The Darque Side

By Steve Burkart

When a four-man team of Iranian terrorists surreptitiously enters the US, the desecrated body of a US Border Patrol Agent near the US/Mexico Border is a harbinger of future events. The team's goal to attack soft targets in the nation's capital and kill as many Americans as possible, to include the President, is thwarted by John Darque and the covert organization he heads. While investigating the incidents, Darque realized he was fighting two battles, one global and one personal, that were somehow conjoined. The inquiry into the team's exploits in the US indicated they were a ruse to cover a more sinister plot taking place in Iran to destabilize the world, and the effort was being supported by the governments of China and Russia. Darque, known to his friends as 'Chadeaux', leads a contingent of personnel in pursuing the threat into Europe and the Middle East to end the danger. From an obscure event in the jungles of Southeast Asia, to encounters with governments intent on acquiring world dominance. 'Chadeaux' remained the thread that kept the globe stable - until his untimely 'demise'.

Steve spent the majority of his 22-year military career in Europe as a Counterintelligence Agent investigating National Security Crimes, especially Espionage. The knowledge he acquired, and achievements he accomplished during his career, make him well qualified to write "The Darque Side", his third novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Proisle Publishing Services
• Release date: Feb 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781960224507

Book preview

Prologue

The crickets knew the secret, but they only revealed it if one really listened.

It was not the first time the two men had found themselves alone in a world of hidden dangers.

Each movement they made, and every piece of debris they encountered, posed a problem … whether real or imagined.

Slithering through the high weeds like snakes made their trip slow, but it also provided the best chance they had for safely reaching their destination.

The wind and rain brought on by the monsoon helped to cover the sounds made by the two as they maneuvered their way through the dense, jungle vegetation, but it also covered the sounds made by anything that may have joined them on their journey or might meet during it.

When the downpour stopped, so the clouds could refill with water in preparation for the next deluge, the sounds of the jungle became more apparent.

It was the chirping of the crickets that became the most listened for sound. Crickets don’t lie.

Their song offered a comforting sound that meant everything was OK nearby; absence of the sound meant they had been disturbed.

Those listening for the sound who heard only silence knew one thing for sure … they were not alone.

As the last of the rain drops slid down the backs and noses of the two men lying quietly beneath a bush, the stars began to appear from their hiding places behind the clouds.

Given the circumstances, it was almost pretty.

When the insect serenade almost reached a crescendo, one of the men irreverently broke the silence.

I don’t like him, whispered the man looking through a spotting scope at what was supposed to be a target, but had so far turned out to be an empty hut in a clearing about half the size of a football field.

The spotter’s name was Carl Henderson, and he had been given the nickname ‘Casper’ (of the friendly ghost fame) by his partner, the shooter on the sniper team who was now searching for its missing target.

Who? asked his companion in a lowered voice.

The shooter’s name was John Darque, and his sobriquet, as administered by Casper, was ‘Chadeaux’ (shăd’ō), loosely based on the Dark Shadow character.

Theater wide, the sniper team of Chadeaux and Casper was not widely known, but word-of-mouth exploits about the pair were looked upon as acts of an avenging angel who took out the worst of the combatants – both foreign and domestic.

In truth, most people doubted the team’s existence and looked upon it as a ‘bogeyman’ type tale because they never saw it, but that’s the way it was supposed to be.

The arrogant little prick who briefed us on this mission, said Casper.

Would that be Curt Smith of the CIA? he asked.

You like that schmuck?

Darque thought about the question a moment before answering.

Not at all, said Darque. I don’t trust him. I don’t know what happened to the guy who used to brief us, and I really don’t know where this guy came from, but there was something different about him; he really didn’t seem all that interested in talking about the goal or reason for the mission. He tried his best to be intimidating, but for the most part, he was just obnoxious. Just forget about him.

Silence returned as the two men once again concentrated on trying to interpret the sounds that accompanied the darkness.

Did you notice the way he was looking at you during the briefing?

Darque thought about the meeting and realized Smith seemed to have been more watchful and tense than their usual briefer, but hadn’t given it much thought.

Yeah, I did, he said. Do you think it meant something?

Yes, I do, said Casper. You need to watch your back around him, John. He’s bad news. I was observing him very closely while he was talking to you, and I don’t like what I saw. I think he has a different agenda than ours.

Since when did you take up psychology as a hobby? asked Darque. The only job we have is to take out bad guys; who wouldn’t think that was a good idea?

You don’t have to be a psychologist to analyze people’s behavior, and I’ve been a people watcher for quite a while.

And what did you determine from your observations? Darque asked.

Casper was quiet as he finished scanning the area around the hut, but then continued the conversation.

He doesn’t like you.

A lot of people don’t like me, said Darque.

I don’t mean like as in let’s be friends, I mean like as in loathes. He feels superior to you, but he’s also afraid of you. You’re unpredictable and that worries him … predictable people can be controlled.

Darque remained silent as he listened to the analysis, but he believed Casper to be accurate in his assessment. What he didn’t understand was why the situation seemed to bother his partner so much.

If what you say is true, Smith’s animosity appears to be directed toward me. Why does that upset you as much as your voice seems to indicate?

Casper was once again silent as he weighed his response.

As you know, he began, you’re the closest thing I have to a family. I don’t know exactly how many of these missions we’ve been on together, but in addition to being good at what we do, we’ve also been lucky. I have a bad feeling about this one.

For some unknown reason, a large reward had been offered by someone in China for the death of the pair, but the two had never detected any attempt to collect it.

In reality, the reward had been made in an effort to eliminate the two men who were responsible for killing a Chinese advisor.

The North Vietnamese had identified the dead individual as a doctor who had volunteered his services to help treat those wounded by American troops, but who was, in fact, a specialist in interrogation and torture techniques.

As the sniper team concentrated again on the song of the insects, the noise in one sector to their front seemed to lessen a bit, and both men immediately began to search that area through their scopes for any sign of what may have caused the sound to diminish.

The change in volume only lasted a few minutes before returning to its original level, but the secret had been disclosed.

They were not alone.

Where’s our extraction site? Darque whispered.

I marked it on this map with an ‘X’, Casper responded, as he handed it over.

Darque tucked his head inside his camouflage suit, and studied the drawing in the light of a red-lensed flashlight.

Are you sure this is correct? Darque asked.

It corresponds with the coordinates Smith gave me, Casper said. He was adamant about us using it as the pick-up point.

Darque studied the map more closely before becoming concerned.

This can’t be right, Darque said. There’s a river between us and the site, and there’s no way we can cross it during the monsoon season with the equipment we have because it’s too fast and wide to swim across.

As the last word left his mouth, both men noticed the level of insect noise had once again lessened in an area closer to their location than the first incident.

Start backing out of here, said Darque. We’ve been set up.

When they started to retreat, they heard a sound like the firing of a large tube-launched aerial firework and watched as a red trail began to arc through the sky.

As the projectile exploded, the brilliant white light of a parachute flare lit up the area, and both men instinctively hugged the ground with their faces buried in the grass to conceal anything that might reflect the light and mark them as targets.

They know we’re here, said Darque.

It was said as a matter of fact, and not a panicked outburst.

The situation was one possibility both men were aware of, and the matter was frequently discussed between them.

Run as fast as you can for the tree line we came through at the edge of the clearing, and I’ll be right behind you.

As both men stood to run, a man using a pair of binoculars inside the hut watched their every move and gave the order to ‘fire’.

The night was suddenly filled with the sound of mortar rounds being fired from their tubes into the area where Darque and Casper were sprinting toward the woods.

When the rounds began to impact, large clods of dirt, chunks of trees and shrapnel began to fill the air, and those were followed by large and small pieces of Casper that became imbedded in Darque as he laid in one of the shell craters covered with debris.

He was barely conscious as he looked at what was left of his friend, but alert enough to identify the man who approached what was left of Casper as he kicked a few of the bigger pieces around.

It was Smith.

The man walked around the area looking for proof that both of his targets were dead, and although he couldn’t be positive, there seemed to be enough body parts lying around and hanging from tree limbs to account for two people, so he was satisfied that the results of his effort to eliminate the two men had been successful.

I’m not going to pick through this mess for positive IDs, but there seems to be enough left to claim the reward from the Chinaman for both men, Smith said out loud.

As Smith started to depart the area, he stopped long enough to kick Casper’s head like a soccer ball as he laughed and yelled ‘tor!’ as it sailed through the air.

With the departure of the intruders from their domain, the crickets once again began to sing their song, and their serenade increased in volume and intensity into the otherwise quiet night.

Those were the last sounds Darque heard as he struggled with his thoughts and pain before becoming unconscious, but his hatred toward Smith, and desire for revenge, would prove to be instrumental in his eventual recovery.

There would be a day of reckoning.

Chapter One

This was the first day of the rest of his life, and he started it by trying to stand on legs that were still a bit wobbly from his last operation.

He had been told it was the last surgery he would have to undergo, but that even it wouldn’t be enough to completely repair all the damage he had suffered.

Under the circumstances, some might consider the result of his encounter as a badge of honor, like a sword fighter with a scar on his cheek from an opponent’s blade, but the only thing he saw was a limp that would forever slow him down and aid in his identification.

Until the previous day, and for almost a year, the man’s activities had been limited to looking out a window from a hospital bed at people practicing combat tactics on a dirt-covered field while his mind dreamt up schemes of revenge against the United States for what it had done to him and his family.

It seemed as if he had been training just like they were for most of his life, and although he felt good whenever he was able to put that training to use, it had been a while since he was able to carry out the skills he had acquired.

Previous activities he had been involved with in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen had earned him the praise of his leaders and fellow combatants because of his ability to carry out complex assignments.

Some of those missions involved killing woman and children to aid in the extraction of information from unwilling subjects, and he carried out his duties with relish; whatever the cost, he never failed to fulfill the requirements levied by those above him in his chain of command, and he was indoctrinated so well, he never saw what happened to him and those he loved as ‘pay-back’.

Unfortunately for the man, his activities did not go unnoticed by the US, and his exploits had earned him an unenviable place of honor on the drone-strike list.

For those individuals who commit atrocities and become recognized for their exploits by having their names placed on that particular roster, it wasn’t a good idea to spend too much time in the company of friends and family.

Sometimes when that happened, the likelihood of innocent people becoming involved in a death-dealing situation was extremely high.

Such was the case for the man in the hospital bed, an Iranian terrorist known only as ‘Viper’.

He rightfully blamed the US for his stay in the medical facility where he had undergone several operations, followed by varying degrees of pain and therapy in order to, as the nursery rhyme noted, put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

On the occasion when he was spotted getting into a vehicle by a drone operator, Viper and those with him were marked for death.

Those in the car never saw the drone circling overhead, or the incoming Hellfire missile that turned the automobile into a conglomeration of scrap metal, broken glass, foam rubber and slivers of plastic.

Unfortunately, among the accumulation of debris were the remains of Viper’s wife and two children, but somehow the targeted terrorist had survived the attack.

Found in critical condition and not expected to live, he endured his long and painful recovery until the only reminders of the missile attack that remained were a lot of scars, the noticeable limp, constant pain, and a growing hatred of anything to do with the US.

In his current frame of mind, and the training he had undergone over the years, he was an excellent candidate for recruitment by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence to undertake a special operation within the US.

Agents had been on the lookout for just such a person, and had been receiving periodic progress reports from the hospital administrators concerning Viper’s recovery.

When the day arrived for him to be released from the medical facility, two Iranian intelligence operatives were ready to approach the man in order to assess his willingness to lead a mission the service had been planning for quite some time.

After Viper was dressed, he sat at a table awaiting the final OK for him to leave, but he saw two men approaching the room that had been his home for so long.

We came to offer our condolences over the death of your family, but we are happy to see you have recovered so well from your injuries, one of them said.

Viper said nothing, but he knew the purpose of their visit was not to console him – they could have done that for almost a year, but didn’t.

We have been studying your exploits since you first committed yourself to jihad and the protection of our Islamic State, and would like to talk to you about undertaking a dangerous mission within the US, said the taller of the two men.

Viper remained silent, but sat quietly studying the men sitting across the table from him.

They said what their names were, but Viper wasn’t really listening … he knew any name they gave would be false to help protect their true identity.

We were sorry to learn about the loss of your family to such an unscrupulous act by our hated enemy, but we’re here to offer you a chance to avenge your loss, continued the taller man.

The recovering terrorist again said nothing, but both visitors observed a noticeable twitch when the death of the man’s family was mentioned, and they knew they had the right person to carry out the assignment.

What is it you want? Viper finally asked.

We have developed a plan to strike fear into the hearts of the American people, and we need a man of your ability to lead a team in carrying out the assignment.

Viper quietly considered what was being offered.

He had spent several years inside the United States attending different universities in the quest for a political science degree, so language and cultural considerations would not pose any problems.

Tell me more about the operation and what it is you’re trying to accomplish.

With that comment, the recruiters knew they had their man hooked, and they started into what turned out to be a four-hour discussion of the assignment. They were pleased to note that the further they got into their plan, the more interested Viper became.

I think the plan as you explained it is possible, but it’ll take more than one person to carry out everything you want done.

You’ll be working with three other team members, and they will be given an overview of the mission. Only you and a Chinese operative, who will have overall control of the mission, will know the details, but it will be up to you to assign duties to the people in your group.

I know the Chinese support a lot of our efforts, but I don’t think I want to work under one of them on the kind of mission you described.

You have met this person before, and on the occasions when you two worked together, you accomplished great things.

Viper smiled when he heard the news, because there was only one man they could be talking about: an American traitor who called himself ‘Mr. Smith’.

I thought he had returned to the US, Viper said with a questioning look on his face.

The two Iranians looked at each other before the shorter man spoke.

He did, but let’s just say his allegiance is not with the Americans. His current placement is critical to the success of this operation because of the access he has, and that’s why he’s in overall control of the mission.

Viper knew from the looks the two men gave him that it would be best to drop the subject, and since he had no problem with the stated reason for the arrangement, he smiled and let the matter rest.

It has been a while since the two of us worked together, but his addition to the group will surely increase the likelihood of a successful outcome.

Both of the Iranian Intelligence officers were pleased with the way things were going.

I don’t know who you decided to put on my team, but I want Skink and Shrew to be two of them, he said.

All terrorists dispatched to foreign countries to carry out clandestine activities were assigned the names of indigenous Iranian animals to cover their true identities.

Skink and Shrew were identical twins, which made it difficult to keep track of both of them, and the visual differences between the two were contained in scars they had incurred during armed encounters with their enemies. Positive identifications of the two could best be accomplished by comparing their medically-documented scar patterns – a process similar to identifying whales by comparing photographs of the notches in their flukes.

Although both men were older than Viper, the three of them had previously worked together, and the twins had no qualms about following his orders without question.

Being totally committed to the terrorist cause, they were vicious in carrying out their tasks, had no regard for human life, and were more than willing to die for their beliefs if that became necessary.

That will be arranged. The fourth member of your team, Frog, will handle the technical aspects of your mission. He will establish your communications requirements, as well as cover your tracks electronically, said the taller man.

I don’t see a whole lot of problems carrying out the incidents you have listed in your plan, but the logistics involved will require a large support force and a lot of coordination, said Viper.

It was the shorter man’s turn to talk.

Mr. Smith has been working on the logistical aspect of the plan for almost a year, and just about everything you’ll need to carry out the operation is already in place, he said as he removed a thick, stapled document from his briefcase and handed it to Viper.

The plan for the operation listed times, dates and locations where actions were to take place, as well as equipment caches and sites where vehicles would be stashed for his use.

It was obvious a lot of time had been spent putting the operation together on paper, and it was also clear to Viper that a source inside the US, probably Smith, had been providing the Iranians with a lot of information.

As you can tell from reading the plan, it’s not complete, said the shorter man. As events occur, the response will be evaluated and guidance for further activities will be transmitted to Mr. Smith. Necessary changes and unanticipated reactions may require last-minute decisions to be made for the entire operation to be successful.

As he read through the plan, Viper could see where the last part of the other man’s comment was not only a possibility, it was more likely to be a probability.

I have questions about the part of the operation that asks me to try to identify someone named Chadeaux, who may or may not exist … that doesn’t make sense.

The two men sitting across from Viper again looked at each other, and quickly realized he had seen the importance of the rather nebulous request.

That part of the operation will be up to Mr. Smith to resolve. Apparently, the individual he’s searching for threatened a high ranking Chinese official, but the individual had supposedly been killed years ago. This matter is between the official and Mr. Smith, and although some of the actions that are to be taken by your team will assist Mr. Smith in his efforts, they should not interfere with your overall mission.

The taller agent took a small piece of paper out of his pocket and wrote a number on it before handing it to Viper.

You will be issued a secure phone before you leave on the mission, and the number on the paper is the one you will use to establish and maintain contact with Mr. Smith. He’s in a position to be aware of your activities, and will warn you if anything is about to occur that will put you or your operation in jeopardy; he knows the number assigned to the phone you’ll be given. Make sure you study the portion of the plan concerning your emergency exfiltration route, and with Allah’s help, we feel you’ll be completely successful in carrying out this assignment.

Viper memorized the number and handed the piece of paper back to the man.

When do we depart on the operation? Viper asked.

Final preparations still have to be made for your infiltration into the US, and now that we know the makeup of your team, the documentation needed by all of you can be completed. This will take a little time, but as soon as everything is ready, we’ll be in touch to let you know when your departure will take place.

When will I meet the other members of my team?

After we contact and brief them concerning the basics of the mission, we’ll make a place available for you to carry out any last-minute training and establish any requirements you have for them.

We’ll be ready, Viper said.

He knew there was nothing he could do to bring his family back to life, but he intended to take advantage of the opportunity to exact revenge for their deaths, and the price was going to be high … maybe even higher than the US could afford.

Chapter Two

Through binoculars, the low-flying vultures looked like dots atop the tightly spiraled dust devils dancing across the desert floor.

It was not an uncommon sight, and the Border Patrol Agent viewing the scene had seen it more than once in the past.

Unfortunately, as he also knew, it often turned out to be the harbinger for a scene involving the remains of illegal aliens trying to cross the vast, uncharted expanse of the arid Texas countryside.

On this particular occasion, he had a queasy feeling because another agent in the area had not been heard from in over four hours.

His last report stated he was on the trail of a small group of illegal border crossers in the area where the buzzards were now circling, and agents had been searching for the officer in the dark since the report was made.

Fearing what he might find, the agent relayed what he had seen, waited for back-up, and then drove his four-wheeler with the others toward the place where the vultures seemed to be gathering for a meal.

As the small group of agents arrived at the scene, it was obvious they had found what they hoped they wouldn’t.

The green uniform of the missing agent was torn and bloody, which may have been the result of an accident, but his duct-taped hands behind his back and the strip of tape over his mouth weren’t.

After dispersing the birds, one of the agents began to photograph the scene, but stopped long enough to vomit in a bush when he saw the dead officer’s face, and realized the man’s throat had been cut almost to the point of decapitation.

The dead man’s shirt had been unbuttoned, and his chest was covered in dried blood which led one of the agents to comment that the body had probably been there for 3-4 hours … the same amount of time he had last been heard from.

A search of the immediate area turned up no usable evidence, but the leader requested a tracker dog be airlifted to the scene in the hope a trail left by whomever did the heinous act might be found and followed.

Drug smugglers and coyotes leading people across the border into the US often used branches from bushes to sweep the areas they walked through to erase their footprints, but the dogs could often pick up the trail anyway.

The agents turned the body over looking for other injuries, but finding none, they replaced the corpse on its back, and one of the agents poured water from his canteen on the man’s chest before wiping away the blood.

Once the blood had been wiped away, the agents looked at each other with disgust in their expressions and anger in their voices.

There was a word carved into the man’s chest, and from the amount of blood covering it, the desecration had to have occurred while he was still alive.

Who would do such a thing? one of them asked.

I think ‘why’ somebody did it is the bigger question, said another. It’s probably a message to someone, but I have no idea how we’re going to figure out who it was intended for.

What bothers me, said another, is whoever did this is now loose in this country, and what was done to our dead brother was an intentional act, not something that happened as an afterthought.

Why do you think it was intentional? one of them asked.

Because it could have been easily avoided, the man said. The agent was alone and probably could have been overcome and left behind without any problem because I’m sure more than one assailant was involved, but that wasn’t the case.

What makes you think more than one person was involved?

I believe if it had been a one-on-one situation, the agent would have had the advantage, and the results would have been different.

Everyone was quiet while they thought about what the man had said, but became attentive once again as he continued.

At this point, how many people were involved is unknown, but I’m pretty sure one of them was carrying a roll of duct-tape for just the purpose it was used; I don’t think they just happened to find it lying on the ground out here in the desert. Since that’s the case, I suspect the act was premeditated.

Did you find anything else suspicious?

Yes, the agent said. His radio is missing … not his weapons, water, uniform or four-wheeler … just his radio. I believe any transmission we make will be monitored, and whoever took the radio is waiting for confirmation that the agent’s body has been found.

What do you think we should do?

Call headquarters and tell them we found the missing agent’s body, but don’t provide any details … we can report all of that when we get back. Since all our radios have tracking devices built into them, we may be able to determine the direction the group is traveling. We may also be able to keep the tracker active while disabling the radio’s receiving capability.

As one of the agents prepared to advise their headquarters of the situation and request a dog to try to find any trail left by the border crossers, the leader continued addressing the remainder of his group.

We need to search this area for the coyote who brought the team across the border. I have no idea where the people who did this are from, but I think it’s safe to say they weren’t migrant workers looking for a way to make a better living. Having said that, I don’t think they could have found their way here through the desert on their own, and they wouldn’t have left someone behind alive who could identify them.

Why would the group enter the country using the Mexico/US border when there are safer and quicker ways to accomplish the same thing, and why would they do something like mutilating a Border Guard’s body that would anger those they had to know would soon be pursuing them? asked one of the agents.

The group’s leader was quiet for a moment while he thought about his answer.

That’s a good question, he finally said before continuing. I don’t know what the carved-word means. I suspect it might be a person’s nickname or something like that. An inanimate object or non-human animal wouldn’t be able to read or understand it if it was in the news, and whoever did this expected it to be made public.

I think whoever did this went to a lot of trouble and took a lot of chances just to send a message, said one of the other agents.

That would depend on the importance of the intended recipient of the message to whomever sent it, wouldn’t it?

The other man nodded in agreement.

See if this makes sense, the leader began. "The mutilation was done not only to instill fear and create anger in its target, but also to show how ruthless they can be. It really has nothing to do with the