Codename

CODENAME: al- Muallaqah

(Hanging Church)

Copyright 2020 by Alex Hutchins

                 Scorpion Blood Scarab   (or)   aleaqarab aljueran aldam   (or)    العقرب الجعران الدم


LEGEND

An albino female scorpion comes across a giant female beetle who is threatening to take over the scorpion’s territory.  The two engage in a battle that lasts for several days with no victor.  The albino scorpion conveys a message to the giant beetle that he is willing to share his territory with the giant beetle and the two again confront each other to discuss terms.  The two embrace as a sign of friendship but the albino scorpion uses his stinger to penetrate the armor of the beetle and draws blood and as the blood begins to cover the scorpion, the body of the albino scorpion turns bright red, giving the scorpion immortality.  It is believed that every time a scorpion stings a living creature, it is drawing out its life spirit or essence.  There is an artifact of the scorpion and the beetle embracing and it is widely believed that possessing this artifact gives its owner immortality of a very long life.  Over the years, this legend has been associated with lesbians with the scorpion being the dominate of the two.

PREFACE

Unremarkable in all respects.  He was not particularly tall or short, fat or thin, handsome or unattractive.  He was not an intellectual or an uneducated man nor was he well-read but was versed in many literary giants and could hold his own in any discussion about modern or ancient literary writers and their novels.  He was however, gifted when it came to foreign languages conversations, gaining the respect of his peers, and teaching students.

At age sixteen, Dr. Alexander Macaroni Kilpakian, nicknamed “Morning” because of his initials AM, dropped out of high school in Nags Head, North Carolina to join the Marines.  The rumor for his middle name was that his mother only wanted to eat macaroni while pregnant.  At age twenty-one Sergeant Kilpakian was one of the Marines top snipers, averaging one combat kill per month.  At age twenty-two, Sergeant Kilpakian was recruited by the CIA for classified black “off the books” operations.  At age twenty-six and at the rank of E6, Staff Sergeant Kilpakian, at the urging of the CIA, left the Marines to enter the US Naval Intelligence.  While in the Marines “Morning” Kilpakian earned his GED and bachelor’s degree in Business. 

While serving in Military Intelligence, Petty Officer Kilpakian earned an MBA and a PhD in Espionage, Intelligence and US Foreign Policy along with becoming fluent in Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin.  At age thirty-six and after twenty years in the military, Master Chief Kilpakian left the military to work for the CIA full time as a Middle East Field agent.  His cover was a Visiting Professor of Management at American University Cairo. 

As part of his cover story, the CIA fast tracked Kilpakian through the process of becoming certified in Project Management by the Project Management Institute, a global nonprofit professional organization in Project Management.  The CIA also created a cover story that Dr. Kilpakian did, in fact, spend twenty years in the military but worked in Transportation, Logistics, and Information Technology and it was in this last area that he previously worked with Evelyn Fletcher who was now DCM at the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt.

During the debriefing process with the CIA, Dr. Kilpakian was informed  he would be stationed in Cairo, but would be traveling to other American University Campuses to give lectures and seminars, such as Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, United Arab Emirates, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and at the home campus in Washington, DC.  Dr. Kilpakian was informed that he would also be involved with some joint projects that involved working with India’s Institute of Technology and NIIT on global project management initiative.

Enthusiastically instructed, Dr. Kilpakian was informed that his primary task was not teaching but gathering intelligence on terrorism, middle east military movements, military alliances, covert operations against the US or its allies and to specifically look for weaknesses in their defense systems, along with progress in the areas nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, or weapons using chemical agents.  He was to pay particular close attention to Russian and Chinese involvement in any of these areas as well.

Whatever financial or other resources that Dr. Kilpakian may need in order to accomplish his goals and support his cover story would always be made available to him.  The US Ambassador in all country in which he would be involved had been instructed to provide complete cooperation but to invite him to as many activities as possible, giving him somewhat of a celebrity status in diplomatic circles.

At thirty-six years old, Professor Kilpakian ran twenty-five miles each week to keep his six foot, two hundred pound body in shape, eating mainly vegetables, fish, and white meat, and drinking nor more than two glasses of red wine nightly when attending functions that required him to consume alcohol.  Dr. Kilpakian did not like the traditional coat and tie uniform for University Professors, and since the CIA had also arranged for him to be tenured, he would wear jeans, a knit or cotton shirt, a sports jacket and sandals unless traveling to other campuses where he had agreed to wear the traditional coat and tie uniform.

Dr. Kilpakian, at age thirty-five showed no signs of growing bald or displaying white hair and while he particularly liked long hair, he combed his hair back like Coach Pat Riley of the LA Lakers basketball team.  He had twenty/twenty vision but wore glasses to appear more professorial.

Little known to the outside world but Dr. Kilpakian was the grandson of a Pakistani immigrant who had sought political asylum in the United States sixty years ago.  His grandmother was a member of the royal family of Gamal Abdul Nassar who had been president of Egypt and who had also sought political asylum in the United States.  Dr. Kilpakian had agreed to change his last name to protect his identity, and the CIA had destroyed all records connecting him to his grandparent or his parents which was relatively easy since he was the only child.