Nastia Game

W. Kay R.

Description

A Nastia Game is the first book in a trilogy of stories. The genesis of the first novel is based on the author's personal experiences when he was posted to the RAF Staff College in Bracknell in 1974 to be the college's first computer systems analyst. There, he and a colleague designed and built a computer war game to be used to train the students attending the one-year long advanced staff course in the art of air warfare. Of the 72 students on the course, one third were always from overseas. The software was subsequently sold to the Iraqi Air Force by the Ministry of Defence with International Computers Limited acting as agents. The simulations in the game were modified and enhanced by ICL so that the game could be used to test plans for the invasion of Iran, rather than train officers.

Sujets

• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783069200
• Langue: English

Extrait

A NASTIA GAME
R. W. Kay

Copyright © 2013 R W Kay
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study,
or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the
publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with
the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries
concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
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ISBN 9781783069200
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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The book is dedicated to the countless tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi women, men and children who died as a result of the illegal invasion of their country by the American and British troops in 2003.
Contents

Cover


Author’s Acknowledgement


Author’s Note – ‘The Iraq Trilogy’


PROLOGUE


CHAPTER 1


CHAPTER 2


CHAPTER 3


CHAPTER 4


CHAPTER 5


CHAPTER 6


CHAPTER 7


CHAPTER 8


CHAPTER 9


CHAPTER 10


CHAPTER 11


CHAPTER 12


CHAPTER 13


CHAPTER 14


CHAPTER 15


CHAPTER 16


CHAPTER 17


CHAPTER 18


CHAPTER 19


CHAPTER 20


CHAPTER 21


CHAPTER 22


CHAPTER 23


CHAPTER 24


CHAPTER 25


CHAPTER 26


CHAPTER 27


CHAPTER 28


CHAPTER 29


CHAPTER 30


CHAPTER 31


CHAPTER 32


CHAPTER 33


CHAPTER 34


CHAPTER 35


CHAPTER 36


CHAPTER 37


CHAPTER 38


CHAPTER 39


CHAPTER 40


CHAPTER 41


CHAPTER 42


CHAPTER 43


CHAPTER 44


CHAPTER 45


CHAPTER 46


CHAPTER 47


CHAPTER 48


CHAPTER 49


CHAPTER 50


EPILOGUE
Author’s Acknowledgement

My thanks to the following for their help with my early drafts: Jean Barlow, Alan Powell, Ray Keene, Angela Salt and, especially, Paul Watson.
Author’s Note – ‘The Iraq Trilogy’

A Nastia Game is the first book in a trilogy of stories. The genesis of the first novel is based on the author’s personal experiences when he was posted to the RAF Staff College in Bracknell in 1974 to be the College’s first computer systems analyst. There, he and a colleague designed and built a computer war game to be used to help train the students attending the one-year long Advanced Staff Course in the art of air warfare. Of the seventy-two students on the course, one third were always from overseas. The software was subsequently sold to the Iraq Air Force by the Ministry of Defence with International Computers Limited acting as agents. The simulations in the game were modified and enhanced by ICL so that the game could be used to test plans for the invasion of Iran, rather than train officers.
In the second book, Bin Laden’s Nemesis, the main character is Juan Quayle. He is based on a gifted linguist the author met when visiting St Bees School in Cumbria. The plot centres around a rumour picked up when the author was serving at MoD; namely, the IRA were reducing their stock of weapons before having to decommission them as part of the Northern Ireland Peace Process by selling them to a fledgling terrorist organisation called Al-Qaeda.
In the final novel, Iraq’s Retribution, the heroes from A Nastia Game and Bin Laden’s Nemesis meet up for an apocalyptic conclusion.
The common thread of all three stories is based around the so-called missing weapons of mass destruction made famous by Tony Blair and George W Bush who claimed they posed a threat to the West. The three novels have been written so they can be read independently; this, however, necessitates some duplication by way of explanation from time to time in the second and third books.
The real names of politicians and some other characters have been used to add credibility and believability to the stories. Please remember, however, these three books are works of fiction.
R W Kay
Cheshire
March 2013
PROLOGUE
Friday, 26 th October 1984

‘Didn’t you know? He’s dead. The IRA shot him. His body was never found.’
The small group of officers were visibly shocked. Wing Commander Tony Horner, an operations officer in the Ministry of Defence, had made the comment that caused the reaction. An RAF navigator and the senior officer present in the bar, he had formerly commanded the Operations Wing at RAF Kinloss in northern Scotland – in charge of the tactical operations of the three Nimrod squadrons based there. An intelligent and thoughtful man, he had been Chairman of the RAF Chess Association for several years.
The first to react was Squadron Leader Phil Watson, a senior administrative officer based at RAF Leuchars, an air defence station near St Andrews.
‘But Jim Douglas was just another education officer. How on earth did he get himself involved with the IRA?’
The annual Combined Services Chess Championships were being held at HMS Collingwood, a Royal Navy shore-based training establishment near Fareham in Hampshire. Some of the commissioned officers who were competing had gathered in the bar after dinner to play skittle chess and have a chinwag over a beer. The topic of absent missing friends had arisen. The name of a former champion, Squadron Leader James Douglas, had been mentioned when Tony Horner dropped the bombshell.
Everyone was eyeing Tony for an explanation to Phil’s question.
He thought for a few moments, before replying. ‘I don’t know the full story because much of it was kept under wraps. I do know that James was something of an oddball. He certainly wasn’t an ordinary run-of-the-mill education officer. He had become a computer specialist after attending a pre-employment course in software design at, I think, Glasgow University in the early seventies. As such, he was only one of a handful of serving officers at that time with a higher degree in computer science. After several years in the computer department at the RAF College at Cranwell he became one of our top men in digitised aircraft simulators. When I was OC Ops Wing at RAF Kinloss in 1978, he came up to see our Nimrod simulator with a small party. One of them was from the Defence Operational Analysis Establishment at West Byfleet and another from International Computers Limited. With them were two officers from the Iraqi Air Force who, surprisingly, had been given total security clearance. The Iraqis were especially interested in the role Nimrods could play in anti-shipping operations. One was a major, a bit of a sourpuss, but the Iraqi lieutenant was an exceptionally attractive woman who reminded me of Queen Soraya. Do you remember her, the former Queen of Persia?’
He paused, but only Phil nodded positively, the others were probably too young to remember the Shah of Persia’s former wife.
Tony continued. ‘That night in the bar the lads were round her like the proverbial bees around a honey pot. James told me that after three years at Cranwell he had been posted to the RAF Staff College at Bracknell where he had developed a computerised war game. He had been detached to work with ICL to improve it further and was researching moving map displays with them. The Iraqi Air Force was buying the whole package with MoD’s consent and he was looking forward to going to Baghdad with the ICL team to install the game at their Staff College. Apparently, the Army boffins at West Byfleet and Fort Halstead were developing a moving map display on a handheld computer. Army patrols would then be able to communicate via an encrypted communications link with their Operational HQ. It would show them exactly where they were, especially useful in Northern Ireland where the border can be pretty obscure. As far as I know, James returned from Iraq and was seconded to the Royal Signals, who had begun undertaking trials with the kit. In late 1978 he was involved in trials near Castleblayney on the Irish border when the IRA ambushed him together with a Royal Signals major. The IRA, or to be more correct the IIRA, a splinter group calling itself the Independent IRA, claimed James and the major had invaded Eire. After an exchange of gunfire they were killed and their bodies buried in a bog.’
‘I remember that incident.’ It was Alan Craine, a captain in the Royal Logistics Corps, who chipped in. ‘I was on my first tour, as a second lieutenant, based in County Tyrone. It was October. Believe it or not, Project Ptolemy, the name of the moving map comms link, is only just coming into service. The major with Squadron Leader Douglas that day was Bill Norvic. Despite what the Independent IRA claimed, there couldn’t have been much of a gun battle as, except for their personal sidearm, neither was armed. There are many bogs on the border and dozens of people are believed to have disappeared the same way.’
‘That would explain why I didn’t know,’ remarked Phil solemnly. ‘In October 1978, I was based in Germany.’
There was a moment of silence before Phil continued. ‘I can’t get over the fact that Jim is dead. I knew him quite well in the early seventies. He was a good egg who always came to the championships with his squash racket and golf clubs. We had some good games of squash, invariably followed by a few beers and a visit to the nearest curry house. I can remember him once telling me that he had been selected to do a post-graduate degree in computer systems design at Strathclyde University. Only two or three officers a year are sent on such courses. So, he was chuffed with himself. His p