The enemy of my enemy, p.1
The Enemy of My Enemy, page 1
The Enemy of My Enemy
Copyright © 2018 by Richard Caldwell
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN (Print Edition): 978-1-54394-728-1
ISBN (eBook Edition): 978-1-54394-729-8
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Acknowledgment
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Yana walked with a steady, somewhat brisk, pace along Constitution Hill, the path that leads from the shopping district, thru the garden park toward Buckingham Palace. She pushed the baby carriage easily over the gently sloping stone pavement that wound thru the trees and radiantly green, grassy, meadows. Hundreds of tourists ambled along in the same direction while some sat idly on blankets and lawn chairs in the uncharacteristically brilliant, morning, sun. Since it was Sunday, the “Changing of the Guard” ceremony wouldn’t start for another hour, but already the crowd was beginning to build. Yana had attended the ritual each Sunday for the past three weeks and knew the precise timing and routine followed by the New Guard and the Regimental Band as they moved from Victoria Barracks, up High Street, onto Castle Hill and into the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.
She knew the crowd would be thick around the front of the Queen Victoria Memorial statue and between each of the three front gates of the palace. It was important that she positions herself in a good spot in front of the winged statue and close to the path along which the New Guard would be marching as they proceeded to the palace gate. She wanted to be at the front of the crowd and as close to the procession as the horseback mounted police would allow. Although it was only mid-morning, the temp was already starting to climb. London, all of England for that matter, was in the middle of a major heat wave. There had been reports of infants and the elderly dying from heat stress.
Yana’s husband, Nizar, walked with her, just slightly ahead and to her right. They had immigrated from their home in Syria shortly after being married three years ago. Nizar was a software developer and worked at the London branch of HP. He was tall and, Yana thought, very handsome. As always, his beard was neatly trimmed and his coal black hair, sporting a razor-sharp part, was always carefully combed. Nizar was immaculately dressed in a white, button-up, Ralph Lauren shirt, perfectly creased, black, slacks and cap toe Alan Edmond shoes. Yana didn’t know how he managed to look well-groomed even when he first woke up in the morning, but she loved it. Nizar was selected for his position after working remotely, as an independent contractor, for the firm before they were married. Thanks to his job with an international business they came to the United Kingdom on a work visa rather than having to go thru the normal vetting process required of refugees. That process was longer, more in-depth, and fraught with the dangerous possibility of the Brits uncovering stains from their or their family’s past; and there were plenty of stains. As they walked, Yana reflected on her and Nizar’s relatively brief courtship and subsequent marriage. They were introduced by a mutual friend who later became what they referred to as their benefactor. She truly enjoyed Nizar’s quick and biting wit and his knowledge and insight into a wide range of topics in addition to those relating to computers.
Most importantly, she appreciated his willingness to talk with her, not just at her, like so many, really all, other men in her country. He would actually listen to her and seek out her opinion especially when it involved politics or social functions. Make no mistake, he was still the unquestionable ruler of the house and perfectly willing, and adept, at handing out the occasional slap to her face. He had even whipped her with his belt, or the cane he kept above the door frame in their bedroom when she did something to displease him. She didn’t mind though. That was an integral part of their religion and the laws and culture that was established around it. All of her friends and every other Syrian family that she knew of behaved the same. It’s who they were. However, the one passion that she and Nizar shared so completely, the bond that made them emotionally inseparable, was an all-consuming, white-hot, burning hatred for Shiites, Christians, all things western, and of course Jews. She wanted to vomit every time she had to ride a bus, or buy groceries, or anything else that brought her into contact with the infidel whores with their bare heads and exposed, lily-white, flesh. Like her peers, Yana had lost her figure immediately after Nour was born. It didn’t matter. She had nothing but contempt for the obsession that western bitches had for their bodies.
Their daughter, Nour, fidgeted a little bit but did not cry as they walked like the scores of other young families heading toward the ceremony. Nour was almost six months old and was beautiful in every way. She had lost her baby hair a few weeks after she was born but was now growing the same deep black, almost blue, hair of her father. Yana had rubbed scented olive oil on it before they left their apartment and it glistened whenever the sun’s rays sneaked thru openings in the carriage cover. Yana and Nizar had purchased the carriage at Harrods almost two months before Nour was born. Its top and sides sported the bright red and blue design of the British flag, the Union Jack. Everything at Harrods was ridiculously expensive, and this thing had cost a small fortune, but it didn’t matter. They were spending money their benefactor had sent expressly for the purpose of getting settled into London’s Kensington community. Even in their relatively modest flat, that required a substantial amount of money. Their benefactor didn’t seem the least bit concerned about how much money they spent on clothes, their flat, or anything else they might need. Well, Yana thought, that wasn’t exactly true. He was careful to warn them not to be too ostentatious. Both she and Nizar respectfully heeded his warning. The carriage had large, spoked, wheels with thin solid rubber tires mounted on flexible strips of aluminum one of which curved upward and one downward. This design served as a spring and mitigated bouncing when pushing the carriage over rough surfaces like the cobblestones on the older, quaint, streets sprinkled around London; all of Europe for that matter. The actual body of the carriage was quite large, almost a meter long and standing almost a meter high at the edge. It had a folding top that could be opened, or closed completely, to protect its precious cargo from the sun or rain. Right now, Yana had it halfway open, so Nour didn’t get a sunburn, yet which allowed the tourists and others to see the baby and make the obligatory “gooche goo” sounds that adults found so charming. Nour lay on a fitted mattress with two small pillows wedged between her tiny body and the sides of the carriage. Underneath the mattress were ten, one-kilo blocks of Czechoslovakian Semtex.
Leighann bounced down the stairs from the upper deck of the bright red “Hop On Hop Off” bus when it stopped at the corner of Palace Street and Birdcage walk. She and Heather got off the bus and studied the map they received when they purchased tickets for the day-long bus tour. They had arrived in London the day before to begin a twelve-day Globus tour of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. The tour was a reward they had given themselves after graduating from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, UAB. Leighann and Heather had both finished their Bachelor of Science Nursing, BSN, degrees and were waiting to take their nursing board exam in July. Leighann wasn’t worried, she had studied her ass off for the last four years and had managed to graduate with a 3.25 GPA. Heather had partied like a rock star and seldom cracked a book, yet the little bitch still ended up with a 3.5.
Leighann and Heather teased one another mercilessly, but woe to the person who said anything even remotely derogatory about one to the other. They were BFFs and when not in class, or on separate dates, were virtually inseparable. They had been randomly assigned as dormitory roommates in their Freshman year and had hit it off from the get-go. Leighann had been born and raised in Chatsworth, Georgia and instantly tagged as “Hillbilly” by Heather even though she was from an equally rural community east of Montgomery, Alabama.
Both girls were attractive, actually quite pretty. They were both slim with athletic, beach volleyball looking bodies. Leighann had short brown hair highlighted by streaks of what she called “sun bleached” blonde. Heather’s was equally short, straight as a board, and cut in what Heather thought was the cutest bob she had ever seen. They had decided to go on this tour of the U.K. and Ireland the summer after their Junior year while on a five-day visit to Cancun. A couple of those days were still a bit foggy, and they had decided that one visit to Senior Frogs was enough for a lifetime. It was sometime during that extended party, and under the influence of either Mexican weed, tequila, or both that they had
They had worked their butts off during the summer, after returning from Cancun, and on weekends and some nights during school to save up the money for this trip. It wasn’t outrageously expensive, but neither of their families was rolling in cash. Leighann’s dad did slip her $300 in cash when he drove them to the Atlanta airport. “You girls go out for fish and chips on us,” he said as he helped unload their suitcase from the trunk of his Nissan. Leighann’s eyes moistened at the memory of his gesture. She loved her parents and truly appreciated the sacrifices they had made for her during the last twenty-two years.
Leighann had applied for a job at Grady Hospital in the bowels of Atlanta, just north of I-75. She had been conditionally hired, and would also receive a $5000 sign on bonus, pending she passed her state Nursing Board exams. Heather had accepted a similar offer from Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. Grady is what is generally known as a “safety net hospital” since it admitted and treated anyone, regardless of their ability to pay. It also had one of the busiest, and most experienced, emergency departments in the country. Gunshot wounds, stabbings, attempted suicides, and heart attacks were routine. The saying among healthcare professionals was “if you have an emergency go to Grady, get stabilized, then get the hell out of there.” Hi-octane was precisely the environment that suited Leighann. She thrived on the adrenalin rush and the controlled chaos found in an emergency department.
Most importantly, she honestly, truly, wanted to help people, especially what she considered the downtrodden dregs of society. And there were plenty of those to go around in that part of Atlanta. Leighann would never touch a patient.
The girls were met at London’s Heathrow airport the day before by a Globus Tours representative and transferred to the Millennium Gloucester hotel in South Kensington. They were scheduled to check out tomorrow morning and begin their tour. The first stop would be Stonehenge. However, today was what Globus referred to as a “day at leisure.” They planned to see as much of London as humanly possible despite their raging jet lag and mutual exhaustion. After talking to the Concierge at the hotel, they had decided to purchase a 24-hour pass on the Hop on Hop off bus tour. There were three routes on the tour, and they could get off at any one of almost sixty stops and wander around. Top of their list was the Tower of London, Piccadilly Circus, and especially Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. The Concierge had explained that, since it was Sunday, the ceremony would begin when the Guard was assembled at 10:30 and begin their march to the front gates of Buckingham Palace. They would arrive there around 11:00. He cautioned the girls that because it was a weekend, there would be a huge crowd and that they should get there at least by 9:30. He went on to say that with so many people jockeying for a place to watch that it would be hard to see the entire procession and posting of the guard, but their best option would be to stand near the east gate and as close to the road as the mounted police would allow. He also warned them that the place would be swarming with pickpockets and they should keep their purse strap around their neck and shoulder and in front of their bodies.
Leighann kept running over the Consigner’s instructions as they followed the crowd from the bus stop, along Grosvenor Place and around to the front of the Palace. It was only a little past nine but the area in front of the Palace, and on the front of the Victoria Memorial, was already eight or ten people deep. There were three or four police on huge, beautiful, horses moving back and forth along the spur road, working to keep the crowd behind a movable, wooden, barrier and out of the path the Guard would be taking. Now and then the police would have to stop and single out an overly aggressive tourist to warn them to “take your cell phone” back behind the barrier. One of the police was a no-nonsense female who didn’t hesitate to move her horse “up close and personal” virtually pushing an errant onlooker back into the crowd. The crowd was a mixture of Asian, Caucasian of some sort, and a sprinkling of Indian, Pakistani, or from one of the middle eastern, Hijab wearing, regions. It was heavy on Asian and Caucasian and virtually devoid of blacks. Leighann had never seen so many selfie sticks in her life. Of course, hers and Heather’s added to that number.
The crowd, more like a mob by now, was constantly shifting as people exchanged one standing spot for another to get to where they thought would give them the best vantage point. Leighann and Heather took advantage of the movement and eventually found themselves pressing against the top rail of the wooden barrier. Across the street, directly in front of them, was an equally large, but more concentrated, crowd clustered around the Victoria Memorial monument. There was an odd, but not unpleasant, assortment of smells wafting up from the swarm of tourists. A mixture of sweat, garlic, nuoc mam, and horse shit. The palace mounted police didn’t bother putting poop catchers on their steeds. A cleaning crew always came by after the ceremony, but in the meantime, pedestrian beware.
Yana and Nizar walked thru the gate at the end of Constitution Hill and entered the street leading to the front of the palace. Based on their previous visits they had decided that Yana would find a spot for herself, Nour, and the baby carriage in the front of the palace on what would be the left-hand side of the band as the procession marched toward the east gate. She wasn’t concerned about being near the street. She was perfectly content to be in the middle of the crowd. Nizar would fall in with the viewers clamoring for spots on the Memorial. In Nour’s diaper bag, that he was carrying was four, two kilo, blocks of Semtex. As with the explosives in the baby carriage, a blasting cap was inserted in each block. Each cap had a short length of detonation cord linking its top to the top of the next cap. The last block of Semtex in the chain had an additional cap wired to a disposable cell phone. Packed around the sides of the blocks in Nour’s bag, and in the baby carriage, were hundreds of three quarter inch nuts and one-inch bolts.
Nizar had been astounded, during their earlier visits, at the almost total lack of security surrounding the ceremony. Sure, there were four mounted police, but they seemed only intent on keeping the crowd behind the barriers and the paths clear for the procession. There were also several; he had counted five, soldiers patrolling along the path who were intently watching the horde of cell phone camera-clicking tourists. Nizar knew they were there to stop anyone who started attacking bystanders with a gun or knife or like the lone lunatic who went after a guard at Notre Dame with a hammer. They shot him, like a dog, not fifty feet from the front door of the church. Regardless, no one stopped any of the tourists who were pulling their suitcases or carrying backpacks to the ceremony. This was especially strange on the heels of the rock concert bombing in Manchester and the AK-47 slaughter at the London Eye. The Brits were an arrogant, overly assured breed who seemed hell-bent to take whatever was dealt out and still “carry on.”
At precisely 10:30 a Sergeant gave the command to “fall in” and the Royal Band and New Guard assembled into military formation at Wellington Barracks. After being inspected by a Captain of the Queens Guard, they began their march out of the barracks courtyard towards Buckingham Palace. Each member’s left foot hit the ground with every beat of the bass drum as they moved forward with a perfectly synchronized thirty-inch step. There were a couple of new members of the band taking part for the first time today, but they have practiced the formation and the marching hundreds of times. They would make no mistakes.
A few minutes before 11:00 a.m. the procession makes a right turn from Birdcage Walk and begins moving along the street between the Palace and the Victoria Memorial. As usual, the crowds on either side of the road began to clamor for a look at the band. They jostled one another as they adjusted their positions to take photos or cell phone videos. Overall, however, the crowd is very well behaved and are careful not to step past the barrier and into the street. Of course, the presence of the mounted police and their constant admonitions “mind the path” keep the tourist horde from getting out of control.
On the north side of the Palace, on the far side of Constitution Hill, just outside of the park gate a man wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap stands behind a tall, concrete, fence column. There is a sign on the column warning those entering the area in front of the Palace to “beware of pickpockets.” As the Drum Major leading the procession makes a “column right,” the man takes out a cell phone and begins entering, +44 20 7730, then slowly, also to the sound of the bass drum, 4, 4, 6. The man steps behind the concrete column and presses 9.
