by Brad Carlson
“Colonel, I think Stonewall and I need to get out of here while we still might be able to,” Arielle quietly relayed to Cadonau.
“Good point. Your plane’s still up by the terminal. It’s fully fueled and ready to go.”
“Stonewall, let’s go!” Arielle said as she headed towards their car.
“Roger that,” Jackson replied.
Raqqa, Syria
4:20 Local Time
“Imam, we just heard from General Van. He says ‘mission accomplished.’”
“Excellent, Mohammad! That is very good news. When do you expect him here?”
“He should be here in about an hour.”
“Outstanding! That is simply wonderful. And your plans for our four Israeli guests?”
“I’m looking at next week. If the next few days play out like I expect them to, I would advise that we put them on display next week. With the unprecedented success General Van just advised us of and then what I expect to follow, it’ll be more like a one-two punch for the world to see. The propaganda effect this should have will be immeasurable.”
“So, everything is in place?” al-Baghdadi asked his chief of operations.
“We received word from Major Aksoy when the C-130 landed at Incirlik. We set everything in motion as soon as we received word from him. By this evening, the political landscape in the Middle East will look vastly different.”
“Excellent, Mohammad. You have done very well with this. Let me know how everything progresses.”
XXIII
Incirlik Air Force Base
4:40 PM Local Time
“Jim, we have an ‘Empty Quiver’ at Incirlik!”
“Excuse me!?! What did you say?” Carmichael replied, knowing the code words for a missing nuke, though never expecting that he’d actually hear them used.
“The Turks just grabbed the last transport plane taking the nukes out of Incirlik. I’m still not sure just who took the plane. We got into a very short firefight with a small Turkish force as the plane took off. They timed this perfectly—just as the last bomb was loaded Major Aksoy and his force arrived. Dani and I have just taken off—we’re tracking the plane on radar. It’s a little ways ahead of us on a heading of one-zero-eight degrees. This all happened not fifteen minutes ago.”
“You said the plane’s on a one-zero-eight heading?!?” Jim asked for confirmation.
“Yeah, I don’t like that either. If this was simply the Turks they wouldn’t be heading southeast. Right now, we currently show them over northern Syria.”
“Stonewall, hold on a second. We’re getting word of a major terrorist bombing in Ankara—have you heard about this?”
“Negative. We’ve been a little preoccupied at Incirlik.”
“Understand. President Demirel has been holding daily meetings, morning and afternoon, with various staff members in the wake of the death of his chief of staff. This afternoon he had a regularly scheduled meeting with his national security staff along with several legislative leaders. From what I can tell, and again, this just happened a few minutes ago, based on the size of the explosion and the damage we’ve seen so far, we’re estimating that the Turkish government, for all intents and purposes, no longer exists.”
“Jim, if the Turkish government has just been eliminated,” Dani began, “and within minutes, someone hijacked a planeload of nuclear bombs out of Incirlik—the timing’s not coincidental! The coordination for something like this is monumental! This is ISIS. No question about it—and I think we’ve all underestimated them.”
“Agreed. I’m heading to the White House now. I expect Secretaries Johnson and Axelsson will be called home immediately. I’m sure by now General Kaufman knows as well.”
“Jim, don’t be so sure,” Jackson added. “The Turks shut down all power and comms at Incirlik. We actually had to break through the front gate to get back on base.”
“Okay, I’ll give Stan a call right away. I’ll be at the White House in twenty minutes. I want you two heading back to Tel Aviv. We don’t need you two flying to Raqqa and getting shot down over there. Dani, if Tamir finds any information on this, I want a call right away.”
“You got it!”
“Jim, we’ll be in touch,” Jackson said as he concluded the call.
“Tamir, Stonewall just called in an ‘Empty Quiver’ at Incirlik,” Dani said as General Pardo answered the call.
“Arielle. What did you say?” Tamir asked in a strong though subdued voice.
“Tamir, ISIS is making a major play on Turkey. We returned to Incirlik right after your call. By the time we reached the front gate, the base had already been locked down. We got to the flight line just as the C-130 was taking off. We were able to take off about fifteen minutes later. Right now we’re tracking it on a course of one-zero-eight about fifty miles ahead of us.”
“Tamir, this occurred simultaneously with the apparent assassination of President Demirel,” Stonewall broke in. “I guess we haven’t confirmed that he’s actually been killed but the way Jim talked, the entire Turkish government has been taken out.”
“Okay, I’ll need to discuss this with Jim. We cannot—we will not—allow anyone in the Middle East to have nuclear weapons, let alone ISIS. We have two different teams in Raqqa right now watching out for our pilots. I’ll let them know to keep an eye out for these as well.”
“Tamir, it might not be that difficult. I haven’t confirmed this but I believe the PAL for each of the warheads is GPS enabled, meaning we could probably hack into it them and track each one. I know the US Air Force might not appreciate it, but that’s too bad.”
“Okay, I’ll ask Jim for this before we actually hack into them. Anything else?”
“No, we’re on our way home,” Dani replied. “Jim told us to break off from following the C-130—another reason why I believe they can track these—so we’ll be home in about an hour.”
“Okay, go home and get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning,” Tamir replied.
Abu Dhabi, UAE
6:00 PM Local Time
“Dr. Bagheri, please excuse me. I hate it when this thing goes off,” Secretary Axelsson said as his satellite phone beeped.
“Is everything okay?” Dr. Bagheri asked, noticing the sudden ashen appearance of the secretary.
“Ah, not really. Please excuse me,” Axelsson said to the Iranian president.
“Stan, what the hell is going on?!?” Axelsson said as soon as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff answered. “I just received the ‘Pinnacle/Empty Quiver/Incirlik’ text.”
“Eric, we have a major problem . . .”
“Ya think, General?!?” Axelsson said, cutting off the Chairman. “A missing nuke out of Incirlik is a little more than a ‘major problem’.”
“Mr. Secretary, if you’ll let me finish. It seems that ISIS thoroughly infiltrated Turkey, the government and part of the military. At Incirlik, it goes all the way to the top with General Van, the base commander. He was in on the seizure of the nukes. He grabbed the C-130 which had thirty-four B-61s and immediately flew them all to Raqqa.”
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me that we’re missing thirty-four nukes? How in the hell did we let that happen?!?”
“I’m afraid so. On top of that, almost simultaneously, they detonated a bomb at President Demirel’s afternoon meeting, virtually taking out the entire governmental leadership. I don’t know what Turkey has for a succession plan—I’d expect the military to take over at present until things can get ironed out.”
“General, I don’t care what happens to the Turkish government. We need to get those weapons back! NOW!!!”
“Agreed, but at least we know where each of the nukes is located as each PAL has a GPS locater chip in it.”
“Yeah, well, knowing where they are and rounding them up are two totally different things. I’ll get Andrea and we’ll be wheels up in half an hour,” Axelsson told the chairman. “I’ll see you first thing in the morning!”
The White
House Situation Room
9:30 AM Local Time
“Mr. President, I just spoke with Eric,” General Kaufman said addressing President Barre. “He and Andrea will be leaving Abu Dhabi shortly. It’s about a fifteen hour flight so we should see them in the morning.”
“What do we do in the meantime?” President Barre asked his abbreviated national security staff as he popped a couple Advil. “I seem to be living on these things lately.”
“Mr. President,” National Security Adviser Pam McDowell began, “for starters, we need to notify our allies. The Italians will obviously know something’s wrong when the plane doesn’t arrive, but we also need to notify the rest of NATO.”
“Agreed,” General Kaufman added. “Turkey is a NATO member and the nukes we have over there are essentially for NATO’s protection.”
“But what’s the threat of ISIS using these things?” McDowell asked.
“Incredibly small,” Kaufman answered. “Each one of these has a Permissive Action Link—a PAL—that keeps the bomb from being detonated without first entering the proper authorization code. Without the codes, and as long as they don’t have any nuclear engineers—and we haven’t seen any intel that would indicate otherwise—the bombs are pretty useless.”
“Okay, that’s somewhat reassuring. What about the press?” McDowell followed up.
“Absolutely not,” Tom Fleming, the Chief of Staff, replied. “We need to get a better understanding of everything before we release anything to the press.”
“You don’t think ISIS isn’t going to let it out that they’ve just obtained more than thirty of our nukes?” Vice President Donner followed up. “I sure would. Pulling off something like this is a huge propaganda coup for them.”
“No, I realize they’ll get this out—probably to Al Jazeera and a few other outlets,” Fleming added. “However, we’re looking at a weekend right now. That should buy us some time to try and figure out our options before we get the press involved. Besides, if ISIS lets this out too soon, they know they’ll be inviting an attack from us. So, no, I don’t think they’ll release this right away.”
“Okay, then, just what do we have for options?” President Barre asked the group.
“We need to mobilize our forces over there and let this ISIS group know what they’re up against,” McDowell immediately replied.
“Just what are you suggesting, Pam? A fly over from a couple B-1s or B-2s?” General Kaufman asked somewhat sarcastically. “We already have a potent force in the region: The Lincoln is on its way home—I believe it’s still in the Med but could certainly be recalled. The George H W Bush and its battle group is in the Red Sea heading to the Persian Gulf right now. Practically the entire Special Forces 5th Group is already in the region—and that doesn’t include a Delta contingent and several SEAL teams, either—and they are all currently engaged with the Kurds against ISIS. The Air Force has several A-10s deployed over there as well for close air support for the Kurds. We also have a dozen F-22s at Al-Asad and a full squadron of F-15Es at of Al-Udeid. This is a significant force but in terms of a large ‘foot print’, we are quite limited in what is immediately available.”
“So, you’re going to sit back and do nothing?” McDowell asked rather snippety.
“I didn’t say that. What I’m saying is that we already have the forces in the region to recover these. They’re currently engaged against ISIS in Syria and Iraq but going after these nukes is of paramount importance—everything else takes a backseat. The forces we have in the region—the 5th Group, Delta and the SEALs—are designed for just such a mission—low profile and capable of hitting very quick, and very hard. What you are suggesting, Pam, is just the opposite. Plus, even if we wanted to do that, we’d have to whistle up some additional F-22s—probably out of either Langley or Hickam—and the second F-15E squadron from Lakenheath—they would be the closest, and the quickest that could respond. If we want the B-1s—and they’d be the quickest to get over there, we’d have to take them from stateside as none of them are currently deployed. However, a ‘show of force’ in the traditional sense is pointless—these guys had the audacity to steal more than thirty nukes—I don’t think they’ll be intimidated by any ‘show of force’.”
“General, so the forces you need to recover the weapons are already in Syria or Iraq?” President Barre asked his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“For the most part, yes they are. However, the logistics for this will be interesting, especially if they store these in multiple locations, and it’s anybody’s guess if they will. A single location or multiple locations—each has its own advantages and disadvantages. We’ll have to wait and see where they ultimately end up.”
“Okay, let’s recall the Lincoln,” President Barre added. “I’d rather have them over there and not need them, than need them, and they’re not around.”
“I’ll get the word out, sir.”
“So, we can track every one of these weapons?” McDowell asked.
“Yes, we can. That is not public knowledge but it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. The PAL in each of these devices has a GPS chip we can monitor. And yes, that makes it easier but they won’t leave these things undefended. We can’t just walk in and take them back.”
“How soon could you locate them and have a rudimentary plan put together, General?” the president asked.
“It won’t take long to locate them. Planning a recovery mission will be the hard part. I’ll discuss this with General Frank Logan, he’s in command over at JSOC,”—Joint Special Operations Command—“and I should have something for you later this afternoon or early evening.”
“Mr. President,” James Carmichael broke in, “as Stan says, locating these things isn’t the issue. The real question is what is their intent with these weapons? General Van was involved in this so they know about the PAL that’s on every bomb. Unless either Van was somehow able to secure the codes from Incirlik—which is highly unlikely—or if they have some nuclear engineers over there, these bombs won’t serve them any purpose, unless they want to sell them.”
“Felix,” President Barre turned to his DNI, “do we know if the NORKs and ISIS have joined up?”
“Sir, as General Kaufman already indicated, we haven’t seen anything to suggest this, nor have the Israelis. If something like this was in the wind, we both would have picked up on a joint ISIS-North Korean plot.”
“But that doesn’t answer Jim’s question—what are they going to do with these?” Donner added.
“That’s the million dollar question ma’am,” Felix replied. “We’re on it, but right now, there’s so much more that we don’t know, than what we do know.”
“Let me know the minute you even suspect anything. Okay, next: Turkey. What is going on over there? At the same time that our nukes are hijacked, someone else takes out the entire governmental leadership. That’s not coincidental. Jim, Felix, any ideas?”
“Sir, it’s too soon to tell anything,” Felix replied. “Incirlik is locked down but Izmir is not. Their air force is continuing the fight against the Kurds in Iraq, so nothing has changed there. It looks like the Army is taking over in the immediate future, which I think is obvious, given the circumstances.”
“Jim, you’ve got friends over there. What are they saying?” the president asked.
“Mr. President, no one really knows what’s going on over there right now. It almost seems like Turkey’s under attack, probably by ISIS, but at this point, we know very little. I mean, the attack on President Demirel isn’t even an hour old yet and that’s the same with the seizure of the C-130 at Incirlik. Sir, here’s what we know: four days ago, someone took out the high command of the Turkish air force; yesterday, we had the attack on both Eric and Andrea at Incirlik; and, now we have both the seizure of the planeload of B-61s plus what amounts to the decapitation of Turkey’s government. I’d be willing to bet that ISIS is behind all of this . . . “
“Mr. President,” Nationa
l Security Advisor McDowell broke in, “we have absolutely no evidence that ISIS is behind everything. Obviously, I’m sure they grabbed the plane at Incirlik but aside from that it would take a massive amount of coordination to pull all of this off by the same group in such a short time span and I really don’t think ISIS is capable of all this.”
“But I don’t know what’s all behind this,” Jim continued. “As Pam just mentioned, ISIS doesn’t have the moxie to take on Turkey in the traditional sense. But what we’ve seen this past week is far from the ‘traditional.’ Maybe they feel an asymmetrical attack, a more non-traditional one, will destabilize Turkey enough to knock them out of the fight in the region. Think about it—we’ve taken the Russians out and if they can knock the Turks out in this manner, who’s left over there? The Kurds? They are an effective fighting force but only because we’re backing them. Really, Israel is the sole power left in the region. I don’t see Israel getting involved in this yet but at this rate, it won’t be long now.”
“What about Mossad? Does General Pardo have any intel on what’s going on? I know Turkey and Israel have historically relatively close ties.”
“Not at this point. We both have an asset that was in Adana and Incirlik literally as this was going down but we don’t know anything more than what we’ve relayed to you. I expect we’ll be able to develop more fairly soon.”
“Okay, I want everyone back here later this afternoon. Stan, I want to know what JSOC has come up with, however rough the draft is. Jim and Felix, I want the absolute latest intel we’ve been able to scrounge up from all of your sources.”
XXIV
Nicosia, Cyprus
7:00 PM Local Time
The two C-130s took off from Maritsa air base on a bearing of 214 degrees, roughly parallel to the Rhodesian coast. After sixty miles, and out of sight of the island, both planes turned to a more east, southeast bearing of 100 degrees. They followed this heading for the next 230 miles at which point they split up with one plane taking a more northeast bearing and the other continuing on a more easterly heading. At precisely 2030 hours, both C-130s lit off their powerful electronic jammers, effectively isolating Cyprus, electronically, from the rest of the world.