: Frank Demith
: Of Vital Interest
: Ballast Books
: 9781962202336
: 1
: CHF 12.40
:
: Krimis, Thriller, Spionage
: English
: 292
: kein Kopierschutz
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Sergeant Abdullah is a trained linguist, a soldier, and now a mechanic, giving everything he has to serve the country that gave him a better life. This stalwart soldier is heading out on his fourth deployment to Iraq, where he grew up in a small village before moving to the States with his parents under a military visa program. He is eager to deploy to Iraq yet again and assist the military's mission in any way he can. Meanwhile, Specialist Al Khafaji joins the US Military as part of another special recruiting program through which he ultimately becomes a US citizen and soldier. However, Al Khafaji's motives are unclear to his superiors, who cannot discern what is different about him. While Al Khafaji moves through linguist training, he receives cryptic phone calls and emails as he prepares to deploy to Iraq, where his family still resides. What could these unsettling messages mean? Who is sending them? In Of Vital Interest, Abdullah's and Al Khafaji's lives interweave as the two men join teams in Iraq, where the US Military works to dismantle a terrorist militant cell operating in a nearby village. This riveting and fast-paced novel will have you hooked from the very first page as each soldier makes his mission, whether good or bad, his life's number one priority.

2

The forty-three soldiers stood outside of the unit orderly room waiting for their first sergeant to arrive. This was a bittersweet day for many of them. The Army leadership had decided to disband their current Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), but some of the soldiers had scored high enough on their ASVAB test to be offered the opportunity to reclassify into another MOS. They were now just waiting to be told what MOSs they would be moving on to.

“So what do you think you will do?” a specialist named Bashir asked his squad leader, Sergeant Abdullah.

“Well, I think I’ll just wait and see what comes up,” Sergeant Abdullah replied. “It won’t be easy to move on to another MOS, but at least we are getting a chance. The majority of our company is being released from active duty.”

“That is right, but many of our people are moving on to better-paying civilian jobs as linguists,” Bashir countered, trying to gauge the response from his squad leader’s body language. “I think that Al Saadi is going to make almost twice what he made as a soldier.”

“I am glad that he is going to do well,” Sergeant Abdullah said with a visible level of angst. He had issues with Al Saadi as a soldier and was not really unhappy to see him go. “The good thing is that we will still be able to be soldiers and support the greatest country in the world. Hooah?”

“Hooah, Sergeant!” came the reply from the three soldiers standing nearby.

The first sergeant walked out of the door to the orderly room with a sheet of paper in his hand. He came over to the message board and pinned the paper to the corkboard wall.

“OK, soldiers,” the first sergeant said as he turned to face the group. “Here are the new MOSs you have qualified for. Take a look and let me know in the next day or so if you have any issues or questions. If I don’t hear anything from you by COB Friday, we will move forward with your out-processing and issue you travel orders to your follow-on training. Sergeant Abdullah, can I see you for a moment?”

“Yes, First Sergeant,” Sergeant Abdullah responded.

“Let’s go for