Heidi donned her nursing fatigues and set about to start the saline exchange. The pump they were using was the same pump funeral homes used to embalm bodies. During her nurse’s training she actually had to work in the morgue for a while. The only thing different about this was the body strapped to the table was still alive. Oddly, it was that training which made her most suited for this job.<\/p>\n
She looked over and saw Nikolaus looking through the room\u2019s observation window. A smile showed from behind her surgical mask. He recognized her and smiled back. Nikolaus and her father had been friends forever. They were both loyal party members and she had been raised to be a loyal party member. Her nurse\u2019s training had been paid for by the party. As part of her payback and continued training, she had worked as a nurse in various military medical units and served as a med tech for some clandestine ones. She had seen first-hand the carnage caused by explosives, and had no problem with what they were doing.<\/p>\n
Heidi knew the history of al-Qaeda on her soil. Germans had been hunting them long before the Americans started killing them wholesale. The Americans really didn\u2019t get into it until after 9\/11. Yes, they had done some monitoring, and even launched a botched attempt to kill bin Laden prior to 9\/11, but they got involved too late. Had the Americans shared their information with the people in her party, bin Laden wouldn\u2019t still be walking around. Her party had some of the best trained assassins in the world.<\/p>\n
From the history Heidi knew, al-Qaeda had begun operating in her country some time in 1992. They had a cell in Hamburg that had defied being rooted out by normal criminal means, and had turned out to be the source for most of the 9\/11 hijackers, or had at least selected and educated them. In 1994 al-Qaeda had killed two German intelligence agents because they were trying to dismantle the operations al-Qaeda had in Germany. After that event, the Reformed Nazi Party started getting a lot more influential members.<\/p>\n
In 1995 German intelligence identified a suspected leader of a Hamburg cell and found the Twaik Group was a front company for Saudi intelligence. Several members of Saudi intelligence were suspected of being in the pocket of al-Qaeda and funneling millions through this front into the hands of al-Qaeda. The Hamburg cell leader was accused of not only financing 9\/11, but helping to select the hijackers.<\/p>\n
In 1996 the Germans began going after the Hamburg cell in earnest after receiving a tip from Turkey. They began monitoring the mosque where the 9\/11 hijackers attended and the radical Moroccan imam Nedim Fazazi preached.<\/p>\n
In 1998 the Germans arrested Mamdouh Mahmud Salim (a.k.a. Abu Hajer) in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa. He was later called \u201chead of bin Laden\u2019s computer operations and weapons procurement.\u201d Shortly thereafter, the CIA and German police foiled an airplane bomb plot in which al-Qaeda had penetrated airport security in Amsterdam and planned to smuggle bombs into the cargo holds of American passenger planes.<\/p>\n
After 9\/11, the world found out about the Hamburg cell. Heidi\u2019s party got a lot more funding and a lot fewer inquiries from government officials about their activities. Everyone knew what had to be done, and they were willing to keep their distance in case the world didn\u2019t quite understand.<\/p>\n
Heidi had no illusions about what was going to happen here. They were going to kill these two men, and harvest salable components for market. As more subjects came through here, the cash influx would allow them to launch larger initiatives. Covert operations funding had been good enough to get them this far, but you needed serious funding to carry out work of the magnitude which had to happen.<\/p>\n
This train of thought was interrupted by Lisa touching her arm. \u201cThey\u2019re still alive,\u201d Lisa whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot for long,\u201d responded Heidi.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t told about this,\u201d Lisa whispered nervously. \u201cI\u2019m a surgical nurse, not a murderer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisa, this girl, was a real piece of work. Heidi had told Nikolaus not to bring her into this operation. When people heard Heidi\u2019s name they instantly conjured up an image of a blue-eyed, blond sex toy. Heidi\u2019s hair was somewhat blond and her eyes a shade of blue, but she was a long way from a sex toy. Lisa was the complete image of a sex toy. She was doing a senior party member and claimed to be a loyal party member herself, but she really just wanted to sleep her way to a better station in life. If she kept up talking like this she would be tossed into the incinerator tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust continue your work and keep your mouth shut,\u201d responded Heidi. \u201cWith power comes the responsibility of doing what has to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisa nervously went over to begin prepping her tray. While Nikolaus could not hear the exchange he had noticed it and Lisa\u2019s reaction. One look in Heidi\u2019s eyes told him what he needed to know. The first washout was in the room.<\/p>\n
There were times when Heidi wished she looked like Lisa, but only times. She had her share of lovers in life. Better to call them sex partners, for they were never really in love, nor was she. They exchanged laughs and orgasms when circumstances allowed, but rarely kept in touch. One notable exception had been during an operation involving some Americans. She had heard one of the Americans refer to her as a \u201cclosing time gal.\u201d Another had joked the other could always \u201cgo ugly early and get a good night\u2019s sleep.\u201d Beauty was not her forte. She could look good, but never be beautiful, and she had come to terms with that.<\/p>\n
Still, one of the Americans had chosen to take the advice. They kept in touch for quite a few years after that. He was kind and funny. She laughed a lot with him and was all too willing to sleep with him. Sex with him had really caused Heidi to call into question that whole \u201cAryan Supremacy\u201d thing. He was dark-skinned, not black. More of a Hispanic or American Indian descent that had been intermingled with whites for many generations. In bed, he was a ride on the multi-orgasm express. Had the party ordered her to have as many babies as she could with him she would have done it with gusto!<\/p>\n
Life gives and life takes away. One day the letters to Heidi simply stopped. She had written a time or two after that, but received no reply. Oddly enough, it was the guy who had called her a \u201cclosing time gal\u201d who wrote her back some months later to say her lover had been killed in a firefight. He was very sorry to be the one to tell her because his squad buddy seemed very happy with her. He gave her some contact information and told her the squad would always look out for her. If she was ever in trouble, they would come and get her because the squad takes care of its own. The last line had been the one which ripped her heart out. She had been with her lover only three weeks, but on the second night they all treated her like a lady. Now, when they had no further obligation to her, they made the largest commitment anyone in clandestine service can make. They claimed her as one of their own.<\/p>\n
Heidi noticed the blood was about to overflow its container. She quickly switched containers and checked the patient for life signs. No pulse. She turned on the pump and signaled the surgeons to start work. In a few minutes she would be draining the second patient.<\/p>\n
All color drained from Lisa\u2019s face as the surgeons began removing the major bones like a lumber jack felling a tree. She dropped whatever she had in her hand and tried to run out of the building. The last Heidi saw of her was a pair of special security guys grabbing her, gagging her, and taking her out. Heidi knew that was the last she would ever see of Lisa. She wondered how Nikolaus was going to explain it to the party member Lisa had been sleeping with.
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You are reading a special promotional version of \u201cInfinite Exposure\u201d containing only the first 18 chapters. This is the first book of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. You can obtain the entire trilogy in EPUB form from here:<\/p>\n