The Gambit

XXVIII

“Stonewall, how are things going?” Jim Carmichael asked over the satellite phone.

“Going fine, sir. We picked up our package a few hours ago and are almost back at the house. How are things with you?”

“Just to bring you up to speed; Dani was right all along. Four Fed Ex cargo jets out of Boston were hijacked and they attempted to crash them into four different nuclear power plants in the northeast. We shot the first one down about a quarter mile from the Indian Point nuclear plant roughly twenty five miles north of New York City. The other three were shot down as well. With events of the past two days, the president will be going before Congress later today looking for a full blown declaration of war. He’s going to get it.”

“We aren’t talking a full blown invasion, are we?”

“No, as you know, there’s a growing movement of discontent throughout the country. We’ll simply give that movement a big shot in the arm by taking out the top echelon of the government: their Supreme Leader, the Assembly of Experts, the Council of Guardians, etc. You know the leadership of this country better than most. In addition, we have received word from some friends of ours that Colonel Rafsanjani was sighted in Amsterdam catching a flight to Tehran. He should be arriving their later tonight. We are expecting that he will have a meeting with their Supreme National Security Council first thing in the morning. We have a special assignment for you and your team; this is something Ben and his team have been working on for some time and we finally have the opportunity to implement it. You’ll have the complete cooperation of the Air Force and the Navy to coordinate any close air support you might need. Once the mission is completed, you are to make your way to an abandoned airfield about one hundred miles southwest of Tehran right off of Highway 71 on the way to Cheshmeh Palang. A C-130 will be waiting for you, along with a company of Rangers for security.”

“Roger that, sir. As soon as we’re back at the house, I’ll talk this over with Ben and Dani — she’s actually Operations — and see what he has in store for us.”

“Very good; Ben and his team know the city very well. Like I said, they’ve been working on this operation for quite a while but haven’t had the resources or the opportunity — now we have both. We’ll be holding off on any bombing in Tehran until you give us the word. Once you’ve given the word, again, the Air Force and Navy will give you all the close air support you need to cover your withdrawal; you’ll have everything from A-10’s and F-16’s to B-1’s stacked up to cover you.”

“Okay; I’ll brief the team, and have Ben brief us on the plan. This could be the most excitement I’ve had since my ‘CIF’ team. Anything else?”

“Stonewall, there’s one more thing…. Tel Aviv’s just been hit. Hezbollah apparently launched a massive missile attack with the Tishreen missiles they received from Iran. Both Iron Dome and David’s Sling performed admirably but they were simply overwhelmed. Tamir’s fine but told me to pass on what we know; their building got hit, two of the hospitals in Tel Aviv got hit; casualties are probably going to be in the thousands the way Tamir talked but it’s way too soon for any specifics. I’ve spoken with Axe; the Wasp is in the Med and she has a decent sized hospital on board to help with casualties. She had already been headed towards Israel but will now be there in about twelve hours.”

“Damn! It figured that they’d let the Israelis off too easily. I’m sure they knew it was coming, just not when. Do me a favor, let me know if you can find out anything regarding Dani’s family; her parents and sister all live in Tel Aviv.”

“Yeah, I can do that. Give me a call when you’re on the Herc on the way out.”

“Will do, sir.”

Arriving back at the safe house, Zivah greeted Dani as she walked in the front door.

“Hey, Arielle, where’d you get the new uniform? Looks pretty sharp on you; anything going on that I should know about?” she added light heartedly.

“Zivah, shut up! We’ve been on the go since we left Tel Aviv, what a couple days ago? We left our bags clear back at Fort Bliss and Sergeant Rossi, here, was kind enough to grab a couple extra for us.”

“You don’t have to explain to me. You’ve got my support, whatever you’re up to,” she replied with the biggest grin on her face.

Before Dani could respond, Stonewall corralled her.

“Ah, Dani, we need to talk.”

“What’s up?” she asked rather suspiciously.

Grabbing her by the arm, Stonewall led her to the first unoccupied room he could find — which happened to be a bedroom — and shut the door.

“Ah, what’s going on?” she asked, taking note of Stonewall’s directing her into the bedroom.

Noticing the slightly awkward location, he let out a sheepish grin.

“Oh, sorry; I was simply looking for a room out of earshot from everyone else; this room looked available — didn’t realize it was a bedroom.”

“I see,” Dani replied, with a bit of an impish grin on her face.

“I got off the phone with Jim a little while ago. A couple things: Hezbollah just hit Tel Aviv and it sounds bad. Jim didn’t have specifics as it had literally just happened but said casualties appeared to be pretty high. He said that Tamir mentioned Mossad headquarters got hit, a couple hospitals got hit as well and so they expect casualties to be high. The Wasp is en route so you can figure that’s likely the case — she has quite a hospital on board. I’m sorry,” Jackson continued, as he noticed Dani’s horror-stricken face, “but he didn’t have any specifics on anyone; it’s just way too soon, though I asked Jim to check on your family.”

“We’ll get by; we always do,” Dani added, obviously stressed by the news. “Thank you.”

“Secondly, you were right — Zarin’s team hijacked four Fed Ex cargo planes out of Boston with the intent of crashing them into four different nuclear power plants. The Air Force shot all four of them down, the closest crashed a quarter mile from the Indian Point nuclear facility twenty five miles north of New York City. Ah, he also mentioned that we’ll be launching an operation you guys have had on the books for a little while. He mentioned something about having the entire inventory of Air Force and Naval Aviation at our disposal to cover our withdrawal — and that we’ll meet up with a team of Rangers and a C-130 about a couple hours south of Tehran to get us out of the country. Any idea what he’s talking about, since you are Ops for the team?”

With the brief description of this operation, Dani’s countenance took a much more serious turn.

“So, we’re going to do it, huh? I haven’t had a chance to speak with Ben about this yet.”

“So it would seem, but just what are we doing?”

“Well, you know Mossad and Sayeret Matkal have conducted some pretty bold operations in the past, like the raid on Entebbe, right?”

“Dani, everyone knows that.”

“Yeah, well, if we pull this off, it’ll make Entebbe look like a cake walk.”

“Okay, you’ve got my attention; what’s up?” Stonewall said has he sat down on the side of the bed.

And with that, Dani proceeded to spend the next ten minutes, pacing back and forth across the bedroom, outlining the operation.

“We’ve never had all of the pieces in place to do something this ambitious,” she concluded. “Now…, it would seem we do. Remember, I haven’t discussed this with Ben, but if this is what you’re talking about, and I assume it is, this will be the gold standard by which all other Special Ops missions are measured!”

“Wow, you aren’t kidding!” Stonewall admitted, letting out a slow whistle and crossing his hands behind his head as he fell back on the bed, still blown away by how ambitious this operation was.

“No, I’m not kidding. And, who knows, if we both get through this, maybe we’ll get a chance to meet up back here in this room!” She added with very mischievous grin, as she leaned over and gave him a rather passionate kiss. “Let’s go Cowboy, we need to discuss this with Ben.”

At that, Stonewall was dumbfounded, first by the audacity of the operation, and then by Dani’s kiss.

“Rossi, Captain Sanchez,” Jackson yelled out from the kitchen of the safe house. “I need you and your men to gather in the basement. Ben’s got a mission for us.”

“Yes, sir. Okay guys, you heard the man. Let’s go,” Rossi yelled out.

Several long, slow and quiet whistles emerged as each one reached the basement. The array of weapons and equipment that lay before them thoroughly impressed each one. This truly, was the most complete safe house they had ever seen — and they had seen a great deal.

“Okay, guys,” Jackson announced. “You’ll get your tour in a bit. For now, we have a mission to prepare for. Not sure if you’ve all heard the news but there have been a couple attacks while we were en route over here. Tel Aviv has just been hit by Hezbollah; casualties are reported as high. This literally happened within the hour so that’s all I know. The other one seems to have involved the hijacking of four Fed Ex cargo planes out of Boston with the intent of crashing them into four nuclear power plants encircling New York City. All four were shot down, the closest one landed less than a quarter mile from its target.”

“Holy Mother of God,” whispered Ferro. “Those bastards. Someone’s gotta pay, sir.”

“Yeah, well Ferro, I think that’s what Ben, here, has in mind,” replied Jackson. “Ben, it’s all yours,” Jackson said as he turned to Ben.

“Okay, gentlemen; I understand your reaction. We’ve had an operation on the books that we’ve been exploring for a couple years — but never had the opportunity. Colonel Rafsanjani, the architect of the attacks in the States, will be landing at Mehrabad this evening. First thing tomorrow morning, there will be meeting of the Supreme National Security Council — where we expect Rafsanjani will give a briefing as to the success of his operation. The meeting will be held at the Ministry of Intelligence and Security in the northern part of Tehran. Spread out before you is a three dimensional model of the complex. As you can see, there are only a few entrances to this complex; we’ll be focusing on the northeast entrance. Across the street from this entrance is a six story office building. We’ll have two snipers, initially, up on the sixth floor in an over-watch position to see who all enters the place. Once the word is given, the sniper team will take to the roof and take out the IRGC sniper/over-watch force — one of you will be up there with Jonah. Zivah will be on the street below ready to provide your escape. At the southern end of this complex, Ayal will team up with two from 5114 to create as large of a diversion as you can — it needs to look credible enough without being too large to seem like we are bombing the city.” And so began Ben’s briefing.

Three hours later, with the briefing completed and all questions answered, the teams paired up to go over the operation and their particular parts in the raid. The two weapons sergeants in the team got a tour of the safe house’s arsenal and selected the weapons their teammates would be using: HK MP5N submachine guns, HK Mk 23 pistols with suppressors, and a couple McMillan TAC 338 sniper rifles. The comms sergeants checked out the communications gear and made sure everyone was on the same frequency, as well as reviewing the various assets they would have available from the Navy and Air Force. In addition to their communications duties, they would also be functioning as the JTAC — Joint Terminal Attack Coordinators — for the team. A few others checked out uniforms, all reviewed the escape routes needed… there wasn’t much time available for sleep, though, after having been on the go since they left Fort Campbell, everyone knew they needed to get a few hours. By 5:00 a.m., the two snipers were in their over-watch position with Zivah in the coffee shop on the first floor of the same building.