"Clancy, Tom - Op-Center 04 - Acts of War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clancy Tom)

boys in greater numbers. Behind them, in the back
seat, Yousef and Ali played cards for a piastre
a hand. Each loss was accompanied by a mild oath.
Neither man suffered defeat graciously, which was why
they were here.
The restored eight cylinder engine moved them
smoothly along the modern Route 7. The
Galaxy was ten years older than Ibrahim and had
been' rebuilt many times, most recently by himself.
But the trunk was spacious enough to hold what they
needed, the chassis was solid, and the car was strong. Like
this nation of Arabs, Kurds, Armenians,
Circassians, and many others, the Galaxy had
been cobbled together from many parts, some old and some new.
But still it moved forward.
Ibrahim looked out at the blanched
landscape. It wasn't like the desert in the south,
all sand and dust clouds, shimmering mirages and
graceful twisters, the black tents of Bedouins and
occasional oases. It was an endless stretch of dried
and broken dirt, of barren hills and hundreds of
tells--mounds of ruins that marked the cites of
ancient settlements. There were a few modern
additions to the landscape, such as abandoned vehicles
and petrol stations as well as sheds where people sold
stale food and hot drink. The Syrian desert
had always been a lure for adventurers and poets,
caravans and archaeologists who embraced and then
romanticized its dangers. But this region
located between the great Tigris and Euphrates had
once been alive. Not like it was now.
Not like it was before the Turks began to strangle the
water supply.
Ibrahim thought back to this morning, to words his father
had said to them all before they set out.
"Water is life. Control one and you control the
other."
Ibrahim knew the history and geography of the
region and its water. He had put in two tours
of duty in the Air Force. Since his discharge,
he'd listened to the old hands talk about drought
and famine as he repaired tractors and other
machinery on a large farm.
Formerly known as Mesopotamia, Greek for "the
land between the rivers," the Syrian land was now called
al-Gezira, "the island." An island without
water.
The Tigris River was once one of the most
important transportation routes in the world. It
originates in eastern Turkey and flows nearly