Operation Code Name – Window Maker

Objective - The Assassination of Fecino Zaira and Extraction of Agent White.

Sorry to call you out at this late hour but we have a problem, I just nodded. 02:35 on a Wednesday morning usually means there’s a problem and it usually comes across my desk if it’s a Latin American problem.

“You briefed Mrs White” Z continued, I nodded again, thinking of the nice polite old lady I’d briefed about 3 weeks ago. Edna May White, she was posing as a cook and housekeeper, we’d managed to infiltrate her into Fecino Zaira’s compound.

It’s a long story but then again they usually are.

Zaira was one of the more unusual of the Cartel Bosses. He lived as a semi-recluse behind walls and wire in the jungle, 20 miles from the nearest road. The only way into the Compound was a 2 to 3 day hard trek through the jungle or by helicopter. There wasn’t a landing pad as such, the copter landed on the roof of one of the buildings in the Compound, stayed for a few minutes and then left.

I’d only noticed the Compound by accident. It had been there for years but the satellite images had been scanned by computers, the thermal imaging specification was looking for concentrated activity, not 2 people and a child and so it had discounted the place, believing it was abandoned at best or had a couple of squatters at worse.

This is the latest satellite image of the compound.

Zaira went missing eighteen months ago, there had been some blood letting with the other Cartels and we thought he’d been eliminated. The only strange thing was that Johnny Mo his prime bodyguard had disappeared at the same time, but what really set off alarm bells was that Monsignor Blanc had disappeared also. Blanc was Zaira’s Chef and it was unusual for a Chef to be eliminated, especially one as talented as Blanc. He would have been worth 10kg of H to any of the leading families because they all liked fine food.

“Are you paying attention” Z barked. “Of course sir” I responded immediately but wondered what he’d been saying the past few minutes.

“I arranged to drop a small drone from one of the American spy planes that operate over Columbia and have just received the pictures”. He held in his hand six 8 x 10 pictures of the compound, “that’s all we’re going to get, the drone pilot flew the damn thing into a tree and it crashed”. He proceeded to pass them over 1 at a time, he does like a little drama.

“That is a low altitude picture”, he said, I noted the sarcasm in his voice but saw the helicopter again. That’s what had tipped me off in the first place, everything else in the compound looked old and disused but on one of the original satellite images a red helicopter was shown in the same place as it stood now.

“The drone got some good clean shots before it crashed” he continued. I let out a low whistle, partly because I recognised Erika Klaus the pilot but also in admiration at the willowy frames of the two young women with her.

I knew that Zaira had a propensity for tall slim women. This was as good as intel would get I thought, until I examined the next picture.

Fecino Zaira the king pin himself, along with bodyguard Johnny Mo and to my great relief, Agent White. The very Edna May White I’d managed to insert into Zaira’s household once I’d found out he needed a new Chef.

Monsignor Blanc had contracted some tropical disease and had surfaced in a private hospital in Bogotá, that piece of information had enabled me to push forward with my plan. I thought it was a cute idea to name my Agent White and so did Marcello, third in line to Zaira himself.

Marcello wanted to be head of the Norte del Valle Cartel himself and with Zaira gone he was one step closer to that goal. I’d been cultivating him for quiet a long time and it was starting to pay off.

“There’s a couple of snags” Z continued as he passed the next photo over.

I could see what he meant. “Do we have any info on this machine” I asked hopefully. “Not a bean” was his reply. “There are rumours from China South West Station that the Chinese are well advanced in their mechanical and robotic experimental weapons program’s. This might be another attempt at increasing their influence in South America through the drugs trade. That’s not all though”.

Looking closely I was sure I recognised the small size of Zaira but what was behind him, and why hadn’t they shown up on the thermal imaging scans. They looked like a pair of armed guards in some sort of tactical armour. Z shrugged, “We’ll have nothing from the satellite for 3 days and can’t confirm the thermal record”.

“This last one was taken shortly before the drone crashed. It looks as if it caught the attention of whoever that is but we don’t know for sure”.

“I’ve already scrambled Sniper team ‘Breakfast’ and they’re taking off in a couple of minutes, they’ll be under your direct command.”

Finally he was giving me some good news; Breakfast was the best team we had. On a very good day Pop Pop could hit a man sized target at around 2,200m, at 1,500m she was 98%.

Then I thought of the jungle, she’d be lucky to get a line of sight of 100m and it would probably be much less. Getting into that position would require all the training and skill of the three woman team, getting out again from that close in would be even more difficult if not impossible. That’s where the other 2 members of the team would earn their corn.

“Do I still have Assault team Rainbow” I asked. “Of course” was his laconic reply, “they’re already in country and ready to go”. “There’s one final thing though”. My heart sank. “We received a radio message from our black-site listening station in the Azores. They picked up the following coded message which we are fairly sure is from the compound. Our super-computer has so far, failed to crack the cipher”.

The red swallow flies upside down over Moscow. As a consequence, Execute operation widow-maker. The truss of my second cousin is in the hand-bag of my grandmother’s chamber-maid.

“I believe this might be an old WWll code, they used to put the message in the 2nd sentence, the rest is just gobblegook, the reference to "Execute operation Widow Maker" may well be to confirm we should hit Zaira now (one of his many nicknames is Widow Maker”). “I’ve sent Miss Twopence Moneypenny down to the basement to check in the old code books, if Agent White was under pressure this might have been the best she could do.”

At that moment E=mc2 came into the room. “I think we might be on the wrong track with the code. According to my information (still kept on a Rolodex and none the worse for that), Zaira’s nickname is Window Maker because of his uncanny ability to see through any plan to capture him. Did we get the code in morse or oral transmission” he asked. “Morse” responded Z “but what difference does one dash and dot make”? E=mc2 looked at him in disbelief. “There’s a world of difference, one is a kill instruction from our Agent and the other is a trap, he’s seen through our plan and is laughing at us”.

Z looked slightly put out by this latest information and issued his instructions sourly. “We have photographic evidence that he’s there, V you’re head of South American operations, I want your assessment and a plan of attack on my desk before Breakfast arrive in Columbia as 09:00 hours tomorrow”.

“Yes Sir”

Ok that’s my opening brief and I’m going to play the game solo. I’ve set up the table as the original photo and distributed any impediments in and around the compound. What I’d really appreciate is a plan of attack from anyone who feels they can contribute.

There is very little known about the compound, there will probably be booby traps, security camera’s, bunkers under the living accommodation, clandestine escape routes, you name it.

The living accommodation might be the Bar, the rest of the buildings look like they are storage facilities but may not be. The bar by the way is the building with the Red Lions outside.

There’s obviously some form of guards/sentries but don’t forget, nothing significant showed up on thermal imaging when checking against human signatures, so this might just be a red herring. You don’t know how many guards etc there are, nor how effective they may be. Final point is that the helicopter hasn’t stayed long when it’s landed in the past and so you would expect this to have gone when you arrive.

The objective of the mission is to kill Zaira, this is the prime objective. The secondary objective is to extract Agent White, you have no communication channel open to her.

How would you go about it.

Any thoughts and comments will be gratefully considered and the respondent's name will go into the prize draw. Unfortunately there is no prize but your name will be recorded in shining lights on the Blog.

If I can work out how to do that!

Cheers