The Gambit

XII

On the drive up to Kiryat Shmona, Stonewall got to thinking about Dr. Bagheri’s comment regarding the tunnels. “Dani,” Stonewall began, “just exactly what did Dr. Bagheri have to say regarding the tunnels he overheard Jalili and Rafsanjani discuss? If I remember correctly, he simply indicated he overheard them talking about tunnels to gain access to somewhere; he simply assumed this to be about either Hamas, who he thought more likely, or Hezbollah. Everyone knows that Hamas has tunnels into Israel. Are there other places in Israel where either a tunnel or tunnels could provide access that are not nearly so obvious?”

“There are tunnels under various parts of Jerusalem but these are all highly guarded,” replied Dani. “Getting past the guards would be possible, but it would take more of an assault force to get past these guards; it is not something that could be done quietly. Once past the guards, any attacking force would be somewhat limited in the amount of explosives they could use.”

“What about one of the reported older suit-case type of nuclear bombs from the old Soviet Union?” Stonewall asked. Something like this could be brought in relatively quickly once an assault force had disabled any number of guards.”

“The problem with that idea, though,” interjected Ben, “is that you wouldn’t need to get particularly close to the target. Even those small nukes had a relatively large blast area where the devastation would be complete. A tunnel wouldn’t serve any purpose. I still think Bagheri’s original idea is the correct one: these tunnels were used to gain access to something or somewhere; more of a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself.”

“If that is the case, and I’m not discounting it,” replied Stonewall, “have you ever uncovered any tunnels into Israel from Lebanon used by Hezbollah? I’ve never heard of them but that could be the very reason to look up here.”

“Hezbollah has used tunnels in the past, back in the ‘90’s, but we haven’t heard of any reports of them lately.”

Once the trio arrived at Kiryat Shmona, Ben went right to see David Eitan. Eitan and he had served together in the IDF Paratrooper brigade several years before both applied for the Mossad. They both received their selection to Mossad ten years earlier. David specialized more with the Syrian/Hezbollah terrorist connection while Ben spent his time working more with Iran and the Persian Gulf region. The two of them worked relatively closely from time to time as the tie between Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran grew increasingly closer. Over the years, Iranian intelligence and Quds Force members made repeated visits to the Beqaa Valley region of Lebanon. Ben hoped that his old friend had stumbled across any puzzle pieces regarding Rafsanjani that he didn’t realize were part of a bigger picture. When Amos Yaakov mentioned that he had heard Rafsanjani frequented the Beqaa Valley years earlier, he hoped that his friend could possibly add to this puzzle and hopefully fill in some pieces, admittedly, some rather large pieces but they needed to be filled and he hoped Eitan could do this for them.

“David, have you ever heard of a colonel in the Iranian Quds Force named Ashkan Rafsanjani?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of him. He’s made a few trips up to the Valley. He’s in pretty good with our Hezbollah friends up here. Why? What’s he up to now?”

“We think he is involved in some type of retaliatory mission after we took out their nuclear sites yesterday. We have some fairly good intel that he is involved in some type of operation and some type of tunnels would be used to gain access somewhere. We originally thought this would be down in Gaza as we recently discovered over thirty new tunnels that Hamas had dug; some were pretty sophisticated but nothing has come up as yet. Amos is obviously keeping his eyes and ears open but he suggested I come up here as he had heard that this Rafsanjani had been in the Beqaa Valley a few years ago.”

“He’s been up there a few times, and relatively recently, though we haven’t heard of any special operation he might have going on. We have some pretty good humint up there,” referring to human intelligence, “so if they had something special going on, we should have heard something but we haven’t heard anything like this. The real danger up there is in a growing Al Qaeda-type of organization that you folks seem to have over looked,” Eitan commented — referring to a group calling themselves the Islamic State in Levant, or ISIL — looking directly at Jackson with some displeasure.

Jackson had to agree. “We’ve been aware of them for some time, though we don’t see them involved in this in any way. Actually, we’re thinking that the Iranians might oppose these guys about as much as everyone else in the region. I’d like to believe that Rafsanjani’s presence up here has more to do with trying to combat this militant variant of Islam than working with Hezbollah to further antagonize you folks.”

“However, that still begs the original question: Where are these tunnels? What is Rafsanjani’ s role in all of this, and for that matter, just where is this Iranian colonel?” asked Dani.

“So, we don’t even know where he is?” asked Eitan.

“That’s correct,” replied Ben. “We lost track of him a couple days ago. It’s as if he has dropped off the face of the earth. We are convinced he has a retaliatory strike in the works; we just don’t know where.”

“But the use of tunnels of some kind seem to be a part of this operation?” Eitan asked once again.

“That’s about all we know at present. Our electronic wizards back at the NSA have pulled every disc they have of every conceivable conversation taking place in Tehran that we know of to see if Jalili, Suleimani or Rafsanjani himself might have let something slip in a cell phone conversation or an email but as of yet, they are coming up blank as well,” Jackson added. “If they have something in the works, and we believe they do, they have been very, very quiet about it — and, that’s more than a little disturbing.”

“Okay, now that we have a clear focus — both on who and on these tunnels — I’ll have my crew press every one of their contacts to see if we can’t turn something over. If there is something planned up here, we should be able to sniff it out. This might take a few days, though. We haven’t known about this angle but we’ll get right on it.”

“David, I can’t over emphasize the importance of this enough, and the urgency of this. We need to find Rafsanjani, and right away. My suspicion is that his disappearance means only one thing,” Ben added, “he’s already given the go ahead to launch his operation — whatever the hell it is.”

Half a world away, the day was just beginning in Oregon and Nevada. Rafsanjani’s men were busy making their final preparations as, if everything proceeded as planned, this would be a day like no other in American history. Four pickup trucks from the Princeton, Oregon, ranch and twenty-six more from the Nevada ranches were each loaded with ten 55 gallon oil barrels. Each of the barrels contained ammonium nitrate fertilizer; seven of which were topped off with diesel fuel; the remaining three would be topped off with nitromethane as the drivers got closer to their targets. Once the four trucks at the Princeton ranch were loaded with the barrels, they headed out, along with two additional pickups for an escort, and a ride home — Rafsanjani did not intend for this to be a suicide mission. These six pickups had the farthest to go and they did not want to get caught in traffic as they passed through Seattle. The operators from the Nevada ranches had a little more time to spare; they still had a long drive of their own — each averaging more than four hundred miles — and they, likewise, had to be concerned with traffic as several of them would be passing through the Los Angeles area. However, each driver had made practice runs to his assigned target so each driver had an idea of what to expect. By mid-afternoon, thirty-nine pickup trucks had left the Nevada ranches — twenty-six of them carrying a very deadly cargo — and another six had left the Princeton, OR ranch.

Captain Reza Sassani, based in Princeton, OR, commanded the second wave and he began preparations for his teams as soon as he received Colonel Rafsanjani’s email. His teams consisted of the balance of the Princeton, OR, ranch plus the three ranches outside of Riverside and Fields. The second wave consisted of the remaining pickups at the Princeton ranch as well as every pickup from the three remaining ranches outside of Riverside and Fields for a total force of forty pickups. At each ranch, these trucks were loaded with as many apple crates as they could carry without drawing any undue attention to themselves. Each apple crate contained relatively innocuous plaster castings, which, ironically, were about the size of a large apple. By late afternoon, Captain Sassani’s teams headed north for their targets.

“Ben, its David. Sorry to wake you at two thirty in the morning, but we found something you and your team needs to see right away, especially Jackson.”

“Okay, I’ll get them up right away. We’ll be right over.”

“Hey Arielle, Jackson,” Ben yelled as he knocked on their doors. They were staying in what amounted to a small dorm on the base at Kiryat Shmona so Ben only had to knock on the two doors next to his to wake up his two cohorts. “David’s got something — and Stonewall, David specifically requested you join the party. It sounds like something involving you guys more than us. I told David we’d be right over. Get dressed and let’s go.”

Five minutes later, the three of them met David in his office; he clearly had not left his office since they left him there the preceding afternoon. “I think we may have found something for you, though I don’t think it’s what you were expecting.”

“Why’s that?” asked Ben.

“Well, one of my colleagues came across a Hezbollah operative who did some drug running in Beirut. Turns out, he has some connections with some of the cartels in Latin America, the Medellin cartel in Colombia and the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. This guy mentioned that he heard that these cartels were contacted by what he described as ‘a couple Arabs’ awhile back to smuggle about five hundred men — soldiers mind you — into the United States via a tunnel system between Juarez and El Paso, Texas. He didn’t know what they were up to, and didn’t ask.”

“What?!? Did he give you an idea as to what either of these two guys looked like?” asked Jackson.

“He said one of the guys was pretty domineering, and wasn’t afraid to make demands of either of the cartels — and that’s saying something as both of these cartels can be incredibly ruthless,” responded David.

“That sounds like it might be our man,” replied Jackson. “Rafsanjani is not one to be trifled with and he is not intimidated by anyone. So, if Rafsanjani is smuggling five hundred or so soldiers into the US — we’re talking the Quds Force; something really big is in the works. I need to get on the horn right away. Do you have a secure line to Washington?”

“My XO’s office is right across the hall; the phone is on the desk. All of the phones in here are on secure lines so no need to worry about anything.”

Jackson suspected that Carmichael would be at his home by this time. It was now 3:00 a.m. in Israel; that put it at 8:00 p.m. in Washington. Jim put in a lot of long hours but he figured he’d be home by now. “Hello,” Jim answered, with some hesitation in his voice; he didn’t recognize the number calling him but knew only a few people had his number.

“Jim, its Stonewall. We’ve got a big problem. We’ve uncovered some evidence over here and it seems that the Iranians have been working with the Medellin and Sinaloa cartels to smuggle a sizable Quds force into the United States through a series of tunnels from Juarez to El Paso. The operation appears to be led by a Colonel Ashkan Rafsanjani; he’s a rising star in the Quds Force and is a member of their Supreme National Security Council. We don’t know just how sizable of a force this might be; our source simply mentioned ‘five hundred or so’ but we’re thinking that number is a bit of an exaggeration but even if 250 got in, we have a serious problem.”

“What?!?” Carmichael cut in. “Are you telling me those mad mullahs have smuggled a battalion of their Quds Force into the United States?! Stonewall, are you serious? Do we know anything else? I mean, just how solid is this?”

“Jim, this is as solid as anything we have right now, and granted, we don’t have much. However, this is a solid contact Ben’s Mossad friend has used over the years. He simply said that a couple Arabs contacted the Sinaloa cartel ‘awhile back’ to smuggle around five hundred soldiers into the US — we don’t know how long ago this may have been or anything else. We don’t even know the objective of this operation of theirs but with a significant number of Quds Force members running loose in the US, we’ve got a serious problem. I’m working with Benjamin Givon over here to see if I can’t get a plane straight to Fort Bliss. He’ll have to get Pardo to approve it but I don’t see that being a problem right now. Jim, the intel on this is solid. We just learned of this about twenty minutes ago. We met with the Mossad chief for northern Israel this afternoon. He’s an old paratrooper friend of Ben’s. He said he’d get right on it, and he sure did. I’ll get as much of the details as I can regarding the location of the tunnels and then forward them to you. We’ll need to contact the El Paso Border Patrol office and give them the location information once we have it. I would assume that this tunnel, or tunnels, are still operational. If so, the Border Patrol folks need to camp out on the exit of this tunnel and any other tunnel they know of, and see if we can find out if it is still being used and if so, by who and see if we might just be able to follow someone and see where this leads. As soon as Ben has some more detailed information, I’ll relay it to you. Maybe we can learn something from one of these guys if we can catch them.”

“Okay; good work, Stonewall. I’ll contact them, Homeland Security, and the DEA here in Washington and see if they can’t get some of their agents in on this as well. The cartels over here aren’t exactly known for keeping secrets. When you are as ruthless as they are, they rely on intimidating others to keep silent. I’ll have the DEA put a full court press on their Mexican counterparts to see if we can’t stir something up. I’ll let you know what, if anything, we develop. In the meantime, get on a plane to Fort Bliss as soon as you can. I want you there working with the point man for the FBI. I don’t know who that will be but I’ll contact the director and let him know you’ll be there tomorrow and then relay that to you en route. They’ll obviously have jurisdiction on this but you know the guy we’re after; we need you on the ground out there.”

“Roger that. I’ll talk to you later.” With that, Jackson disconnected the call and hollered across the hallway.

“Ben, can you get me on a plane to Fort Bliss, Texas?! I need to leave right away! Also, any chance Dani can join me? You’ll want a liaison with me anyway and, given the international aspect of this, having someone along from the Unit could be a big help. Besides, she went to school at College Station, so she’s somewhat familiar with the territory.”

“Jackson, you got your plane. Arielle, make sure you’re packed and ready to go.”

“Ben, the bag’s always packed — you know that; I’m ready whenever Stonewall is.”

“Okay, we’ll get the two of you on a G-650ER out of Ramat David; there’s practically one on stand-by round the clock. This will get you all the way to El Paso without having to stop and refuel.”

“You’ve got one of those on standby? Those things can fly forever,” Jackson marveled.

“So it would seem. You realize the Viper is made in Fort Worth, don’t you?” Ben replied, referring to the F-16. “We’re flying there at least once a week. I think we can shake one loose for you.”

“Cool! How soon can we leave?”

“Grab your bag and you can leave as soon as I can get you a driver. Arielle, keep me in the loop!”

“Absolutely; thanks, Ben!”

“Okay, you two, get on your way. It will still take you about an hour before you can get to the base and get airborne. In the meantime, we’ll continue with the interrogation of this fellow and email you with all of the details regarding the tunnels used, locations, etc. Best of luck over there.”

“Thanks, Ben; I really appreciate all of this.”

“Don’t mention it; I’ll see you two later.”

“Bob,” Jim called out, slightly louder than he needed to as he had the secretary of homeland security, Robert Harmon, on speaker phone. “I got some bad news — and extremely urgent — regarding the Iranians plans for retaliating due to the Israeli airstrikes yesterday. The word is that it seems Iranian intelligence operatives have been working with the Sinaloa cartel to smuggle close to a battalion of their Quds Force into the Southwest through a series of tunnels from Juarez to El Paso. We don’t have much to go on, other than that El Paso seems to be the entrance point for getting into the US.”

“You’ve got to be kidding!? A battalion?!? That seems kind of farfetched, doesn’t it, Jim?”

“Bob, the intel on this is as solid as we have right now. We believe the Iranian’s attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz was more of a diversion than anything else. We fully expect them to try something else, we just don’t know what, or where.”

“Jim, are you sure of this? I mean, this isn’t a ploy by the Republicans to try and discredit the president, is it? They’ve been screaming for enhanced border security throughout the duration of this administration. You sure this isn’t some plan of theirs to take advantage of this situation?”

“Bob, like I said this is solid. It’s coming straight from Mossad.”

“Okay; does the president know of this yet?”

“No, I wanted to let you know right away. I just found out about this right before I called you.”

“So, all we really know at this point is that there are supposedly some tunnels from Juarez to El Paso the Sinaloa cartel has used to smuggle in a small battalion of Iranians, right?” Harmon asked, still not really convinced of this latest intelligence.

“That’s correct,” Jim replied, catching the drift of Harmon’s tone. He had to remind himself that, though Bob was qualified for the job, he really was a political appointee. “I know it’s not much to go on but I thought the DEA or the Border Patrol — or both — might either know of a tunnel like this or should at least be made aware of this.”

“I’ll give them a call right away; they might even still be in the office as it’s still right around six out there in El Paso. I’ll also let Tom Fleming know as well. No real reason to call for a meeting at the White House but I think we need to keep them in the loop on this.”

“Agreed. No reason for any type of meeting at this point — we simply don’t know very much. Once we learn more — and we will — I’ll let everyone know and let either Tom or Pamela,” referring to the White House chief of staff and Pamela McDowell, the national security advisor, “convene a meeting, probably with the NSC, for some time tomorrow.”

“That sounds good, Jim.”

As he hung up, he knew sending Jackson to El Paso was the right call. He knew Harmon did not take him seriously and, consequently, they’d need someone on the ground who knew what was at stake — and clearly, no one from Homeland would answer this call. He just hoped it wouldn’t be too late.

Dani and Stonewall made it to Ramat David Airbase a little before 4:00 a.m. The G-650ER looked everything as Jackson had dreamt it would be — and more. Upon boarding, and walking into the main cabin area, a complete and fully stocked galley greeted him. Behind this sat a small table and a couple chairs on each side of the aircraft. As he walked down the cabin, a small but very adequate lounge area unfolded with a couch on one side with a couple lounge chairs and a table on the other side, complete with a forty-three inch TV, capable of either DVD’s or streaming internet. Behind this, a doorway walled off the sleeping cabins: two on each side of the aisle, each approximately two and a half meters long, and could berth up to eight people. Finally, in the middle and at the very rear, Jackson found the commode, complete with a shower as well.

After Dani gave him the tour of the aircraft Jackson returned to the cockpit; he needed to know what their anticipated arrival time in El Paso would be. “It’s about four in the morning here; what time will that put us in at Biggs airfield at Fort Bliss?” Stonewall asked the pilot.

“Well sir, it’s about a fifteen hour flight and El Paso is eight hours behind us, so that would put us in right around eleven this morning, sir. If you don’t want a serious case of jet lag, I suggest the two of you sack out right away. I believe Arielle just showed you the amenities this little beauty has to offer.”

“That she did, and it’s very impressive. We’ll do that. Wake us up if you hear anything.”