Zimbabwe
Lat = 19 degrees, 48.2 minutes South
Long = 32 degrees, 22.3 minutes East
Monday 14th March 1987
It was dark as the helicopter landed; Shakira climbed out, and walked over to a wooden building dimly lit by a single bulb above the entrance, he pushed open the door and saw Suki waiting with a cool beer, she offered it to him as he sat down in the wicker chair.
Had it really been four years since he had met her in a masseur parlor in Bangkok?
She had been sixteen years of age then, he had visited her regularly, and she understood his needs.
When it was time to leave he offered the madam who ran the joint Ten Thousand American dollars, to take Suki with him and had been with him ever since.
Suki was his personal property and everyone knew it.
They made love slowly but with an intense passion, shortly afterwards Shakira drifted into a deep sleep.
At six am Shakira was sitting on the veranda sipping a hot drink. The blue and fire red sky was rushing across the sky enveloping the darkness from the East signaling the dawn of a new day.
The camp was already alive with activity, campfires being re-kindled with the smell of food being cooked.
He looked across at the three other wooden buildings, his eyes lingered on the largest of the three, situated between the other two, where a lot of activity was always taking place.
His thoughts drifted back to when he saw his parents killed. He was thirteen at the time, and was living in his hometown of Kuito in the central highlands of Angola. The sixties had been troubled times in Angola.
Angola was a Portuguese overseas territory, civil war erupted for the independence of Angola, and during this time, three rival nationalist groups fought the Portuguese.
The Portuguese forces, relied heavily on air power that had been supplied and purchased from Great Britain, many villages suffered air strikes.
It was one of these air attacks that killed Shakira’s parents.
After burying them he joined the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola-Youth Movement.
During this time, he learnt well the art of war along with his hatred of the whites.
By nineteen seventy five the civil war was soon decided in favor of the MPLA by virtue of the massive influx of Soviet weapons, advisers and Cuban troops.
Shakira was now twenty-six and had spent thirteen years fighting, this was all he knew and he had become very proficient at it. He had then drifted from one conflict zone to another, as a mercenary building up his wealth along the way.
His hatred for whites the unbelievers had never abated and it was this that had been the driving force towards the war he was now embarked on; it was his personal crusade or in Islamic terms Jihad.
Shakira had met Mustapha a few years ago when he was involved in terrorist operations in the Middle East; they had built up a trust and mutual respect for each other.
Mustapha had gone on to set up the Islamic Army Faction, he knew of Shakira’s hatred for the white race or infidels and when he had come across some information, he informed Shakira and they had pooled their resources to a common end.
London had been an easy place to smuggle the device into and it made the World headlines especially having been placed near the Houses of Parliament.
Shakira had formulated a new plan that had two edges to it; he was now going to plant two devices in two different locations in England.
The first would be to obtain money by demanding a ransom.
Upon receipt the second would be detonated as pay back for his parent’s deaths.
Shakira’s camp was situated just inside Zimbabwe formally Rhodesia, along the border with Mozambique.
He had a nice little arrangement with his landlords, that allowed him uninterrupted access, No questions asked, the price was occasionally when asked; his men would do the jobs that the Zimbabwe government could blame on the rival factions within the country.
The British would now be analyzing the device and would realize they had a real threat to deal with.
However; what had not been in the plan, was Mustapha’s premature death, this disturbed him!