Chapter 2 – A new mission
Klaus tacitly cursed for perhaps the hundredth time the Yanks and their stupidity. Those damned imbeciles had no problem trampling on every civil right there was, but would never even consider restricting the right to wield a gun. The Major liked guns as much as the next person – okay, a lot more than the next person – but in the hands of trained and duty-bound soldiers like himself, not deranged schoolboys or homicidal fanatics. How come the Yanks could not see the logic in that was beyond his comprehension.
It was about a month later, and the Chief had summoned him to inform him of his new mission. For once, the perverted old coot actually sounded serious.
“This is big, Eberbach”, continued the Chief. “If we obtain solid proof that this extremist faction of the National Rifle Association is secretly financing Mein Kampf, not only will we cripple those Neo-Nazi bastards, but it will be a great opportunity for the president of the United States to finally implement his Gun Control Act. He will owe us big time for that.”
The Major nodded approvingly. Mein Kampf was a relatively new Neo-Nazi group that had emerged a while ago in America. Despite its brief history, it had already managed to pull off some rather alarming terrorist attacks. The nature of the attacks indicated that the group had plentiful financial resources, which was rather out of the norm. It had taken considerable time to track down the money source, but finally NATO got some leads that seemed to point towards certain highly-positioned members of the NRA, well known for their rather extreme views about racial discriminations. If they got proof of that, the NRA would have no choice but to quit opposing the Gun Control Act the president wanted to implement for some time now. An organization that advocates the use of weapons simply cannot afford to be connected, even remotely, to terrorist groups. And of course the financial support of Mein Kampf would be cut off, leaving them practically dead in the water and making the task of putting them behind bars a lot easier.
“Was the NRA board of directors notified about this?” he asked.
“No, we haven’t informed them”, said the Chief. “It’s a given that they would officially deny everything, they would have to be out of their minds to sanction something like that. In all probability, most of them probably know nothing about it. But we can’t rule out the possibility that a few might know or suspect something – and we should assume they will do anything in their power to sweep this whole affair under the carpet. It would be a great blow for their public image if such a story came out.”
That made sense. If anyone of the 76 directors of the NRA board knew something about the covert financing, even the remote possibility of exposure would prompt them to warn the actual culprits to destroy all evidence. It was of the utmost importance to get the information quickly and discreetly. Fortunately, they had a pretty good idea about its location. It was in an office building owned by the NRA in Dallas, which was used for storage of confidential documents. It seemed that the DVD with the information about the illicit transactions was hidden among some irrelevant documents inside the main vault.
“You will have to use Eroica”, continued the Chief. This time there was no sadistic glee in his voice; he was simply stating a fact. “The security system is state of the art, and aside from breaking in, you will have to put it precisely back in order after making a copy of the DVD. The president needs the element of surprise on his side, so the later they find out about the break-in the better. He is the only one who can pull this one off.”
Just my luck, thought the Major. He knew what the Chief said was true; nobody but Eroica could crack such an elaborate security system and then put it back together again in such a limited amount of time. He didn’t even bother to argue, and simply nodded his head. The Chief raised an eyebrow at this unusual display of docility, but wisely chose not to press the matter.
“One last thing, Eberbach”, he said gravely. “You should keep in mind that the CIA has no clue about this operation, and they must not find out. The NRA has a lot of leverage within the Agency. There is no guarantee that the extremist faction doesn’t have inside men in the CIA. That is why the president requested the aid of NATO Intelligence for this assignment, rather than the American security organizations.”
The Major gave a derisive snort. Really, those CIA agents. Not only they were incompetent, but possibly with divided loyalties as well. Not that he expected any better from an organization that actually allowed people like Steamroller Dick into its ranks. Nevertheless, the fact that he would have to sneak behind the back of the CIA greatly complicated this mission. It wasn’t like he couldn’t do it; he was Iron Klaus after all, but it would make his job that much harder. As if working again with Eroica wasn’t hard enough.