The ageing 4x4 raced through a gap in the slow moving traffic, rattling along the potholed roads of Fallujah, occassionally mounting the curb or crossing the central reservation to drive down the wrong side of the road. Paddy was driving one hand either glued to the horn, or making rude gestures to the other slower drivers on the road, occassionally he practiced his limited repetoir of Arab swear words, and the heated exchanges of Arab male voices would fill the car. All in all it was not a pleasant experience, but it was one Holden had grown to live with.
Their journey had been meticulously planned the route as well as possible alternatives mapped out the whole team had been involved - every potential threat had to be taken into account, which meant phone calls had to be made and intel gatherered they needed to know which roads the military were currently designating “red routes” because they were dangerous either, because of recent IEDs (improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs), suicide bombings (by car or on foot) or attacks by gunmen. The list of possible threats changed on a daily basis and the team needed to get the most up to date information
Getting to Falluja had been remarkably easy, Holden had half expected, half hoped to be turned away by the military long before the they got anywhere near entering the town. But at each checkpoint Herr Junzt had got out of the car and after talking discretely with whoever was in charge they had been waived through, at the dozen Iraqi police checkpoints Holden had assumed Junzt was simply dropping bribes, but he'd done the same thing with the US Marine Captain who originally adimantly refused to let them through.
Under normal circumstances the Armburst close protection teams would drive around in armoured Hyundai Tuscon 4x4's. Holden didn't like them, while the Hyundais were able to go cross country they had no speed or acceleration due to all the armour they were carrying, his personal preference would have been for a Landrover or Rangerover but Armburst simply weren't going to fork out the cash.
By far the worst thing about driving the 4x4's was the fact they screamed "hey look I'm a westerner" and as they entered the slums of southern Fallujah that morning attracting the attention of the locals was the last thing he wanted.
Now as they drove through the near empty streets, Holden wondered just who Junzt was working for, he certainly didn't seem like a typical academic, his behaviour and his retisence to talk about anything he was doing made Holden and the rest of the team wonder wether he was involved with the intelligence community, but Holden couldn't help but think of him as an overweight and slightly criminal version of Indianna Jones.
Junzt had given them general directions for where to go in Falujah, but once within the confines of the town he started to give Paddy more detailed instructions, Holden noted he did this without notes which meant he either had a really good memory for directions or he had been here before.
The directions took them into South Fallujah through neighborhoods which were uniformly horrible, The houses here were smaller than anything he'd seen and far more decrepit. nearly every houses displayed some kind of battle damage, concrete walls stood apparently at random like some kind of tombstones, garbage and rubble in equal quantities. Holden was reminded of some kind of Mexican shantytown.
An American Marine he'd got chatting to at a bar in Camp Victory had told Holden there simply wasn't any real economy left in Falujah most businesses had simply up and left when all the fighting started and never came back; unemployment here was as high as fifty percent. It was no surprise he said that during periods of heavy fighting there were more insurgents in South Falujah than elsewhere in the city, not because the inhabitants held strong ideological or political views but simply because Al Qaeda was paying cash and they needed the money to survive.
Finnally Junzt indicated for Paddy to stop outside what looked to be a small factory. The second car pulled up some distance behind them and the team climbed out each man climbing out and taking up a pre arranged position besides or near to the car which meant someone was looking in every direction. The exception was Holden who stood next to Junzt, who now pulled open one of the steel the gates into the factory.
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