Friends: Apocalypse in a Package
FedX arrived early Christmas morning with a gi ft box from Pakistan. The card said simply, “To Bud, From Ace.” You can tell a lot about your friends from the gifts you get!
My friend’s current name, Dwight Blackbanks, is an alias given him by the OPA (Operatives Protection Agency), and “Ace” was his code name. In another life he worked with the CIA as a Black-ops espionage agent, a very nasty trade, and had cut his teeth in Viet Nam back
in the ‘60’s flying sorties in a modified F/A Raptor jet, nuclear armed, with Mach 2 speeds. Often he had parachuted deep in the jungles of S. Asia, exploited Juntas of Central America, provided technical support to the Sandinistas and other insurgency groups. He was a trained killer, a black belt in karate, expert in subversive and torture techniques, but most of all a specialist in Plastiques C-4 explosives. He is reputed to have been the role model for Fleming’s 007 James Bond and Ludlum’s Jason Bourne. I know some of these secrets from nights of heavy scotch drinking by the fires in his home.
Since 1990 he has lived a quiet life with his wife, Lady Whitehead, daughter of Count Whitehead, whose family migrated from Lancashire, England in the late 1800’s, and settled on a feudal estate in Southwest Georgia. He blended well into the local culture and has thus far escaped retribution from his nemesis, the mad Cossack Ivan Brusco, The Siberian Assassin, who had been on his trail since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Brusco, reportedly the love-child of Stalin and a Gypsy girl, was insane with revenge and had been commissioned to terminate Ace for his role in the fall of communism.
On the night of November 9, 1989, Ace had parachuted into East Germany with 100 pounds of C-4 explosives in a backpack, and had planted the explosives along the northern end of the Berlin Wall in order to provide an opening into the West. Ace had managed to lure Brusco into a dark and shadowy escarpment and by superior stealth was able to overpower the 7 foot tall, 450 pound Brusco, taking his Kalashnikov AK-47 as a souvenir, highly embarrassing Brusco with his peers. Only Ace’s compassion saved Brusco from a brutal death on that evening. Suddenly, the night lit up as The Berlin Wall exploded with an energy force sufficient to level the city of Brunswick, and before the Russians were able to regain composure, East and West Berliners began to cross the lines at will, reuniting, shouting and celebrating, dancing in the Brandenburg Gates. This night, November 9, 1989, was the official fall of Communism, and it was Ace who was single-handedly responsible for the demise of the Soviet Republic.
My friend’s current name, Dwight Blackbanks, is an alias given him by the OPA (Operatives Protection Agency), and “Ace” was his code name. In another life he worked with the CIA as a Black-ops espionage agent, a very nasty trade, and had cut his teeth in Viet Nam back
in the ‘60’s flying sorties in a modified F/A Raptor jet, nuclear armed, with Mach 2 speeds. Often he had parachuted deep in the jungles of S. Asia, exploited Juntas of Central America, provided technical support to the Sandinistas and other insurgency groups. He was a trained killer, a black belt in karate, expert in subversive and torture techniques, but most of all a specialist in Plastiques C-4 explosives. He is reputed to have been the role model for Fleming’s 007 James Bond and Ludlum’s Jason Bourne. I know some of these secrets from nights of heavy scotch drinking by the fires in his home.On the night of November 9, 1989, Ace had parachuted into East Germany with 100 pounds of C-4 explosives in a backpack, and had planted the explosives along the northern end of the Berlin Wall in order to provide an opening into the West. Ace had managed to lure Brusco into a dark and shadowy escarpment and by superior stealth was able to overpower the 7 foot tall, 450 pound Brusco, taking his Kalashnikov AK-47 as a souvenir, highly embarrassing Brusco with his peers. Only Ace’s compassion saved Brusco from a brutal death on that evening. Suddenly, the night lit up as The Berlin Wall exploded with an energy force sufficient to level the city of Brunswick, and before the Russians were able to regain composure, East and West Berliners began to cross the lines at will, reuniting, shouting and celebrating, dancing in the Brandenburg Gates. This night, November 9, 1989, was the official fall of Communism, and it was Ace who was single-handedly responsible for the demise of the Soviet Republic.
Of course, covert successes are not rewarded with the giving of metals, ceremonies on TV or other public acknowledgements. For Ace’s role in the event he received only a handshake from President Reagan, a few nods and winks from his superiors and a new name and identity. Such is the nature of this business.
But Black-ops are never fully retired. On or about December 20 this year all communiqués with him suddenly failed…telephone calls were not returned, email not answered, and his island home was shuttered. Ace had suddenly “gone dark” as they say in the spy business. He was nowhere to be found. We wondered about it. Then an article appeared in the WSJ, “…Pakistan, the world’s most unstable nuclear-armed nation is plunging deeper into crisis…Bhutto is assassinated…” Shortly afterwards, a small column in Reuters simply read, “The Cossack, Ivan Brusco, renowned as The Siberian Assassin, was found dead near the scene of Bhutto’s assassination.” It all left me puzzled, wondering somehow if it had anything to do with Ace’s sudden disappearance.
But it’s Christmas morning, a nice time with my family, and I begin to open the package from Pakistan. As I peeled away the cheap wrapping paper there appeared a grey Usanka, a Cossack hat, out of which fell a large piece of concrete stone with remnants of graffiti art, matching the German words, “Irgendwann faelt jedes Mauer”, translated ”At some time every wall must fall.” Along with it was a note card with the words inscribed, “All’s well…read Reuters. Ace”Life is certainly full of contradictory coincidences, but suddenly, like a completed puzzle, it began to make sense to me. Like I said, you can tell a lot about your friends by the gifts you get from them.
Bud
January 3, 2008
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