Baghdad had been a lot worse than Holden had expected, he'd been thinking Belfast during the cowboy years of the 1970's, wereas it was much, much worse. The day they arrived three car bombs were detonated outside the Buratha mosque in the north of the city leaving 90 people dead and over 150 injured.
Ethnic cleansing was ging on big time in Baghdad Shia and Sunni militias shot it out with one another over control of street corners, dead bodies in the street were a common site especially in the districts of the city with mixed Shia, Sunni populations. But if the militias were busy trying to murder one another you could rely on them along with the Baathists and Islamists to to find the time to try and kill foreigners.
Even being off duty wasn't particulalry restful, all of the Armburst teams working out of Baghdad were based in a large compound. The compound was a large and attractive villa on the banks of the Tigris. It had seemed a great location at first off duty teams would soak up the sun on the large patio or sit on the villas jetty with their feet in the river.
Under normal circumstances it would have been a beautiful place to stay and certainly the accomodation rivalled any hotel within the Green Zone. They stopped going down to the jetty after they found the first corpse, hands bound and gunshot wounds to the head and bearing the signs of torture washed up against the jetty.
It only took the locals a few days to work out who was staying at the villa and from then on they would take regular potshots at anyone sitting on the patio from the other side of the river. They screened off the patio and moved inside but the compound still regulalry came under fire, those members of management who'd argued Armburst's offices not be in the Green Zone, lest they be walled off, literally and psychologically, from the real world in Baghdad were soon regretting their decision.
Outside the compound contacts became an almost daily occurrence, just about every faction in the city seemed prepared to take a break from killing one another to try and kill the foreigners. It came as no surprise when after one particularly hair raising day their principle announced the climate in Baghdad was to risky and he was returning to the UK.
There was no chance Armburst were going to let them loaf around the compound and a contract for Convoy duty was soon assigned to his team. For three weeks they escorted convoys for the Iraqi electricity ministry bringing up parts by trucks for Baghdads powerstations, they were attacked nearly every day normally more than once as they rolled through the territories of different factions. It was exhausting work both physically and mentally, tempers frayed and they all talked about giving up and going home, but the money was good and nobody followed through with their threats.
Holden had been on a rest day sitting in the Armburst Control room, swapping war stories about Northern Ireland with Danny the watch keeper and former company sargeant major with the Ulster Defence Regiment. When Paddy had walked and sat down beside him on the desk.
"Hello mate, enjoying your rest day...got a job for you babysitting a Herr Junzt, here as a representative of the German government looking into the care and preservation of antiquities, I've told him in light of what happened to his last protection team Armburst will assume the contract and your team will provide his security"
"What happened to his last CP team then".
They're all dead mate, got a bit sloppy with their vehicle drills and an IED took them all out, luckilly for him Herr Junzt got out without a scratch. Not to worry though mate, you can use both the armoured wagons for this job they're just out of the shop and there's a pay bonus for the whole team to sweeten the pot. Compared to the convoy work it'll be a doddle you simply act as Herr Junzt's armoured taxi around to the museums and historical sights while he does whatever it is he does simple.
Which is why after three intense weeks of convoy duties Holden and half the team found themselves standing outside BIAP's arrival terminal waiting while the rest of the team went inside to pick up Herr Junzt. The airport was bustling with security contractors, businessmen and NGO's all under the watchful eye of ex-ghurkas employed by the Iraqi government.
The other half of the team came out of the airport terminal, with Pat pushing a trolley on which were two canvas holdalls and a camera bag, walking beside him ciggarette hanging from his mouth was the German Holden had last seen at the Hilton two months ago. When the German saw him a smile crossed his face, he stopped and took the ciggarette out of his mouth. "Aah the historian"
Junzt threw the camera bag into the back seat before climbing in himself and sliding across, Holden got in after him, while Pat threw the rest of his bags into the boot, as they pulled away from the Kerb Holden began to brief Herr Junzt on what to do if they were attacked while travelling to the hotel, however almost as soon as he started taslking the German interrupted him.
"I know all this my previous bodyguards they told me the same thin, however before we head to my hotel I have some business to conduct, I would like to go to the the Iraq National Museum I can give you directions if you do not know where it is."
As they drove to the museum, Holden thought about Her Junzt's previous CP team, wondered wether he'd listened to their advice, or dismissed it as easily as he'd just done Holden's. At the museum it was Pat and his half of the team which stayed outside with the cars while Holden and the others went inside, with the temperatures rising with the approach of midday Holden was glad to be inside the cool of the museum. As they followed the German into the museum the other two team members both former sargeants Jock Grant with the Black Watch, Dennis Johnson with the Parachute regiment took up positions front and rear, Holden as designated bodyguard walked beside Junzt He was surprised when the German started talking to him.
"When I came here, it was days after ther Americans liberated the city, the floor was litterally covered in pieces of broken pottery.The looters had simply gone from shelf to shelf, pulling down the statues, the pots the amphorae priceless antiquities of from every age Iraq's history. They were poor men they didn't understand some of those pieces were more valuable than the gold and jewelry they were looking for...of course they took the gold as well".
The German stopped for a moment taking in the exhibits he walked over to a half empty display case, small white cards were the descriptions of the items which had been looted. The German sighed.
"This was once one of the world's best collections of pre-Hellenic statuary, gold jewellery, and cuneiform writtings in the world. The Iraqis did this to their own history, when I arrived there were still no American soldiers or policemen to guard it, just the bullets cracking over our heads because the locals were fed up with the looters and had decided to take matters into their own hands." He paused "Look at this."
The German leant forward to pick up a massive hunk of pottery in both hands, he carefully tilted it so the delicate patterns catch the light.
"This was originally part of a jar, it was smashed... its Assyrian. they ruled 2,000 years before Christ. To a historian priceless, to the majority of those who looted this place it was simply old junk with no value"
The German placed the massive piece of pottery carefully back on the shelf then moved on. They walked together down a side corridor guarded by broken statues, at the end the German waved at Jock to lift a rope barrier to let them all past.
"To reach the storerooms, the mobs had to break through massive steel doors, which implies some planning on at least somebodies behalf. Some of the items stolen had never been on display, weren't mentioned anywhere and would only have been valuable to a small and very distinct group. It will take decades to sort through what they have left, the broken pots, the statuary, the treasures, the jewellery, the books."
The German stopped below a huge stone statue of a winged bull as a young Iraqi approached. The German and Iraqi clasped hands and exchanged greetings in Arabic.
"This is Abdul al-Tikriti, he was one of my students when I was proffessor of antiquities at Berlin University, now he is doing me a small favour in providing me with some information."
Holden and Abdul shook hands, then the German and the Iraqi turned their backs on the team and started talking rapidly in arabic, the conversation lasted several minutes at the end of which the two exchanged papers or more correctly Abdul handed Junzt a small slip of paper while recieving in return a brown envelope obviously full of cash.
They walked back through the museum in silence, the German obviously deep in thought occassionally slowing as he took time to glance at whatever was written on the piece of paper. As they stepped outside Herr Juntz stopped.
"We can go to my hotel now I will not need you again until tomorrow."
Glad to find his day was finally ending by the time he thought to ask what they were going to be upto the following day Junzt's was already climbing into the car.
"May I ask what the plan is for tommorrow sir, so we can make any necessary plans"
The german paused half into the car.
"of course, of course it will be a long day tomorrow, we must go to Falujah."
Holden could have sworn their was a hint of amusement in the tone of the German's voice.
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