Dialectical Journal Chapter 18 Analysis

CHAPTER 18

MELTING MARBLES

Checkpoint Halo

It was New Year’s Day, and the coffee pot was brewing some fresh coffee. Jerry and Gordon were discussing the raid activities, and Sally was checking to see how many hits Abu received from his YouTube announcement. Suddenly, the doors of the bunker started to open. Instinctively, Gordon and Jerry grabbed their pistols and ran to see who was coming in. A Jeep Cherokee drove down the ramp and stopped before reaching the bottom.

A lanky fellow with bushy red hair and thick glasses stuck his head out the window and yelled, “Hey, guys, it’s me, Lester! Don’t shoot!”

“It’s Lester!” Sally shouted, running to greet the unexpected intruder. Lester parked his car next to the Mercedes, and the bunker
> Pentagon

Colonel Mathis, Base Commander, Ellington Air Base, made arrangements to have Abu Baghdadi transported to Washington D.C. She found a pilot who needed some flight time – a SMITE member. Although the co-pilot who would be going on the flight was not a SMITE member, he would be told the CIA was transporting a captured foreign terrorist to Gitmo via Andrews Air Base in Washington, D.C.

Colonel Anne Mathis was very much a part of the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sting operation. She realized the critical necessity of removing Abu Baghdadi from the terrorist scene. She also realized, as a member of SMITE, that normal protocols were often packed full of obstacles which were designed more for achieving political correctness than for getting the job done.

Colonel Mathis knew that roads would be filled with police looking for any kind of suspicious activity, so she let Sgt. Emerson use her specially designed exempt-plated military Humvee. Frank would have to drive to the Halo Bunker, pick up Abu, and drive back to Ellington Air Base. The plan was to have Jerry personally escort Abu on the plane back to SMITE Headquarters in Falls Church. If everything worked according to plan, Frank, now retired General Halsbrook, would take Abu to the Pentagon and hand him over to the Military
He seemed to welcome a trip to the portable bathroom. Jerry escorted him to his seat in Sergeant Emerson’s Humvee and literally tied him to the seat. Goggles with tape over the lenses were placed over his eyes to prevent him from backtracking Halo’s location.

Gordon decided to let Sally take him to the airport, enabling him to fly back to Ontario. The Mercedes would be left in the bunker for disposal at a later date, as it had become a “hot” car. The group staggered their departure times so as not to raise any flags. Halo’s doors closed behind the group, preserving for future use a secret place that provided all the comforts of home—and a story that not too many people would believe.

Sergeant Emerson drove the Humvee down the main street of Dayton. A couple of Muslim girls walked together down the sidewalk. Jerry noticed a glance from Abu in their direction. The word “complexity” popped into Jerry’s mind. He thought of the “complexity” that man somehow managed to inflict on personal relationships – “complexities” that were so unnecessary, almost to the point of being ridiculous. The relationship between a man and a woman was designed to be a beautiful, natural phenomenon -- based on companionship, love, harmony. Jerry could not understand how anyone could regard women as second-class citizens, requiring them to cover their bodies and subjugate