Shadows of Darkness: book 1 by Jonah White

Author:Jonah White [White, Jonah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jonah S White
Published: 2020-08-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Kars, Turkey

Ardeshir approaches a small restaurant, which looks to be in just as terrible condition as the rest of the city. The roads and buildings are stained with graffiti and filth. Some of the buildings are essentially skeletons due to fire damage and bombing. UWA AI troops and vehicles saturate the streets, almost outnumbering the civilian presence.

Once inside, Ardeshir offers his temporary, phony BIC identification to the shorter, Turkish-speaking AI waitress, who directs him to a booth at the back of the restaurant. Sitting at one of the last tables is a familiar friend, who waves upon seeing Ardeshir.

“Rahman,” Ardeshir begins, “your taste in restaurants hasn’t changed a bit. You seem to enjoy run-down, low-quality places.”

The heavyset man takes one last swallow of his drink from his small glass. “The only place in the city I can do business without the UWA standing around. Plus, I pay to have the cameras and listening devices turned off when I arrive.”

Ardeshir takes a quick glance around. “I’m surprised they haven’t already torched the city. The city is—”

“Only a matter of time. The only healthy people here are the military units and, of course, my people. If you ask me, this whole city is dying. More than one hundred people died today from some pollution sickness going around.” Rahman shifts in his seat and redirects the conversation. “So what brings you here? You must be a wanted man in the Israeli region.”

“Why do you believe I am wanted?” Ardeshir replies with a poker face.

“One does not live this long being ignorant. The lady who helped you to this booth addressed you by a different name, which leads me to believe that you have one of those black market BICs.”

“Are we here to conduct business or what?”

Rahman throws up his hands in a surrender motion, then points for Ardeshir to take a seat across from him. “Don’t waste your time looking through the menu. Most of what’s in there is no longer in stock.”

“I’m not very hungry. Besides, I have business to take care of.” Ardeshir waves to one of the waitresses to bring him a glass and a pitcher of overly priced water.

“If you want to draw suspicion to the two of us, this meeting is over as far as I am concerned.”

The waitress returns with Ardeshir’s order, and he pours himself some water and takes a few sips of the impure, dirty-tasting liquid. He is surprised the people in the area survived on water like this. Pushing his glass aside, Ardeshir gets down to business.

“I won’t take up too much of your time.”

“Of course. So why did you risk everything to come see me?”

“As you may already know, Latter Exodus has been growing in numbers—minus the losses we have sustained. We are currently stretching our forces thin. We are in need of additional weapons and ammunition in the meantime.”

“That I can provide you, although I hope you don’t anticipate taking on the entire 10th army with your small force of fighters.”

“It’s not like that, Rahman.

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