ALLIES: ANACONDA WOLF RIEDEL - Smashwords

153 Pages·2012·0.66 MB·English

by  Wolf Riedel

ALLIES:
ANACONDA
WOLF RIEDEL
— § —
By Wolf Riedel
Allies: Anaconda
Allies: The Inquiry
Allies: The Trial (Coming Dec 2012)
— § —
Allies: Anaconda is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are
the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, events, or locales is coincidental.
Text, cover, maps Copyright © 2012 by Wolf Riedel – All rights reserved.
Cover photo - public domain from US Department of Defence
Smashwords Edition
Excerpt from Allies: The Inquiry Copyright © 2012 by Wolf Riedel – All rights
reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form by any process—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise—without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The scanning,
uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without
permission of the copyright owner is illegal and punishable by law.
eBook ISBN 978-0-9880766-4-8
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold
or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person,
please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this ebook and
did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then delete this copy and
purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
— § —
To Lance Corporal Jacinda Baker
From all Canadians who unreservedly honor your sacrifice and that of your comrades.
Table of Contents
Map 1
Map 2
Prologue
Part 1
Part 2
Epilogue
Glossary
Author’s Note
Acknowledgements
About The Author
Allies: The Inquiry Excerpt
Map 1 – Shah-i-Kot
Map 2 Southern Shah-i-Kot
— § —
ANACONDA
AN ALLIES Novella
— § —
PROLOGUE
— § —
Takur Ghar, Paktia Province, Afghanistan
Saturday 2 Mar 2002 0510 hrs AFT
N
orowz Mohamand remained seated on his ragged carpet facing Qiblah which from
here was towards the west. He held his hands cupped towards himself and offered a
Du’ah—a personal prayer—as was his custom after completing Salah.
“ALLAHUM-MA ANTAS-SALAM WA-MINKAS-SALAM,” O Allah, You are the
Author of peace and from You comes peace.
He continued to remain on his knees as members of his jama’at—the ever dwindling
congregation of his fighters—their Fajr, the morning prayer—completed, made their way
back to the field kitchen. The chai would be ready soon and there was plentiful flatbread,
nuts, raisins, dates and even yogurt. Their supplies had been increasing continuously,
meals being sent to the valley from a friendly village to the west. A great change from the
setbacks of the last few months.
It had snowed the last two days both here on the mountain and in the valleys below.
Up here the snow had not melted and lay about a half meter deep. In places a meter or
more had drifted in. Only on the steepest slopes had the snow slid off to expose the bare
rock beneath. In the western valley almost 800 meters below, the temperature was
generally above freezing in the daytime but up here, on the top of the tallest mountain in
the region, it rarely made it above freezing this time of year. At night it was always much
colder. Still, he would conduct ritual ablutions with water or snow and conduct Salah in