The ISIS Gambit
Page 18
XXV
34,000’ over the Iraqi-Turkish border
10:40 PM Local Time
“SAM Two-One-Four, Leopard Three-Five. You are ordered to proceed directly to Batman air base and land immediately.”
“Leopard Three-Five, SAM Two-One-Four. That’s a negative. We are a US Air Force flight enroute to Andrews Air Force Base and cannot divert.”
“SAM Two-One-Four, Leopard Three-Five. Negative. You are ordered to land immediately at Batman air base.”
“Sue, check and see what we have available for any friendlies nearby,” Colonel Bob ‘Mac’ McKenzie said to his copilot, Lieutenant Colonel Susan Marshall. “We’re supposed to have some fighters on call.”
“Roger that. Squawking 7500 now. Any idea what’s going on?”
“You know as much as I do,” Mac replied.
“SAM Two-One-Four, Leopard Three-Five. Look out your port and starboard windows.”
“Sue, I’ve got two F-16s on my side.”
“I’ve got two more over here, and they’re serious about this—both of them are fully armed.”
“SAM Two-One-Four, this is Al-Asad control. I have you squawking 7500. What is the nature of your emergency?”
“Control, we’ve been intercepted by a flight of Turkish Air Force F-16s and ordered to land at Batman air base.”
“Roger that. How much time do you have? I have a pair of Strike Eagles and another pair of Raptors up but they’re both a ways out from you. The Raptors will get their first. They’re ten minutes out on supercruise. Call sign Gamecock Two-Two and Two-Three.”
“Mac, Al Asad has two Raptors, ten minutes out. Can we stall that long? They have a pair of Strike Eagles on the way as well but the Raptors will get here first.”
“I don’t know. Normally, at this altitude we could easily stall for close to fifteen minutes.”
“SAM Two-One-Four, Leopard Three-Five. Begin your descent now,” came the order from the lead F-16 as a stream of tracers shot out across the front of the C-32A aircraft.
“I don’t think we have ten minutes, Sue. I’ll let the Secretaries know. You have the aircraft. Take your time. Help is on the way.”
“I have the aircraft. Beginning descent.”
“Leopard Three-Five, SAM Two-One-Four. Can Batman handle this aircraft?” Colonel Marshall asked, trying to stall as much as possible.
“SAM Two-One-Four, Batman has plenty of room for you. Get her on the ground, now!” came the order.
“Mr. Secretary, where’s Secretary Johnson?” Colonel McKenzie asked as he ran into the defense secretary in the stateroom.
“She’s back in the conference room. Why, what’s up?”
“Just follow me and I’ll explain,” McKenzie replied.
“Madam Secretary, Mr. Secretary, we might have a problem. We’ve been intercepted by four Turkish F-16s and ordered to land at Batman airbase.”
“What? Turkey’s our ally,” Secretary Johnson replied.
“Yes, they are, so I’m not exactly sure of what’s going on, but they clearly mean for us to land.”
“I was wondering. I thought I saw a streak of lightning out there but wasn’t sure in the dark.”
“That wasn’t lightning, ma’am. Those were tracers fired across our flight path.”
“What? They were shooting at us?” Johnson asked.
“No, it’s like a shot across the bow of a ship, letting everyone know they mean business,” Secretary Axelsson interrupted.
“We have a pair of Raptors inbound,” Mac added. “They should be here in ten to fifteen minutes. In the meantime, we are descending as if to land. Let’s get strapped in. I’ll head to the rear and let everyone know what’s going on.”
“Do we need to worry about any classified information?” Johnson asked Colonel McKenzie.
“At this point, I think we’ll be okay. The Raptors should be here in plenty of time. We’ve started our descent as if to land so hopefully those guys out there will believe we’re following their instructions. Once the Raptors get here, we’ll be fine, Madam Secretary. I’ll head to the rear and let everyone else know what’s going on.”
“Good idea, we’ll head back there with you,” Johnson replied.
“Leopard Zero-Six, Dragon One-One,” came the call from the Turkish airborne radar craft to the Leopard F-16 squadron lead. “We have a pair of solid contacts at thirty-five north, forty-two east, course three-four-two, speed Mach 2.2, angels 22. Then we might have another pair but hard to tell as we can’t get real fix on them. See if there’s anything at thirty-four north, forty east, course zero-one-four, speed Mach 2.0. These guys mean business.”
“Dragon One-One, Leopard Zero-Six. We’ll check ‘em both out.”
“Roger that, Leopard Zero-Six.”
“Leopard Zero-Six, Dragon One-One. I’m showing a slower aircraft trailing behind your bogies. Must be a tanker for the fast movers.”
“Roger that Dragon One-One. We’ll take care of that one, too.”
“Dragon One-One, Leopard Zero-Six. Where are the bandits? I’m not picking them up on radar.”
“Leopard Zero-Six, can’t be certain but they’re last bearing appeared to be two-three-three from your position, still angels 22, and moving very fast. Range is about forty-five kilometers.”
“Gamecock Two-Two, Asad control. You’ve got company,” the Asad radar operator advised the lead F-22 Raptor. “Looks to be seven bogies headed your way, angels 25. Should be at your three o’clock in forty-five seconds.”
“Asad control. Weapons free?” Gamecock Two-Two asked.
“Negative, Gamecock. Not until we know these are bandits.”
“Copy that, control.”
“Gamecock Two-Two, looks like we have a couple more bogies breaking off for Texaco. Range to Texaco is still one-three-seven miles.”
“Texaco, you copy that.”
“Asad control, Texaco. We copied that. Bogies one-three-seven miles out. What’s their bearing? You round up an escort for us or do we need to break off?”
“Scrambling four Eagles now, Texaco. Bearing zero-three-three degrees. You’ll be fine.”
“Lancer Three-One, Asad control. You’ve got seven more bogies headed your way, repeat seven bogies,” control advised the Strike Eagle lead. “Range two-five miles bearing two-eight-six, angels 21. They’re coming in fast.”
“Control, Lancer Three-One. Copy that. Seven bogies in bound, range two-five miles, at ten o’clock, angels 21. Weapons status?”
“Lancer, weapons hold.”
“Roger that, weapons hold.”
“Gamecock Two-Two, Lancer Three-One. Can you two help SAM Two-One-Four? We’ll hang back and guard your six.”
“Roger that, Three-One. They won’t even see us,” the Gamecock lead replied, fully confident of the stealth technology with the Raptor.
“Gamecock Two-Two, SAM Two-One-Four. We need help here. We’ve got four fully armed F-16s on our wing ordering us to land at Batman. They’ve already shot a stream of tracers across our path and we’ve begun our descent from Angels 34.”
SAM Two-One-Four, Gamecock Two-Two. We’ve got a small situation. Looks like someone might be playing games with us. We’ve got a few bogies looking for us but we should be able to slip right by them but if they get lucky and detect us, we can take them out but that’d delay us a couple minutes.”
“Roger that. We don’t have much time.”
“Gamecock Two-Three, Two-Two. Head up to SAM Two-One-Four. I’m going to hang back and see if anyone tries to follow you. Lancer Three-One has my six.”
“Roger that. SAM Two-One-Four, Gamecock Two-Three, I’m six minutes out.”
“Colonel D’Agostino, we have a situation,” Lieutenant Jessica Abbott, the tower watch officer at Al Asad, advised the base commander rather excitedly. “Sir, SAM Two-One-Four has been intercepted by four Turkish F-16s. We have two Raptors and two Strike Eagles in bound to the SAM flight but they each have seven Vipers running after them.”
> “Lieutenant. Take a breath, slow down and repeat what you just said, only slower.”
“Yes, sir. Sir, we have a situation up north. SAM Two-One-Four has been intercepted and ordered to land at Batman air base. We’ve sent two Raptors and two Eagles to assist but I don’t think they can get there in time. Whoever is going after the SAM flight placed a squadron of Vipers astride the rout of both the Raptors and the Eagles. They’ll each need to fight their way through the Vipers to get to the SAM flight, provided they don’t get shot down themselves.”
“Lieutenant, the Raptors should be able to fly right through the Vipers—they won’t even see ‘em on radar. The Eagles might have their hands full, though. Have we scrambled anything else?”
“Yes, sir. We’ve got four more Eagles already up. Whoever’s flying these Vipers sent a pair after the tanker as well. We’ve got two covering that and two more headed to the SAM flight but I don’t think they have a chance, sir.”
“SAM Two-One-Four, Leopard Three-Five. You are ordered to land immediately!”
“Leopard Three-Five, SAM Two-One-Four. I’m working on it. This is a passenger plane, not a fighter,” Marshall replied trying to buy some time.
“SAM Two-One-Four, not fast enough!” Three-Five replied as he sent a burst of tracers at the port engine of the C-32A.
“What was that?!?” Secretary Johnson practically yelled out. “Did we just get struck by lightning?”
“That wasn’t lightning! They’re shooting at us!” Axelsson hollered back over the unexpected noise in the cabin and suddenly finding McKenzie laying on the cabin floor with blood pouring from his chest and abdomen.
“Andrea, see what you can do for Mac! I’m heading up to the flight deck to see how Susan’s doing. Sergeant,” Axelsson said to the first crew member he saw as he ran up to the cockpit, “start destroying all classified material on board. Everything classified needs to be destroyed—hurry! We don’t have much time!”
“Where’s Mac?!?” Colonel Marshall immediately asked as Axelsson entered the flight deck.
“He’s dead. He was back with us when the second volley hit the cabin. How’re we doing?”
“You’re a pilot, right? I’m going to need some help here.”
“F-14s, but it’s been awhile,” Axelsson replied.
“Engine one is out—it was on fire but I think I’ve got it out,” Marshall replied. “Their first volley took out the engine and the second volley hit the cabin. Hydraulics still feel good. I can control it if nothing else breaks on this or if they don’t fire again. Can you do a quick checklist while I fly this thing?”
“Gamecock Two-Three, Two-Fourteen! We are under attack!” Marshall called out.
“SAM Two-One-Four, Two-Three what’s your status?”
“We’ve taken cannon fire to the port engine and through the rear of the cabin,” Marshall replied. “We’re single engine . . . rapid decompression, multiple casualties. We need to land!”
“SAM Two-One-Four, one minute out and firing. Fox-three, Fox-three, Fox-three, Fox-three!” Gamecock Two-Three repeatedly called out indicating he had launched four AIM-120D radar guided air-to-air missiles at the four F-16s flanking SAM Two-One-Four.
“SAM Two-One-Four, Gamecock Two-Three. What’s your status? You’re clear of the bandits.”
“Gamecock Two-Three, we need to land. We’re single engine. Engine one’s shot to hell and—Shit! It’s still on fire,” as the fire alarm went off in the cockpit.
“I got it,” Axelsson said as he hit the extinguisher.
“Hydraulics appear fine for now. The cabin’s all shot up and full of holes. We have multiple casualties including the pilot,” Marshall replied.
“Gamecock Two-Three, I don’t think we can even turn around and reach Mosul at this point. Thanks for the help but I need to get her on the ground.”
“Roger that, Two-One-Four. I’ll be with you all the way in.”
“Batman control, this is SAM Two-One-Four. What the hell was that all about? I’m single engine with a possible engine fire. I’ve got several killed and wounded on board. We need fire and medical assistance once we land.”
“SAM Two-One-Four, Batman control. We’ll have both standing by. The runway is 02/20 and is 3,048 meters, wind two one five at one seven gust two eight.”
“Understood, I have you in sight.”
Batman Air Base, Turkey
11:00 PM Local Time
“Stan, it’s Eric. We’ve just been forced down at Batman Air Base in Turkey.”
“What do you mean, ‘forced down’?” Kaufman asked hesitantly.
“Four F-16s jumped us shortly after we crossed into southeast Turkey. They ordered us to land, and we didn’t land fast enough for them. One of them raked us with cannon fire—took out an engine and riddled the cabin. We have several fatalities and several more injured. We’re destroying all of the classified material we have on board as fast as we can, though not sure if we’ll have time to get to everything or not.”
“You’re obviously okay. What about Andrea?”
“She’s fine but we both had staff that were killed and wounded. The pilot’s one of the fatalities. He was in back checking on everyone when we got hit.”
“Good Lord.”
“Yeah. I don’t have a total count just yet but we have at least seven fatalities and a dozen wounded. Have we been able to figure out what’s going on? It seems like everything’s gone to hell here in Turkey since late this afternoon. President Demirel and his cabinet have been assassinated, ISIS grabbed a plane load of our nukes and now this?”
“Eric, like you mentioned, it’s all happened in just the last few hours. We’re starting to get reports in from Izmir and a few other places that ISIS is trying to take over Turkey.”
“What?!?”
“You heard me. Reports are coming out of Izmir and Ankara that ISIS is trying to pull off a coup in Turkey. We’ve heard from the French and the Germans, both of whom have a contingent at Eskisehir Air Base, and the Turkish government has asked both of them for immediate assistance in putting down this coup. It sounds like they might be trying to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, though I haven’t heard anything formal about that as yet. It seems that most of the military, including whole air force wings in Batman, Diyarbakir, Erhac, Erkilet and Konya have sided with ISIS. They’ve made serious inroads at Merzifon and Incirlik though we’ve heard that half the pilots at Merzifon flew out and joined the government forces at Akinci air base to help secure the capital. The army’s in much the same situation as the air force. The entire second army that’s based in eastern Turkey has sided with ISIS along with the ninth corps of the third army. It seems the country is pretty much split in half geographically with the entire eastern half of the country in ISIS’s hands.”
“Do we know who’s running the government? With the bombing taking out Demirel and his entire cabinet, who’s in charge?”
“At present, and no surprise here, it’s the military. General Omer Tata has taken over in Ankara. He was in charge of Turkey’s Special Forces so if anyone can put down this coup, he should be able to do it. It’s all a highly fluid and very chaotic situation over there right now.”
“And we just landed in the middle of it.”
“I’m afraid you have. Have you had any contact with anyone on the ground there?”
“As far as I know, just the tower. Our pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Susan Marshall, contacted the tower and let them know we needed medical assistance as soon as we landed. I can see several ambulances out there now. But no, we haven’t spoken with anyone that might seem to be in charge—and from what you’re telling me, I’m not too optimistic about our prospects. Of course, getting forced down like this kind of rules out the red carpet treatment, anyway.”
“You have a tracking device on you?”
“Yeah, I’ve had it built into my Academy ring.”
“Okay, I’ll check with our tech folks and keep track of it.”
“Do that.
I don’t have a clue what to expect out of all this but I would imagine we’ll be moved—there simply isn’t much here at Batman. If this is indeed ISIS, I’d guess we’ll be moved to Raqqa and that’s something like a 250 mile drive. Track us, and I’ll do what I can to check in.”
XXVI
Tel Aviv, Israel
11:10 PM Local Time
“Just how long have you been playing?” Jackson asked Dani. They’d both been sitting at the piano bench while Dani tried to teach him the basics of playing the piano.
“It’s been a few years. My sister taught me when I was still in high school. We all knew she had incredible talent and I guess I took her talent for granted until she got into Julliard. When I finally took notice of her determination, I really started to apply myself—not just with the piano but in everything else I did as well.”
“You’ve obviously done quite well for yourself.”
“Well, it hasn’t all been easy but it has been worth it. How soon do you think it’ll take to put a raid together to recover those nukes?”
“I don’t think putting a plan together will take all that long. The bigger issue is logistics. We have a large contingent of operators already in Iraq and Syria but it’ll still take some time to get all of the additional pieces over here. Plus, if they keep the bombs in Raqqa, the nearest airport is either Deir az-Zawr or Aleppo—neither offer the best prospects. As your predecessors found out with Entebbe, it’s often more about logistics than anything else.”
“Well, I hope they get everything put together real quick. It won’t take long to reverse engineer one of those things. I’m not sure if Tamir’s learned if any North Koreans have arrived in Raqqa or not. If they have, the clock is ticking.”
“No doubt about that,” Jackson admitted as he heard his phone ringing in the kitchen. “It’s Jim,” Jackson told Dani when he reached his phone.
“Jim, wasn’t expecting to hear from you again tonight,” Jackson said as he answered the phone.
“You two still up, I take it,” Carmichael commented. “Hope you don’t plan on getting a lot of sleep any time soon.”