The Gambit

XVIII

“Okay, folks, what do we know?” President Barre asked his advisers.

“Mr. President,” Bob Harmon began, “the pickup truck we recovered up at Grand Coulee is registered to a cattle ranch outside of Riverside, OR. This place is about four hours southwest of Boise. The ranch is owned by corporation named C & D Enterprises. The actual contact for the corporation seems to be a law firm out of San Francisco. The corporate officers and board of directors remains a mystery.”

“Sir,” Attorney General Jorge Sanchez interrupted, “C & D Enterprises purchased this ranch through the law firm of Lozano & Ibarra, LLP, in 2009; this is the same law firm Bob just mentioned as contact for the ranch owner. We’ve been able to subpoena the ranch’s tax records for every year since then; they are all signed by a partner of the law firm of Lozano & Ibarra. In addition, we’ve received copies of the lease agreements for the BLM land the ranch leases in NV; again, it’s signed by a partner with Lozano & Ibarra. This is a sizable ranch with several thousand acres in OR and NV. The pickup we’ve recovered is just one of many that are registered to the ranch. Our FBI office in San Francisco has picked up this partner for questioning but we haven’t learned anything from him — attorney client privilege. The Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boise field office has set up a temporary headquarters in Burns, OR, and is working on getting a warrant to put a drone up over this ranch to see what all we are up against.”

“Mr. President,” Jim Carmichael began, “we’ve already put a Predator up over the ranch; there’re three main building sites that currently show quite a bit of activity and there’re two others that appear to be vacant at present.”

“Wait a minute,” Sanchez blurted out. “You’ve put up a Predator over this place? The CIA has no authority here!”

“Jim didn’t put it there, Jorge, I did.” Axelsson interjected. “This is not a terrorist attack; it’s too sophisticated for a terrorist group, even Al Qaeda or ISIS. We’ve been attacked by another country — I think that’s pretty obvious.”

“Mr. President, this is a clear violation of the Constitution and we cannot allow this. This ranch is a legal US corporation and entitled to all the protection of any other US entity. We cannot simply spy on this place without a warrant. Placing a Predator over the ranch to spy on the legal workings of the ranch represents a clear violation of the right to protection of an ‘unreasonable search and seizure’ clearly expressed in the fourth amendment.”

“Mr. President, I’ve also placed a company of the second battalion, Seventy-fifth Ranger Regiment up at Fort Lewis on alert as well,” added Axelsson.

“You what?!?” exclaimed both Sanchez and Bob Harmon in unison.

“Excuse me!?!” Tom Fleming added.

“Mr. President, this is going too far,” continued Harmon.

“Sir, I can have 150 Rangers on that ranch in an hour and a half,” added General Kaufman, totally ignoring Secretary Harmon. “Given everything we know so far, this is a job for the military, not law enforcement. We are under attack, and the sooner we can hit back, the better. In addition, we don’t know if these guys are going to use this ranch for another attack somewhere else. We need to hit back — and we need to hit back right away. With the Predator in place, we can monitor the place to see if they are preparing for something else; if so, we’re ready.”

“Mr. President, this is outrageous! We don’t know who attacked us and without that knowledge, we cannot simply spy on US citizens without a warrant!” Sanchez again postulated.

“Mr. President, we may not know, ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’, who is behind these attacks, but this bears all the hallmarks of Said Jalili — the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council; he’s the architect of Hezbollah’s adventures in Lebanon and northern Israel — he understands asymmetrical warfare as well as anyone.”

“Mr. President,” Carmichael began, “if I may interrupt, I think we can address some of what the attorney general just mentioned. I’ve just been advised by one of your Secret Service agents that Colonel Jackson has some vital information for us. We can get him on video if you’d like.”

“Absolutely, get him up!”

“Right away, sir. Stonewall? Are you there?”

“Hey, Jim. Dani & I are both here. We pulled off at a Starbucks on the outskirts of El Paso and set up a temporary command post in the parking lot. Get this, Dani got a hit on one of the two guys we’ve been following.”

“So, Miss Yaniv, just who are we dealing with here?” President Barre demanded.

“Mr. President, one of the two men is Major Farrok Zarin — he’s Colonel Rafsanjani’s executive officer. Mr. President, you have a known Iranian Republican Guards — Quds Force officer, and presumably his personal assistant, driving through west Texas as we speak.”

“Stonewall, are you in a position to pick him up?”

“Negative; we pulled off as Zarin continued out of El Paso. Special Agent Norris has a drone following him. The FBI has a small strike force assembled and we’re waiting to see where Zarin ends up. My guess is that he’s heading to another ranch they’ve set up in west Texas, similar to the one they established in Oregon, but that’s just a guess.”

“Okay, great work you two! Miss Yaniv, thank you very much! This is a game changer!” President Barre exclaimed. “As soon as you know where this major ends up, let us know.”

“Will do, sir,” Jackson replied.

“General Kaufman, it’s now about mid-afternoon in the Pacific Northwest; when would you recommend we drop the Rangers on this ranch?”

“Well sir, if we don’t see any additional activity on this ranch — and the Predator can stay up for hours — I’d suggest sometime after midnight, say one — two o’clock in the morning. These are Rangers — we own the night!”

“Very well, go ahead and let them know that kickoff is scheduled for 2:00 a.m.,” President Barre added, noting the Ranger tab on General Kaufman’s uniform.

“Okay, then; Axe, what do we have in the gulf at our disposal?” President Barre asked Secretary of Defense Axelsson.

“Sir, we have the George Washington carrier group in the gulf as well as a battle group centered around the San Antonio with seven hundred Marines aboard; in the Arabian Sea, we have the John Stennis carrier group — which is also within striking distance of Iran — and the Theodore Roosevelt has passed through the Red Sea and is on the eastern side of the Gulf of Aden, heading towards the gulf at flank speed — she had to leave some of her escorts behind but they’ll catch up as soon as they can. She’s already in striking distance, though she’s at the edge of her range. In addition, we have a squadron of F-15E’s at Al Udeid in Qatar and two squadrons of drones there as well.”

“That’s all we have in the region?” asked Pam McDowell, the president's national security advisor.

“That’s it. We didn’t leave any troops in Iraq and we only left a skeleton force in Afghanistan, the nearest forces would be in Europe.”

“What about Incirlik?” McDowell followed up.

“Incirlik, while a US base in southern Turkey, does not have any US planes stationed there. The nearest combat aircraft would be in either Germany, England or Italy. Obviously, we could whistle up some B-2’s out of Whiteman or some B-1’s — or even some B-52’s — but we're talking more than twelve hours just for the B-2’s to get on station.”

“Okay, Axe, before WW II, the War Department — as Defense was known then — had a division known as War Plans. I assume the Pentagon has something similar to that?”

“We do, sir. We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t. We have plans on the books to attack or invade everything from Argentina to Zimbabwe.”

“I thought as much. Get back over there and see what your folks already have developed for this very situation we have with Iran. I’m assuming much of that is pretty current. I want you back here with the Joint Chiefs in two hours.”

“Not a problem, sir. All we really need is your ‘Okay’ to launch.”

Three and a half hours later, Zarin and his aide pulled into the ranch outside of Marathon. He was not surprised to hear that his men had left a day earlier; disappointed, yes; surprised, no. At this point, there was not much for him to do; after spending more than forty hours on the go, he was exhausted — both he and his aide found the nearest bed and fell asleep almost immediately. No one on the ranch noticed a very faint hum coming from several thousand feet above them.

“Gentlemen,” Colonel Jacobson began, “the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called about half an hour ago — we are officially scheduled for an assault on a ranch complex outside of Riverside, OR at 0200—that’s less than twelve hours from now. Word is that this ranch is owned, indirectly, by the Iranian Quds Force. It was purchased by a shell corporation in 2009. Now, we recovered a pickup truck involved in the attack up at Grand Coulee early this morning and it’s registered to this ranch. In addition, we have just received confirmation that a major in the Quds Force just crossed over the Mexican border a couple hours ago and is probably headed to another ranch in Texas. Obviously, he is not our problem. However, this major is the XO of the man who we believe orchestrated all the attacks this morning — and he takes his orders directly from Major General Qassim Suleimani, the head of the Quds Force in Tehran.”

Upon hearing this news, every officer in the room sat in stunned disbelief. Finally, Lieutenant Murphy of First Platoon, broke the silence: “You mean, the Iranians have had a clandestine base on a ranch in southern Oregon since 2009?!?”

“That’s right, Murph,” Jacobson continued. “Okay, now that I have your attention: This ranch in southeastern Oregon has, we believe, as many as fifty-six Quds members, maybe a few more. There are three separate sites we'll need to plan on hitting — all in close proximity to each other, though none is close enough to support another. The overhead photos we are handing out now have been taken by a Predator that is currently circling overhead so they are only an hour old or so. Captain Fairchild will assign who will be assaulting which ranch site. I’ve tasked three C-17’s to load up with three Apaches each and they’ll be landing at the airport outside of Burns, OR — that’s the closest place to accommodate a C-17. They should be leaving within the hour. In addition, we’ll have three C-17’s for the whole company so we’ll have plenty of room for some extra gear, Humvees, etc.; you know the drill — Captain Fairchild, it’ll be up to you to decide how you want these dispersed amongst your men. Again, the plan is to begin the assault at 0200.”

“Okay, guys, tell me what you don’t see in these photos?” Captain Fairchild asked his platoon leaders.

“Trees, there’s no cover here — at any of the ranch sites,” noted Lieutenant Jones, who commanded second platoon.

“That’s right; that’s the main reason we’re going in at night — there is simply no cover here. If we showed up in broad daylight, we’d never have the element of surprise — they’d see us coming from miles away. We’ll have that now, to some degree, as there is simply no hiding the noise generated by all of the aircraft. As the colonel alluded, we’ll have a C-17 for each ranch. The plan is to jump an hour early — hopefully, after they hear the planes — and when nothing happens, they’ll relax their guard a bit. However, as soon as we land, we’ll need to set up blocking positions at the end of the driveways for each of these locations — if they hear us and get spooked and try to make a run for it, we need to be able to keep them contained. The Predator isn’t showing any guards at these spots so we should be able to set up the road blocks without making any noise. It’s an hour and a half flight, with an hour on the ground…. We’ll need to be wheels up by 2245. We’ll have nine Apaches for support and, if things go real bad, we’ll have a squadron of Eagles on call out of Mountain Home Air Force Base. I don’t think we’ll need them, but they’ll be there just in case. Murph, I’ll want first platoon to take the ranch labeled ‘A’ on the photos — this looks to be the primary location; Jones, second platoon will take ‘B’, and Fivecoat, you’ll have ‘C’. I want everyone back here in ninety minutes to coordinate the assault.”

“Now remember,” Jacobson broke in, “we believe these guys are part of the Iranian Quds Force — they’re fanatical, and they are very well trained. They conducted most of their attacks in the dead of night, so they may very well have some type of night vision gear. By dropping an hour early, we’ll have time to get organized and let them lower their guard after a while if they hear the planes. Let’s get to work.”

“Captain Turani, welcome back!” exclaimed Colonel Rafsanjani. “I had almost given up hope that you’d made it. Most of your men have returned safely but we are still missing a few. You are to be congratulated on a job well done!”

“Thank you, sir. It’s been an honor and a privilege to have worked with you on this.”

“The honor is all mine, Captain. You and your teams performed magnificently. All of the news reports coming out of California indicate that every target has been either seriously damaged or completely destroyed. You and your men succeeded far beyond my wildest expectations. From what we can tell, Captain Sassani’s teams did equally well. I’m hearing reports of power outages throughout the West — we’ve even noticed it here at the ranch. There’s just one leg of this operation left and if Major Zarin’s teams do as well as yours and Sassani’s have done, we will have brought America to its knees. We’ve already hit them hard, very hard, but Major Zarin’s team will deliver the coup d'grace. The American people won’t know what hit them.”

“Well, sir, I don’t know of Major Zarin’s operation but if it’s anything like ours… well, I’m just extremely proud to have been a part of it.”

“Believe me, Captain, if the major’s men succeed in their operation, the entire world will hear of it. Regardless of the major’s operation, I don’t see an issue which would delay you and your men returning home. We won’t be able to get everyone home at once but we should be able to start the return trip in the next day or two. We’ll want to get as many out as soon as possible as the Americans will be out for blood. Anything that looks remotely suspicious will likely draw the attention of a swarm of police officers. I’m heading home right away. I’ll need to brief Minister Jalili and General Suleimani as soon as I get back.”

“That should be a very special meeting for you, sir. Surely they’ll make you a general after this!”

“We shall see, Captain, we shall see. In the meantime, go check on your men. You’ve done extremely well.”

“Thank you, sir, and I look forward to seeing you back in Tehran sometime next week.”

With that, Colonel Rafsanjani took off with his driver and one of the ranch pickup trucks. He made sure that the spare tank in the bed of the truck had been filled prior to leaving. Rafsanjani knew that he couldn’t fly out as he had come in the United States. Even though he had a very good fake passport, after their attacks, he fully believed that the CIA would have captured his, and every other Iranian officers, features on some photo or another and loaded it into some facial recognition software that every airport in the country would be using. No matter how good his passport might be, he did not want to take the chance of flying out of a US airport. As such, he had his driver head north out of Tonopah towards Ely. From here, they would pass through Twin Falls, ID, skirt the Northeast corner of Oregon and travel through east central Washington until they hit the border crossing outside of the small town of Danville, WA. Rafsanjani fully believed that security all along the Mexican border now would be just as tight as it had been porous before. He knew that with his features, he could easily pass for any Mexican or Latin American but he didn't want to chance it. Facial recognition software had nothing to do with whether some border guard believed he could be a Latino. No, he would take his chances at an obscure border crossing in the middle of north central Washington where the most exciting thing up there were how many elk made the crossing each day. Once he crossed the border, they would head straight to Vancouver. He had a four fifteen plane to catch, nonstop to Amsterdam. He’d be in the air when Zarin and his men conducted their part of the operation. Once he landed, he knew he’d hear from news reports on what kind of success Zarin had had. From Amsterdam, getting to Tehran would be easy; he’d be home the day after tomorrow.

“Captain Sassani,” Lieutenant Darvish began, with a note of concern, “Lieutenant Ahktar has not returned. He should have returned a few hours ago.”

“He hasn’t checked in at all?” Replied Sassani.

“No, sir. We’ve been monitoring all communications and there’s been nothing from him or his team.”

“Lieutenant, after you completed your assignment, did you see or hear anything that could have been from them?”

“Sir, we reached the rally point a little early so we waited as long as we could for them but they never showed up. I assigned another of my men to take Ahktar’s assignment as he had ordered, and everything went according to plan. Once we completed the assignment, we did not stick around to look for him.”

“Okay, I’m only a two hour drive over to you. I want to get over there and go over this with you in private. I’ll be there as soon as I can; we’ll see you then.”

“Very well, sir, we’ll be waiting for you.”

“Okay, we have them on a ranch outside of Marathon,” Norris relayed to Jackson. “What do you guys want to do?”

“Is there any sign of any other activity at this place?” asked Jackson.

“Not at present; actually seems really quiet, almost too quiet for a working ranch,” replied Norris.

“I’d get ready to move in on these guys as soon as you can. The drone up top is crucial — if we see any significant activity like that ranch in Oregon, we might need to alert someone from Fort Hood, say a unit from the First Cav. However, the way it looks now, I think your assault force is adequate. This place is so remote, though, that it’s going to take the assault team and everyone else a few hours to get organized and get on scene. In the meantime, what do we know about this ranch?”

“Already have people working on that. It appears to be registered to a corporation called ‘Cyrus Enterprises, Inc.’ We’ve checked Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington for the same name and came up empty.”

“Interesting; they named this ranch after the founder of the Persian Empire and the ranch is located at a place with the same name as an ancient Persian battle — Marathon — where they lost to the Greeks. The Oregon ranch is registered to C & D Enterprises — a possible reference to Cyrus & Darius? Okay, check those same states but concentrate on other words related to the ancient Persian Empire, names like Xerxes, Darius, Susa, Persepolis, Salamis, maybe even Thermopylae, etc., anything dealing with the ancient Persian Empire. If they’ve used something like Cyrus, and specifically chose Marathon as a location from which to operate, in their own minds, they might be trying to bring back the glory of the ancient Persian Empire, however illogical and demented that might seem.”