plantation that Nadir had indicated.
“Damn, what a lot of traffic!” BAT FK23 Bantam said while he was preparing the equipment.
“Yeah, they all seem very agitated. All the fields look alike, the warehouse is made of the same material and practically invisible from above, but here, unlike the others, I can see guards along the perimeter,” Mark said, while handing the binoculars to Kamaal.
Suddenly, they heard BAT FK23 Bantam’s strangled voice, “Shit! Shit! Damn, a scorpion stung me, God, the pain! How could I not see it?!!”
Mark spun around and saw a scorpion moving out from beneath his leg, luckily it was a small one compared to others that lived in the area, and the injected poison would not endanger his life.
“Fuck! I am allergic to scorpions! I’m starting to feel tingling sensations…and sick. Hey, Li-2! You're a doctor!”
Mark ran to the jeep and returned immediately with antihistamines, adrenaline and cortisone. He injected his colleague with the cortisone and antihistamines without wasting time. Meanwhile, Kamaal followed the situation on the plantation with the binoculars.
“What do we do?” Kamaal asked, worried.
“Let's see how Bat reacts, right now we can’t move him without being discovered but I’ll wait to give him the adrenaline. And forget about a special rescue operation; that would burn the mission. Hey Bat, how are you feeling now?”
“I’m breathing better thanks, the bite hurts like hell, but I don’t feel tingling now and I’m not choking. My breathing is almost normal. What a mess!”
“Do you think you can go on? Or should we stop the operation for today and leave when you're able to move, greenhorn?” Mark asked, smiling at him and then continued, “I have to go and place the micro-cams and bugs.”
“I’m clear-headed, I can make it; the antihistamine is taking effect. I can take your place, Kamaal has nothing to fear.”
“I have to wait for a good moment. There are guards everywhere. It’s impossible to enter without being seen right now,” Mark said.
The right moment arrived at about two in the afternoon, when suddenly the guards all stopped to eat something. They gathered together on the right side of the warehouse, leaving the left side unexpectedly uncovered.
Mark entered the warehouse on his stomach. First of all, he took in the space around him and how it had been arranged.
After this was done, he began quickly distributing the bugs and, as he was placing one of these, he saw some VHS tapes in a broken cardboard box leaning against a corner of the room.
He picked them up: they were three old tapes labeled as three movies from the 1990s: Ghost, Nikita and Terminator 2.
Instinctively Mark grabbed them and hid them under his jacket, his demon had suddenly reminded him how his father had died, and that he was in the country right now where someone from the CIA, who profited from drug trafficking, had betrayed and killed him. He had to find a trail, alone and without leaving clues, parallel to the mission. Perhaps, those tapes contained more than just the movies on the labels.
“Li-2 move, they are returning to work!” Kamaal warned.
Mark placed the last micro-cam and crawled out from where he had entered the warehouse and rejoined his partners.
“There’s no trace of the Taliban so far,” BAT FK23 Bantam said. “It seems very promising.”
“They keep saying that they’re behind schedule, and must send the load to Peshawar as soon as possible, the Master cannot wait. Master? Of what? Who is he?” Kamaal asked.
At some point an armored military vehicle arrived with two people on board and stopped outside the warehouse. Two men got out gesticulating dramatically.
“Have a look at this,” BAT F.K.23 Bantam said. “Take the binoculars Li-2 and have a look at the guy with the black boots. His name is Abbas Faisal, but it’s certainly an alias. He is the head of the beta section of ISI...a Pakistani operative and an expert
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