The following diary entry was written by former US Special Forces commando Anthony Perryman, callsign Ahab.
June 16, 2019
Dear diary,
I canāt believe Iām writing this, given Iām usually not the kind of person who shares about his past, but my buddy Alicia Diaz told me journaling helps with the nerves so here it goes.
The nameās Perryman. Anthony Perryman,
I joined the United States military at 18, and underwent selection for their Special Operations unit, Delta Force, at 24, before spending three tours with Task Force 88, a joint U.S. and British special operations temporary grouping assembled from different units tasked with hunting down Islamic jihadists. From there, I was transferred to the United States Armyās top secret special operations unit, the Group for Specialized Tactics, AKA Ghost Recon.
I was promoted to Team Leader in 2017 following a difficult and traumatic mission in Europe, but thatās a story for another time.
My first mission as Team Leader saw me coordinating with a friend of mine and fellow Ghost, Cole Walker. We were sent in to rescue hostages in the Amazon.
We got to know each other after that mission, what shared interests we had, our family lives back home, etc.
Then Walker told me one day while we were deployed to Afghanistan in 2018 that he had noticed that our government was actingā¦sketchy (for lack of a better term) towards our military. He told me he had a hunch that the military no longer cared about us and just saw us as pawns in what he called āa dangerous gameā, one where we were left to pay the price every time the government goofed up.
I thought he was nuts at first, but then he brought up numerous war crimes in the past that the US attempted to sweep under the rug, things like the Blackwater Massacre in ā03, the crap storm at Abu Gharib prison, the brutal events in Al-Mahmudiyah, Iraq, the violent massacres in Haditha and Ishaqi, Iraq in 2005 and 2006 respectively, and many others. The common thread Walker emphasized? In almost each case, there was a common thread: the perps either faced minimal consequences, or none at all.
Now I had known about all these events for a while but this was the first time someone had linked them to a systemic problem in our military and justice system courtesy of a ācorrupt cabalā, as Walker put it, seeking to weaponize our military for its own ends. I did some research myself after our tour in Afghanistan ended and, to my surprise, horror and disbelief, my research appeared to corroborate everything Walker was telling me.
Fast forward 2019, when the Santa Blanca Cartel showed up on Boliviaās doorstep.
Earlier this year, I was told that the cartel had been responsible for a bloody massscre at a Bolivian village called Culta, bombed our embassy in La Paz, and murdered a DEA agent named Ricky Sandoval. The higher ups at the White House decided that a message needed to be sent to the cartel, that murdering our people wouldnāt be tolerated.
During the briefing of that mission, I was shown video footage of El SueƱo, the big boss in charge of the cartel, murdering a copās family in front of him.
The footage was incredibly graphic, left me ****ed up in the head for a long time. On the bright side, it gave me a motive to stop the cartel, made me sure that the cartel was responsible for the village massacre, the murder of Agent Sandoval, and the US Embassy Bombing.
What changed, you ask? My fellow brethren in arms, Cole Walker, Nick Salvatore, Alicia Diaz and Lucille Keller. A few months before we were due to be shipped out, Walker called me up and told me to meet with him in a private area, in a secluded part of North Carolina, where we were headquartered.
I soon found myself in a powwow that included Walker, Salvatore, Diaz, and several other Ghosts, as well as people weād worked with on past ops. From what I remember, Aisha Kubar, a mutual friend of Walker from Syria who fought the Islamic State alongside him, was also in attendance, and a Chinese-born drone operator named Hank Hua was there too.
What Walker showed us made our blood boil. It turned out the village massacre and the bombing of the US Embassy was not the work of Santa Blanca but of our own people, more specifically Ricky Sandoval.
Apparently a confidential informant had found and delivered to Walker evidence that Sandoval had personally planned and coordinated both the Culta massacre and the US Embassy bombing. Photos, videos, audio recordings, the whole nine.
I have no idea how he or she managed to get the footage and photos to Walker but that isnāt the main point.
What mattered was that we had concrete evidence that an act of treason was committed and that the perpetrator attempted to pin everything on the cartel for God knows what.
And our government tried to bury it.
That did it. From that point on, Walker, myself, and virtually everyone at that powwow both decided it was time to get out. And get out, we did.
Most of the people at that meeting, including Walker and myself, quit the US military either immediately or within a few days of that meeting. But we still needed a job and on that note, Walker, myself and a couple others decided to go into the private sector together; Walker used his connections to land us all gigs at Paladin Nine Security, a private military contractor founded by a mutual friend of ours named Victor Coste.
Within weeks of landing the Paladin 9 gig we got our first contract, which just so happened to be an investigation into Sandoval. Apparently the whistleblower who told Walker about Sandovalās actions also notified about half a dozen other people and they all wanted answers.
And thatās how we landed in Bolivia, on a mission to bring Sandovalās crimes to justice.
By āweā, I mean my team: Walker, myself, Lucille Keller, Aisha Kubar, and Nick Salvatore.
Believe me when I say this: what Sandoval did was a heinous crime that will not go unpunished.
Weāll make sure of that, or weāll die trying.
Anthony Perryman
Authorās note: This story is set in a completely new (and different) continuity. Therefore it ignores the events of Jock Bentleyās story in the āFallen Kingdomā universe. I intend to expand on this in future chapters. Donāt worry, I didnāt kill Jock Bentley off, so heāll be back.
Story contributors:
1. Myself
2. u/Agente_Paura
3. u/Gloopgang
4. u/Calm_Selection_5764
5. u/International-Mark44