Martina. Berlin to Baghdad. Refugee to Spook

By Ash Nehmet

This book is set in the 1960's and early 1970's, with a strong female lead.
Martina, a young ex-military German woman, is leaving the misogyny and poverty of a Vatican dominated Europe. She is heading for a peaceful, secular and female-run Middle East. Along the way, she seeks retribution against four men who had previously attacked her.
She fights sea pirates and rescues three trafficked women and a bonded child, before entering the Middle East hidden in a fishing boat
Terrorism enters the Middle East at the 1972 Baghdad Olympic Games, where German terrorists kidnap Israeli athletes. This is where Martina is recruited to the Intelligence Services and becomes a spook.
Martina fights terrorists, child abusers and a militia group. She finds the parents of the boy rescued from bondage and uncovers a terror link between an African diamond mine, the German State, an Israeli patriot and a WW2 concentration camp.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ash Nehmet
• Release date: Nov 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463919941

Ash Nehmet

I work as a Business Development Manager.I am a part-time fiction writer, although my first completed book was a How-To book. How to solve the Arab Israeli problem in the Middle East.My next book was fictional. Well before Donald Trump came to power, I wrote an amusing story of how the American people decided to ditch democracy and the series of events which led to it.Both of these weren't published, even by self publishing. They weren't good enough.After writing Martina, I knew this book was one to publish. I only sent it to one traditional publishing house, where it got rejected. Not having time to send it to others; I went down the self-publishing route.The feedback I have had from those who have read the book is extremely positive.

Book preview

1

France

Martina crossed the border into France from Germany in her battered old Volkswagen. She had a map balanced on the dashboard with an address marked on it.

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It was getting dark, and the meandering road outside Paris had few cars on and more, often unlit, animal carts. Unless she concentrated, she could easily ram into the back of a horse cart that she’d only seen half a second earlier.

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She was searching for another war veteran like herself. As a soldier, she had been gang-raped by three other soldiers. One of them was now living on the outskirts of Paris, and that’s where she was heading.

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She had been working towards this point for a few years. She had become a sharpshooter, and later a sniper while still in the military. Most people she knew left Germany after the conflict, looking for a better life elsewhere. Surviving on her meagre military pension, Martina stayed but just withdrew. She found a new martial art to which she devoted all her time, trying not to notice what was happening outside of her door.

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Out there was despair and economic stagnation, to which no one in power had any answer. After a while the government didn’t bother even pretending to look; it was much easier to spout jingoistic statements and somehow wallow in self-pity and how other countries had unfairly pushed them into depression.

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Martina pulled in her Volkswagen at the lodge with a vacancy sign lit and using a false name took a room for the night. She even wore a mild disguise of glasses and a headscarf, but the clerk registering her was more interested in his newspaper than getting a look at her. She took her little bag up to the basic and, it has to be said, stale smelling room. She didn’t notice anything about the room, being too absorbed by her purpose in Paris.

She was some distance from where Rapist No.1, Henry, lived; after settling in, she took a bus to near Henry’s address. She didn’t want to get too close just yet because she didn't intend to kill him tonight. Tonight was just to look around and make a detailed plan for tomorrow.

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He lived in a room above a shop. It was early evening, and his window was dark telling her he was still out. She wondered around the back of the shop and had a look at the stairs which went up to the rooms. There was a dirty looking communal toilet below the stairs.

Then she went and waited in the coffee shop opposite. She wanted to see if it was Henry that was living there. And did he live there alone or were other people living there too? If he were alone, that would be the ideal place to kill him, giving her possibly days to get far away before his body was found. Outside in the open was dangerous. The basic plan was; if he lived alone kill him in his room otherwise outside.

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C an I help you, madam, the waiter said as she looked at the menu. She didn’t want her German accent noticed, so she just pointed at her selection. When the police started questioning the shop about the dead German nearby, maybe the waiter might remember a German woman being here the night before. She wanted as little clues left as possible; she was meticulous like that. She still had her glasses and headscarf on.

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After another hour, she saw him. He was taller and broader than most men. He still had the huge biceps which he got from near obsessional weight training. He was drunk and loud, coming up the street singing. She shuddered on seeing him and concealed herself. He didn’t notice her and went towards the stairs leading to his room. After a minute, a light went on at the window, and she saw him close the curtains. He appeared to live alone. Thinking about it, this was an opportunity; she could do it right now. But should she? She felt butterflies in her stomach. If she did take this opportunity, what would she do exactly? She always liked to study every detail and plan meticulously. The only thing she had right now was to knock on his door and shoot him. No, she had to go inside because first, she wanted to talk to him. She wanted to give him an opportunity to apologise, and if he had remorse, maybe she would spare him with just a beating. And anyway, she wanted him to know why she was going to kill him. So that was the plan, go to his room, get invited inside, remind him of who she is, wait for an apology, and kill him if he wasn’t sorry. She was going to take this opportunity.

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She made her way across the dark pockmarked road and walked towards stairs hidden behind shops. The dim light from the café disappeared as she walked around the side of the shops and up to the stairs. Looking up and then left and right, she purposely and steadily climbed the stairs.

With her heart pounding, she checked her underarm gun was loaded. One gun was in a holder under her arm, the other in a secret compartment in her shoe. Both were silenced.

She walked along to the balcony leading to his door. The door was wide open. She walked in and looked around at the bare walls and threadbare, dirty carpet.

Hello, hello, is anyone here? she asked.

This was the right room, she recognised the curtains, but where was he? She had seen him barely 5 minutes earlier pulling the curtains shut. She heard someone walk in the door.

Who are you, he said upon seeing her. She could see his belt undone and flies open. He must have gone down to the filthy outside toilet. She noticed his hands hadn’t been washed.

Then he recognised her.

"Martina? Martina, it is you. I haven’t seen you in years. Good to see you."

He moved forward holding his dirty hand out. Despite Martina having the advantage of surprise, he was the one who grabbed the initiative. As she put her hand out, he grabbed her and pushed her to her knees. With both hands he squeezed her head so hard, she became dazed and confused. The piercing pain in her head was making her dizzy and faint. Her focus was now solely on the pain; she couldn’t think about anything else. It felt like he was going to squeeze her brain out of her ears. Her eyes were dimming; it was going dark. Her ears stopped hearing her own screams.

It barely registered when he thrust his dirty erect penis into her open screaming mouth and forced her to fellate him. She didn’t know where she was or what she was doing.

After a few thrusts he shot his first spurt of semen into her mouth, and maybe enjoying the moment too much, he relaxed his hold on her head.

Her pain suddenly eased, and her senses came back. She remembered where she was and saw what was happening, all in a split second. That was the opportunity she needed, her focus returned and she took control. As his second spurt was entering her mouth, she bit down hard, while simultaneously pushing him over, so he didn’t have time to react. He screamed in agony, gripping his still-erect-blood-covered member as she now stood over him.

This man had no remorse or apology, she thought. She reached for her silenced pistol and shot his balls off. Allowing him a few seconds to feel the pain, to register the punishment and to understand why it was happening, she shot him in the head.

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Looking around, she shut the door behind her and went downstairs. She saw was the tap which Henry hadn’t made use of after he’d gone to the toilet. She cleaned herself of blood and semen and rinsed her mouth to get rid of the salty taste. Then she walked away.

Ever cautious, she didn’t catch the same bus. She walked for 20 minutes and caught another bus to her hotel. It was late, and she was tired. But she gathered her stuff and left. She wouldn’t have been able to get to sleep because she needed to get as far away as possible.

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She got in the car and drove south. She was heading to the Middle East. It was a long way to go, especially in an old spluttering Volkswagen, but that’s where she was going

2

The Background

The German military could see the Second World War going badly. By then it was pretty obvious, they were in for a heavy defeat. Top German generals started secret negotiations with the Americans to end the war immediately by removing Hitler and halting the genocide against Jews.

With full victory in sight, there was initial American reluctance, but the Soviet advance was causing alarm. Stalin wanted to annexe at least a slice of Germany if not the whole state. With the Cold War already becoming a reality, the Americans agreed to end the war prematurely. Hitler was to be handed over, dead or alive, as were his inner circle. The Jews who were still alive were to be given into the care of the Americans. Germany would be returned intact to the German people to go about its business without recriminations as long as it wound its military down for a minimum of 10 years. The French wanted the Germans barred from having any armed forces for 50 years, but with the Soviet threat occupying American minds, they watered down requirements.

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They killed Hitler and handed his to the Allied forces. The now-at-piece Germany picked a military commander as its new Chancellor (head of state), who started the awkward task of trying to rebuild the devastated country. With no aid money or help from other nations, they struggled greatly. Even after a few years, Germany was still in a terrible state, with sky-high unemployment and poverty. The rest of Europe wasn’t much better. There was a growing disenchantment after the war ended. With nothing else for people to do, they turned towards religion with the Vatican happy to take an increasing role in everyday European life.

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The German peace settlement had only been backed by American- Jewish leaders if Washington first threw its full weight behind a Jewish state in the Holy lands. That’s what they did.

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Under enormous pressure from the Americans, the British relented and split Palestine into two to establish the Jewish state, Israel. At that time, the British had control over all the Arabian Peninsula, from Turkey in the north to Iran in the east, bound by the Red and Arabian Seas in west and south. But for a decade they had been under pressure to free the region, so at the same time as granting the Jewish state they carved up the Middle East into smaller (and weaker) countries and gave them self-rule. They hoped that freeing the Arabs would distract Arab attention away from the new Jewish state, but it didn’t. The presence of Israel only instilled a feeling of fear and vulnerability.

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The Americans didn’t help the situation by handing Israel a massive aid package called the Marshall Plan. Originally this was meant to help get Western Europe onto its feet but was diverted to Israel by prominent Americans lobbying to help Israel protect itself from hostile Arabs and further down the years, from Germany.

The leaders of the new Arab countries were pushed by exasperation into acting decisively; they decided to undo the British carve up and join back together to form one much larger and stronger country. That greater state, clumsily named as Middle East Arab Continent, or MEAC for short, would be governed by all of the existing heads of state, in a ruling council. After the formal ‘marriage’ had taken place, the arguments started. The ruling men had always been sole masters; even before freedom from the British, they had been tribal and community leaders. They were used to everyone around them acquiescing and agreeing with them no matter what they said or instructed. Now they had to listen to one another, compromise, take someone else’s point of view, and even back down from an argument. It was impossible for their egos. They argued, fought, refused to listen to counter views, and constantly plotted to outdo or undermine each other. The country never moved forward at anything other than crawling pace, and even this was down to the administrators below. All the administrators were women. Culturally it was thought that taking instruction and doing administration wasn’t a ‘mans’ job. So well-educated, smart, organised women who were happy working co-operatively, did the nuts & bolts work. Essentially they ran the country hindered hugely by their unruly, corrupt and disorganised all-male bosses.

The largely free press turned rabid as more and more corruption, and incompetence became apparent. Some parts of the country were openly rebellious before the unruly leaders took notice. The fear of outright revolt drove them, for only the second time, to be decisive and act in unison. They decided to go to war with Israel.

They were confident of swift victory, which would repair their damaged reputations and make them into heroes whom the populous would love rather than revolt against. Over the last few years, they had built up their country’s defence and military. They had circled Israel with military bases and had an impressive arsenal of weapons and stored ammunition which they were keen to see in action.

But due to themselves and their cronies syphoning off vast amounts for the defence budget, the quality of the buildings and the military itself was highly suspect.

As their armed forces moved towards Israel, all the leaders eagerly gathered in one of bases nearest to Israel so they could compete to be the first ones to cross the border under full media attention, and declare Israel to be no more.

Not only had they seriously overestimated their forces capability, but they also had seriously underestimated the Israeli Defence Force. The IDF was fully prepared and waiting.

The Arabs didn’t know what hit them. Their military became completely decimated within just a few hours, and then the Israeli jets went and bombed each of the bases circling their country. The Arab leaders, who happened to be sitting near an ammunition dump, were engulfed in flames of their own incompetence.

The administrators who had run the country just below the dead leaders, now quickly took charge and made peace with Israel and the Americans. By a curious twist of fate, it was the best thing to ever happen to the Middle East because suddenly they went from the worst leaders possible to the very best ever. The Women Committee, as they became collectively known, made the country into a massive powerhouse. They delivered year on year of double-digit growth, with quality new jobs, free and impressive education and health service