The Glistening Merkle Tree

Part 1 "The Interrogation"

Early morning had come, and the sun glared through one of the only two windows in the small apartment. At the end of a narrow alley in Tribeca, inside the apartment muffled screams could be heard. They would never make it any further than the walls and would also not bring the help they were intended for. A half yard of cloth wrapped around a small plastic tube was taped into the mouth, just barley allowing breathing. In a chair sat a man now missing two-thirds of one finger on a hand that only had two fingers left. On the floor, in a wide V shape, laid a pair of bloody cutting pliers. Two men stood by calmly and watched as a third man reached down to pick up the pliers. All three men had participated in scenarios like this one a dozen times before. They displayed no emotion or sympathy. This session was no different and like all the others was a simple game of extracting info. A balance between extreme torcher and pain and the realization of when a target had nothing more to give. In an ordeal that had lasted half the night, the breaking point finally came. The man holding the pliers produced a suppressed S & W MK22 pistol and placed one round in the forehead of the almost fingerless man. Killing him instantly he slumped over in the chair lifeless, his strife, his pain now over. On the floor beneath him lay a plastic tarp with several blankets on top of it. The zip ties and ropes holding and restraining him were cut away as he fell to the floor. The chair then pulled away. The body was then rolled up and placed in the trunk of a vehicle waiting below the apartment. The shell casing and the pliers were picked up by the other two men as the entire cleaning process took only twenty minutes. It was not even 8 am in Manhattan and all traces of the horror that had just transpired were now gone. 

Marriott Hotel, DiplomaticQuarter, Riyadh Saudi Arabia, 2002 ~ 

Palm trees lined the streets just outside the hotels main entrance. Wind caused them to trash about in a whipping motion. On this morning Saudi Crown Prince Sultan was at the hotel conducting business meetings, primarily to purchase a large number of helicopters for the Royal Family. After a breakfast comprised of labneh, kishta, and tea, the meeting broke up and the Prince made his way through the lobby of the hotel. In a country fueled by secularism and terrorist threats both internal and external against the Royal Family, the Prince did not simply just "make his way through the lobby of the hotel" alone. He traveled with a highly trained, sophisticated, and equipped protective detail called the Saudi Royal Guard. This unit, now a branch of the Saudi Military, operates separately in an effort to keep it from being infiltrated by those who would want to see harm come to the Royal Family. Looking down from above, the Princes' movements looked like a choreographed Broadway Musical, with a half dozen men moving in lock step on both sides of him. While the front and rear were comprised of another six men. All designed to create a moving ring of protection. Among these men was Nura. Born and raised in the north of Saudi Arabia in Hail. He has served in the Saudi military. During his time in the Saudi Land Forces, he was attached to the Special Security Forces, and was attached to the Special Airborne Brigade. After being discharged he joined the Saudi Royal Guard. He had only been with the unit for 18 months, though he had quickly rose through the ranks, being hand selected to serve in the Royal Guard. Though operating on their own soil, the Royal Guard had failed to do any advanced work at the hotel, the normal checks of employees, who was staying at the hotel, etc. Waiting at the curb outside the hotels main entrance was a small fleet of vehicles flanked with a dozen more RG men. The vehicles, all tan Chevrolet Suburban's, did not easily give away their secrets. Mainly that they are heavily armored. With two- and half-inch composite glass, hard thick rubber tires, they are veritable moving fortress. The bottom of the vehicles were lined with bomb blast blankets were also sealed off from the outside air.

As the Prince emerged from the hotels main entrance in the distance gunfire suddenly erupted. The gunfire was merely a distraction designed to elicit a response. The response was the RG instantly rushed the Prince into the rear of the center parked Suburban. Their goal being, to move the principal away from the threat. The motorcade sped out from under the portico headed towards the streets main entrance. In an instant the palm trees were shredded and toppled down to the street. The earth felt as though it were picked up and then dropped. The blast tore across the street with such force that it flung vehicles as if they were mere plastic models. The Princes vehicle was catapulted nearly 200 feet and then struck a tree, coming to a rest. Now laying on its side, disabled and leaking fluid. The worst-case scenario had just unfolded, the chance to separate the principal from the threat had just been eliminated.

With smoke filling the street and car alarms sounding, small arms fire erupted. Two of the three trailing vehicles had been turned on their side from the blast. One vehicle remained upright, severely damaged but still running. The detail began to funnel out of their vehicles and lay down heavy suppressive fire in order to make their way to the Princes vehicle. Nura exited his vehicle and quickly identified a group of men behind a vehicle in the distance firing at them. His earpiece screaming with radio traffic from the other men about their status and the status of the Prince, Nura summonsed three men on the radio to join him in a flanking maneuver that would take them out and around the men in the distance. Scrambling on foot from cover, the four men made their way out and around and now found themselves behind the group of attackers. Before exiting their vehicles, the group grabbed their heavier weapons, fully automatic H & K UMP .45 cal submachine guns. Loaded into the weapons and their extra mags were armor piercing ammunition.

By this time, the Saudi Government had been alerted and Police and Military units were quickly approaching the area. Kneeling incover Nura thought to himself, that he was just going to execute them. His feeling was that these men deserved nothing less. He could hear the sirens getting closer. He ended his contemplation and burst from cover. Walking with a quick step he approached the attacker's position from behind. Within seconds he had fired almost 30 rounds at the men crouched behind the vehicle. Bullets make a distinctly different sound when they strike flesh as opposed to almost anything else. As the rounds passed through the men, they then went entirely through the vehicle behind them. Bone, blood, and mater spattered again the vehicle as they fell lifelessly to the ground. One man lay groaning softly and slightly moving, Nura immediately walked up and shot the man in the head. The Saudi Government would have executed them anyway. The attackers all dead. Any stragglers left had most certainly fled the area. The "all clear" signal came through Nuras earpiece indicating that the area had been secured. Further radio traffic indicated that the Prince had been injured, however slightly, but was otherwise in good condition. Later in his career,Nura was disciplined and kicked out of the RG after executing two men in thestreet. The men had unsuccessfully tried to carry out an attempt on a subject under the Royal Guards protection. Normally the Saudis, for the most part, would not have cared. But this incident was avery public one. Being caught on camera by several bystanders. The Saudis had no choice but to remove him from his duties. He narrowly avoided being sentenced to prison. The Crown Prince took pity on him for his service to the Royal Guard. Nura's up and down and sometimes violent career in the service had ended abruptly. At this moment in his life, Nura became fully rogue.