Act 1: The Sands of Time
Thomas Wilkins
Banned
Al Rashid Street, Baghdad, Iraq
October 7, 1959
A slender man sits in the back of a moving car. Besides him are other passengers, either officials or bodyguards, that were with him on at the back. The car moves down one of Baghdad's main streets, Al Radhid Street. Built by the dying Ottomans in the midst of the Great War and fully electrified in 1917, it became a popular place for city dwellers to visit or have a stroll. This particular street had also seen many things from the various coups, invasions and occupations from both the Ottomans to the British. Soon this street would receive more infamy at the end of this fateful day.
Abd al-Karim Qasim, the Prime Minister of Iraq since July 1958, was riding in his car along the street towards his destination. Mosul was in a state of chaos as Arab nationalists attempted a coup to overthrow the government, fearing that Qasim was becoming sympathetic to the communists. The coup failed as Qasim had crushed it with the help of the military along with communists and sympathetic Kurdish tribes. In retaliation, the Baathists would try to have their revenge on the very man they opposed.
In a dim alley, a group of young men lock-and-load their weapons. Armed with a mixture of pistols and SMGs, they prepare themselves. One of them carries an old MP40 that had somehow found its way from the battlefields of Europe into Iraq. Soon they see the car passing down the street. The leader of the group orders his comrades to take their positions.
As soon the as the car approaches near the alley, the young Baathists run out and unleash a hail of bullets upon the front of the car. The chauffeur gets instantly killed , swerving the car towards the sidewalk. Once the firing stops, a second group of the assassins soon unload their weapons into the back of the car hoping to kill the Prime Minister. After a moment of silence, one of the young assassins opens one of the doors to find a wounded Qasim and 2 dead men in suits beside him. Blood was leaking from his mouth, there were red bullet holes on his abdomen and his eyes were wide as an owl due to the sudden shock of being ambushed and shot.
The young man, feeling a sense of pity in his guts knowing he has to kill the man right before him, slowly raises his MP40 at the bleeding leader. Qasim pleads for his life in a struggling voice, raising his hand hoping to stop the young man doing the deed, but it would be in vain. The young Baathist pulls the trigger for one second and the bleeding leader instantly became a lifeless one, the Prime Minister of Iraq was dead.
"Good job, Saddam. Soon everybody shall sing songs and heap praises of your action today!" remarks the group leader. "Now's not the time Abdullah, I just killed a man..."
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