Blood Lily Company - Afghanistan, year 1

LI

With the end of the rains, we waited another day for everything to dry out a little then we went out again.

Curly's patrol left with the Land-Rover to see Durrani's gardens, we wanted to take advantage of the torrential rains to block the fountains and the watering network, inexplicable event after such a downpour.

First we had to know which source or river fed the fountains and for that, a little dye goes a long way. But since with us nothing is ever done just for its true usage, we had a bit of fun.

With careful observation of the military maps established by the French Army when it settled in Afghanistan over a century earlier, we were able to determine which rivers, which streams were more likely to water the gardens.

By perusing over satellite images taken at night, processed through a bunch of various software, we were able to select two. The processed images highlighted the differences in temperature, first of all, because running water is, this time of the year, quite cold. Then, running water emits a kind of vibration, a wave, invisible to the naked eye, but if you put the image through the spectrum you can detect this wave, beyond ultrasound. Was this the wave the dowsers of old detected? No idea, but this had been tested on rivers whose course was known, and on shallowly buried pipes, whose course was also known, and that particular wavelength had been "discovered", in a certain way. Or course, this wave was not detectable if the water was buried under more than three meters of earth or rock, so it wasn't the miracle solution Humanity was looking for.

Strangely enough, we couldn't find any traces of the blueprints of the palace, either at the architect's or on the Internet.

We needed this pre-investigation because we could not risk our men – there are frankly not enough of us – to search on the spot for traces of pipes. And Durrani's gardens weren't next to a river either, since rivers tended to overflow in the spring and our little Pashtun pal hated for his life to be disturbed by something as plebeian as a flooding river.

So his main home, where the harem, cars and gardens were, was built on a natural plateau that he had remodeled to build his dream palace.

Of all the warlords we were to fight, he was the most sybaritic, the most hedonistic. But don't think he was a fat slob, a guy eating dates watching his wives dance and hiding behind his men in defense. He had built his empire with the strength of his arms, attracting men who marveled at his fighting skills and charisma.

His ascent had been quick and, with the Dotard, they had tacitly shared the territory in the middle of which our promontory stood. To the west we had Durrani, to the east, the Dotard. The SRH had been tolerated by the two lords as you would tolerate scavengers, Nature's garbagemen.

The old fortress where he had first settled had become a mare farm, a few kilometers from the stud farm where we had already operated, and he had moved away from his border with the Dotard to build his new den.

The plateau on which it was located was backed to the north by a relatively low mountain range, on the slopes of which flowed several torrents, including a number on the south face, towards Durrani. Unfortunately, many disappeared and reappeared and it was difficult to follow their course unless we colored the water or used that famous wavelength.

I don't know how Lin managed to get satellite time for these shots. Because this technology costs an arm and a leg. I don't know how she gets satellite time anyway. I know the ECHR and NATO sent her here, along with the brothers, but frankly I wonder who she really is, beside a former legionary, former chemist.

Anyways... These pictures allowed us to find the two rivers that could be feeding Durrani's gardens of the Alcazar, as we came to call it.

Afterwards, we had to know which river to block or divert from its course. So our chemist Captain concocted a dye to put in the rivers. Two different dyes, for easier tracking. And since we like to have a second effect, she added a little something to it.