The ISIS Gambit

by Brad Carlson

  “Okay, let’s put this guy with his friend,” Jackson whispered to Arielle, as they each grabbed the guard and carried him into the same dumpster.

  “Two down, one to go,” Chaos called to Falcon. “Keep an eye on that last guy. Arielle’s going to take a closer look around while I check in with Archangel.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Archangel, Chaos.”

  “Chaos, Archangel. Go ahead.”

  “Archangel, we have twenty-six bombs. Our contact has advised that he saw two trucks leave this warehouse late yesterday afternoon escorted by a few Humvees. It looks like they’ve started to move these.”

  “Chaos, any idea where they took them?”

  “Possibly. From what we can tell so far, it looks like they know how to arm these things. They’ve been working on the pre-flight arming controls in the rear-subassembly of the bombs. I guess this is something they’d need to do if they want to deploy them with Turkey’s F-16s. With this in mind, it kind of limits where they’d be taking them.”

  “That it does. Anything else?”

  We’re going to need to advance the schedule a bit. We haven’t been discovered but it’s only a matter of time before they realize we’ve been here. We had to kill two of the guards in the warehouse here. I would expect the morning crew will be here in a few hours and then word will get out pretty quick. They won’t be able to move these things right away—these things are over 800 pounds and twelve feet long so they’ll need to bring in some more trucks. They have a few trucks in the yard but not enough to move all of them.”

  “Understood Chaos. Be advised, kickoff is scheduled for six o’clock, your time. That’s just over twelve hours from now. Is that going to work?”

  “Yeah, that’ll work fine. Chaos out.”

  “Okay, Archangel knows the situation here,” Jackson whispered over the radio to Arielle and Falcon. “Kickoff is scheduled for six this evening. What’s the situation with the last guard?”

  “He’s still in the office, totally oblivious to everything.”

  “Falcon, is there any way we can get the bodies of these two guards out of here without him noticing us?”

  “I think we can do that. Once we get past the doorway to the office, we should be fine.”

  “Good idea,” Arielle chimed in, catching on. “I’ll wipe up everything so there’s no sign we killed these two. Once the front guard notices his friends are missing, he’ll start looking around. We haven’t touched anything so nothing will be missing—nothing like sowing a little confusion in the ranks. This should definitely buy us some time.”

  “We need to hurry before the sun comes up,” Falcon added.

  XXXIV

  Al Udeid Air Force Base, UAE

  7:00 AM Local Time

  “Carmichael.” Jim said into his phone.

  “Jim, we’ve got confirmation that ISIS has started to move the nukes,” Admiral Jack ‘Archangel’ Fisher advised. “I just spoke with Chaos. He advises that they’ve found twenty-six of the bombs. About half a dozen of them are in some state of disassembly. From the way Chaos put it, they’re working on the pre-flight arming controls—which really only has one conclusion. Their contact witnessed two trucks leave with a Humvee escort. Destination unknown, but headed north.”

  “That settles it then. We need to go tonight. If they’ve figured out how to arm these things—and they’ve started moving them—we need to go tonight.”

  “Agreed, I’ll let everyone know over here.”

  The Odessa Hotel, Raqqa, Syria

  8:00 AM Local Time

  “General, what’s the news out of Turkey this morning?” Baghdadi asked Shishani.

  “Imam, things are going well. We hold everything in eastern Turkey and are making inroads on both Konya and Merzifon air bases. I expect we’ll have overrun both of these, possibly by this evening.”

  “Excellent. Abdul, what are your plans for the Israeli pilots?” Baghdadi asked Shishani’s chief of staff.

  “We’ll be holding a public trial for each of them followed by their immolation shortly thereafter. However, I’m still not exactly sure when we’ll conduct the trials. I want to wait and see how the Mahdi operation unfolds before we begin those. Once that has played itself out, we’ll get the trials started. That might be more towards the end of the week, or even into next week, depending on how things go.”

  “I have to agree with Abdul, Imam,” General Shishani added. “We’ll know more from Kayani this afternoon. If everything goes as expected, we should be able to launch the operation anytime once he’s completed the work on the F-16s. If we hold the trials at the same time as the nuclear attacks, we gain nothing.”

  “You’re really going to do this?” Secretary Johnson interrupted.

  “Madam Secretary, nice to . . . see you,” General Van exclaimed, noting a look of utter contempt on the Secretary’s face. “Of course we are. Why would we go to all of this trouble if we didn’t intend to use them.”

  “You’ll never get away with this,” Johnson replied.

  “Madam Secretary, who is going to stop us?”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that, General,” Baghdadi added, turning to General Van, his new air chief. “I know we originally thought to initiate Mahdi Monday morning. However, Dr. Kayani indicated he thought he’d be done with the first planes this afternoon. Is there any reason we couldn’t launch right after he’s done?”

  “No, there really isn’t,” General Van replied. The former Incirlik commander continued, “the pilots are ready and the targets have been chosen. All we’re really waiting on is Dr. Kayani.”

  “Very good. Ahmet, I want you to leave for Batman right away. I want you to launch Mahdi as soon as Dr. Kayani has completed his work on the first of the fighters up there. He’s indicated that he believes he’ll be done by early to mid-afternoon so he should be just about done by the time you arrive.”

  “Excellent, I shall leave at once.”

  “Imam, there is one other thing regarding the nuclear bombs.”

  “What is that, Abdul?” General Shishani asked.

  “It seems that two of the guards in the warehouse have gone missing. We can’t find them anywhere.”

  “What? How are we missing two guards? We had the place surrounded with guards on the outside and three more inside.”

  “Yes, we did, sir. Nothing is missing concerning the bombs, including the ones that were partially disassembled, but two of the guards are gone. There’s no sign as to what might have happened to them, either. We’ve thoroughly questioned the one remaining guard inside and he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until it was time to change the guards about an hour ago.”

  “Keep looking for them, Abdul. We need to find them.”

  “Sir, we haven’t stopped looking for them since we discovered this. We’ll find them.”

  “Like Mohammed said, Abdul, keep looking until you find them,” Baghdadi added. “Also, we need to alert Doctor Kayani. I want him down here as soon as possible. If he can find someone to fly him here, so much the better.”

  “I shall let him know,” Shishani replied. “I would think we could get him here mid-afternoon.”

  “Very good. Let me know when he arrives, Mohammed. Also, Abdul, I want you to release another video today. I want to show the world our two guests here ‘inspecting’ our nuclear arsenal, to lend credence to the validity of everything.”

  “Excellent idea, Imam, I’ll set it up for just after lunch. That’ll give me some time to get everything compiled and still get it out in time so most of America can see this first thing in the morning.”

  “Wonderful, Abdul, see to it. Don’t you think so, Madam Secretary?”

  “You have no idea,” Johnson replied.

  “Andrea, did you hear that?” Colonel Marshall whispered to Secretary Johnson after Abdul and Shishani had left.

  “What, the video? You realize we’re going to be put on display once again, don’t you?”r />
  “That’s a given. No, the two missing guards.”

  “What about them? Not sure I’m following you. I’m sure these two guys aren’t the first to leave their post after they’ve found out just how harsh everything is here.”

  “Right, but they’re only going to put their most trustworthy guards with those bombs. I’m pretty sure something else is going on. I’d be willing to bet that the bodies of those guards will show up somewhere.”

  “You really think so?” Andrea asked.

  “I do, and both Baghdadi and Shishani do as well. I can see the fear in their eyes. I think it’s just dawning on them that they bit off more than they can chew.”

  Batman Air Force Base, Turkey

  12:30 PM Local Time

  “General Van, how was the drive up?” Doctor Kayani as ISIS’s air force chief.

  “Hot. One of the nice things about September is that cooler temperatures are right around the corner. I am tired of this hot muggy weather. How are things coming with the conversion of these fighters?”

  “Very good, General, I should be done with all eight of them very soon. I only have two left so I should be done around three o’clock, or so.”

  “Excellent. We have moved up our timetable. We will be launching the Mahdi flight later this afternoon or early evening. As long as you’ve completed the conversion, there is no sense in waiting until morning.”

  “No, there isn’t. I’d let your pilots know that they should be able to launch any time after, oh, let’s call it four-thirty. By the time I’m done and all of the aircraft are fully fueled and loaded up, it might even be five o’clock.”

  “That is very good news. As soon as you have completed the last of the conversions, the Imam would like you to leave for Raqqa immediately. I’ve checked around here and we have a plane available. Baghdadi would like you to fly back right away.”

  “Yes, that will work. I have nothing to bring back with me that will not fit in the plane. At that rate, we should be able to make it back there well before dark—and well before the attack is launched. Why the urgency?”

  “It seems two of the guards we had in the warehouse have disappeared. Baghdadi wants you to look around and make sure nothing else is missing.”

  “How do two guards just disappear?”

  “That is an excellent question, Doctor.”

  The Odessa Hotel, Raqqa

  1:00 PM Local Time

  “Abdul, are you sure you’ll still have time to get this out for a morning release in the United States?” Shishani asked his chief of staff.

  “Absolutely, it’s only six in the morning on the east coast, and it’s a Sunday. Once we’re done here—and that shouldn’t take too long—it won’t take very long to get this to Al Jazeera and other outlets. A nine AM release on the US east coast is quite manageable.”

  “Excellent,” Baghdadi replied.

  “Ladies, here are your burkas,” Shishani said as he handed one to each.

  “I’m fine with my sandals,” Marshall replied.

  “I’m with her,” Secretary Johnson agreed.

  “Very well, if you wish to play Lady Godiva, I have no problem with that.”

  Arielle-Stonewall Hidesite

  1:05 PM Local Time

  “What do we have here?” Falcon said to Stonewall and Arielle as he noticed a small motorcade approach the weapons depot.

  “Looks like we might have a regular VIP here,” Jackson added.

  “Stonewall, I’m going to kill that bastard!” Arielle said with a start as she saw the two women emerge from the Humvee and head to the warehouse.

  “Hold on,” Stonewall quietly ordered as he gently put his arm out and lowered her rifle. “We’ll get them—and him—now’s just not the time. We’re not ready yet. This has to be another PR stunt. Falcon, let your team know to be ready to move out when they leave. I don’t see them staying here for long,” Jackson ordered.

  ISIS’s Weapons Depot

  1:05 PM Local Time

  “Madam Secretary, I’m not sure that you’ve ever had the opportunity to see one of these up close and personal,” General Shishani said to Secretary Johnson as he gave the secretary a tour of the depot. Most of the bombs remained on their respective bomb carts with two bombs per cart, stacked vertically not unlike the way wine barrels are stacked. “It’s amazing something so incredibly powerful is relatively small. It is quite long but it’s less than half a meter in diameter.”

  “No, I have not, and I’ve never really cared to, Mr. Shishani,” Johnson replied.

  “I’ll overlook that, Madam Secretary. Abdul, let’s get some pictures of the Secretary and Colonel Marshall sitting on the front of a couple of these weapons with the Imam in between them.”

  “Of course. Ladies, if you’ll oblige?”

  “Like hell,” Marshall replied. “I’m not going to help you make a propaganda video.”

  “Colonel, need I remind you that we have several of your colleagues as well. If you do not do as you’re told, I’ll bring some of them over and begin their executions right here. I’ll begin with Secretary Axelsson. Your choice.”

  “You bastard!”

  “Colonel, they have enough footage of us as it is,” Secretary Johnson said to Marshall. “This won’t make a damn bit of difference. Let’s go ahead and get this over with,” she continued as both women began to climb atop separate carts.

  “I feel like I’m posing for the nose art on a World War II bomber,” Marshall lamented, as Abdul Khouri and one of his minions took seemingly non-stop videos of the naked women sitting atop the nuclear bombs.

  “Very good, now that wasn’t so difficult, was it?” Shishani replied. “Abdul, did you get everything you need?”

  “I did, General. It shouldn’t take very long at all to compile this and upload it to Al-Jazeera.”

  “Excellent. Ladies, you cannot imagine the impact this will have for us.”

  “Oh, I think I can,” Marshall replied. “I think you’re the ones who don’t fully understand the impact this will have.”

  Arielle-Stonewall Hidesite

  1:20 PM Local Time

  “Okay, here they come. Falcon, are your boys ready?” Stonewall asked.

  “All set, we’ve got this, Colonel,” Falcon replied.

  “Falcon, you cannot lose them,” Arielle said with a fire in her eyes Falcon had never seen before.

  “Arielle, we’ve done this before. We know what we’re doing. Now that we have them, I can assure you, we will not lose them.”

  XXXV

  The White House Situation Room

  6:30 AM Local Time

  “General Logan, thanks for coming up here this morning. I really appreciate it,” President Donner said as she greeted JSOC’s commanding officer.

  “Not a problem, ma’am,” Logan replied. “I grabbed a quick flight to Andrews early this morning. At this time of morning, traffic isn’t too bad just yet, even for this town.”

  “Well, good luck getting out of here. That might not be so easy,” Donner replied. “So, where are we at with everything?”

  “Madam President, we’re ready to roll. We have confirmation of the location of the nuclear weapons—twenty-six of them, anyway. We received confirmation a little more than seven hours ago that eight of them have been moved. Destination, unknown, though reports indicate they were heading north out of Raqqa. The GPS chips in them have been removed and we still do not know where the bombs are located. They’ve had approximately twelve hours since our Keyhole satellite picked up the trucks at the warehouse—that represents a pretty big radius as to where they could have moved them.”

  “Yes, it does. Likely spots? Likely targets?”

  “It’s hard to tell, Madam President,” Jim Carmichael replied. “However, we’re assuming they are fully functional at this point. Colonel Jackson and his Israeli nuclear engineer discovered that they—ISIS—figured out how to arm these things and that they were working on the pre-flight arming controls. Since
the last information we had is that the small ISIS convoy was headed north out of Raqqa, Diyarbakir and Batman air force bases are the two most likely launching spots. However, if they simply plan to put them in a truck and say, drive one to the Israeli border, they could certainly do that but then why head north out of Raqqa? That doesn’t make a lot of sense. However, if they are ultimately heading for the Israeli border, I can’t see them getting through but they could certainly get to it. Other easy truck-borne targets would include Damascus, Ankara, and Istanbul as they wouldn’t need to cross an international border for these cities. Airborne attacks could be a little trickier: Turkey’s F-16s are not nuclear capable as we delivered them. However, since they were working on the pre-flight arming controls, it would seem they’ve figured this out. If that’s what we are looking at, we need to get word out to all of our allies to shoot down any Turkish F-16s seeking asylum with them. If we’re looking at something like this, an F-16 with drop tanks could reach much of Europe.”

  “Okay, Jim, let General Pardo know that they might want to check every truck coming out of Lebanon and Syria for a potential nuke.”

  “Stan, get the word out as Jim suggested,” President Donner ordered. “But, we also need to notify the Turkish government that any of their fighters cannot leave their own airspace without the possibility of being shot down. Are we ready to go with everything else?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Logan replied. “All we need is your authorization. All crews and teams are making their final preparations as we speak.”

  “General Logan, the word is given.”

  “Very well, ma’am. Kickoff is set for approximately four hours from now.”

  Arielle – Chaos Hide-site, Raqqa, Syria

  1:50 PM Local Time

  “How do you want to play this, Chaos?” Falcon asked. “This is a little more complicated than what we’ve done in the past. It’s confirmed—we have three targets. Baghdadi is at the Odessa with both women.”

  “Okay, at least we know where everyone’s at,” Stonewall replied. “But you’re right, everything we’ve done before has been simply a single target, even though we’ve rescued dozens of ISIS prisoners, they were always held in the same location.”