ACRO

You and Me

Washington D.C. :

"Sir, you need to see this." said a man, sitting in front of the computer, holding his earpiece as he spoke.

Footsteps echoed through the corridor, as two men dressed in suits walked swiftly, their boots clicking on the ground. They swung the door open and met the same man, who summoned them from his earpiece.

"What is it?" said Harry, leaning in to take a harder look at the computer screen.

"It's a message."

"From who?" asked Harry.

The man squinted at the computer screen.
"It's hard to tell, it's all over the place."

"Let me see." he said, leaning closer to the computer screen.

The message displayed a series of dots and dashes, and no words.

"Morse code." Harry muttered to himself.
As he deciphered the message, the man sitting in front of the desktop noted down the deductions. They looked at the piece of paper together.

"Coordinates. And a date." said Harry, as he circled the numbers with a pencil.
"Look it up."

The man typed away into the computer, looking up the coordinates mentioned in the message.
"It's the foreign embassy in Iraq."

"The date is, two weeks from now." said Harry, studying the message.

"Sounds like a rendezvous." said the man.

"We need to find out who sent this."

The man typed away, opening a long line of code in the screen.

"I got a device name." he said, typing away faster, as the lines of code kept unfolding themselves.

"Argon-100819."

Harry pulled back in shock, as an exhale left his lips. He turned around, and switched on his earpiece.

"I need to get in touch with Ian Peterson."

*

"Soldiers," said Alfarsi, facing his audience in full strength in the marching grounds. Every single militant was present there, with rifles slung on their shoulders.

"It is time for us to broaden our horizons." he said, his eyes darkening with ambition.

"America is broken." he said, making his men roar, and lift their guns in the air.

"They cannot invade our land, now that they have to rebuild their own. They have withdrawn their troops from Baghdad!"

The soldiers cheered loudly , raising their guns in the air. Sam watched from her window, as Alfarsi addressed his people, in the evening sun.

"For long, we have gained control over this land, but in secret." he said, slowly pacing back and forth.

"It is time for us to remove our veils and rightfully claim what's ours! This time, we claim our nation, as the whole world watches!" he roared.

"We will March to Baghdad and take over Iraq!"
He raised his gun and fired into the sky.

The militants roared, firing their rifles in the air. Sounds of gunshots filled the air, invading the quietness of the large swathes of empty land surrounding them and beyond.

As the soldiers continued to roar and cheer, Youssef looked up at the window Sam stood at, and locked eyes with her. She looked at him with recognition, as if they thought the same thing, and they nodded at each other.