Emakume

Log 5: Lullaby

So let all your pain

Sleep within the husha-by

The grace of the godland

Grace of the godland

Grace of the godland is near...

So close to you

-

13:45 Zulu

Zaragoza Air Base: City of Zaragoza; Zaragoza, Spain

Zaragoza sat halfway between Madrid and Barcelona. Though it was still a good ways way from the Basque countryside, it was the closest they could get in order to set up an HQ.

Other Joes would be sent to the area shortly to help in the investigation and for safety. After his report, Duke had also ordered a small strike force to patrol the waters between the US and Cuba, but they could only sit out there for so long. Hurricane James was already moving through the Cayman Islands and heading steadily toward them. It would only be a matter of time before they'd start feeling the feeder bands and would have to pull out.

Beach Head flipped the business card he'd acquired a few nights ago, careful not to bend the thin cardstock with his fingers as he leaned back in the office chair he sat in.

Sophia Txomin.

That was the woman's name. Before their flight to Spain he'd contacted Duke about the situation, about the Basque ETA and Cobra's involvement. He had been ordered to go to Spain along with Cover Girl and get a grasp on what was happening there before any other contact with Txomin. At that point in time how she had gotten her hands on the piece if banner that she'd give them was still in question. And whether she was really an agent for the ETA trying to throw them off the sent or whether she was legit was also still in question.

And then Mainframe had called him.

She was a marine as she claimed, Capitan Sophia Txomin, codename: Emakume, to be proper. Born and raised in south Florida; joined the marine's ROTC unit at Columbia University, not a stain on her record. Why she felt they'd need her here had weighed on his mind during the flight overseas, but when they'd landed, when Blaine had filled him in on the last tid bit of information he'd found on her, it all became clear.

Last year she'd been forced to retire due to injuries she'd acquired from an ETA bombing in Madrid. The Marine Corp had moved her up rank and used her as a spy in the Basque country because she was the only member on staff that could speak the Basque language fluently. She and other Marines had been either killed or seriously injured due to a bad call by her CO, whom she advised to pull back. She had claimed that Cobra was involved but the mishap had pulled all military forces back.

And so that was how she'd gotten the banner.

And that was why she wanted them dealt with.

From where he sat, through the pane of glass in front of him, and just out in the distance he could see the faint outline of it. Of the sculpture of Christ that watched over Barcelona, arms out stretched and welcoming an embrace. The Basque country was just out of sight of it.

And that was why it was a Godless land.

-

16:39 Zulu

Ferry Boat: Balearic Sea; Barcelona, Spain

The Spanish Prime Minister had been in hiding since the attempt on his life only a few short months before. The ETA was blamed, or rather Cobra was responsible for the attempted assassination, so he was held in an undisclosed location until the Spanish Government felt it was safe for him to return to the public light.

They couldn't have picked a worse time.

For his return to power, Jose Maria Aznar was slated to christen a club opening on the island of Ibiza. The election year was rolling around and the fact that he'd be making an effort in popular culture would look good to the young people of Spain. Or so his advisors said.

Beach Head and Cover Girl went to Barcelona where they took a ferry over to the Balearic Islands. Ibiza, or Eivissa as the natives call it, was the second smallest in the chain of four. They were also told that if they thought Vegas was Sin City, then Ibiza was the last stop before hell. Partygoers were feed drugs to keep them going and some of the nicest homes on the island were whorehouses, things that may be illegal were generally ignored; however possession of advertisement was a law readily enforced.

They were to rendezvous with Txomin at club Pasha where she would give them further information.