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.“My Drill Sergeant used to shout at me for not obeying orders.”He grinned.“And when we graduated from Boot Camp, a few of us went to stay in Alaska for a week,” he added.“We built a snowman, placed a Smoky the Bear hat on it and named it after the DI.And then we threw snowballs at it.”Cami giggled.It had been a puerile joke by young men who had survived the worst that the DI’s had thrown at them, unaware – or unbelieving – why they’d been trained so hard and or why so many had been allowed to drop out and return to civilian life.In the years that had followed, Al had served in a dozen countries, each one populated by people who hated Westerners, Americans in particular.His training had saved his life, yet others hadn't been so lucky.or perhaps they had been the lucky ones.They were up guarding the gates of Heaven, while he was watching a small girl die in front of him.Her giggles broke off suddenly into gasps of pain, great hacking coughs that spewed a bloody mass across the bed.Al stared at her for a long moment and made up his mind.“Pray with me,” he urged, pulling Cami into a hug.She felt so tiny against his greater bulk.“As I lay me down to sleep.”“I pray the Lord, my soul to keep,” Cami echoed.“And if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord, my soul to take.”Al snapped her neck.Her body lolled back against his and he vomited, almost unwilling to believe what he had done.There had been no choice, or so he told himself, yet it felt as if he had crossed a line.Gently, he placed her down on her bed and closed her eyes with his fingers.Somewhere, he hoped her soul would find peace; if such a young child had committed any real sins in her life, the pain she'd suffered at the end of her days would pay for them.Or so he told himself.“I'm sorry,” he whispered to the girl’s shade.He thought, briefly, of drawing his pistol and following her into death, but he had his duty.The NYPD was critically undermanned as it was, even without officers committing suicide at will.“I’m so sorry.”Leaving a red flag to mark the house as a infected building, one that would have to be sterilised once the body was removed, he stepped outside and, waving to his partner, set off towards the nearest decontamination centre.His uniform was covered with Henderson’s Disease and he had to be decontaminated before he approached anyone who wasn't vaccinated.And then, he knew, he would have to report to his superior and admit what he had done.Who knew what would happen then?Chapter Twenty-SevenThe important thing to bear in mind about the Arabs is that they are the single most arrogant, the single most convinced of their own superiority, people on Earth.Forget the French, forget the Germans, forget the Colonial British.the Arabs are convinced that they are the greatest.They even consider themselves vastly superior to their fellow non-Arab Muslims, who are barely even considered Muslim.Part of this is that an Arab – particularly an Arab leader – can never admit fault or accept blame.It would be seen as a sign of weakness.-Ambassador Andrew C.MadsenRiyadh, Saudi ArabiaDay 30Ambassador Andrew C.Madsen heard the chanting as the ambassadorial car drove from the American Embassy towards the Saudi Foreign Ministry.The capital city of Saudi Arabia was no stranger to protests – all seemingly random, in fact organised by the regime and its clerical allies – and most of them were directed against the United States or Israel.There were Ambassadors in Saudi Arabia who had been known to quip that a country wasn't really important until the Arabs had held protest marches against it, a joke that had grown increasingly less amusing as everything Islamic opinion found offensive led to violence across the Arab world, directed at people who had had nothing to do with the so-called offence.“Death to America; God is Great! Death to Israel; God is Great!”The car turned the corner and passed the shouting protesters, some of whom recognised the American flag and took a moment to hurl their shoes towards the vehicle.Andrew didn't show any reaction; the car had been carefully built to be almost as heavily armoured as a light tank and it would have required grenades or high explosive to inflict any serious damage on the vehicle.The protesters temper tantrum didn't seem as if it was going to abate any time soon; the chaos in the United States and Europe had brought the radical fringe onto the streets in force.The nervous-looking policemen eyed the crowd, clearly wondering if this was the day when they would turn violent and lash out at the House of Saud.Andrew smiled bitterly at the thought.People had been predicting the demise of the House of Saud for decades, yet the Princes had shown remarkable resilience.They played the different tribes off against one another, supported a clerical establishment that imposed their version of Islamic Law on the civilian population and had an alliance with the United States that protected them against their hostile and envious neighbours.Even now, prior to Henderson’s Disease, there had been understandings between the United States and Saudi Arabia, a state that was an offence against everything America stood for.Now, he knew, all such understandings were deader than the dodo.He caught sight of a young bearded man shouting abuse towards the American vehicle and smiled again, knowing that the protesters would barely be able to see his face through the tinted glass [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]