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Praetorium Honoris

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

The Hunt is On

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"Michel, you should go to the doctor. This is something serious!" Pauline Deslys was concerned, her husband, Michel Masson had started vomiting two days ago. Now he was vomiting blood.

"Alright, bring the car around, I think I can make it down the stairs by myself."

"No, sit here, I will go get Charles to help you down to the street."

As his wife left to get their next door neighbor, Masson sat quietly. In truth he felt terrible, fatigued, nauseated, then the vomiting started. Now there was the blood. He thought at first that it was some bug he'd caught from a coworker. But the blood, that was serious. He was supposed to work tomorrow, a ship was coming in from Turkey. The way he felt now, he didn't care if he missed work.


Three days ago Masson had been with his crew, unloading a ship from Georgia, port of origin was Batumi. He had no idea where that was. As Idris Morceli, his forklift operator was maneuvering a large crate with odd markings from the dock to a shipping container, he'd hit a pothole, which they'd been complaining about for months. The crate had slipped from the forks and hit the concrete hard.

Masson had gone up to the crate, to see what the damage was. He'd noticed the odd markings on the box -

სასოფლო-სამეურნეო ტექნიკა
Сельскохозяйственное оборудование
Tarım Ekipmanları
Attrezzature agricole
Equipement agricole

The last one he recognized, "Huh, agricultural equipment, what was it, a tractor?" he speculated. Crate wasn't big enough for that, whatever it was, it was damned heavy.

He looked it over, the wood was cracked on one corner, but not badly. He signaled Morceli to get it back on the forklift and load it in the shipping container. As the man did so, Masson stayed close to the container, to make sure nothing else adverse happened.

He pulled his collar away from his neck, funny how it seemed hot right now. He wondered if he was coming down with something.


Though the damage to the crate wasn't that bad, the equipment inside had been badly damaged. The body of the machine had cracked when it had stopped abruptly when the crate hit the ground. Though the rigging inside the crate was more than sufficient for most heavy machinery, this machine was old.

It had sat for years in a poorly maintained storage bunker not far from Tashkent. Standing water was present in the bunker when the men had broken in to steal anything they could find which might be valuable. They were disgusted at not finding any Kalashnikovs or RPGs, what sort of weapons bunker was this?

They had left, leaving the doors partially open. More water had gotten in, causing the machine to rust in spots. Not badly, easily cleaned up. At least that's what the corrupt Uzbeki officer had thought. When he'd been contacted by people looking for Soviet-era weaponry, he brought them to the bunker.

A couple of weeks later, a big truck with its own forklift had shown up to haul out two of the machines. He had been promised a rather large payout by the Russian gangsters he did business with.

He never had the chance to spend much of his money, the Uzbeki had been killed in a motorcycle crash not too long after the Russians had moved the machines. He thought they were probably nuclear weapons, he didn't know, he didn't care. But the colleague he'd mentioned that to cared very much. Enough to report the man.

Realizing the can of worms which would be opened by an investigation into this, the local authorities decided that the officer knew too much. He had been riding his brand new motorcycle when he'd been clipped by a dump track. It was, so the local police said, an unfortunate accident.


The crate had been loaded into a shipping container which had been loaded on a train. Now the container sat deep in the marshaling yards at Marseille, awaiting transport to its final destination.

Paris.


John Nakagawa had been expecting the phone call, once again Ephraim Johansen was proving his worth over at CIA. The man had contacts everywhere it seemed, including one inside the cabal operating out of Zürich. It never ceased to amaze Nakagawa how evil organizations tended to attract people who had trust issues, it was a weakness that could be exploited.

"Good afternoon, Gospodin Prezident Ryzhov. How are you today?"

"I am well, President Nakagawa. I've been led to understand that we have a mutual problem in Zürich."

"Yes, Gospodin Prezident, I'm glad you see it as a mutual problem, so what I ..."

"Mr. President, we are both warriors who left parts of ourselves on battlefields of other people's makings. Please call me, Maksim."

Bill Aspinall quickly scribbled something on a piece of paper and showed it to the President. Nakagawa nodded, he knew of the Russian custom of using the first name and the patronymic to honor family connections.

"Please, Maksim Vladimirovich, call me John, with the world in danger, I see no need to stand on formalities."

"I agree, John Timofeyevich."

Nakagawa was impressed that the Russians had done their research on him, his father's name was Timothy. But there was business to attend to, so he got down to it.

"What are your intentions towards those people in Switzerland, Maksim?"

"I intend to eliminate them, to put it bluntly, John."

"Do you know that the Italians intercepted a Soviet-era nuclear weapon in the Mediterranean some weeks back? Did you know the smuggler indicated that there was more than one?"

There was silence on the other end of the line. Finally President Ryzhov spoke, "I did not know that, John. Do you have any idea where that other weapon might be? If there truly is a second weapon."

"No, not exactly, we think it was bound for France, perhaps the United Kingdom, but beyond that ..."

"John, we know where the weapon might be going."

"You do? Where?"

"Paris."


After the call ended, Nakagawa sat quietly, tapping his fingers on his desk. Aspinall said nothing, letting the President work things over in his mind. Finally, the President sat up. He hit a button on his intercom.

"Yes, Sir?"

"Nancy, can you track down Jason Howard for me?"

"Certainly, Sir."

Aspinall sat quietly, if the President was calling in Howard, he had something in mind. Something rather violent, Aspinall assumed.

The President's phone buzzed, he picked it up, "Jason, how do you feel about taking a trip?"

"I'm always ready to travel, Mr. President. Can I bring some friends?"

"Of course, they'll probably enjoy the trip as well."

"Where are we going, Mr. President?"

"France."

"Nice, any place in particular?"

"We can talk about that, can you swing by the White House?"

"On my way, Sir."

"Bring your friends."

"I will."

Finally Aspinall spoke, "Howard and his crew? Things are pretty serious if you're bringing them in."

"Yeah, things are that serious. Do you have any contacts in the French security agency, what's it called?"

"The DGSE, Sir, the Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure. Yes, I know a couple of guys in that outfit. Know a few guys in the French military as well."

"Do you trust them?"

"The DGSE guys? Sort of. The military guys? With my life."

"Good we'll need to bring them in on this. After all, it is their country at risk."

Aspinall nodded, "The French know how to play hardball when push comes to shove. Think the Russians might let us talk to one of those assholes in Zürich?"

"They might, for now though, let's get the French side of things rolling."

"Yes Sir."

Nuclear weapons, the President thought, why does some fanatic always think of using those to make a point?



48 comments:

  1. Oh man.......canned sunshine........OLD, mishandled canned sunshine......your Muse isn't playing around Sarge.

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  2. The French, if given the chance, can be very nasty.

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  3. Sarge,
    We went over 5 million page views overnight. Well Done!
    Oh, yeah, and the story is coming along nicely! ;-)
    juvat

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    1. I saw we were on the cusp the other day, 5 mil feels good.

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    2. Page views? I try to put in some comment just so I can see what the other comments are via e-mail, usually during the day I'll come back to the blog just to see the context of a remark & this may happen several times.
      This is today's comment on this installment. I'll bet I'll be back! :-)

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    3. Yeah, it counts every visit as a hit. You are probably responsible for several thousand.

      Yes, thank you! (Until I learned how to shut it off, I was getting hits every time I visited. Which shouldn't really count.)

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  4. Well in the "Good News" department, a cracked case enough to cause radiation sickness that quickly it should be easily detected by rad detection gear.

    In the Bad News as evil dudes like the Ukranian Exploding Truck on Kursk Bridge trick, the driver of the delivery truck is likely NOT to know He's the dead man when an outsider radio-detonates the device.

    Almost nowhere is a good place for even a "dirty Bomb" to be triggered. Let alone canned sunshine.

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    1. "Well in the "Good News" department, a cracked case enough to cause radiation sickness that quickly it should be easily detected by rad detection gear."

      A decent chance that There was enough damage to keep it from detonating at all. Maybe not even a fizzle.

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    2. Michael - Been looking into the future have you? Yes, should be readily detectable, and now that the authorities are aware, Paris might be safe from a nuclear detonation. But then there is that dirty bomb thing. Still a lot of high explosive in one of those things, may not get critical mass, but an explosion would litter the area with radioactive material. Not good, not good at all.

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    3. Joe - Yeah, the device may no longer be viable. But it's still deadly.

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    4. I did a few years working with 8 inch artillery and special weapons.

      Not an expert but learned a few things about them.

      Michael

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    5. I forgot to mention, nice subtle tip of the hat to Clancy, having the assistant named Nancy.

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    6. Michael - I was lucky in that I never had to mess with "special" weapons. Had a switch in the cockpit for that, never saw the real thing though. Thank the Lord!

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    7. Joe - Well, she worked for Admiral Greer and then Jack Ryan, now she works for the President. She's gotta be near retirement age by now.

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  5. Nice touch with the Georgian script. Also interesting that Russia has a team of hit men in place, the US is about to send a team of hitmen, and the French are going to be informed of the goings on and so will send their own team.

    Has anyone thought to tell the Swiss authorities what's going on?

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    1. Well, I figured that as the shipment "originated" in Georgia ...

      At least that's where it was crated up for shipment.

      The Swiss aren't in the loop yet.

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    2. Sometimes the less in "the loop " the less warning "well connected " folks get.

      Rich rats didn’t get their by being blindsided and stupid. They pay well for current information from local politicians and police.

      A rat who is holding a detonator is dangerous.

      Michael

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  6. Sarge, this is one of the most believable scenarios for an old-style Soviet Warhead making it out into the real world I have read. Had the casing not cracked, things could have gotten much farther.

    It is hard to remember in today's world that there are citizens of every nation that feel a certain pride in the country, culture, and history in a world where these are daily being scrubbed away.

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    1. I think culture is important, these New World Order people really bother me.

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    2. No one of any reasonable intelligence does.

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  7. ...Pucker....
    Eagerly waiting for the next steps to be revealed
    JB

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    Replies
    1. High pucker factor is good in fiction, not so much in real life!

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  8. Crated, needing forklift to move? That means it's a big un. Not a real suitcase nuke or even a piddly little Davy Crockett-sized one. Rusted? Seriously? Unless someone serviced the firing system, water is the enemy of electrics, electronics and explosives. Depending on the level of water penetration, the thing might be just a radioactive dud. A complete dud, not able to even generate enough 'boom' to do any damage to the core. At the least, the tritium enhancement system is borked if it's leaking radiation.

    Of course, since I've never taken a nuke class or worked on actual Soviet nukes, I may just be bloviating. Or not.

    As to the Swiss, they are their own thing. What makes sense to us non-Swissers doesn't hold true in actual Switzerland. They are very much separate, in a lot of ways, from the rest of the world. One hopes that the Swiss know about the Cabal, and are willing to whack it hard, after all, if they do, they get to keep all that wonderful money that is in Swiss banks that will used to belong to said Cabal. Again, a very Swisser thing to do...

    And, what, France doesn't have radiation detectors around their ports and highways? I'd think they would, considering how many people France has pissed off in the world. And that they have the most nuke powerplants and also the most nuke waste products that they recycle. I am pretty sure they keep good tabs on all of their materials, too.

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    1. The cabal has no idea what their money paid for, they think "nuke," they paid for "nuke," so what if some clever Uzbekis palmed an old "maybe it doesn't work" device off on them.

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    2. Or even a radioactive waste cannister. Maybe modified to look like a real weapon.

      It could be something as not-weapony as the radiation source from a 'scrapped' or abandoned radiation treatment machine (this actually happened in Brazil, scrap hunters found something large in an abandoned medical center, broke it up and then 'played' with the glowing warm thingy. Lots of deaths and permanent damage ensued before confused officials finally figured out what happened and the cleanup was epic in scope and failure, being Brazil, of course.)

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    3. Oh, it is a real weapon. But it's old and wasn't properly stored.

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    4. Beans, I believe it was a cobalt 60 treatment machine in Mexico. Most of the steel (from it and much other equipment) was sold as scrap and melted down. The Co-60 pellets inside were magnetic and stuck to the steel. As I remember, it was discovered when radiation alarms went off when a truckload of rebar tried to enter Los Alamos (the detectors were installed to prevent any radioactive material coming out). One worker had taken some pellets home and placed them on the mantle. Investigators could estimate how far away each of the family had by sitting by how long it took them to die.

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    5. There was that one in Mexico, but there was the one I referred to in Brazil. One of those tenement communities that exist full of people the at-that-time government was ignoring. The Goiania Accident. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident There are also youtube videos on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3NJXGSIIA

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    6. (Don McCollor) Sorry Beans, I missed that one.

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  9. When I read that last line: "why does some fanatic always think of using those to make a point?" I instantly thought of the Bond villain Blofeld line- "Because I want you to die!" Either him, or the cartoony villain rubbing his hands with the evil laugh- "muuuhahahahaha!"

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    1. Unlike movie villains, real bad guys don't explain to someone what they're going to do. They just do it.

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  10. If I remember my ELT training a tritium leak isn't going to cause Michel's problems, it emits low-level betas and is excreted from the body quickly. The big deal is after ~40 years or more in storage tritium's 12-ish year half-life means most of the fuel for a really big boom is gone. He has probably swallowed radioactive dust to get that sick that quickly which makes sense if the device is rusty and has been dropped a few times to boot.

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    1. Even plutonium is not that immediately deadly. It emits alpha rays and concentrates in the bones causing cancers and anemia. If ruptured, it is useless as a bomb. My fear that that it is an old uranium-235 weapon (where two U-235 masses are shot at each other). One mass slipped just a bit where they can start to fission, emitting strong gamma radiation. Not going to go nuclear, but an unpredictable loose cannon ready to go real dirty.

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    2. Someone has done their research!

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    3. (D0n McCollor). No, not research, but long years of reading and remembering.

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    4. Tomorrow, you'll see what the device is composed of.

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    5. (Don McCollor)...In place of the icon, Thumbs Up to you, Sarge!!!.

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  11. Remember the Heinlein story "The Green Hills of Earth"?

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