by Brad Carlson
“Why, what’s up?” Dani asked as Jackson had the phone on speaker, her attention clearly piqued.
“I just got off the phone with General Kaufman. The plane carrying Secretaries Johnson and Axelsson has been forced down at Batman air base in southeastern Turkey.”
“What?!?” Dani blurted out.
“That’s right. I don’t know if you’ve been following any of the developments out of Turkey but ISIS is in the middle of staging a coup right now. They currently control all of eastern Turkey and much of the south central part of the country. I don’t need to tell you about their influence at Incirlik.”
“Is everyone okay?” Jackson asked.
“No, they got jumped by four F-16s and one of them sent a stream of 20mm rounds through the rear of the fuselage. Kaufman didn’t have an exact figure but Eric told him they had at least seven fatalities and another dozen injured.”
“Jim?” Dani interrupted somewhat reluctantly. “Do you know what ISIS might have for engineers or nuclear scientists? We were just talking about how long it would take to reverse engineer one of the bombs. If they’ve got anyone familiar with nuclear engineering, they’ll be able to reverse engineer them relatively quickly. Now that they have some Vipers, we’re dealing with a perfect storm. Your F-16s can already field the B-61. It won’t take them long to not only have a fully functioning nuclear bomb, but they’ll also have a very capable means of delivering it. We’ve got a problem,” Dani added, looking at Stonewall as an ice cold chill swept over both of them.
“The North Koreans are the obvious suspects and no, we haven’t seen or heard of any of them in the area. I’ve already got the staff double checking this.”
“Okay, good to know,” Dani continued, “but don’t just ‘double check’ this. Jim, even Yasser Arafat was an engineer. They’ll need a good one for this, and they’re out there. Also, have you thought about AQ Khan or one of his cronies. They wouldn’t stand out like a North Korean would. I’d be willing to bet they’ve brought someone in who knows nukes. Jim, think about it,” Dani continued, “so far, ISIS has had this thing—whatever this ‘thing’ is—organized like a blitzkrieg. They’ve taken out Turkey’s air force leadership, their government—hell practically the entire country—they’ve grabbed a planeload of nukes from you and now they’ve taken two of your Secretaries—all in a matter of days. These guys are way more organized than anyone has given them credit for. You need to convince your president that he needs to take the gloves off and start taking the initiative.”
“What about the Secretaries?” Carmichael replied.
“What about them?” Dani coldly replied.
“Jim, the Secretaries obviously complicate things but I think the primary focus has to be on those nukes. I know all of them have a PAL but I’m not willing to bet that those things are fool proof.”
“Agreed, for right now, those bombs remain our sole focus. At this point, we have no idea what kind of reception Axelsson and Johnson will receive. Personally, I think we need to treat them as captives but we haven’t heard any official word from either Turkey or ISIS as to their disposition. However, I’m sure we won’t have to wait long for that.”
“I’m sure you’re right about that,” Jackson acknowledged. “Once it’s confirmed that both of them were on that plane, ISIS won’t hesitate to claim that they have captured them.”
“Jim, does Tamir know about this?” Dani asked.
“No, I don’t believe so.”
“Okay, I’ll give him a call right away.”
“Stonewall, I’ll be in touch. Check with Tamir to see if they have any plans on the books for raiding Raqqa. I don’t know if that’s where everyone and everything will end up but it wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Will do, Jim.”
“Tamir, Jim Carmichael just called. The US Secretaries of State and Defense’s plane was just forced down in eastern Turkey. Jim claimed that four Vipers jumped them and shot up their plane. They landed at Batman air base but Jim didn’t know too much more than that, other than they had several fatalities and several more injured.”
“That confirms, it then,” Tamir replied. “We’d heard that ISIS was staging a coup in Turkey tonight but didn’t know the extent of it. If Eric’s plane is on the ground in Batman, that confirms our worst fears.”
“Tamir, Stonewall. Jim wanted to know if you have any plans on the books for raiding Raqqa. I didn’t know if you would or not.”
“Nothing like we had for your last operation in Tehran, I’m afraid. I’m sure you know Colonel Elliott Morrison, your military attaché here in Tel Aviv. Let’s get together in the morning, say seven o’clock? We’ll need to coordinate everything as we’re putting a raid together to rescue our pilots and I know you’ll be putting one together as well, unless President Barre wants to nuke Raqqa, which would be about the only way to ensure all of your nukes were destroyed.”
“Seven AM works. We’ll see you then.”
Batman Air Base, Turkey
11:30 PM Local Time
“Colonel Marshall, I understand you are the pilot. Is that correct? I’m Major Emin Cantor.”
“Major, I’m the co-pilot, however, since our pilot was killed . . . yes, I’m the pilot,” Marshall replied. The fire in her eyes clearly betrayed her sense of decorum.
“I am sorry about that, Colonel. I understand you have some others that need medical attention.”
“Yes, we do, though I would like to know what took so long. We’ve been parked here for the last half an hour and no one came out to help us. I’m afraid our most serious cases no longer need attention,” Marshall continued, her hostility barely contained. “We now have nine fatalities and ten injured. We have a couple paramedics on board and they have done what they can. At this point, I don’t believe anyone will need to be hospitalized though I would like your medical staff to look them over.”
“Of course, Colonel, and I apologize for the delay. It would most likely be the quickest if you would direct your injured to the ambulances as they deplane, unless some of the injured need a stretcher.”
“No stretchers are needed. I’ll have everyone begin exiting, starting with the wounded.”
“Very well then, once your wounded have been attended to, we’d like to ask the rest of your passengers and crew to get on the buses we have provided for you. Again, I’m sorry for the delay in getting these for you.”
“Major, just where are you taking us and who do you represent?” Marshall asked.
“Al-Dawla”—Daesh—“and we’ll be taking you to al-Raqqa.”
“Major, I must insist on accommodations here in Batman and then allow us to arrange for another plane to come and pick us up.”
“Colonel, I don’t think you understand. You, Secretary of State Andrea Johnson, Secretary of Defense Eric Axelsson and the rest of your party are now guests of Imam Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He anxiously awaits your arrival in al-Raqqa in the morning.”
The White House Situation Room,
4:30 PM Local Time
“Talk to me. What do we know?” President Barre stated as he walked into the Situation Room of the White House.
“Mr. President, there is still a lot we do not know, but we have learned a few things,” DNI Felix Jones began. “To begin with, ISIS has captured both Andrea and Eric. We don’t know their exact location but we have been advised that Eric has a GPS device on him. We had forty-five personnel on board and a crew of sixteen for a total of sixty-one personnel. I know we’ve had a few fatalities but we haven’t confirmed just how many. The last location we had for them was outside the small town of Bismil, Turkey—it’s about fifty miles west of Batman in southeastern Turkey.”
“The B-61s have been located in Raqqa, Mr. President,” General Kaufman continued. “It seems that ISIS has made a rudimentary attempt at building a landing strip in Raqqa fairly close to the Old Mosque, which has pretty much served as the capitol building for ISIS. We believe that the B-61s are stored in a warehouse just to
the southeast of this landing strip, roughly a mile away from the Al-Qadim mosque. We also believe that Andrea and Eric, and the rest of their contingent, will be housed in the same mosque where the four Israeli pilots are already.”
“Stan, how certain are we of all this?” President Barre asked.
“As to the location of the bombs, near one hundred percent. Regarding all of the personnel, not as high, though still a very high degree. This is where the Jordanian pilot was housed before his execution, as were a few other notable hostages they’ve held. Plus, this is where al-Baghdadi holds court. We’re reasonably certain he’ll want the hostages close to him—I’m sure he’s thinking that proximity to the hostages will keep us from bombing him—which he’s right about that, anyway. This place is heavily guarded, for obvious reasons. Plus, there’s what amounts to a full brigade garrisoned in different sections on the eastern part of the city. Actually, it’s relatively close to this landing strip they’ve constructed.”
“Do we know what they have for anti-aircraft fire?” Tom Fleming asked.
“At this point, they have whatever the Turks had. Prior to that, I don’t believe they had much in the way of anything. Now, it’s a whole new ball game, as they say,” Carmichael replied.
“Very well. General, do we have any plans that would give us a reasonable chance at recovering all concerned?”
“We do, but remember, there’s a few things to consider here: We need to remove the threat posed by the ‘former’ Turkish military—especially their air force. We need to deal with ISIS’s immediate force in Raqqa—which is probably a significant force in its own right, as Jim just alluded to, along with the prospective AA fire. Then, we need to recover both the hostages and the B-61s. This isn’t going to be a simple operation. To do this, we’ll need a lot more in the way of transportation out of Raqqa than what we bring in. Relying solely on the one landing strip that they have built could be problematic—getting a C-130 in there, or several for that matter, does not appear to be a problem. However, if something happens to any one of them, it could shut down that makeshift runway for everyone else trying to get out of there.”
“Right now,” Kaufman continued, “we are looking more at the logistics of this than any operational plans. We have plans in the works and General Logan at JSOC is working on them as we speak. As discussed earlier, we’ve notified the Lincoln and her Strike Group to turn around and proceed at best possible speed for the eastern Med. Her Group consists of the cruiser USS Shiloh, six different destroyers and the submarine USS Michigan—that’s a hell of a punch right there—the Michigan alone carries over 150 Tomahawks. This doesn’t count the Bush Strike Group that’s replacing the Lincoln. I’ve put the 7th Bomb Wing out of Dyess and the 28th out of Ellsworth on alert. They’ve already got twenty Bones on the move: A dozen from the 9th will arrive at Lakenheath in England and eight more from the 37th Bomb squadron will land at Spangdahlem in Germany and, like I said, these are already in the air. We’re bringing in two more squadrons of F-22s and the second F-15E squadron from Lakenheath. These will be at either Al-Asad or at a base in Jordan. Ramstein has the C-130s we need and these are already on the move to Akrotiri in Cyprus. The C-130 doesn’t have the legs that the rest of the aircraft have and I want these close by. The Brits have already approved this. As for the Army, the 2nd Ranger battalion at Fort Lewis has been alerted and they’ll be airborne in a few hours. I won’t bore you with all of the details sir, but it’s a significant logistical operation when you consider all of the support craft we’ll need to get in place as well. We’ve alerted a couple additional SEAL Teams as well. Bottom line: By this time tomorrow we’ll have enough firepower to more than eliminate the threat that ISIS poses with their Turk reinforcements. In thirty-six hours, we’ll have more than enough to support an on-going operation for several days.”
“So, is the thirty-six hour number your desired schedule, General?” Tom Fleming, the chief of staff asked.
“Tom, we’ll go with what we have when the order is given. Right now, as I mentioned this morning, we have the operators over there for just the type of rescue mission called for in this instance. However, we really need to eliminate the threat posed by the Turk reinforcements and by this time tomorrow, we’ll be in good shape. Plus, we haven’t even considered the Israelis yet. I’m pretty sure we can count them in on this and I don’t think there’ll be too much in the way of push-back on the international scene.”
“On that note, General, are any of the commandos likely to be in on the recovery of the B-61s at all familiar with the weapon?” Jim Carmichael asked.
“No, I don’t believe they are. The Special Forces teams each have at least two engineer sergeants but I don’t believe any of them have any training or knowledge of the B-61.”
“So, if we find that any of these weapons have been tampered with, we’re kind of out of luck as to the significance of this when the troops are on the ground? Just how dangerous could this be?” Fleming followed up.
“It really all depends. Right now, the intel we have indicates that ISIS has not brought in anyone familiar with nuclear technology so we aren’t too concerned about that. We’re actually thinking that ISIS is more inclined to sell these to the highest bidder as another source of revenue rather than try and use them.”
“General, Tamir Pardo is a friend of mine. One of the members of his Unit has a doctorate in nuclear physics or engineering—one of the two, I forget which—out of Texas A & M. She’s going to be in on this raid as it is. Can we get the schematics of the B-61 to her so if our intel is wrong and someone’s been tampering with this, she’ll be able to assess the situation on the spot?”
“Absolutely not. The B-61 is highly classified. There’s no way we’ll release this to anyone. If word leaks out that we’ve allowed the Israelis access to our nuclear technology, there’ll be hell to pay in the Arab world,” Kaufman replied.
“Mr. President, I understand the gravity of the situation in the Middle East if word leaked out about that,” Carmichael continued. “However, we have several of these in storage at Aviano. What if we brought Lieutenant Colonel Yaniv in to help with their routine maintenance? This would give her critical hands on knowledge of the device rather than providing any real blueprints of the bomb. She could get there tomorrow morning and begin working on these right away. Obviously, she wouldn’t be allowed to take any notes or anything of the sort out with her.”
“Mr. President, I cannot allow that. This would be a huge security risk.”
“General, as Jim just mentioned, we already allowed the colonel to get her doctorate in nuclear physics at A & M,” Vice President Donner added. “Plus, Israel already has their own nukes. Due to the gravity of the situation, I think we should allow it.”
“I agree with De,” President Barre stated. “Let General Logan know as well as base personnel at Aviano that they can expect her sometime tomorrow.”
“I’ll take care of it. However, Mr. President, I’d like to add one caveat to this: this colonel needs to be accompanied by an American military officer at all times. No exceptions.”
“Mr. President, that will work,” Carmichael added. “I already have someone over there as a liaison that can do the job.”
“Excellent. How soon will General Logan have his plans finalized?” President Barre asked.
“I’ve scheduled a run-through first thing in the morning.”
“Excellent, the Israelis are actually meeting with Colonel Morrison first thing in the morning in Tel Aviv to go over all of this as well,” Carmichael added. “That’s just over seven hours from now. Will Logan be joining that meeting by teleconference?”
“Yes, I believe he will. I’ll have him advise General Pardo that Lieutenant Colonel Yaniv can proceed to Aviano. Right now, I expect that the actual raid in Raqqa will resemble the Entebbe raid in some respects. The Israelis had to rescue just over 100 hostages. We’ll have just over half that many hostages but we also have 34 B-61s to recover. This oper
ation will be one for the ages, Mr. President.”
“Well, I just hope they keep all of the hostages together as you suspect they will,” President Barre added.
“Well, sir, from a logistical point of view, it will make things a whole lot easier if they do.”
XXVII
Saturday, September 15th
Tel Aviv, Israel
5:30 AM Local Time
“What time are we meeting with Tamir?” Jackson asked Dani as she emerged from the bedroom. “I take it that this is considered an office day,” Jackson followed up, noticing Dani’s very stylish navy Brooks Brothers suit. The ivory blouse she wore underneath perfectly complemented the outfit while her darker complexion and long raven hair negated any need for accessorizing, though she wore her silver and gold Lion of Judah Mezuzah necklace.
“Yes it is. We need to hurry up,” Dani replied. “We’re meeting Tamir in half an hour.”
“I thought we weren’t meeting him until seven.”
“He’s meeting with Colonel Morrison and the rest of the General Staff at seven. We’ll be meeting with Tamir an hour ahead of that. That’s our usual practice.”
“So, I’m now considered a part of Mossad since I get to attend the meeting before the meeting?”
“Well, probably not formally,” Dani replied rather sheepishly, giving him a quick kiss as she passed him in the kitchen. “Hurry up and get ready—or you never will be.”
“Roger that.”
“Stonewall, I see Arielle’s rubbing off on you,” Tamir said as Jackson walked into the Mossad director’s office wearing a Brooks Brothers 1818 suit.
“You like it, Tamir? I think he looks incredible in it,” Dani commented right away with a huge grin on her face.
“I’ve left all of my suits back home and Dani wanted me in something ‘more appropriate’ than the sport coats I have so she took me out last week,” Jackson added.
“It fits you well, Stonewall,” Tamir added. “Ah, here comes the rest of the crew.”