The Gambit

XXI

“Captain,” Sergeant Abedini called to Sassani, waking him out of a sound slumber. “The guards are reporting low flying aircraft. They’ve heard what they think are three different planes in the area; one pretty close to us.”

“What?!? Did they see anything at all? Any paratroops? Have they heard anything?”

“Nothing else, sir, just the sound of the air planes.”

“Where’s Lieutenant Darvish? I need to see him right away.”

“Right here, Captain. Sir, something’s going on. I’ve been here for a few years now and have never even seen a plane fly anywhere near the ranch — and now, three of them at one o’clock in the morning; something’s going on.”

“Lieutenant, let’s not take any chances. Get everybody up; we’re evacuating within the hour — all three sites. Make sure that all computers and laptops are destroyed. Squad and platoon leaders are the only ones who should have a cell phone; destroy all the others. As we leave, set the charges for every building — I don’t want a single thing left for the Americans to find.”

“Yes, sir. I’ve already alerted the men, here and at the other two sites. They’ve already started the process; we can be ready to leave in ten minutes.”

“Very good. Split your men in half; I’ll take half of them with me to the Princeton ranch right away. Let the others know we’re evacuating immediately and then take everyone else to the Fields ranch once you have finished the destruction.”

“Captain, I think they are on to us,” Lieutenant Murphy called to Fairchild. “There’s a lot of activity for one o’clock in the morning.”

“Same here,” added Fivecoat.

“Okay, are all blocking positions set up?” Fairchild asked.

“All set,” replied Lieutenant Jones. “We’re good to go; nothing’s getting passed us!”

“Captain,” Fivecoat suddenly broadcast, “they are definitely aware of us. I’ve got two large building fires at my location. We’re moving in.”

“All units, attack — fire at will! The Apaches are going to be a little late to the party; road blocks, get ready for a mass exodus — they’re going to be coming fast and hard.”

“Cap’n, they’re already hitting us — I’ve got two men down,” replied Murphy. “How soon before the Apaches get here?”

“Half an hour out — we’re way ahead of schedule. I’ll send a squad over to you; five minutes.”

“Roger that.”

“Lieutenant,” Captain Sassani radioed Darvish, who acted as the rear-guard, “we’re a little late. They have roadblocks set up; we’re going to have to fight our way out.”

“They’re starting to press in on us, sir; we’re way out-numbered and out-gunned here. I’ll break loose as many men as I can but we’re not all going to make it out. Good luck, Captain!”

“I think we’ll out-number them at the roadblock so some of us should get out. Good luck, Lieutenant.”

“Cap’n, we’ve got more vehicles headed our way,” Murphy calmly radioed Fairchild.

“No one gets through, Murph. No one.”

“Roger that, sir. They’ve concentrated their forces….”

“Murph! Murphy! Murphy, are you there?” Fairchild yelled into his radio.

“Ahh,… Sorry about that, sir. Three additional vehicles just came around a berm in the driveway and we traded fire: they hit us with machine gun fire; we hit them with three Javelins — I took a round in the shoulder and dropped the radio. Looks like everything is secure here. No additional activity.”

“Jones?”

“We’re good, sir. Still exchanging fire but we’ve got ‘em. I don’t think we’ll be able to take any of them alive.”

“Fivecoat?”

“Mission accomplished; we have the building site — no casualties, no prisoners either. We got here before all of their charges could be detonated. We found a couple laptops and cell phones they destroyed; I’m no techie but I think we might be able to salvage something from the hard drives on these things. We’re rummaging through the place now.”

“Okay, nice work guys; I’ll let the colonel know we have the ranch, though no joy on any prisoners.”

“Jim,” Stonewall said into his cell phone, “we’re on our way back to Marathon. Dani and I’ve been talking about a few things. For starters, you can expect delivery of our little package at Tipton Airfield, right across the highway from Fort Meade. The pilot, Major Lori Washington, is from the Baltimore area and knew of Tipton. She suggested landing there and simply having someone drive across the highway to meet her. Figured this would be the quickest way so I told her to plan on this. Next, Dani & I’ve been thinking about this next attack. We both think we’re up against another 9/11 type of attack, with these guys taking some more planes and flying them into some of the nuclear reactors along the Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Boston. We obviously don’t know which ones but we believe this to be the most likely scenario. Neither of us at the CIA or Mossad believe the Iranians have a biological or chemical weapons program and neither of us have heard of them acquiring any of Saddam’s or even Assad’s weapons so we’re thinking an air attack is the most likely scenario. Plus, the Israelis just took out their nuclear program; I can certainly see them going after ours in a big way. Looking at where our nuclear power plants are located, I’d suggest putting up an actual CAP (combat air patrol) over the eastern seaboard from Virginia to Boston; I’d have another up over the Chicago area and then a third over the Carolinas. The last two are just for good measure; we really think the Mid-Atlantic region from DC up to Boston should be the main focus.”

“Okay, I’ll be talking to Bob Harmon at homeland and let him know of this and to the FAA as well; they’re going to have the lead on anything regarding air traffic. How sure of this are you two?”

“Sure of this? Not a bit, but we’ve discussed this quite extensively. As far as we are concerned it’s the most plausible scenario. Plus, an attack from the air like this has been done before; I’d be willing to bet they’ll try it again but with some variations. I wouldn’t expect a hijacking like Al Qaeda did but I would expect them to grab some planes that might be sitting over night or something on that sort and fly them into a reactor or two.”

“I’ll take this right to the Director and the FAA as well as the head of the FBI. Give me a call when you get back to Marathon. I’d like to set up a conference call with both of you, Agent Norris, the Director, and the heads of the FAA and the FBI. Oh, one more thing: The army just raided that ranch in Oregon. They put up a stiff fight, but no match for the Rangers. We managed to find a few more laptops and cell phones, though most of these were seriously damaged, if not completely destroyed. There were no survivors.”

“Any idea as to how many there were?”

“General Kaufman said they found fifty-seven bodies; all Iranians.”

“Wow! And that’s just one location that we know about; wonder how many more they have?” Jackson asked rhetorically. “We’ve just taken off from Biggs so it’ll be at least an hour and a half before we get back to Marathon. Vapor should be at Tipton in about half an hour. Talk to you in a couple hours.”