Operation Arrakis: Dangerous Minds

by Majick

"Alone at last! Finally have the ship to myself, well, except for Zee and Raymond, and that's what locks are for.

"Stop, rewind. Start over."

"They've gone. Off to play at secret agents and soldiers.

"Stop, rewind. Start over."

"My friends have just left the safety of the Red Home and made their way toward Jerusalem. I would think that there's a good chance that at least one of them won't make it back. That's why I'm leaving soon, but it's why I'm here, now, as well. No-one else can fly this ship as well as I can. Come the end of this mission, someone will have to learn to.

"I don't have any plans for when I go. I have no money, no real education, no desire to do anything. Maybe I can become a priest?

"Previous log entries -582 of them now- have covered various aspects of Terra Group and my being a part of it. When these things are de-classified, maybe someone will be interested in the first fourteen months of this project. Maybe you'll just skip onto the Major, or the two Jedi, or Brad. Much more interesting, I know.

"This one is about me as well, a little. More, it's to do with the other members of Terra Group as they go on our mission. I shouldn't think there are too many mission logs that carry an on-the-spot record from one of the mission's officers, but there you go. Maybe it will be enough to get me into the TG hall of fame.

"We're in Jerusalem, in the Middle Eastern area of Earth -sorry, Terra- and it's not a country I'd care to visit by choice. Riven by internal conflict between the Palestinians and the Jews, the country, state, whatever has been the site of political and social unrest as far back as mankind cares to remember.

"In the middle of all this, a group of people I know and care about have gone, without any approval from any Terran government, into Jerusalem to try and capture advanced GFFA tech from under the noses of several eager, and probably heavily armed, soldiers and military types. Much as I may have accused Cochran of having a hair trigger in the past, I shudder to think what may happen if, say, Kristy gets in the way of one of the Arabs. It's times like this I realise I don't know enough about the people I've sworn to protect and defend.

"My dad was a policeman, long ago. He knew the area he patrolled. I don't. My beat is a planet, and I know nothing about ninety-nine percent of it. Maybe Sci should sponsor us to go off on tours of the world, specialising in certain areas, or just going for general understanding. What does some punk kid from London know about Israel? Hell, until I looked it up in an encyclopaedia, I couldn't have told you where it was in an atlas.

"So, this auction is going off soon. OzJosh and Captain Kristy are in position. The camera in Nolan's buttonhole is giving us a decent view of the room. I'll attach the footage to the log. Lots of uniforms, nice big salad bars on a lot of them. Facial hair means they're officers. Running a cross check on the US Foreign Office files as well as Interpol and MI6. Shooting that off to Nick back in Mendellia. He's got a better eye for that than I do. Pause log."

"Back and running. Nick reckons we have big shots from Iraq and Syria in place. Lots of plain clothes in the room, done up like OzJosh and Kristy. Surprised the uniforms are there. Gives them away, and it'd be pretty risky to wear someone else's uniform. Never know who might be keeping tabs, and an American can only pass for a Brit until he opens his mouth.

"Ah, Cochran's come in with his lady friend. Not sure taking her was a good idea, but maybe I'm just being over protective. Almost certainly not a good idea to pair up Cochran and Becki again, and Josh and Vickie would put both Jedi in the same room. I'm glad I'm not in charge of this mess.

"And there's Brad. There's one dude who looks at home. Chatting with that, let me see, thank you Nick, with that Israeli like they were old friends. Not surprising that the Mossad put a man here, provided he's here officially, of course. Any other faces we know?

"Not many women in the room. There's one mid level diplomat from India -probably a cover ID for their chief spy in the area- and Terra Group's girls. Both of ours are getting a lot of attention, well, not surprising, really, and that's never a good thing. Don't look too closely, boys. At least one of them is armed. You don't even want to think about the bodyguards they have.

"But if the girls tip people off. . . How well would Kristy's Australian accent stand up to close scrutiny? Or Lenka's American accent? Damn. But OzJosh isn't mission commander, and he's too much of a solo act to cover Lenka. Don't get me started on Brad the team player.

"So, we have a series of good people taking big risks. And for cover we have a half-trained Jedi and a Latin student. Joy of joys.

"Looks like Brad's getting somewhere. Going off with that Israeli and some other puke to God knows where. Shoulda just sent him in alone, maybe with Cap'n Josh for back up. I'm sure Cochran has his reasons.

"Switching to Cam 2 with EllTee Josh and Lenka. Getting some funny looks. Oh, no, wait. They're just perving on Lenka. Man, that's gotta be getting to Cochran. Unless. . .

"What if the sly bastard is freeing up Brad to do what he does best? Send in the pretty ladies, neither of whom presents much of a threat, and leave Brad to do the business. OzJosh isn't really mission capable, no matter what he says. It gives Cochran the chance to keep an eye on him, too. He's dumped me on watch duty, he's keeping Josh within reach. . .

"Hmmmph. Guess the guy's got more up top than I gave him credit for.

"Our teams are keeping their distance. Not too much, though. Don't make it obvious, boys. Mingle. Play the dumbass bodyguards to the girls, and maybe a pretty face will loosen a few tongues. No-one pays attention to bodyguards, and now I know why the Aussie and Cochran hit the tailors before going in. Dark suits? In Israel? They must be sweating like pigs, but I'll be damned if they don't look like knuckle-dragging bodyguard types.

"Show people what they want to see, and nine times in ten they'll accept it. Sharp. And Lenka and Kristy look good. Business like, intelligent, and going by the reaction of their fellow auction attendees, pretty darn hot. Nice one.

"Message from Vickie and Becki. They've found a good vantage point in a back street, and Vickie's keeping people away. So long as the bad guys don't have anything in the way of Force detectors, we should be okay.

"Man, Vickie's pissed at me for walking away. She'll get over it, I'm sure. I hated when Sci asked me to help her and Josh with their Jedi training. I went through all that in, what, five days? It didn't stick, and about all I got out of it was a bad case of sunburn and a direct link to the Boyd mind. Still, maybe I should have stuck with it. Might have drilled some sense into them.

"No, that doesn't sound right. I can't talk sense into anyone, least of all Cochran. Still, if I had helped with the training, maybe I could have stopped him building a new lightsabre for himself. Now he's lethal. Armed and extremely dangerous, and he's already proven that he'll kill as easy as zipping his fly.

"Can't worry about that now. Still, it does remind me. Becki said she left my lightsabre around here somewhere. With the right tools, I might be able to catch up on that thing I've been meaning to do. I'm sure I left my toolkit aboard last time. Yeah, here under my seat. Now, Becki said my 'sabre is. . . Got it. Looks like I have a few minutes. Pause log."

"Nothing to do with me this time. Mission's gone to hell. Evac is go. I think Becki said someone was wounded. Raymond is prepping the medbay back there. Jerusalem is in sight. Dialing cloak up. End log."