Nothing but Ashes

Skip Allen

Description

The U. S. government believes it has put an end to the Al Qaida organization. Little do they realize, though, how another threat is looming on the near horizon.

The brainchild of a secretive, rich, and ruthless power broker will take terrorism to a level the world has never seen. The third phase of the Phoenix Operation is his means to an end for eradicating the infidels and ruling the world from the throne of a radical global caliphate. He is preparing to unleash his deadly arsenal of conventional, biological, and nuclear weapons and vast jihadist army upon the U. S., and then the world.

Aware of the threat, a Russian intelligence agent meets secretly with a U. S. government leader. The agent suggests a provocative black op to counter the threat. The leader accedes to the agent’s plan, bowing out of any involvement in the op. Not entirely, though. In Nothing but Ashes, the sequel to Requiem for the Phoenix, Ryan Daniels, Matt and Annie Garret, and their forces return to engage in another death-defying confrontation. They must secretly vanquish at any cost the power broker and his organization before he can dominate the world and annihilate the infidels.

Sujets

• Thrillers
• Al Qaeda
• Jihadist
• Avian influenza
• Wahhabi
• Terrorism
• Al-Qaida
• Greece
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 29 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663254160
• Langue: English

Extrait

NOTHING BUT ASHES
 
 
 
 
 
SKIP ALLEN
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOTHING BUT ASHES
 
 
Copyright © 2023 Skip Allen.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
 
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.iuniverse.com
844-349-9409
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-5413-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-5416-0 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023911512
 
iUniverse rev. date: 06/26/2023
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 1
 
O n this warm summer evening, the No Name Pub in Big Pine Key, Florida, lived up to its decades-long reputation of being one of the most popular places to party along the chain of islands known as Florida’s Lower Keys. As expected, during the summer’s evening hours, it was standing room only in the place that catered to the beach crowd. There was, however, another kind of customer in the pub, blending with the crowd but not striking up a conversation with any of them. He was a grizzled, hunched over old man with a scraggly beard and dressed in rags instead of the laid-back clothing worn by the pub’s usual patrons. He had come to the pub for two reasons—to see the late news broadcast on the TV above the bar and have someone see him. Twenty minutes later he quietly sauntered across the barroom floor and nodded subtly at a man sitting at a table with his wife and another married couple. The man at the table just as subtly returned the nod. The reasons for his visit achieved, the old man, with a hint of satisfaction on his face, quietly exited the pub.
Khalid al-Qatari had disguised himself perfectly, playing the role of a disheveled, washed-up author and chronic alcoholic. A fitting disguise for hanging around in a community that would pay him no attention. The Lower Keys had a small population of destitute members of society, none of which were worth remembering. Not gaining any attention also meant he could live out his sequestered existence in obscurity. However, underneath his disguise was a six-foot, fortyish, sinewy figure of a man, with rugged looks, and dark wavy hair. His disguise, a necessary measure to keep anyone from discovering that he was a former Al Qaida terrorist and double agent with international governments and unsavory organizations throughout the world. After deciding to divest himself from Al Qaida, he helped the CIA put an end to the terrorist organization’s first phase of its Phoenix Operation. As a result of his action, he accepted the CIA’s offer to live under its protection program.
His life had changed dramatically, now free of the threat of retribution from his former employer. Along with the program’s protection, the CIA provided him with more than just his basic living needs. He had a secluded, rundown, single-family house bordered by a mangrove row, generous monthly stipend, a dilapidated, 20-foot flat bottom boat with two outboard motors, and a secure satellite communications system. The latter item was essential to the role he had to play. The system enabled him to communicate regularly with a cadre of other operatives throughout the world, the CIA, and the president’s national security advisor.
The one thing the CIA wanted in return for their generosity was his being a consistent source of credible and verifiable intelligence that he could obtain from his considerable number of sources. More importantly, he had to help without question, from the confines of his Lower Keys abode, the U.S. government, and its allies’ efforts to fight terrorism throughout the world. Unfortunately, dealing with the growing dreariness of his sequestration was something the former Al Qaida terrorist found harrowing. As the months in the program turned into less than a handful of years, al-Qatari’s sequestered life in this prison-like environ had finally taken its toll on him. Living in a prison was not what he considered living. He found himself daily considering suicide. But he also knew that ending his life so foolishly was not the answer to a problem that had plagued him for two decades. Solving the problem meant his remaining alive. If only he had a means of escaping the CIA’s stranglehold.
As al-Qatari walked away into the peacefully warm summer darkness of the Big Pine Key evening, his senses signaled an alert. Confused by this unexpected but familiar sense of things, he first thought that Al Qaida had discovered his location and how the price they had put on his head was mere moments away from his having to pay it, in full. T his can’t be possible. During the second phase of the Phoenix Operation, his efforts had helped a U.S. SEAL team, accompanied by a handful of Greek intelligence agents, take out Saad bin Laden and his cohorts. They had been meeting in Greece to celebrate a hoped-for victory of their operation and plan its next stage. With their deaths, al-Qatari had believed the threat of retribution was something he no longer had to worry about.
He quickly scanned the No Name Pub’s parking lot for threats. There were none. But across the road from the pub was a Chevrolet Suburban, its windows tinted dark black. Suddenly, all the doors of the SUV opened, and armed men dressed in tactical gear emerged, followed by a well-dressed older man who said, as his small entourage drew closer, “That’s a good disguise, Ramrod, but not good enough.”
Al-Qatari—code name Ramrod— uttered in a clearly surprised voice, “ Osiris! You’re the last person I thought I’d run into in this part of the world. Tell me, my double agent friend, you didn’t come all the way from the power stronghold of Mother Russia just to have a beer with me at Big Pine Key’s No Name Pub.”
“No drinks for me tonight, old friend,” Osiris replied. “As you may have guessed I’m here on business. It’s extremely sensitive in nature and doesn’t warrant our trust in the allegedly secure satellite communications equipment the CIA provided you. Bottom line, officially you didn’t see me tonight, and with that caveat there will be no evidence of our meeting.” He paused briefly and then said, “Join me in the Suburban.”
They both walked quietly to the SUV and entered it. Osiris’s security detail closed the doors and stood guard outside the vehicle. Another member sat in the vehicle. Once inside, al-Qatari knew what would come next. Osiris would tell him what he needed to know and do, and al-Qatari would listen without interruption. Osiris got to the point without delay.
“As you know, with our intelligence assistance,” Osiris said, “the governments of the U.S., England, and Greece readily believed they had stopped Al Qaida’s second phase of the Phoenix Operation. They were thoroughly convinced of this by the deaths of Al Qaida’s leadership along with the prevention of the terrorists’ efforts to poison a sizable percentage of London’s population and detonate a suitcase nuke in Columbus, Ohio. Unbeknownst to them and the rest of the world, another threat has taken Al Qaida’s place. A threat that’s been brewing for a few years. It’s been waiting to appear and take terrorism to an unprecedented level. They have an arsenal of conventional, biological, and nuclear weapons that will devastate this world. They’ll begin their reign of terror here in the U.S. with a major disruption to the re-election of President Richard Samuelson.
“More recently, Samuelson may have accepted his party’s nomination, but he’ll never make it to election day. Senator Bill Cavanaugh, the president’s former national security advisor, Jack Goldman, and a group of clever investigative journalists have uncovered a multitude of damning evidence. They’re about to blow the whistle—with documented proof and credible witnesses—on the president about his illegal activities and lies he’s told the public for more than two years. His party and its delegates will soon react to a breaking story in tomorrow’s newspapers. One thing is certain, Samuelson will be held accountable for his underhanded, and clearly unconstitutional, ways of managing the Oval Office and governing the country.
“I’m here to tell you several things, though. One of them being how this effort by Cavanaugh and his cohorts, though credible, is a deceptive political move to get the party interested in giving the senator the nomination for the presidential run. Ramsi al-Rajhi and a secretive, rich international power broker are about to launch a plan to get rid of Samuelson before your nation’s election day. With him out of the way the party leaders will lobby for Cavanaugh to be their nominee. It still amazes me how Samuelson captured the nomination, all the while abandoning an influential segment of his par