Jean and Dirk go up the mountain
he wanted to find out if the tiger in Jungle Book was named for it, he knew it was an old Emir of Afghanistan.
What it was now is a serious wild, wild west border town near Tajikistan. Just about every unsavory activity
known to man was being plotted and conducted in and around Shir Khan which sat at one of the first
crossroads of actual road after the smuggler's trails from the other side.
Akhnard had a villa on a hill and there were 20 or thirty gunslingers there involved in laying around watching
porno when they pulled up. Jean then informed them in an icy, profanity laden tirade what, other than porno,
they could make use of their time to do and a serious amount of steppin' and fetchin' started. As the gunners
assumed more useful functions Jean and Dirk sat down to sip some hot chai and plan the next leg of their trek.
"Akhnard mentioned he wasn't real fond of having the fellas sitting on the mountains this morning" Dirk told
him.
"Yes well I assume he thought they were occupied with something other than scubbing their carrots. No those
clowns will maintain at least two men here" He said pointing to a hilltop on the map overlooking the exits of
the two most traveled trails entering the country. "We will also put those new sensors a few klicks up each trail
so the clowns will have time to wake up before someone walks right past them. I told them all to pack for a
couple of days and while you and I set up the surveillance point they can take a walk to Tajikistan and back to
see what is up."
"Sounds good dude, I'll get the sensors out and test them." Dirk had no clue how these new gadgets worked
but they were certainly fancy. They had both acoustic and motion sensors and could evaluate the sounds of
a passing party to determine if they were walking, on horses, pushing mules, or bicycles, or driving and also
how many they were and how fast they were moving. They then shoot a message to a base station about who
is coming and when, which Dirk thought is some good shit to know. The batteries were good for about two
weeks and then the clowns had a walk to replace them.
Jean stomped off and assembled the clowns in the main room of the villa and began instructing them in their
mission. "It pains me to have to entrust such an important mission to the dogs in front of me, but nonetheless
you will perform it or I will sell you to the fucking Chechnyans. We near harvest and we have two possible
problems. One is the fucking Tajik Romanov may try to send a party over to steal our fucking opium and I
don't want that and neither do you. The second is that the fucking Tajik government may try to steal our
opium before we can get it to Dushanbe and you don't want that to happen either. So you will sit on the
fucking rock and watch every fucking thing that fucking passes. Every goat, every dog of a Tajik, every
Afghan smuggler and you will take their pictures and you will send them to me so I know who the fuck they
are. Any questions good no. Omar you and Sayeed go see Sergeant Dirk and he will school you on the
sensors, the rest of you be ready to march in 30 minutes."
Dirk looked up to see Omar and Sayeed wander in. "Sit down fellas and let me show you the goods. This little
sucker will tell you not just that someone is coming but exactly who and what time they will be to your position."
"How do it know, Sergeant Dirk, how do it know that? Omar asked.
"I don't fucking know dude but watch this. I set it up just across from your hooch so it should count all your
boys when they head out." Dirk fired up the base station and it's green screen blinked "ready". "Ok while we
wait for them this is the battery box and it just pops open and the battery slides out and the new one slides in.
Replace it after two weeks."
"Ok Sergeant Dirk" Omar piped up. Omar was a good motherfucker for an Afghani Dirk thought, although
treachery was ingrained into the fiber of the culture, he actually trusted Omar and since the kid spoke English
Dirk made sure he always got the choicest gigs.
"Once you teach the rest of the boys how to use this sucker you and Sayeed get your asses back here and
make sure I hear and see about every thing that goes through those mountains."
"Ok Sergeant Dirk I will make sure of it." was the standard response. About then the gunners began falling
out of their barracks and getting ready for inspection by Jean. seven of them rambled out one after another
and no more than a minute later the screen on the base beeped and blinked and Dirk beckoned Omar and
Sayeed closer "All right now when you get a message click this button to read it.
Foot
7
Dir
SE
Speed
2 MPH
Animal
0
Vehicle
0
It's pretty simple fellas, 7 walkers going that way and probably not moving fast enough for Jean huh?" Dirk
asked.
Omar and Sayeed both laughed and once Dirk was satisfied they could run it he sent them off to join their
buddies. Then he got busy packing the sensors for the trip into the hills although unlike the gunners they
wouldn't be walking, Oh no RHIP (rank has it's privileges) so they would ride a couple of beautiful horses and
their gunners would ride slightly less beautiful ones. With the saddlebags and rifle scabbards this part of the
gig perfectly matched the wild west flavor of the town and the game. They wouldn't be out more than half a
day so there wasn't much to pack. He did get his long rifle out since carrying a carbine in the mountains didn't
make much sense given the long range of most engagements. Most of the time the bad guys would spot an
enemy a ridge line or so away and basically just take pot shots at each other then head off cursing each
other's mother. Dirk's M24 system let him step out to 1,000 meters and expect to drop a man 9 times out of
10, which had proved useful several times since arriving here.
As Dirk walked toward the gate he saw Jean putting the boot, literally to one of his clowns, but it looked as if
they were ready to roll. "I want to know about every inch of the trails you go in the south one and come back
on the North. You should be back in three days and we will have the sensors up and you can sit on the
fucking mountain and dream of your days watching Asian Sluts in the villa, GO!" Jean ordered.
"We can ride whenever you want Jean, I packed for you and me and the Hakmeds are saddling all the
horses." The two gunners who regularly accompanied Jean claimed to have different names but when they
pronounced them Dirk couldn't hear any difference so they just became the Hakmeds.
"Let us go now then, because I think tonight you and I will head to town for some entertainment eh?" Jean
offered.
"No argument here" Dirk replied "My team sergeant isn't expecting me for a day or two anyhow." Dirk
pondered the idea because the kind of fun Jean envisioned usually involved pain and suffering for someone,
but as long as it wasn't him he didn't really care. He wondered how few things he actually did fucking care
about and the list extended no farther than his team and his Mom and sister. That was it sum total 12 people
on the whole planet he gave a rat's ass about, actually 11 because he couldn't stand fuckin' Moore the junior
commo guy on his team, not overly impressive and as the list dwindled so did his inhibitions about just about
any illegal activity. I mean the more he thought about it the less it mattered , for fuck's sake he was an active
duty US soldier and here he was helping a French criminal ensure that an Afghan Drug lord's opium gets to
market and that was his actual mission. Christ after that anything he did was a fucking misdemeanor.
They mounted up and Dirk remembered one of his team sergeant's favorite sayings whenever they headed
out anywhere "Violators mount up" which is a take off on the line from Young Guns "Regulators mount up" As
Dirk thought about it he wondered just how prescient MSG Belushi was. They soon overtook the gunners and
Jean used his riding crop to inform them they should pick up their pace. They began the climb into the hills
and Dirk took his train of thought to it's final station.
"I want in the fucking game Jean" he said. "I'm serious and I hope you'll help me but I'm doing it anyway. I just
got nothing going right in my world and no fucking reason to think that's gonna' change, there is no fucking
reason not to play. So what the fuck? "
Jean laughed and told him "I knew yesterday that you had already decided mon ami, if you are foresworn to
ruin then I will at least ease the passage. What is it that you think will be your contribution to the world of drug
cultivation and smuggling then? Will you retire and farm the magic flower here at the ceiling of the world? Will
you study the chemistry and process the raw opium and maybe make the black heroin that is all the rage? Or
perhaps like me you will be the muscles for one of the biggies. Akhnard is expanding I could surely use you,
what is your pleasure?"
"Shit I don't know man, I'm still in the Army for at least two more years and there is no way, I'm going AWOL
even my world is not that fucked up. I guess I figured I would just smuggle some of that shit to the States and
unload it for a pile of cash." Dirk answered.
"I see, and you obviously would be in a position to know someone with an urgent need for a large amount of
Afghani Black heroin no? Jean purred.
"Well that is the sticky part, 'cuz obviously I don't so I don't know what the fuck I am gonna do. How fucked is
that? Here I am wanting to break the law and can't even come up with a decent crime." Dirk said.
Jean laughed again and then informed Dirk "I have enjoyed working with you and as you reminded me
perhaps my own "go to hell plan" is not sufficiently fleshed out, shall we say. I have thought about your
dilemma and I will help you on the path to destruction."
"If you're not just fucking with me that is awesome Jean, I mean Christ I know I could figure something out but
working with you, that is beautiful" Dirk gushed.
"Yes I know, I do represent the creme de la creme of the criminal aristocracy, but that guarantees us nothing
so we must plan well." Jean replied.