The Gambit

XXIX

“How was your trip, sir?” Amir, Rafsanjani’s driver, asked him.

“It was… eventful.” Rafsanjani replied after thinking of the proper adjective. “But it’s good to be back home again, Amir.”

“I assume today we are heading to the Ministry, sir?”

“That’s correct. I have an early meeting with Jalili and General Suleimani. I’ve heard the Americans have been bombing us quite heavily. Have they hit Tehran very hard yet? From what I’ve seen, the city seems to be pretty normal.”

“They haven’t hit us as yet, sir. All of the roads and buildings in the city are completely untouched. They have really hit the Guards and the Quds bases, and our Air Force, but everything else has been left untouched. In fact, I don’t think we’ve even seen any American airplanes this far north. It seems odd, sir. I’m not complaining, but I would have thought they would have hit us a lot harder.”

“Well, this isn’t over by a long shot. We need to be ready when they do, and rest assured, they will be coming up here as well.”

“What time is your meeting, sir?”

“Seven thirty, but I wanted to get there a little early to go over everything that has arisen in my brief absence.”

“Not a problem sir. I’ll have you there a little after seven.”

A few minutes later, Amir noticed something indeed was amiss. “Colonel, just who all is going to be at this meeting of yours? The Expressway is normally packed. It looks as though something has completely shut down the highway.”

“I see that. I haven’t heard anything as yet and no one has told me anything out of the ordinary. One more thing to worry about this morning, Amir.”

“Well, at this rate, sir, I’ll have you at the Ministry in just a few minutes.”

“Chaos, Hawkeye,” the sniper team lead called to Jackson, “we have a vehicle entering the compound. Looks like we have a staff car coming in. Based on the security setup, they aren’t letting too many vehicles into the place.”

“Roger that, Hawkeye,” Jackson replied.

About ten minutes later, a small motorcade approached the compound entrance and passed through the secure entrance site without even stopping.

“Chaos, Hawkeye. We have a small motorcade entering the compound. This looks like what we’re here for, Chaos.”

“Roger that. Let’s give them a few minutes so everyone’s in their place. We don’t need any surprises at this point.”

Five minutes later, another staff car pulled up to the entrance. The driver gave the guard his pass and before the guard could object that the pass didn’t meet the day’s security clearance, Benjamin Givon put two 9mm slugs into the guard’s forehead. Sergeant Rossi, in the passenger seat, jumped out and stormed the guard house. Before anyone knew it, the four guards at the entrance had been eliminated.

“General, why are we not meeting in the bunker? Surely the Americans have this building targeted,” Rafsanjani asked his boss, General Qassim Suleimani.

“Colonel, the Americans have been bombing us non-stop for the past two days,” General Suleimani explained. “The military, especially Quds and the IRGC, have borne the brunt of this, as has the Air Force. However, they have not hit a single governmental building or office yet, and they have had ample opportunity. More specifically, they have not even dropped a single bomb here in Tehran. Director Jalili is right, the American president is clueless and does not understand a thing.”

“General, it is very dangerous to underestimate the Americans,” Rafsanjani replied a little louder than was probably necessary. “The American president may be an idiot but do not forget what they initially did in Afghanistan — many of their current military leaders were there and have not forgotten this.”

“Colonel, relax. The Americans will not be bombing us,” Said Jalili added as he walked in. “They will continue to target our military but we can replace everything we lose. Yes, we will lose some men, and that is unfortunate, but we have the money and our infrastructure remains undamaged, unlike that in the United States, which you properly addressed. Besides, we have a special guest today….”

Before Jalili could tell Rafsanjani about their guest, and almost on cue, Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Khameini entered the conference room.

As soon as Jonah saw the staff car approach the entrance, he and Sergeant John Luna grabbed their gear and headed towards the roof. In addition to their sniper rifles, they each carried a silenced MP5. As the two approached the stairway leading to the roof, an IRGC guard challenged them, though he was not as prepared as Jonah and immediately fell from a double tap of 9mm slugs to the upper chest. Jonah and Luna emerged from the stairs on the roof to find two guards perched at the edge of the roof thoroughly engrossed in the assault on the Guard House across the street directly below them. Before they could get a warning out to the unit commander both guards collapsed in a pool of their own blood from a series of slugs stitched across their back and head.

“Chaos, Hawkeye; over-watch secured,” Luna reported to Jackson.

“Roger that; primary team has passed the entrance.”

No sooner than Ben and Rossi had eliminated the threat posed by the entrance guards than a large fireball erupted from the parking lot immediately adjacent to the southeast office building of the complex. Rossi could just see the top of the fireball behind the main building in the complex but a plume of thick black smoke made its presence clear to all around. As Ben pulled up to the main entrance of the Ministry, the guards, clearly preoccupied by the source of the unknown eruption in the parking lot behind them, did not immediately challenge him, Rossi or their two passengers in the back seat. Rossi rushed up to the first guard at the entrance asking, actually, almost yelling, about what was going on? The guard never had a chance; Rossi put two slugs into the man’s face before he could respond. Ben and the other two members of the primary team fanned out and took out the remaining guards outside of the entrance as Rossi entered the building.

“Chaos, Jericho.” Rossi called to Jackson. “We’re in the building.”

“Jericho, we’re right behind you,” replied Jackson as he saw Ben enter the building as they pulled up to entrance. Within seconds, the entire assault team entered the building. The remaining guards outside of the three other buildings had no idea an assault on their complex had just begun. The confusion caused by the fireball in the southeast parking lot temporarily caused enough confusion that the sudden appearance of additional “security personnel” did not arouse any suspicion. On the contrary, a few of the guards from the adjacent building actually rushed in to join Jackson and the rest of the assault team.

Four main buildings form the heart of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. Each of these is a perfect square with either an open-air veranda or a highly secure conference room, similar to a “situation room”, in the middle of the square not unlike the middle of the Pentagon in Washington D.C. The middle of main building of the complex contained a situation room, actually what amounted to a separate building, though the average onlooker would have had to look closely to notice that. This “situation room” had been designed with lead walls encased in a concrete casement: the room was not only fire proof, but, at the time it was built, completely bombproof as precision munitions had not been developed. As a consequence, the room was also sound-proof to an extent that all but the loudest of noises could not penetrate the secure environment. Even the blast Ayal set off in the parking lot to distract the guards had gone unnoticed by the present occupants. It did not go unnoticed by their guards.

Not only had the guards outside of the conference room heard the explosion, they were a little better prepared than their brethren, but only a little. Ben and Rossi remained on point and as they rounded the last corner in the hallway to approach the entrance to the conference room the guards saw them approach and began to raise their AK-74’s to fire — too late — as Ben hit the first guard with a three round burst and Rossi hit the second guard with another three round burst. However, the guards had managed to get off several rounds of their own before they fell to the floor: Up until now, all of the gunfire had come from the silenced MP5’s of the commandos. The little noise that these made had been covered in the confusion caused by Ayal’s explosion in the parking lot. However, there is nothing like the sound of a series of 7.62 rounds from an AK-74 in a concrete walled hallway: the automatic fire was deafening — and now everyone was on alert. Jackson, Dani and Captain Sanchez followed Ben and Rossi into the conference room — to the astonishment of all the occupants.

“What is the meaning of this? How did you get in here?” demanded General Suleimani.

“General Suleimani, I presume?” asked Jackson. “Colonel Thomas Jackson, United States Special Forces. You, Dr. Said Jalili, and Colonel Ashkan Rafsanjani need to come with me. Dani, will you see to Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Khameini?”

One of the staff officers immediately jumped in front of Dani and tried to grab her MP5 as she moved towards Khameini. Dani didn’t hesitate; a quick six round burst sent four rounds into the staff officer’s chest and, as the Supreme Leader remained seated, two rounds into his head, killing both instantly.

“Rossi, get the pics of Tecumseh,” Jackson ordered, referring to the lifeless body of the Supreme Leader.

“You’ll never get out of here alive,” yelled Colonel Rafsanjani.

“Frankly, Colonel, I never thought we’d get in here” replied Jackson. “Let’s go,” Jackson continued as Rossi and Dani placed the three of them in flexi cuffs; Ben was busy with something else.

As they headed towards the door to leave, Jackson placed one last radio call.

“Archangel, Chaos Actual. Geronimo, Cochise, and Crazy Horse are in custody,” referring to his three captives. “Beginning extraction now.”

“Roger that, Chaos. What’s the status of Tecumseh?” ‘Archangel’ Admiral Jack Fischer asked.

“Enjoying his seventy-two virgins,” replied Jackson. “Two rounds through the melon; pics forthcoming.”

“Roger that,” Archangel replied. Fischer still thought a SEAL team would have been better for this mission but he had to admit, the ODA team was able to get their first and had already secured their target; now he knew the fun would begin. “Chaos, be advised Greyhound is in en route and will be at the Bat Cave waiting for you. Good luck, son.”

Jackson smiled at that; only the Navy would refer to their Air Force extraction flight as a bus ride. In the meantime, he still had to get there, and it looked — and sounded — as though they’d have to fight their way out. Sanchez and his team had the hallway secured to the entrance of the building but getting to their vehicles would not be easy. The entire operation — from taking out the guards at the entrance to the capture — had taken less than five minutes so far and they all knew that every second’s delay dramatically increased the hazard of this mission.

“Archangel, we’ll be there waiting for that bus ride,” Jackson replied.

Ben made sure he was the last to leave the room as the small party exited. He made sure that the doors were shut and locked so that no one could get out. A few seconds later, a large explosion rocked the building; the large, heavy doors of the conference room completely flew off their hinges, crashing through the walls on the opposite side of the hallway. Clearly, no one could be left alive in the room. Tamir had told him to make sure that none of the present Security Council personnel escaped to either form a new government or to succeed the Supreme Leader within the present government.

“Just a bit of overkill, don’t ya think, Ben?” Jackson asked him.

“Just wanted to make sure the job was done,” he replied.

“I kind of think you succeeded with that,” Dani chimed in.

“Okay, folks, let’s get out of here while we still can. Sanchez, your team ready to mount up?”

“Roger that, sir. Let’s get out of here.”