  “Holy shit!” Juan said. “What was that?”

  “Gentlemen,” they heard Commander Haji say over the comm system, “gather all your equipment and meet back at the extraction point. Mission complete.”

  “Say again,” Zach asked.

  “Target has been eliminated. Visual ID confirmed by the Black Hornet. RFID chip guided Predator drone to target. Package eliminated. You have movement your way, so stay covered and move to extract point immediately.”

  “Roger that,” Zach said. “Okay, fellas, we gotta go. Forget your drones. They went up in flames with Jihad Joe. Keep yourself covered so infra-red can’t detect us, and let’s move out.”

  THE SYRIAN sun beat down on the trio making their way to the extraction point on foot. The temperature was close to one hundred degrees, and the combat burqa added another ten degrees making the four mile trek grueling.

  “Hold up, guys.” Zach stopped and put his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. The arid desert conditions were quickly sapping his energy.

  Tony plunged to his knees. “I’m struggling,” he wheezed. “I’ve stopped sweating and feel like I’m going to pass out.”

  Zach walked over to him and poured water over his head. “You have heat stroke, man. You need to cool down fast.”

  Tony shook his head. “You need water, too. Save your water.”

  “That’s an order,” Zach said. He offered him a drink from his camel pack. “Drink up.”

  Tony downed the water and slowly rose to his feet.

  “You okay, man?” Juan asked.

  Tony nodded. “Yeah, I’ll make it somehow. We need to keep moving.”

  Zach started pulling his combat burqa off. “Look, we can’t leave these things behind and let this technology fall into the hands of those bastards, but we have to get out of them. The heat is killing us. We’ll take our chances on being picked up on radar, but we’ll never have the strength to make it out of here if we keep wearing them.”

  “Gladly!” Juan dropped his immediately, followed by Tony.

  “Okay, then,” Zach said. “Drag them along with you, and let’s go home.”

  Two hours later, the trio was relieved to see Masoud and Commander Haji waiting in two jeeps at the rendezvous point. Tired and dehydrated, they collapsed on the side of the vehicles.

  “Here,” Masoud said, handing the men canteens of water, “drink up. Let’s get some fluids back in you.”

  The recon team gulped down the water and rested a moment before feebly crawling into the waiting jeeps. As Zach sat in the backseat, he felt the onset of severe cramps in his hands, calves, and feet. By the way Tony and Juan were flailing about, he could tell they were experiencing the same thing. The hours spent beneath the heated covering, exacerbated by the long physical hike out of the desert, had taken its toll. All the men were in the throes of severe heat exhaustion.

  A physician met the jeeps when they entered the forward operating base in Kurdistan. Seeing the men’s poor condition, he said, “Let’s get these men inside the air conditioning right away. We need to start them on IV fluids and lower their body temps.”

  As they exited the vehicles, they were met with cheers from the people gathered nearby. Word had gotten around of the mission’s success. The terrorist responsible for the latest round of beheadings was dead, and the work of Zach and his team had made it happen.

  But Zach didn’t feel like a hero. Exhaustion wracked his body and cramping was becoming unbearable. He felt faint and close to passing out. Spending hours in the hot desert under the heavy anti-detection covering, being susceptible to detection at any minute, and having to hike out of harm’s way wearing the heavy equipment, had taken both a physical and an emotional toll on him. He was too spent to feel anything at all. All he could muster was a feeble wave at the men who cheered them, as people helped him hobble into the base’s infirmary.

  They led him to a cot and immediately someone slapped a blood pressure cuff on while someone else swabbed his arm, searched for the perfect vein, and inserted an IV. All three of the men were infused with a mixture of saline and electrolyte fluids. The fastest way to rehydrate and replenish the body fluids they’d lost during the twelve hours in the desert was intravenously. Cold towels were placed around their necks and over their foreheads as they lay on the cots resting.

  It didn’t take long before the IV infused fluids brought renewed strength to Zach’s dehydrated body. He turned to Tony resting quietly in the cot next to him. “You doing better?” he asked.

  Tony opened his eyes and responded, “Better. Oh, man. I was dying out there. And, hey, I appreciate what you did for me…giving me your water. It allowed me to make the last leg of the hike. I owe you, man.”

  “Not a big deal. You’d do the same for me.” They bumped fists. Turning toward Juan, he asked, “You doing okay, buddy?”

  “Doing well,” Juan replied. “They’ve filled me up so well in fact, I think my bladder is going to burst.” He signaled to one of the nurses. “Ma’am, can you unhook me so I can go relieve myself?” he asked.

  “That is indeed a good sign, sir. Follow me,” she responded. “Bring your IV along with you.”

  Captain Haji approached their cots. “Congratulations, men. The drones did exactly what we expected them to do. We have it on all on film. It was a confirmed kill. It will be all over the news by tonight. You men are heroes. We’re indebted to you for taking on this operation.”

  With a nod of his head, Zach acknowledged the words of praise. “Not feeling much like a hero at this moment, however. For some reason, I missed the part of the briefing where we were told to expect major dehydration.”

  “I’m so sorry, Ziryan,” Masoud said who had entered the room. “I’m afraid we forgot to factor in the harshness of the environment and the physical exertion involved. Are you feeling better?”

  “Much better. This IV cocktail is bringing me around quickly.”

  “We’re going to send you back to the comfort of your hotel in Irbil as soon as your IV drip is done, but in the meantime, we thought you might like to see the fruits of your labor.”

  “Sure. What have you got?” Zach sat up on the side of his cot as did Tony. Juan returned from the head and joined them.

  Haji wheeled in a TV connected to a computer and hit play. The image of a Syrian male eating a meal in a rather austere-looking room appeared on the screen. The drone moved from room to room and verified that, except for this man, the house was empty. He seemed totally unaware he was being observed, and everything looked completely normal, right up until the moment the screen went blank…the moment when the Predator drone’s missile hit the building.

  “That’s it. We got you, you bastard!” Haji said, slapping his leg. “Good job, gentleman.”

  “Thank you,” the three men mumbled and nodded in unison.

  “Time to go home,” Tony said.

  “Uh, yeah, right,” Masoud approached the group. “Go back to your hotel. Eat, drink, and rest, and we’ll talk in the morning.”

  Zach signaled a nurse. “I’m on empty. Can you unhook me, please?”

  The nurse took the tape off his arm, pulled the IV out, and pressed on the area to be sure there was no bleeding. She put a band aid on, and then began removing Juan and Tony’s IV’s.

  Zach stood and looked at Masoud. “Talk in the morning, huh? Just what is it we will be talking about?”

  Masoud shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, when you feel up to it, we have another assignment we could use your help with…if you’re willing, of course.” He looked around at the three men.

  Zach didn’t respond. Turning to Commander Haji, he said, “We need a ride back to town. Do yo
u have someone who can give us a lift?”

  “Sure. Right away.” He waved to a soldier in the back of the room. “These men need a ride to town. Go and bring a car around.”

  The trio followed the driver to the door. Before he exited, Zach turned to Masoud. “See you in the morning. We’ll talk.” He headed out the door and yelled back over his shoulder, “No promises, but we’ll talk.”

  COLOGNE, GERMANY

  Arianna disconnected the call. “Show time, fellas” she said to Kevin and Raul. “That was my producer, Shine, back in New York. I need to have a report ready to air in two days.”

  They had eaten lunch at the hotel and returned to their suite to freshen up before heading out again. “What’s Miller’s number?” she asked. “Oh, wait. Never mind. I have it.” She tapped his number in her contact list, and the call connected. “Dan,” she said when he answered, “you and your assistant need to meet me in the lobby in ten minutes. We’re on the move again.”

  “And just where are we off to?” Kevin asked when she hung up.

  “Duisburg. Monica said it’s a small town not far from Cologne. There’s a large refugee community there.” She threw her keys and notebook into a backpack and headed for the door. “I have Rashid’s interview, and Monica gave me permission to use bits and pieces of our conversation from this morning, but that’s not enough material. I need more immigrant statements.”

  She, Tony, and Raul took the elevator to the main floor and made their way through the lobby. “After we leave Duisburg, we’ll go to Cologne’s central train station. There’s some kind of carnival celebration going on. I’ll be able to interview many of the local people at that event. Altogether, this should give me plenty of material, covering all sides of the issue. I think my producers back in New York will be pleased with my work.”

  “Whew! Sounds like the next couple days are going to be really busy.” Kevin hoisted his camera equipment over his back, and they walked out the front exit, where Miller, his assistant, Bailey, and the rental car driver were waiting.