Chapter 1: A Dark Shadow Looms
It was quite a horrific historical first – the successful seize of the al-Aqsa Mosque led by the notorious Jaron Kohn. Exiled American President Marshall Baker has agreed to be part of the talks with the settler leader Jaron in the hopes that Jaron and his crew could leave peacefully from the mosque. The former American President sits on Air Force One, from Ottawa, Canada heading straight for the Middle East. He’s on the phone with his Communist American counterpart Carl Stevens.
“Carl, Carl, Carl, I’ve tried peace many times with the Middle East, but it seems like you people on the American Left didn’t listen carefully” said President Marshall.
President Marshall was always his usual arrogant tone of voice, the same voice that helped him get elected in a non-consecutive term since President Grover Cleveland. Carl could understand why his fellow colleagues on the Council disagreed in terms of giving President Marshall a full pardon. But since many members of Marshall’s former exiled administration were Christian Zionists – Carl was hoping for at least some connections with Baker’s administration and even the post-Zionist government led by Dara Segar.
“You have to understand how delicate this is” said Carl, “I know we have our differences, but you being present on the stage will make all the difference.”
Carl knew that using the exiled American President was all but risky, he would even accept resignation from leading the new American Communist government if it came down to being a failure with the exiled American President. As Air Force one continued on with its journey towards Israel – things on the ground for the settlers looked pretty grim. Zared Shine didn’t know what to make over the death of Imam Hussein and the mass demonstrations that followed. He sat mostly by himself in a private room.
“This can’t be any good” thought Zared.
Zared could tell that the settlers were all but anxious, Jaron especially was looking over the various footage and movement of Turkish special forces that were just outside. He didn’t know if they were preparing for another raid after that incident with Cinar Beg. He could tell that Cinar was the type of hotheaded Islamist that rooted for the Crescent Path during the October 7th war with Israel. Jaron especially was doing his best trying to see understand what the Turkish soldiers were saying.
“I wish I knew how to speak Turkish!” cried Jaron.
Jaron was clearly frustrated with all of this, he knew the exiled American President might make things worse than they already were for the settlers. Even though Jaron supported Israel’s wars with Iran, he knew that wouldn’t last so long as American Communists prevented America from acting. Jaron decided to check up on the two other hostages – Kader Mohammad and Connor Wall. Jaron headed towards Kader’s room first.
“Am I going to be released soon?” asked Kader.
Jaron shook his head.
“Uh, the mishap with that Turkish soldier is going to cause delays” sighed Jaron, “but you have my word.”
Jaron wanted to get rid of Kader first, but keep Connor longer since he like the other settlers detested Connor the most. This was more of a psychological assault on Connor himself for his days as a contractor hating Israel before it adopted post-Zionism.
