Chapter 13

Avia

01-12-2021

2 days before Chapter 10

The plane descended upon the runway. The propeller still buzzed as obnoxiously as it had when it was started up, an hour ago. The landing gear folded out from under the aircraft. This landing strip was 283 kilometres from her destination. She had enough time to get there; 2 days. In Norway, that distance could have been travelled within hours. Here in Ghana, it took a while longer. There were hardly any proper asphalt roads. The country had not been doing well in the last years. Road maintenance had dropped intensely. The quality of infrastructure in the country dropped with it. The West-African Confederation had not done much good for the country. However, the government and police within the Confederation were a lot less corrupt. The future would look better, as soon as the remaining tribes were slaughtered and scattered to the wind.

Avia looked up from her book when the plane started to shake heavily at the touch of the landing strip. She folded the top corner of the page which she was reading and closed the book. She stroked its hard cover and read the large, thickly printed letters of its title. She then grabbed the backpack from under her chair and opened it. She put the book inside it and took out a small white envelope. She looked at it for a while and then stuffed it into the smaller compartment of the bag. She zipped it shut as the plane taxied over the strip, towards a rusty-looking hangar. When the plane came to a halt, two soldiers opened the door to the passenger compartment. Avia let the others out first. A black woman, dressed in purple robes made of dull cloth. A black man who stank of sweat and wore shorts and a t-shirt. Avia stood up, keeping her head down in order not to bang it against the steel ceiling. Carrying her bag with one hand in front of her, she made her way down the tiny aisle and exited the aircraft. One of the WAC soldiers wanted to offer her a hand, but she was already out before he could extend one.

She stepped out of the hot cabin and into a fresh, warm breeze. The air was a lot less humid than it was in the plane, but still humid. The two pilots were stretching at the front of the aircraft. This was a pretty unpopular landing strip, just like Avia wanted it, and therefore there wasn't much hurry. She walked into the direction of the hangar as the pilots and the soldiers had a little talk. There was a wooden table with two more soldiers. The other two passengers had already put their luggage on the table for them to check. The man was the first to be able to leave the table, and Avia took his place. She looked at the bag of the woman, which was checked thoroughly. There was a bunch of cosmetics and luxurious items, and the woman waited impatiently as the soldier went through all of it.

Avia put her backpack on the table. There was a reasonable distance between her and the soldier at the other side of the table, and the woman and the other soldier. She leaned in, staring the soldier into his eyes. He got the message and leaned in as well.

'Check the small compartment first,' Avia whispered.

The soldier looked at her and then nodded understandingly. He zipped open the bag and took out the stuffed white envelope. The envelope and its contents were identical to one which Avia had given to the man who checked her bag when she boarded the plane. The soldier's eyes went from the envelope to Avia. She nodded, ever so slightly, just enough for anyone who was paying attention to see. The other soldier was finishing up with the woman's bag. This needed to go faster. The soldier opened the big compartment and lowered his hands with the envelope into it. He then opened it, out of the other soldier's sight. He closed it again and put the envelope into the rear pocket of his pants. He closed the bag's compartments and handed it back to Avia without saying a word. She gave him a polite smile and walked off, just before the woman.

Avia took her phone from the pocket in her jeans and looked through her contacts. A series of numbers had been named "Contractor", which was then followed by a period in the day. "Contractor 00:00-02:00", "Contractor 02:00-04:00", and so on. For every two hours another number. She selected the appropriate one. It took a few seconds before someone on the other side picked up.

'Hey, it's me. Just landed at the airstrip, where's your guy?'

A distorted voice answered. 'He'll be there in 1 minute and 24 seconds. Navy blue jeep, no license plate. He'll take you to the others. Revise the briefing file.'

Without Avia being able to say another word, a click sounded, followed by a neutral, continuous beep. The cold message of being hung up on. Avia wasn't surprised. The contractor never wanted a phone call longer than two minutes.

The blue jeep pulled up at the end of the landing strip. The two other passengers were still waiting for their pick-up. Avia walked quickly towards it and opened the passenger door. The driver, a bald black man dressed in a white shirt and khaki shorts, looked straight ahead through the windshield, not speaking a word. Avia got in silently and closed the door. He put the jeep in gear and took off, kicking up the dust which rested on the road. After 7 minutes, they reached an asphalt road. This was when Avia decided to open her backpack and take out the briefing file, like her contractor had advised. She took her book out, and then a thin black jacket, which concealed her handgun from prying eyes. Then she found the small device on which the briefing had been digitally programmed and planted. She took the little display in hands and plugged the earphones in which came with it. She listened to the words to which she had listened twice before and watched the display as it showed pictures, blueprints and maps which gave a visual representation of the words. A female voice sounded, monotonous and with clear articulation.

'"Target: Kaiyan Rasdo", residing within the Ayuga tribe, located in an unknown location within the Mole game reserve, Ghana. This man is a war criminal. He is responsible for the deaths of 37 innocent lives. Your first objective is to meet up with two men, whom you will call Jason and Mark. They will call you Jane.

This meeting will take place on the northern side of the R109, north of Daboya, on the eastern side of the White Volta river, at 02:00, 03-11-21. After collecting your equipment, you will travel west to position yourself at 9°33'34.0"N 1°48'12.6"W and intercept a vehicle coming from the north-east at 09:34. Kaiyan Rasdo will be in this vehicle. Eliminate him and any person who resides within the vehicle or witnesses the operation.'

The trip continued until the late hours of the evening. They had just about reached the halfway point of the distance to the meeting. The two persons had not conversed or spoken throughout the long hours. Avia had been reading her book in silence. When the man pulled over at a safe distance from the road, he decided to break the silence with a simple question.

'Vegetarian or no?' His voice was low, but still strongly accented.

Avia shook her head, after which the man opened the door and got out of the car. Avia then decided to stretch her legs and go for a piss. Her steel bladder couldn't hold much longer. The man opened the trunk of the jeep and started to rummage through a pile of supplies. When Avia returned to the car, she heard the buzzing of a machine. She came to stand with the man. He grabbed a canteen of water.

'To wash your hands,' he said with a smile.

And there she was, thinking that hygiene wasn't as common here as in Norway. She knew that Ghana had a lot to offer, but in these areas of the country, you'd never know for sure. The buzzing she heard was a microwave. She had also heard a buzzing during the drive, but that was a small fridge in which make-ready meals were stored, along with drinks.

'Do you drink alcohol?' asked the man.

This time, Avia decided to speak as well. 'Not on a job.'

'Your voice is different from what I had expected. I had expected an American accent, but this is... what is it called again... north European...?'

'Scandinavian.'

'Yes, that.'

The microwave beeped. Dinner was ready. The man gave Avia a "spork"; a piece of hard plastic cutlery which was a spoon on one end and fork on the other. It was a popular item used for camping and adventuring, and generally useful and compact. The man opened the heated pack of food and compressed it a bit so that the opening became wider. It smelled of beef and potato mash, actually merging into a reasonably nice scent for Avia to enjoy after the long trip. After having put his own food into the microwave as well, the man took another bottle of water from the fridge and placed it on the edge of the trunk.

'Here. If you don't want alcohol, then I don't have anything else.'

Avia smiled and nodded in gratitude.

'So, what do I call you?' asked the man.

'You can call me Jane. What about you?'

'You can call me Henry.'

'Henry? Damn, they should at least try to make these names believable.'

Henry laughed. 'Yeah, a Henry from Ghana and a Jane from Scandinavia.'

After dinner, Henry prepared a descent sleeping spot. The passenger seat was tilted backwards, and space was made in the trunk. Avia chose the passenger seat and received a soft blanket to warm her body in Ghana's cold night. Avia knew about the difference in temperature between day and night, but it had still impacted her the night before this one.

Henry didn't snore loud. Only during his exhale did he make a sound which could be confused with the breezing of a horse. Not a loud snore, but a soothing one, as if there was less pressure on his breath than on the breath of other's. Avia lay awake, thinking about tomorrow.

A war criminal. This operation wasn't her first whereby a war criminal was the target, but this had a different tone to it all. All of her assassinations had been in Europe. This one was in a war-ravaged country in West-Africa.

She didn't like the fact that there was no connection at all with the contractor. She hadn't even heard the person's voice. For all she knew, she was killing the heroes instead of the criminals, and these people had only made the better decisions. Or they could be innocent business men or men of power, non-deserving death. However, the pay was more than enough to keep those thoughts away. No contact with any of the targets, no conversation. No witnesses or bystanders, innocent or not. The technology used for these operations was top secret as well, and only entrusted to a select group of people around the globe. There were only 50 operatives in total, and she was one of them.

Selected by experience at first, and then trained to be the ultimate assassins. The technology helped a lot, made things incredibly easy and simple, but if the operation were to escalate, they had to have a certain skill set for the right tactics, and know which tactics to apply to a chaotic situation. Avia had been a lot of things, especially for her age. Instead of staying in one job and settling down, she was always on the move within the ranks of society, always reaching for the higher ledge. She hadn't fallen yet, and she seemed to be close to the top by now. This job was good, for at least the next 10 years. Maybe when she would be in her 40's, she'd retire and go into something calmer.

Of course, she would take a risk at that point. She would have to cut herself loose entirely and leave nothing to be found. Not a word either, written or spoken, about the organisation. They'd know if she was even planning to leak information. They'd eliminate the threat before it escalates to something bigger and wider. But why would someone want to bring down this organisation in the first place. It's a perfect machine. Perfectly designed, efficient, and smoothly oiled. Why break it, or disable it? There was no reason to.

After a breakfast of cooled fruit, they continued the journey to Tamale, after which they'd take the R109 in a western direction. They passed small villages and crossed a small river, and arrived in the city.

'Want to stop and have a look around, or go straight through?' asked Henry.

'Just straight through, I'm not one for sightseeing, especially not slums,' Avia answered.

Henry nodded silently and put his focus back on the road. They had arrived in Tamale earlier than scheduled, but the R109 would probably take some of the extra time off. War had done the country no good at all, and the smaller roads suffered under the financial exhaustion. With no more maintenance, they became harder and harder to drive on. If they hadn't had a jeep, it would have probably taken even longer than it already did. The vehicle was sturdy and yet very flexible to terrain.

In the evening hours, they arrived at the meeting spot. Henry stayed with Avia until the first other jeep arrived at 1:50. The second jeep arrived 5 minutes later. Henry and the other two drivers then took off without goodbyes and left the three operatives on their own. They were two white men, one with short brown hair, and the other with longer blond hair. She couldn't see much other details because of the darkness.

One of them carried a suitcase. 'Right, so let's start with introductions. I'm Mark.'

'I'm Jason.'

'And I'm Jane.'

'Alright, Jason, Jane, I've been to the local supplier to get the technological equipment needed for this operation,' said Mark.

'And of course, we each have our own gun?' added Jason, to which everyone nodded.

'Good, what about other gear?' asked Avia.

Jason threw his backpack off his shoulders. 'Four large bottles of water, should be more than enough to get there and back and a large first aid kit.'

'Nice one,' remarked Avia.

Mark opened the large suitcase. He took three cloak-suits from it. He handed one to Avia and the other to Jason. 'Let's get changed.'

The suits weren't made on size. They started from S, and sensed the pressure the operative applied in the process of putting it on. It started with the pants and then the top. Also the shoes and finally the mask and hood. Then, everything was zipped up to each other to become one whole. The suit had to be fitted tightly for the cloak to work properly, otherwise the distortion would be too noticeable. When all three operatives had dressed up and helped each other zipping the suits up, it was time for a test. They stood in a circle and all pressed the button in the palm of the right glove. The two men faded in front of her, and especially in the darkness, they had become entirely invisible. 'Yeah,' said all three operatives simultaneously, as confirmation that each other's cloaks worked.

Avia pressed the button again as the two men also faded back into vision.

'Okay, for the next piece of equipment, we need to check our marksmanship points. The best marksman gets it,' said Mark.

'Sniper rifle?' asked Avia.

Mark nodded.

The three operatives took the documents from their bags, in which a score chart from the trainings was included. Avia was the best marksman of the three, as it seemed. She took the sniper rifle, and Mark and Jason took normal rifles. Mark then closed the suitcase and threw it into the nearby shrubs. They went west, embarking on a long hike to their position for the ambush planned at 9:34.

They arrived somewhat 90 minutes early. There was a nice position on a large rock, where Avia set herself up. They drank a lot of water to stay hydrated. Come 9:20, they turned on their suits, disappearing into nothing. They did a quick communication test. There were built-in comms for the suits, which in addition muted any sound coming from it. In this manner, the operatives could speak to each other whilst remaining silent for anyone else. At 9:32, Avia took hold of her rifle, which cloaked when it came in contact with both gloves, and readied herself.

At 9:33, the sound of an engine faded into the silent air. The three operatives awaited the arrival of their target patiently. At 9:34, the jeep came into vision. It drove slowly, carefully, through the shrubs, clearly drifted off the road and looking for something else in this area. It was somewhat 200 meters away from their position. An easy target, definitely for a powerful sniper rifle such as this one. A machine gun was mounted on its roof, and an eager-looking man stood behind it.

'I'd advise you to take the gunner first, driver second,' said Jason. He had taken up position south of Avia, in a tree, acting as a spotter. Mark had taken up an advanced position, 50 meters to the west and closer to the jeep.

'Copy that,' replied Avia. The windshield was tinted with brown dirt and dust. The sun shone on it, making it impossible for Avia to see the inside of the car.

The jeep now turned more towards them. Before it came closer, Avia calmly aimed for the gunner, who was an easy target, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. A spray of blood shot up violently from the man's head. It was bright red in the morning light and contrasted dramatically with the green vegetation. Avia quickly aimed for the windshield. She needed to act fast, but in the adrenaline-packed moment, she had forgotten on which side of the car the driver sat. She had to gamble. Time was running out. She needed to act quickly, before the driver was able to increase speed or try to evade. She pulled the trigger, gambling a shot, risking the operation. The other operatives stood ready to take control of the situation with their automatic rifles if it had to come to that.

The windshield became glistening white with cracks and Avia heard the vehicle's engine rev loudly and uncontrolled. She had made the correct guess. The jeep turned away from Avia's position as the dead driver no longer controlled steering nor speed. It hit a protruding rock with great momentum and at such an angle that it flipped loudly onto its side. Avia saw two people get launched from the back of the jeep. One landed onto the knee, crushing it immediately, after which the head came in contact with a rock. The other had a worse fall, spinning wildly through the air and rolling across every limb violently before coming to a halt on the ground.

'Let's go, check out the situation,' said Mark.

Avia got up quickly and jumped from the rock onto the overgrown ground. She waded through the leafs and made her way to the sight of the crash.

'Jane, I can see you wading through the leafs, I'm coming to your left side,' said Jason.

'Waiting 5 metres to the left of the wreckage,' said Mark.

Avia got to the wreckage and walked up to the person who had fallen the worst. She was shocked at what she found there. It was just a girl. Maybe in her early twenties. From what it looked like, she had a broken leg, dislocated shoulder, broken collar bone and broken wrist. She looked around. Clearly she heard the footsteps. Avia pressed the button, deactivating the cloak.

'Jane, what are you doing?' asked Mark with a certain tense tone in his voice.

'I'm not killing these people without showing myself,' Avia replied calmly. 'I'm not letting them be killed by invisible ghosts.' It was silent for a second.

'She's right, these tribesmen deserve some kind of respect, I suppose,' said Jason.

Avia heard the two men deactivate their cloaks behind her. A loud voice sounded from the wreckage. Before the operatives could turn towards it, an echoing gunshot cracked through the warm and humid air. Mark staggered and cursed.

'Fucking arsehole! Hit me in the shoulder!'

'Good thing these suits are bulletproof, huh?' remarked Jason.

'I'll still have to get it checked later.'

Mark took the rifle in one hand and grabbed his handgun with the other.

'Time to clean up the scene and identify one of these as Rasdo.'

The girl in front of Avia gasped loudly as Mark went to the wreckage to execute the shooter, who had climbed out of the passenger seat through the windshield and lay in the grass now.

'I'm going to set a perimeter up 20 metres from here,' said Jason. He turned away and reactivated his cloak.

Avia had to clean this up. This girl was in pain anyways, so it made her feel somewhat better that she was putting the girl out of her misery. She took the heavy sniper rifle in one hand and grabbed her handgun. The man from the jeep shouted. She lifted the weapon and aligned it with the girl's head. A gunshot sounded. Mark had finished him. Avia felt so sorry for this girl, who had clearly nothing to do with Rasdo, but had just been caught into all of this. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. She opened them again. The girl lay with her head back, blood dripping tiredly from the hole in her forehead.

Avia stepped over her corpse to go to the other person, who had had a relatively soft landing. A woman this time, a lot older than the girl, and she had just awoken from unconsciousness. She screamed loudly at the sight of Avia. She tried to get up, but her knee gave in. She then grabbed the handgun on her belt. Avia reacted swiftly. First a shot into the chest. The woman fell backwards, crying and groaning in pain.

Avia noticed that her fingers still pried for the gun. When she took it from her belt and lifted it towards Avia, Avia released another shot. This time, the hand which held the gun. With a splatter of blood, the woman's fingers either broke or were torn off completely by the force of the projectile. The woman shrieked loudly, clasping her destroyed hand with the other. Avia stood at her feet and aimed for the head. A final shot cracked.

'Target eliminated, Rasdo was the driver,' reported Mark. 'How's the perimeter?'

'Looking good, no-one else around these parts, I guess,' replied Jason.

'And the remaining survivors?' asked Mark.

'None remaining,' reported Avia.

'Good. Operation successful. Let's head back to Daboya.'