Sandstorm/Part 2 plot

## December 2, 06:42 A.M.Heathrow International Airport

Kara boards a jet with everyone and Painter Crowe and Coral Novak.. The U.S. Government had wrangled itself into the expedidition to Oman.

The trip is not of a purely academic interest in old tombs.
Kara does not simply believe they are physics contracted by the U.S. Government and recognizes the stam p fot hemilitary all over them.

The private jet was waiting for them to go to Oman. It was suited to Kara's tastes.

## 11:42 AMMuscat, Oman

Omaha exited the Ministry of National Heritage. The bureaucrats made life difficult.
They step into a Mercedes sedan cab and the cab drove off, with the Dunn destination to Seeb Airport.

A lot of things had to be done: permits; paperwork; hiring guards, manual labor, and trucks; clearing accss; buying water, petrol, guns, salt, toilets, organizing personell, and the responsibilities fell squarely on their shoulders.

However, they quickly realize the cab driver was not a driver. They notice a BMW was following them, and ithis was a kidnapping attempt. The doors were locked by the child locks.

### 12:04 pmAirborne over the Mediterranean

Safia was nervous as she had to leave London, her place where she lived.A conversation between Safia and Painter Crowe converse. He assures her that, despite Kara Kensington's misgivings, they are into it together.

### 12:13pm

Omaha tried to kick the divider. Trapped and kidnapped.

Omaha tells his brother that they will use the same protections, the Child protection feature, to get out. They looked at the SRS panel and dedice to time thing to get things done. They dug their nails into the SRS control access panel, triggering the side air bags. This caused t he doors to release the child locks.

Taking advantage of the situation, they run through the market. Fleeing, they run through cars and booths full of cotton, pomegranates, nuts, crab and whitefish, meat, and bread. They hid in an alleyway, hoping the peple move. A gunman was approaching slowly, looking for them.

Danny sneezed.

#### 12:45pm

The Lear circuled over the water oiver Muscat. A lot of memories came flashing back.

### 12:53 P.M.

Danny's sneeze attracted people.
As the gunman approached, Omaha got ready to fight melee. He didn't have to.

The proprietor of the shop came forward, and straightened stuff up. He told the gunman to leave but didn't. He shoved the rifle into an urn and left and joined a crowed. Anonymous. Omaha looked at his face: Mocha skin, deep brown eyes, a tattoo of a tea:Bedoin. A woman

Thanking the man, Omaha and his brother left, thinking the woman could have been Safia's sister.

## Chapter 7 Old Town

December 2, 05:34p.M.
Seeb International Airport==

Painter Crowe is keeping pace behind the cart of gear and equipment.
At least they moved again because hey were delayed three hours, confined to the jet due as a result of the heightened supercity measures after the attempted abduction of one of Kara Kensington's associates. The situation apparently resolved itself.

Coral marched beside him, wary.
Omani customs officials escorted them.

The sultan Qaboos personally arranged for their transportation to Salalah.
She was a little impatience and dismissed in Arabac with a “Kif Kif”.

As they arrive at the private terminal building, they enter a VIP lounge. Customs got them through with visas stamped in their passports. Two black limosines wat for them:Safia, her graduate student, and Kara in one, Coral and Painter in the other.

They got in theirs. Painter looks and sees a driver and a beefy Irishman ran shotgu with a priminent sidearm in a soulder holster. Clearly the kidnapping

Painter slipped his cell phone from a pocket. It contained a scrambled satellite chip with access to the DOD computer net and housed a digital camera, something he cannot leave home with. He made a call on this phone. It was Dr. Sean McKnight, his immediate superior, the head of Sigma.
Painter reports on the fact that he is in Muscat and is heading to the Kensington compound.

Dr. Sean Mcknight told a lot of things. Cassandra had escaped from custody two days after he rarrest. Two days after her arrest, the police van transferring her to the airport was ambushed, two men died, and Cassandra Sanchez had disappeared. Painter feared she was connected to the attempted kidnapping. Mcknight continued. Admiral Rector coordinated with the NSA to gather intel and should expect more in a couple hours. Information also came from Los Alamos about the uranium sample, saying it supported her hypothesis that the radiation from the uranium decay may act as some sort of nuclear decay, slowly until it is susceptible to electric shock, and it could happen at the antimatter's primary source. Also, a huge dust-storm is confirmed to be approaching and blowing south. It would be big, pressing them for time.

### 6:48 pm

Everyone gathered in the courtyard of the Kensington estate.
It was the first time Safia seen it in its full glory as a finished product.

They enter. Omaha and Danny come in. Introductions are made. Painter and Coral meet Omaha and Danny Dunn. They acknowledge that Danny and Coral Novak are alumni of Columbia. Clay Bishop is their graduate student.

When they arrive, they arrinve into the guest win. Kara tells the butler Henry to show them to their quarters. Henry shows them and sas supper isready in 30 minutes. Kara and Safia bond together as it was something that took a while to process. Just by being there brought back numerous memories of positive moments. Safia studied her PhD oral exams in the room with jasmine and scent in the room.
As she bathed, Safia closed eyes, muscles relaxed and loosened,.
She was home.

### 8:02 pm

A guard patrolled the alleyway. He failed to notice a shadow.
Cassandra.
She climbed over the walls of the estate. She easily traversed the climb and at the top of the wall as her Kelvar bodysuit protected her from the razor-sharp glass shards.
She got ready to break in.
Earlier, she escaped the estate, ensuring the security schematics were accurate. She had to trust the Guild, but she had to ensure everything was true.

Everyone was enjoying their time. Cassandra analyzed them. Coral Novak was her replacement. Cassandra noted her coolness seem too practiced. Painter walks into a room, making her feel weird.
He had exposed her and threatened her position within the Guild, and hurt her reputation. She spent years trying to cultivate her role as a lead operative and earning his trust, nad something asbout that. With that burning memory, she would not fail that night and nothing would stop her.
She used a grappling gun to an upper balcony, and landed on a lower balcony, without making a sound.

### 8:18pm

Safia waits in the waitng room of a large hospital.
She thoughts of this and that, and fire. No. She woke up, only a dream. M emories haunted her.
She woke up in the bath. She sat up and was happy. Until she saw the snake. IT surfaced through the petals, with a white cross atop its crown. Echis pyramdum. Carpet Viper. All omain children were taught to look for it as the snake was ubiquitous in the regions, frequenting shady spots, found hanging from limbs of trees. Its venom was both hemotoxic and neurotoxic, a fatal combination with a fatality speed in less than 10 minutes.

The viper aimed at Safia, ready to strike. Safia was anxious and scared. Sensing something, Safia realizes someone is out there.

## Chapter 8 Snakes and Ladders

### December 2, 08:24 P.M.Old Town, Muscant

'Where the hell's Safia?” Omaha asks, checking his watch.
“I had a bath drawn for her,” Kara announced as she stepped into the room. “A maid just went up with fresh clothes.”
Kara entered, resplendent in a traditional Omanithob gown of flowing red silk with gold filigree embroidered along the hems
Everyone gathered for dinner. Servants brought dinner. Kara named each dish as they came. “Maqbous...safron rice over lam. Shuwa, porke, Mashuai, Kingfish.

Conversation went jovially, and quicklyl went to the kidnapping attempt on Omaha. Omaha described her with a Bedouin descent appearance and other details. Painter suggests it may have been related to the museum incident. All the while, Safia is concerned about Safia.

Meanwhile
Safia had to stay very very careful. A knock at the door meant that the butler Henry was here to help. A gentleman, Henry sent in the maid Lisa.
Lisa approaches.
The snake sees Lisa and readies to strike, leaping forward.
The snake never reached its target.
Safia instinctively grabbed for the viper's tail, catching it and yanked it back and swung its length wide. The snake was not weak, and tried to stirke. Safia is stronger and yanked it. Instinctively, Safia spun around, swinging the snake with centrifugal force to keep the snake's head fro reching her. She killed the snake.

Henry comes in shocked, having seen and heard the entire display of action. He goes over, gives her clothing and hugs Safia, saying it was safe.
Safia knew it was not really the truth for she saw something flutter over the palace wall, probably a bat.

### 09:22 P.M.

Cassandra crouched outside the window. She had watched the museum curator dispatch the sanke with alacrity. The snake turned out to be an unwelcome visitor for both of them, knowing it was planted but Safia does not.
Cassandra caught a brief reflection in the window, mirroed silver in the moonlight. Another presence climbing the wall. She caught the sight of the cloaked figure sailing over the outer wall. Someone was with her in the garden and she was unware. *Foolish* she told herself. The plan fell through a nd with the second thief, that was another matter entirely.

Cassandra used the grappling gun and used to to scaled the wall to the top. Pulling out her night-vision goggles, she looked for the unknown person.
The assassin slunk a long the far wall, heading for the neighboring street.
Following her, she she fell to the grown into the alley and followed her into Old Town. She sped faster. The digital overlay in her goggles provided a great night vision.
Finding her, Cassandra pulls her grappling hook on her, retracting it, which had attached to the other's shoulder. The person, spun and unwound everything, in a way that would have astounded Houdini. Moonlight cast the figure as bright as midday though the nigh-vision goggles. A woman.

Cassandra swore and gave pursuit. She needed answers, so she could not act on her part that would want to shoot her.
At this time, it was after sundown, leaving the streets dark. Unfortunately the streets made her hide from the place. Cassandra felt that it was difficulty so she called for help.

As planned, the team subcommander would send out a trio of modified dirt bikes with silenced mufflers, solid rubber tires, and jacked engines. Soon enough, she travels out to one place and sees the lady. The person must have been realizing the trap she had run into. Finally, in a last twist of narrow alley, she there were storefronts run up to a structure. She finds the woman in an alley and blocks her escape.
Confronting her, Cassandra demands to know who she is. The woman strips naked, showing her figure, unabashed by her nakedness, a rarity in Arabia. There was a sense of nobility in her voice.
The woman spoke, words. Cassandra said ti sounded fam iliar. With the words com plete, the naked woman backed into the shadow of the wall, disappearing. The night vision goggle proved useless as the woman had completely disappeared.
Her team approaches, not seeing anything. Now then, as they leave, Cassandra realizes that the person spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

### 10:28pm

Painter inquires. They heard of the maid's scream and came running. They are due to rendezvous with the boat at midnight. A lot of fine details had to be done. Now they are interested in the

### 11:35 P.M.

Everyone has moved to the cars and started to head to the harbour. The bay was mostly empty and a lot of the container ships work.
The limo took them to th eharbour.

The Shabab Oman is the boat they will use. IT is the Sultan's personal flagship and presidents, premiers, kings and queens, had strode its deck. Now its for Kara's personal transportation.

### 11:48 P.M.

Cassandra watched the ship from cross the harbour. The Guild was watching them from a warehouse; the warehouse was secured by contacts with a pirate for black-market pirated videos. The back half hosted stacks of crates of bootlegged DVD and VHS videos.

Attack vessels were shipped I n crates and unpacked. A lot of weapons were created. The twelve-man team were included. All of them were elite troopers who were considered the crop of the special forces. The team were not sigma, but ex-special forces. Drummed out of the forces, most h ad gone into various mercenary and various paramilitary groups around the world, all the while picking up new skills, and becoming better. The Guild had picked tese men with the best adaptabiolity, keenest intelligence, and the fiercest loyalty to their team. For the Guild, one criterion was paramount: the men had no qualms about killing, no matter the target.

John Kane, her second in command approached. “Yes Kane”, Cassandra acknowledged. He was the only non-American in the hroup. He had served in the elite Australian SAS, Special Air Services. Standing over six and a half feet, Kane was solidly muscled and kept his head shaved smooth, except for a patch of black hair under his chin. The Guild did not limit its talent search to U.S. Borders. He had handpicked the team there, having been positioned in the Gulf until called onto duty by the Guild. The organization had several teams planted throughout the world.
Kane reported they are locked and loaded. They would wait one hour after the Shabab Oman departs at midnight, thenhead off in pursuit.

### Midnight

Henry cleaned up the bathroom that Safia almost got bit by the snake. Even though the group departed, he felt t he need to cast the snake out to correct his own mistake. He cast a prayer to cast the snake out. Pulling It out, he saw something odd. The snake had no fangs.

## Chapter 9

###  December 3, 1:02 A.M. Arabian Sea

Safia was happy about the place
they were given.

The ship's captain was glad as well. The man was very very help and a friend of the Kensingtons.
Clay Bishop stood on the deck with Safia. They mulled over their course. Oil is the revenue of Arabia and water is the lifeblood. Some of the fiercest conflicts between some of the Middle East countries were over control of the Jordan Valley's water supply. Clay learned a bit that night to appreciate the culture and customs.

The night was serene and peaceful. The crew of people were trainees within the Omani Royal Fleet. A loose horse on the yacht woke people. Painter Crowe came out and calmed it. Everyone went to sleep. This include included a Bedouin in military khakis. He was Captain al-Haffi from the Omani mlitary border patrol. They were Desert Phantoms,, special Forces Oman who waged an ongoing war with smugglers and drug runners.

#### 1:38 A.M.

Cassandra lead the people and the Argus, the submersible to the yacht. They launch mines and teams to attack the boat. A conversation with The Minister authorizes them to attack and commenceo. He requests them to secure the museum curator along with the artifact because they would prove to be useful in stage two. Their original expert in Arabian anquity proved uncooperative and they n eed expediency for success.

#### 1:42 A.M.

Kara meets with Painter about Painter's affection to Safia. A conversation between them needed to prove. Kara wanted to make sure things are fine between the better things get the better of the mission. Kara wanted answers. Painter was saved from answering by the sound of an explosion.

#### 1:55 A.M.

Everyone woke up due to gunfire and explosions. Omaha Dunn woke up to realize the ship is under attack. Omaha got up, and hid behind a wall. He cursed that he left his shotgun and pistols in t he hold, knowing the Arabian seas could be, plied by modern-day pirates and paramilitary factions tied to terrorist organizations. It seemed the high seas are still available and ripe for bounty to plunder, but the flagship of the Omani navy.
Creaking open the door, Omaha sees the far door Coral creeping on barefoot with a dagger, reading to deal with intruder. Sadly, they had to leave all their personal arms before boarding.

#### 1:58 A.M.

Painter looks out the windows, realizing the jet skis are experimental prototypes engineered by DARPA for covert ops. He saw 4 but more were coming.
There was a submersible he saw. Painter tells himself the answer. With the mission over, the sub and main assult team leaves and cleanup occurs, leaving no witnesses. The ship was mined and would get rid of everything elese.
Getting out, they walk. They see Clay on the group, having been tranquilized. Someone was the target for kidnapping.

#### 2:02 A.M.

Omaha, Danny, and Coral, snuck down the hold, accessing the weapons. They took the weapons and went up.

## Chapter 10 Storm Surge

Painter goes around the ship trying to find people. He rounds up the people and tells them that the ship is gonna blow. He had found a dead gunman with an EKG monitor stripped around the man's chest. The person would have triggered the others to blow the ship.

The Desert Phantoms needed ammunition. All the people killed the boarded intruders.

### 2:10:A.M.

Cassandra checked her watch.
They had hauled the prone form of the museum curator aboard. Despite setbacks, they got the objective they needed. They can leave now. Now, Cassandra gave the orders t detonate the mines. They hear the signals from the men quickly dispa only, to reppear soon: fake signals.

Four minutes later, Safia wakes up from the massive explosion from the boat.
She was taken below deck.

### Sometime after 2 2AM

Painter wiped the blood from his left eyes. They all landed in water and tried to stay above. Everyone got below the water so that the scavengers do not see them. They used the launch to get the boat to take them to a safe place. They patched it up from bulletholes andgot the launch in workng order so they can land. Omaha stared intelty at the military man. What he intent on knowing.

### 3:47 A.M.

Painte rand team landed. Omaha demands information from Painter. Painter reveals his mission:He is part of the DARPA. Their mission is some clue to the true location of Ubar.
They had tested the blast zone themselves, seeing all the information from the explosion in the museum. It was related to antimatter and they were very very interested in so.
he gave a brief overview: of the Tunguska explosion in Russia in 1908, of the unique gamma radiation found both there and at the British Museum, of the plasma characteristics of the explosion, and how evidence hinted that somewhere out in the deserts of Oman lay a possible source of antimatter, preserved in some unknown fashion to make it stable and unreactive while in the presence of matter. Kara frowned. “And what does the United States government plan on doing with such a limitless source of power?”
Painter read the suspicion in her eyes. “Safeguard it for now. That’s the immediate and primary goal. To protect it from those who would abuse it. If this power should fall into the wrong hands…”

And that there were were against someone who had advanced technology and was a mole working in DARPA. Satisfied, Omaha, Kara, and everyone acknolwedge they will work together.

A stallion was saved from the boat, given they are good swimmers. Tension ended, the team relax. Captain Hafif, the leader of the Desert Phantoms calmed the horse.

Painter tells the group that the most important thing is to acknowledge the fact that people know they are dead. As of now, the group is seen by the outside died in the explosion within the Shabab Oman and it gives them a slight edge in surprise and requires complete secrecy and no trust within anyone.

Captain Hafif sends one of his men to the local town to get supplies. They took the stallion to sell because it would be worth some money to handle. In addition, they will borrow a truck to transport themsevles. 40 minutes later, an old truck comes back. They packed up, got the horse in the truck, and moved. Painter looked at the white horse. White is for luck. They need all of it.