Phone App: Portable Armory Chapter 41: The Russian's Gambit: Part 17

"Finally, a good air conditioner," Lizeth turned on the air conditioner on Abdul's car. The soft breeze of cold wind hit her face. "Abdul," Lizeth poked her back.

"Yes?" Abdul reversed his car and drove out of the parking lot of the airport.

"Was that Tango's idea?" Lizeth asked him.

"Yes, it was," Abdul said.

"I have to teach that weeb a thing or two about common sense," Lizeth gritted her teeth. Abdul didn't understand shit. He continued paying attention to the road.

Abdul asked her, "We haven't introduced each other though. My name is Muhammad Abdul, I'm from Iraq National Intelligence Service. INIS," he stopped and let Lizeth introduce herself.

"I'm Lynx. Former 23 SAS. Nice to meet you, Abdul," Lizeth said to him. Abdul just nodded. He knew that he shouldn't ask too much.

The street of Baghdad wasn't as worse as Lizeth thought it would be. In fact, it just like an ordinary city with a thick military presence all around. Iraqi soldiers were patrolling the streets. Oftentimes, there was also some Americans military convoy.

The city of Baghdad was quite empty that morning since it was still 4 AM. They drove through the city of Baghdad and headed west while using the highway. Their destination was the city of Al-Qaim near the Syria border region. It had been a year since Islamic State had been officially destroyed according to SDF. Though, Abdul said otherwise.

"You know, for a big country. Not every single area in Iraq is inhabited. If IS makes a resurgence, I won't be too surprised," Abdul said. He was referring to the inhabited desert area of Iraq. He had a strong opinion that IS members were still in hiding around that area.

"Hmm, how long is the ride going to be?" Lizeth asked him.

"Hmm, honestly. Only six hours at most, but with preparation. It's going to take us two days to reach the city of Qaim. We will stop at Fallujah first. I need to retrieve a dead drop first. The content of the dead drop is necessary for you," Abdul said as they hit the highway.

Fallujah, it became famous for its battle. The battle of Fallujah was known for the biggest urban battle that the US army had ever had. It was a battle between the insurgents and the US army. Of course, the US army won with little casualties compared to the Insurgent casualties.

The highway of Iraq could be described with one word, sand. Sand was all you could see as far as your eyes could go. The trip to Fallujah would take an hour. So, it wasn't exactly that long.

"What's the content of the dead drop?" Lizeth asked Abdul.

"The content? INIS secret for you. Tango and I managed to convince the Iraqi government to give some "Unimportant" Intel," he double-quoted that.

"Tell me something. What do you feel about Americans?" She looked at the window as the MRAP convoy was passing by.

Abdul's eyes went empty. His sight wasn't on the road any more longer. Iraq and the US weren't exactly allied, "Neutral. I don't hate them nor like them." Abdul shook his head and focused his eyes back at the road. Maybe his grumpy face told her more than she wanted to know. He disliked the Americans.

Fallujah, the city. It was quiet. The clock showed that the time was 5 AM. Abdul drove into a parking lot near a closed amusement park there. The dusty amusement park gave a creepy aura. As if the city was abandoned for a very long time. Maybe Fallujah wouldn't return to normal soon. Abdul got out of the car.

"Stay here ok," Abdul got out of the car. He walked to a dark alleyway in that city with a laptop on his hands. The dead drop was a piece of information that could be delivered from a flash disk or a letter.

The sound of the idling engine was all that filled the quiet city of Fallujah. The buildings around were still full of bullet holes or big holes from the explosion. In those buildings, she could see some men. Those men were lurking around in a dark building. Those men were holding something. Something black and long. Hmm, a dick?

'Abdul, hurry up. I have a bad feeling,' Lizeth observed those men that were walking on that dark building. That long black thing wasn't a dick. It was an AK. 'That's an AK? Holy shit,' she turned off the car and took cover behind the trunk. She changed into her combat loadout.

'Shit, Do I have to obey the basic rules of engagement now?' She checked the chamber of his P416 to make sure that it was loaded and disengaged the safety. 5.56 ammo was loaded inside the chamber. The military-grade suppressor should reduce the sounds of the round to around a hundred decibels.

She took an aim at that dark building. She didn't know what to shoot at, the building just became too dark to see. 'What should I do? I can't let my translator die on the first day he worked with me,'

Suddenly, everything became brighter and the men in that building had some kind of white outline on their body. Everything suddenly moved so slow.

'Watchdogs focus, isn't it?' he aimed the rifle at the building and shot the bullets at their heads with an incredible accuracy due to the slow-motion ability. The fire rate of the rifle was reduced due to the fact that time suddenly moved very slow.

Time moved so slow to the point that she could see the spent casing of the ammo flew outside of her rifle. The sound of the moving parts of the rifle disturbed the quiet night of Fallujah. Abdul who was opening his laptop became shocked by the sounds of gunfire.

"Abdul, Run!!" Lizeth shouted.

Chapter end