by Andres Mann
Setback
Jack, Tess, Carmen, and Nicola flew to Iraq, officially as instructors hired by SRD, their military company. They had a contract to train Iraqi troops on helicopters, tanks and avionics equipment built by General Morgan’s company. Their team consisted of ten experienced men, all ex-Special Forces. Every one of them was a pilot and they could handle just about every weapon made.
To avoid suspicion, all of them started to train Iraqi soldiers. After work, Jake and Tess met with Nizar Hamdani, their mole within Amir’s staff, to learn about the progress of the planned coup. Nizar was sure that Amir would make his move in one week.
Jake and Tess asked for a private meeting with selected Iraqi civilian and military leaders and presented them with the detailed plan of Amir’s takeover of the government. Surprisingly, the men were more scared than angry. Amir was a national hero and a respected general, they said. The military units under his command were much better trained than the rest of the Army. Should a violent confrontation take place, chances were that Amir’s people would prevail. One minister, Karim Qureshi, questioned the authenticity of the documents that Jake and Tess had presented. A senior general wondered aloud if it would be better to support Amir’s coup rather than oppose it. He was concerned that in spite of billions spent by the Americans, they were making little progress in building an effective Army; a strong hand might just be what the country needed.
Jake was annoyed. “Gentlemen, you had Saddam Hussein running the country with brutality and an iron hand. Do you really want a smarter replica of him in General al-Saadi?”
After a lot of discussions and hand-wringing, the men decided that it was imperative to arrest Amir and his inner circle as soon as possible. The only question was how and when. Timing was critical; they had to catch Amir and his principal officers just before the activation of his takeover. He was planning to commit treason, and there might be repercussions that would rock the still weak Iraqi government.
The devil was in the details, and Jake went through how Plan B would work. The group worked through the night. The people of SRD would prepare to fly ten helicopters at a moment’s notice because no one trusted the Iraqi fliers. Just before Amir executed his plan, his headquarters would be surrounded by tanks, armored vehicles, and troops. The key conspirators would be seized and locked up in a new secure prison that had just been completed. A panel of judges would make sure that the detentions were legal. After that, the law would run its course.
The plan hinged on Major Nizar Hamdani’s signal that the coup was about to start.
***
Amir found out that Tess and Jake were back in Iraq, and his spies told him that they the Americans were hard at work training Iraqi pilots and mechanics on the new equipment. He thought that the presence of Tess and Jake in Iraq signaled either arrogance or stupidity. Just because he had not identified them as his assailants to the authorities, it didn’t mean that he would forgive them for what they did to him. He looked in the mirror, his face healing but still ravaged. He needed all his faculties to direct the coup, so he was not using pain pills. To suppress the pain, he just had some brandy.
He thought that he had finally got over Tess. Her flying at his face with her combat boot was an image that he repeatedly saw in his dreams. Often he woke up in a sweat. He kept seeing Tess’s murderous cold eyes looking at him with contempt. She actually enjoyed ravaging his face and hurting Fadime. Plus she took back his son and tried to take Aara as well.
Amir wanted revenge. The only reason he had not released the videos of their lovemaking was to protect Fadime. She was scared to death that Tess would make good on her promise to return and crush her to a pulp. Amir was now biding his time. Sooner or later he will release the videos for the world to see, and he will have the satisfaction of destroying her reputation and her family; the shame would be too much to bear. He just needed to neutralize Tess and Jake so that they could not get back to Fadime. He planned to send his sister to disappear in Buenos Aires after she recovered from her injuries. He would have preferred a little town in the Amazon, but Fadime could not live without the conveniences of a metropolitan city: shopping, theater, restaurants and, of course, new Latin lovers. It’s the least he could do for her for trying to help him with the children.
He was not sure that Tess and Jake were in Iraq solely to train the troops. He believed that by now she would have given up her quest to take Aara from him. In his mind, retrieving her son should have been enough for her. The problem was that Tess never quit when she had an objective to pursue. Likewise, Amir was going to attempt once more to get his son away from her, fully aware that doing this now meant killing her.
In the middle of his brooding, Kemal and two other officers walked into his office. Kemal broke the news. “General, we have a traitor in our midst. He has been spying on us for months and he has passed information to the Americans about our plan.
“How do you know this?” Amir asked.
“One of the government ministers, Kasim Qureshi, disclosed that he and others have met with the Americans and were briefed on our conspiracy. He said that the government is planning to move against us.”
“Why should we trust Qureshi?”
“Because he has given us the name of the mole.”
“Interesting,” said Amir. “Tell me what you know.”
“The traitor is Major Nizar Hamdani.”
“Bring him to me.”
In less than five minutes, Amir’s men seized Nizar and brought him in front of Amir.
“Major Hamdani, I am very disappointed that apparently you have betrayed the confidence of our group of patriots. Would you care to comment?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about, General. I have worked hard with the other officers to assure the success of our operation.”
“I am sure you worked hard; unfortunately, you also passed information to the Americans who in turn alerted the government. Now it looks like they are ready to stop us. So, I just need to know who you are working for.”
“I am working for you, General. I am committed to the cause.”
“This is getting tedious,” Amir lighted a cigar. “Now, I am sure that you want to avoid discomfort, so, make things easier on yourself and tell me who the Americans that you are working for are.” To reinforce his demand, he nodded. One of the men punched Hamdani in the stomach, followed by a punch to the face.
The man doubled up in pain, and it took a few minutes for him to be able to speak. “I will tell you nothing! You enslaved and caused the death of my cousin Kejal and her family and this is my revenge!”
Amir took a puff from the cigar. “All right, now we have the motive for your treachery; you still need to tell me who are the Americans you work with.”
“I will tell you nothing!”
Amir looked annoyed. “Kemal, I don’t want any noise here. I have a headache. Please take the man away and ask him politely to reveal the names of his employers.”
“Yes, General.” Kemal and two other officers dragged the man outside. It didn’t take long to extract the information.
Kemal came back into Amir’s office. “Hamdani turned over the plans to Jake Vickers and Tess Turner.”
“Thank you, Kemal. Now leave.”
Amir put his hands together, digesting what he had learned. ‘I should have known. Tess and Vickers came back here to take me down, but they have miscalculated. There are still people in the government that crave strong leadership. Of course, the politicians’ primary interest is to safeguard themselves; it is, nevertheless a very useful legitimate selfish goal.’
He called Kemal in. “We are going to move up the schedule by one day. Also, send me the commander of my helicopter squadron; I need to talk with him.”
Chapter 67
Battle in the Sky
Jake discussed the plan for the day of the anticipated coup by Amir.
He was still under the impression that the coup would start on Friday at Midnight. At 11:30,
Tess and Carmen, in a Mangusta chopper along with eight helicopters manned by the Iraqis would take to the air, fully armed with guns and missiles. They were to hover at a distance from Amir’s headquarters to avoid suspicion and fly in as soon as his troops started to move. Once in place, they would move toward the massing soldiers and prevent them from leaving the compound. They would use force if necessary.
Jake and Nicola would operate their own Apache gunship bristling with weapons. Ten Iraqi choppers would support them. They were to fly to the staging area of Amir’s helicopter squadron. Their mission was to prevent the insurgents from taking off.
Everything seemed to be in place. Much depended on close coordination and communication, so the task force composed of a dozen helicopters flew to a remote part of the desert to rehearse their runs. The crews went through the combat protocol, taking care that their radio communications appeared routine; just a training exercise. After two hours of mock battle, they landed in turn, the chopper blades stirring sand up in the air.
Working inside a tent, Jake and the Iraqi squadron commander reviewed the exercise, corrected some flight paths on paper and held a briefing with the pilots. Tess and Carmen stayed in the air, perfecting their flying skills on the Mangusta.
In the middle of the meeting, Jake and the Iraqi fliers heard the roar of helicopters approaching. They assumed it was just a routine exercise by other Iraqi units until the aircrafts made a sudden turn toward them. Jake and the other pilots ran out of the tent, only to face a blistering volley of bullets from the attacking choppers of Amir’s squadron. The other pilots hit the dirt, but two of them were hit. The attackers now fired at the helicopters on the ground and hit three of them, which burst into flames. The attack was well coordinated, half of the attackers firing at the stationary choppers, and the rest spewing machine gun fire against the crews.
Jake realized that his group was in danger of getting annihilated. They were taken by surprise and the options to resist the attack were diminishing by the minute. If they could not get to the remaining choppers and take off to fight the enemy, they would all die.
Suddenly, Jake understood what had happened. He had not heard from Nizar Hamdani this morning. He must have been caught by Amir and his men had made him talk. The attacking helicopters kept firing. There was not much cover to hide behind and several more Iraqis were hit.
Suddenly, one of the choppers in the air blew up. Jake instantly knew that Tess and Carmen had engaged the enemy. He saw their Mangusta coming toward the other helicopters, firing all their weapons.
Tess took advantage of the surprise, flew behind two more of Amir’s choppers and Carmen raked them with her machine guns. One caught fire and fell to the ground, where it exploded. Next they fired a missile at the second helicopter and blew it up in the air. Amir’s squadron commander ordered his remaining helicopters to engage the attacker, but that was the last thing he did. Carmen fired another missile, hitting the chopper on the tail rotor. The machine fell to the ground and disintegrated on impact. The women had an uncanny mental connection between themselves, instinctively reading each other’s mind, synchronizing their actions without the need to talk.
Amir’s remaining helicopters now were in hot pursuit of Tess and Carmen. Tess wanted to help Jake and the other pilots get back into their aircraft, so she lured the attackers away from the beleaguered parked choppers by accelerating away from the area. This was a chance for Jake to run to his chopper with Nicola. They rushed to the aircraft, started the engines and took off. Once in the air, an enemy aircraft shot a missile at them. Nicola deployed his countermeasures. The hot flying decoy diverted the missile; it had missed them by a few feet.
The remaining Iraqi government pilots also managed to get back to their helicopters and lifted off to meet the enemy. The battle in the air continued. Tess and Carmen now turned into birds of prey. The attacking pilots were no match for their flying skills. Tess kept rapidly changing altitudes and maneuvering her craft in unexpected ways to confuse the enemy pilots. Working in unison with Carmen, they could have been Indians circling a caravan. Carmen’s fire was deadly. Another chopper went down.
Jake engaged a chopper as well, and Nicola fired a missile that brought it down. Then they saw that Tess and Carmen were in trouble. Two of the enemy helicopters had managed to get behind them, firing all weapons. Jake banked his chopper, turned to meet the aggressors and Nicola fired a missile. The target exploded in the air.
The remaining government choppers were now heading to engage the remaining enemy crafts. Amir’s men now recognized that the battle was lost. They turned and fled. They did not know that if they had continued to give battle, they might actually have won. The government choppers were almost out of fuel and could fly only for twenty minutes before they would have had to land.
Tess and Jake were also low on fuel and landed away from the smoking debris on the ground. Several choppers were still burning. Men had been killed or wounded, smoke and swirling sand creating a picture of hell. The two couples jumped from their aircraft and ran into each other’s arms. They had survived the encounter, but it was very close.
The Iraqi commander came over to them. “It’s obvious that General al-Saadi moved up the takeover plan. We must tell the Army what is happening.”
“I believe that the al-Saadi made Major Hamdani talk and got him to disclose what we were doing here, so he set a trap. If hadn’t been for the women taking the initiative, all of us would be toast.”
The squadron commander asked, “What now?”
Jake scratched his head. “I am sure that Amir moved up the start of the coup. We need to alert the government assets to confront his troops.”
“Our units expected to deploy on Friday; I am not sure that can be mobilized so soon.”
A junior officer ran toward them. “Colonel, we alerted Army headquarters on the radio and they dispatched aircraft to intercept the enemy helicopters. They also said that they have started to deploy troops and tanks to capture al-Saadi.”
“I guess they were better prepared than I thought,” the Colonel said. “Mr. Vickers, you and your people probably saved Iraq today.”
“I wouldn’t rest on our laurels Colonel; al-Saadi is not finished yet. We need to go after him now.”
“Government helicopters will be here shortly to pick us up.”
Chapter 68
Debacle
The Iraqi government deployed troops, security forces, and tanks into several Baghdad neighborhoods in the Green Zone, the secure area where many government buildings, the military headquarters, and the U.S. Embassy were located.
The local television stations were silent because Amir’s people had captured them and shut them down. No one knew why they were massing troops in the Iraqi capital.
Confusion reigned. A message was sent to the local Coalition command that an “ominous” development triggered by insurgents signaled a bid for power by an unnamed source. The Iraqi Prime Minister declared that he was still in power.
Amir’s men had closed some of the bridges, trying to lock down the city to prevent a further influx of additional government troops.
The U.S. embassy started to move staff away from a possible confrontation.
Some diplomats speculated that the stepped up security could also be a response to advances by militants. They thought that the massing of troops could be a show of force. The diplomats theorized that if the Iraqis are moving to protect government buildings, insurgent forces may be close to the city. No one outside of a few people knew there was a coup afoot.
The Shiite-dominated government had been under enormous international pressure to be more inclusive of the country’s minority Sunni population, who had been marginalized and cut out of the political process. American administration officials repeatedly talked about how their priority should be a political settlement that creates a more inclusive government in Iraq.
Amir now knew that the raid from his helicopter squadron to destroy government aircr
aft had failed, in part because Tess and her people had reversed the ambush, causing the loss of his choppers. He still thought that the ground troops he had dispatched toward the government buildings could succeed. He jumped on the command Humvee and sped to the front of his moving units. As he approached the government compound, he saw that it was already surrounded by tanks. “They knew were coming,” he said to Kemal. An officer put down his radio. “General, there are government troops approaching us on both flanks. We will be surrounded.”
“Order our troops to engage. We can still defeat them.” The officer looked dubious, but he relayed the order to the field commanders.
“Did we take over the TV and radio stations?”
“Yes, General. There is not a word to be heard.”
“Good, the more confusion, the better.”
Amir had enough experience to recognize that he had lost. More and more Iraqi troops were moving in to protect government buildings. Amir had assigned people to close access to the bridges, but they could not continue to deny access to government forces. This action merely delayed the influx of tanks and troops in the critical areas. There was only one thing to do for him: escape. He gave orders that his troops were to fight the government units with vigor and announced he was going to go to direct the battle on his right flank. He jumped on the Humvee and headed out.
Amir and Kemal raced the Humvee to the airport and headed toward his private plane on the tarmac. Airport security had not been deployed; they had not received any orders and confusion ruled the day. The men ran up the boarding stairs of the Falcon Jet, closed the door and got into the cockpit. Amir started the jet engines, rolled the plane onto the runway and positioned himself to take off. The controllers in the tower radioed that he could not leave because he had not filed a manifest and a flight plan. Amir ignored them, moved the thrust levers forward and soon was in the air, achieving the maximum rated speed of the aircraft. He did not want to run into military planes. He was counting on the confusion of the conflict over Baghdad to distract the air forces.