In Code Name Mel's Choice, we take a hard look on how to destabilise a neighbouring country. There are many ways to do so but the best is to create internal strife and support one side against the other. If you can then start a civil war and your side wins, you have succeeded, in NATO terms that is called "Regime Change" and highly illegal under international law. But even if you cannot start a proper war, the internal strife is also good news, your enemy has to turn within to sort its problems out and then is a lesser threat to you or so the theory goes - it is highly debatable because you may then end up with something like ISIS, a home goal of US foreign policies if ever. But still, this is bread and butter work for spy agencies. If you think this does not happen in real life, think again. In history, we think of the CIA efforts in Afghanistan, against the Soviets in the 1980s giving rise to the Taliban and the horrors that followed. Why we were so surprised when in the 1990s the CIA started bragging about their destabilising attempts even on democratically elected governments, more than 60 at the last count, I don't know. At the end of the day, the question you must ask yourself is not what the CIA and others, they were by no means alone, did, but on whose orders? If the President is not involved, then it is a rogue mission and a dangerous one. As I said, you never know what will happen when you succeed, you may even get worse or create a bigger mess. Perhaps the rogue missions are not so unexpected either and very human. When you first become part of the Great Game, it is magic. You are surrounded by living legends. You heard the rumours and now suddenly you are part of something so secretive, so different and so dangerous that you feel honoured. I say this with some pride despite what happened in 2012 (Code Name VFO565, Angelique's detention and defection), the South African Secret Service too had magic and the events in Code Name Mel's Choice demonstrates why I say so. We will read here how to smuggle in weapons and other aid to rebel movements covertly and with much denial from the official organs of State. Yet, it happened. Description: Spymaster extraordinaire Angelique Dawson and her team are covertly flying in weapons & ordnance to dissidents in Zimbabwe. They are using a refurbished C-130 Hercules in Rhodesian Air Force camouflage (the Rhodesians never had a C-130 in service) as well as an old Dakota DC-3 (C-47) called "Mel's Choice." The airdrop missions are risky, the Zimbabwean MiG-21s are prowling and looking for the clandestine flights, aiming to shoot the aircraft down and capture Angelique Dawson. If so, she will die a horrible death. Much to her longtime bodyguard and later husband, former Police Special Forces Company Commander, Geoffrey Foxtrot's, chagrin, she is knowingly heading into a trap. Every indication is that she is flying towards misfortune and exposing herself, her aircrew and aircraft into danger. At some stage, she will meet up with either the MiGs or ground-based anti-aircraft fire, yet she does not care, dismissing Foxtrot's concerns indifferently. The cargo planes are ill-equipped to escape such an encounter. There must be more behind her actions and is, she is running another operation. She drops South African Army Special Forces Teams into East Mashonaland, Zimbabwe, to look for a new Chinese Air Base, the largest one in Africa. Her airdrop flights are a diversion and then she takes off with the old Dakota, Mel's Choice, on a doomed flight. Foxtrot's best friend, Geelslang Peter Ndebele, the legendary Special Forces officer, acting as co-pilot. They are ambushed by ack-ack and the MiGs... If you wish to read about Covert and Special Forces Operations in sub-Saharan Africa, the GMJ Books are the place to start. You will learn about Special Forces techniques and military history not known outside the select few. Code Name Mel's Choice is the twenty-fifth book of the popular GMJ