The Great Deception Read Online Free Page A

largest commercial
center, eventually surpassing even Dubai in the late 2020s.
Strategically positioned in close proximity to the Red Sea, this
port city served the global economy in a big way. Much of the
freight on big tankers passed through her waters headed for Africa,
the Middle East, or Europe.
    The crown jewel of the newly-formed
    Islamic caliphate even began to build an
elevator to space where orbital platforms had large space shuttles
docked at them, ready to transport freight and paying customers in
unprecedented efficiency.

    That day the Muslim world showed up big to
witness their human representation of Allah's authority on earth.
Waving green banners and flags with a white star and crescent
symbol emblazoned on it signaled to the watching world a United
Islamic Caliphate was rising out of the desert...and
    Jeddah was at the center of it all.

    --

    Where there is no guidance, a people falls,
but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

    --Proverbs 11:14

    April 20th, 2041

    The Mossad stamped that Proverb as their
motto. They sought to give Israel's leaders guidance through good
counsel in order to arrive at informed decisions.

    …

    Five stealth helicopters' blades thwacked
against the night air around them. These birds of war were headed
to the former Republic of Moldova which had been grafted back into
the Russian empire after World War III (circa 2018).
    External fuel tanks hung from the pylons
under the wings of the Block XX Blackhawk stealth choppers; though
the extra load it carried may have increased its overall radar
cross-section, the ancient but heavily modified helicopters would
need it to make the hop over the Black Sea.
    The most dangerous part of the flight would
be the brief exposure to Odesa's launchers that lie in wait for
aircraft daring enough to enter its domain. The good news: Ukraine
wasn't their end destination...only a very skinny sliver of it
stood in the way of Moldova's southeastern section which they were
headed to. However, the flip side of that coin being the
Blackhawk's weak countermeasures to anti-aircraft missile
launchers. If the stealth didn't have its desired effect on enemy
radar, it would be lights out for the Israelis.

    ...

    Four agents bundled together in the back of
one of the choppers. The airframe shuddered a little at an altitude
of five thousand feet going two hundred and thirty knots. The
pilots were really pushing the envelope. Meanwhile the rest of the
crew were engaged in a rousing game of blackjack-except for Seth
Markov.

    Seth held an enviable background. Some said
he was over-qualified to be a
    Mossad operative. He studied chemistry and
physics at Israel's oldest college: TechnionIsrael Institute of
Technology. Next up, he did his graduate studies at none other than
MIT: graduating with a Masters of Science in Mechanical
Engineering.
    For his physical regimen he dead-lifted five
hundred pounds (eight reps in six sets), swam a quarter mile, ran a
5k in 16 minutes....Now you get the idea. Later in the day he'd
spar with Israeli Commandos (think Navy Seals) until he bruised all
his ribs and/or partially blacked out. What made Seth the ultimate
fighting machine though were his skills in the deadly martial art
called Kraw Maga. One simply didn't outlast his moves. Death would
be the only conclusion to a match. Seth's record was perfect, too:
many had perished from his lethal blows.
    He had no equal, except the fictional
character Jason Bourne perhaps. Seth Markov was so rounded in every
area there was literally no situation he wasn't prepared for.
Because of his educational background, he was mentally equipped to
think his way out of any dilemma like a living-breathing
MacGyver.

    The six-foot-one, two hundred and ten pound
jack-of-all-trades fighting machine sat undisturbed in peaceful
reflection. He was so still, to anybody watching, Seth looked like
an inanimate GI Joe doll. It was nearing 23:00 hours and the
helicopters were still a good journey away