Chapter 23

Hamid Damra wasn’t a curious man by nature. However, after dealing with Mr. Cee and Mr. Ess for months, he was curious as to which company had rented the big empty building. He pulled onto the large road and came to a complete stop. The quiet little place in the middle of nowhere was teaming with ... well ... it was teaming with an army.

There was a rapping on his door window. He turned away from staring at the planes parked all over the huge parking lot. He found himself staring into the barrel of a pistol wielded by a Jade Warrior. He muttered, “Jarjan save me.”

A Jade Warrior opened the passenger side door and climbed into the truck. The Jade Warrior said, “Drive over to the building.”

“Sure,” Hamid answered.

“Be quick about it. More planes will be landing soon.”

“You have the gun. I’ll do whatever you say.”

“Drive across the dirt. More planes are coming.”

Hamid drove across the dirt towards the big building. He wondered where all of the fuel trucks came from. Someone had installed gas pumps at the gas station and they were now filling trucks and tanks with fuel. He wondered where they had gotten the fuel.

It wasn’t long before he was ushered into the big building. It was a beehive of activity. There were soldiers shuffling down a distribution line that was set up like a cafeteria. Even while they were doing that, more supplies were being delivered through the bay door at the back of the building.

The Jade Warrior stopped in front of two very familiar faces. Hamid wondered if they were prisoners too until the Jade Warrior said, “Why don’t you two take care of this one?”

“Sure, Sword Tomas.”

“Hello, Hamid.”

“Mr. Ess, you didn’t tell me that your customer is the Jade Empire.”

“Actually, my name Shoemaker and I work for the Jade Empire.”

“My name is Conway. We’d like to thank you for building this airfield.”

“I thought you were crazy.”

“No. Just working to a different goal than what we told you,” Mr. Shoemaker said.

“I’ve betrayed Joma,” Hamid said sinking down to the floor.

“Actually, you didn’t betray Joma. In fact, you may have helped save Joma from a greater threat than the Jade Empire would ever pose.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s a sad fact that you soon will.”

Chairman Attar had plenty of warning that the Jade Empire was on its way. The planes had been spotted thirty minutes earlier, when they had crossed into Joma airspace from Palarma. He couldn’t believe that Palarma would violate its neutrality like that.

His security team was in the middle of evacuating him from the capital when the word came that the planes had turned westward and were headed towards Venu. He was at the front door of the presidential house, when he was called over to take a call from President Cham of Palarma.

He picked up the handset and said, “You son of a dog. You let them fly over your country to attack us.”

“Hello, Chairman Attar. Actually, I didn’t let them fly over Palarma airspace to attack you. Those planes are destined for Venu. After you hear what I have to say, you may want to send your planes into Venu.”

“So they aren’t here for us?”

“I didn’t say that. The Black Lord promised me that no man or piece of equipment that flew over our airspace would be involved in attacking Joma. One thing that I’ve learned from dealing with them, is that if they put it in writing, they’ll die before violating what they’ve said.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Don’t get too hopeful, now. They may be on their way there via a completely different route. We also know from experience that it is the things they don’t tell you that hurt.”

“Thanks for the heads up. I’m on my way out of here.”

“Before you hang up, let me tell you why I called.”

“I thought you just told me.”

“Venu has thousands of gallons of chemical weapons stored right across the border from you. I understand it’s mustard gas.”

The thought of a madman possessing mustard gas across his border was the stuff of nightmares. Omar Yilmaz would definitely use it. The troops on the border had never been issued protective gear. They would be helpless against it.

He cried out, “Omar Yilmaz couldn’t be that insane!”

“Yes, the Dual King is that crazy. You better get your men away from the border. Get them at least a hundred miles away. When that storage site is blown, there’s no telling what is going to happen next.”

“They are going to destroy the storage sites?” he asked.

Even as he asked the question, he knew that it was stupid. He had always thought that the Dual King was insane. The first piece of evidence was a stupid title that he made for himself. The man was neither a King by birth nor a Voice of Jarjan. Everyone knew that except for Omar Yilmaz.

“They have to. You don’t play around with chemical weapons, particularly in the quantities that Venu has stored.”

“I understand. I’ve got work to do if I’m going to protect my country.”

After hanging up, Chairman Attar turned to his head of security and said, “I’m staying here.”

“You’ve got to get out of here.”

“No. I’ve got to protect my country and I can’t do that if I leave here.”

He returned to his office and got on the phone. He called the War Building which housed the heads of command for the nations military. The War Building was located just outside the capital on the largest military base in the country. It took several rings before anyone answered. Normally it was answered immediately.

“Hello. You’ve reached Sword Miguel of the Jade Empire.”

“You’re already here.”

“Yes. We kind of expected you to show up here, but I guess you’re not coming.”

“I called to ask General Sherazi to pull our troops off of the borders. I imagine you already know why.”

“Smart move. You don’t need to worry, I already told him to do that. He would probably appreciate hearing that from you directly, though.”

“Can I speak to him?”

General Sherazi said, “Chairman Attar, we’re now on speaker phone.”

“About the border...”

“I already gave the order to pull away from the border.”

“I’m glad you did. What happened there?”

“They showed up at dawn on barges. The barges hit the beaches and unloaded tanks. They just drove over the fences, and onto the base. Then the paratroopers dropped in. There were thousands of them. We weren’t prepared for that kind of assault at all. They had complete control of the base, the port, and airfield before I was able to get even one unit out to face them.”

“I understand,” Chairman Attar said. He sighed and asked, “Do I go there to surrender the country or will you come here?”

“It is your choice.”

“I’ll come there. We have a war to fight. Venu can not be allowed to live.”

“You can not help. Your army isn’t ruthless enough.”

“Ruthless?”

“Empress Jana has ordered the complete destruction of Venu. There will be nothing left when we are done.”

“Jarjan!”

General Fox was taken completely by surprise. He listened to the Captain give his report.

“Joma has fallen to the Jade Empire. Our people in the capital saw tanks, trucks, and APCs moving through the city. The Jade army is marching west towards Venu.”

“How did they do it so quickly?” General Fox asked.

“They used barges to transport their tanks. They landed on the shore to the north and south of the main military base just outside the capital. They drove over the fences and parked in front of the buildings with their big guns aimed at the buildings.

“Paratroopers landed all over the base. They had control of the command center within five minutes. They had the airbase swarming with their men. Submarines showed up in the port. The Joma navy at dock there was helpless.”

“Where did the barges come from?” General Fox asked.

“It appears that they came from the northern port in Grete. People noticed that someone was loading large wooden crates onto a number of barges yesterday. There was nothing too unusual about that except a lot of people had thought the barges had been abandoned. They must have removed the wood that was hiding the tanks from view during the cruise to Joma.”

General Fox said, “They are tricky.”

“Yes they are.”

General Fox knew that he could be just as tricky. While the whole Jade Empire army was busy in Joma and Venu, he was going to be landing troops in Surprise. They’d have free run of the continent for several days, maybe even weeks. It wouldn’t take much effort to liberate the governments.

“Tell the base in Termal that they are to move out in two days.”

Prince Chang was in the command center watching the situation board. He was waiting for the time to start pulling his troops from the border. He heard some men laughing over in one corner of the room. Curious, he made his way over there.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“It’s a couple of Gangin scouts.”

“What about them?”

“Well, one of them pulled up to the border check point driving this beat up old jalopy. According to the border guard, it was a mess. Smoke was boiling out the back of it. It was half covered in bird droppings. The guards started razzing him about it. He proudly tells them that if you want to move with stealth through enemy territory, that you steal a car no one would possibly want.

“The boarder guards are still razzing him, when some guy pulls up to the border in a screaming red Laser 3000.”

Impressed Prince Chang said, “That costs about $350,000 at the dealership.”

“The guy driving it gets out. He’s another Gangin scout. The first scout asks him what he’s doing driving a sports car. The second one answers that if you have to steal a car, at least steal one that is worth stealing. It appears they are still arguing over whether stolen cars are spoils of war. The scout who stole the Laser 3000 says that he’s going to keep it. Out of the goodness of his heart, he’ll let the other scout keep his jalopy. It turns out the two scouts are brothers.”

“That is funny. I wonder who he stole it from,” Prince Chang said. “I’ve always wanted one of those. I wonder if he’ll sell it.”

One of the men looked up at the clock. He said, “It is almost time.”

Prince Chang said, “We’ll make the call at the time we were requested. We don’t want to make Venu suspicious.”

Intelligence agencies with spies are well and good, but if one needs to know what’s happening right now, the best place to learn that is from the news. By an odd coincidence, the Dual King Omar Yilmaz happened to turn on his television just as a breaking news story announced that Joma had surrendered to the Jade Empire after an early morning surprise attack on the capital.

He stared at the television thinking that this couldn’t be happening. His first thought was contempt for Joma. Then the implications of its surrender hit him. Everyone knew that Venu was the next target of the Jade Empire which had meant it was the southern coast that was vulnerable. All of a sudden, the eastern border of Venu was at risk and he didn’t have enough assets there to slow them down.

He shouted to an aide, “Get General Baris, General Demir, and General Karga over here, right now!”

The aide scurried off to make the calls. The Dual King Omar Yilmaz sat there stewing over what was being reported. Now everything made sense. The reason the Jade Empire had pulled most of their troops from the northern coast of Rasbi, was because they were moving them for an invasion of Joma. His troops were guarding an empty threat.

It seemed to him like it took forever for General Baris, General Demir, and General Karga to show up. From the expressions on their faces, he could tell that they had heard the news about Joma.

Dual King Omar Yilmaz started the meeting with the comment, “With Jarjan’s help, we will crush the nonbelievers. Praise be to Jarjan.”

“Praise be to Jarjan,” the generals echoed.

“They are coming for us through Joma. What are we going to do about it?”

General Baris said, “We’re going to have to move our troops up from the south.”

“What will the air force do?”

General Demir answered, “I’m putting our fighters on full alert. I’m going to put a tenth of them up in the air for rapid response. I don’t want them all up in the air right now. They’d run out of fuel and have to come back before the enemy would get here. We’re just going to have to wait until they cross the border.”

General Karga said, “I’m going to get our special weapons moved the minute I get out of here. We’ve got enough of them along the border with Joma that we’ll be able to slow down any advance they may mount. That will give our troops from the south plenty of time to engage whatever survives my attack.”

Dual King Omar Yilmaz said, “Get to it. With Jarjan’s help, we will prevail. Praise be to Jarjan.”

“Praise be to Jarjan.”

The woman in the wheel chair was setting up the flower stand for business that day. There wasn’t any rush. She tended not to have many sales until just before lunch time. Then it would be mostly young soldiers going to meet girl friends for a lunch date. Even then, she didn’t sell many, but it was enough that she had stay open.

A young officer rushed into the shop. He looked around and spotted the woman. He said, “I need some flowers in a hurry.”

“What’s the rush?”

“We’re shipping out tomorrow. I’ve got enough time to get home and pack my stuff before the base goes into lock down. I’d like to give my wife some flowers before I leave.”

“Well, there’s a nice big bouquet of flowers right over there. I’m sure that your wife will love them.”

“Thanks. You’re a life saver,” the young officer said.

It didn’t take long for him to pay for the flowers and rush out of the shop. Another young man rushed in and said, “I need some flowers in a hurry.”

The woman in the wheel chair was very busy up until noon at which time the base went into lock down. She looked out at the closed gates and said, “This is going to be bad for business. I bet my little sister would enjoy coming over for dinner tonight.”

She reached into her pocket, pulled out a cell phone, and made a telephone call. It turned out that her sister was more than happy to come over for dinner. In fact, she was on her way over right that minute.

General Demir stared at the radar screen in shock. He had never seen so many echo returns as were visible on the radar. The software was overwhelmed and couldn’t track individual planes. The tracks looked like a plate of spaghetti. The jets were coming in from Khung, Rasbi, Palarma, and Joma.

Every jet fighter that belonged to the Jade Empire was in the air headed towards Venu with the exception of a dozen older fighters left in Surprise and the jets on the aircraft carrier. The attack force had jets from Del Moray, Misera, Ismal, New Franc, Barmud, San Troph, Niella, Walford, Friga, Ulamb, Hamasada, Raspi, and Grete. All totaled they were sending over three hundred and fifty jet fighters into Venu to take care of forty eight jet fighters.

The aerial dog fight, if one wanted to call it that, was over in a matter of minutes. The Jade Empire air force then turned its attention to the helicopters and bombers that were still on the ground. They dropped bombs and fired missiles. When they ran out of bombs and missiles, they strafed any piece of military equipment on the ground that they could find.