The ISIS Gambit

XXVIII

“Jim, you called this meeting. What is so urgent it couldn’t wait a few more hours?” Tom Fleming asked.

“It’s this,” Carmichael replied as he turned on the TV at the opposite end of the conference room. “Al Jazeera began airing this about two hours ago.”

“Well, we knew ISIS would be releasing some type of propaganda video but, like we discussed earlier, didn’t think it’d be this early,” Fleming replied.

“Just wait,” Jim added.

“Oh… my… God,” was all Vice President Donner could say.

Everyone’s eyes remained so riveted on the screen that no one noticed exactly when the president slumped in his chair but everyone heard the loud thump of President Barre’s head hit the table before he slid out of his chair to the floor.

“Mr. President!” Tom Fleming hollered out.

“We need the President’s physician to the Situation Room immediately!” Donner called to the White House Medical Unit as Carmichael started CPR on the president. “The President has just collapsed! We need the doc, NOW!”

“Mr. President!” Fleming continued to call out. “Jim, does he have a pulse?”

“Nothing yet!” Carmichael replied as he continued with the compressions.

“Jim, move aside,” Dr. Mike Lee ordered, as one of the orderlies resumed the compressions.

“Did anyone see what happened?” Dr. Lee asked to no one in particular.

“No, we were all watching the screen when we heard his head hit the table,” Donner replied.

“Okay, it looks like he’s had a massive stroke at the very least,” Lee noted after a very cursory exam. “We need to get him to GW immediately”—George Washington University Hospital. “Let them know we’ll be there in five minutes.”

“I’m on the horn with them now,” agent Joe Harper, chief of President Barre’s Secret Service detail replied.

“Let them know the President needs immediate surgery for a ruptured brain aneurysm. He’s completely unresponsive!”

“Did you hear that?” Harper yelled into the phone.

“We got it. We’ll be ready,” came the reply.

“They’re waiting for you,” Donner yelled to Dr. Lee as he ran with the president’s gurney to the waiting ambulance.

“De, looks like you’re up,” Carmichael simply stated.

“Yeah, okay, Tom — you’re with the president and First Lady. Let us know of any developments. We’ll be going over everything here in the meantime.”

“Will do.”

“Okay, Felix? Jim? Have we even had a chance to analyze this video as yet? Everything looks authentic but we need to make sure they haven’t simply cobbled this together.”

“Madam Vice President, we haven’t had time. This just broke a couple hours ago. Our staff is working on this but as you mentioned, everything appears to be authentic.”

“Okay, let’s get Chris in here right away. She’s going to have a long day but she’ll need to get prepped for this one. Next, what about Colonel Marshall?”

“For starters, do we know what all Colonel Marshall has for family? If not, we need to find out and then, if needed, get someone over to her home and let the family know right away,” Carmichael replied. “We do not want them seeing this on TV before we can get to them. Then, yeah, we need to confirm that this is indeed Secretary Johnson and Colonel Marshall. We probably need to confirm a few other things as well but we do not confirm anything about the nuclear weapons that are missing. Even though it may look pretty clear that they have them, I’d simply let out something along the line that a good video editor can create all kinds of misinformation.”

“General, do you know Colonel Marshall?”

“I do not, but we’ll find out and let you know.”

“What about President Barre?”

“I’ll take care of that,” Donner replied, “but I’ll let Chris handle the usual briefing, even though this is going to be anything but usual.”

“Dr. Kayani, Mohammed tells me your work looks very promising,” al-Baghdadi said to his visitor as he entered the Imam’s office in the mosque.

“It is indeed, Imam. Though I must say, I like the way you’ve adorned your office,” Kayani said, looking at the naked women on each side of Baghdadi. “Getting here a day early allowed me to get the shop all set up. The action links on these bombs are not as sophisticated as I feared they might be. I’ll still need to work with the arming mechanisms in the rear assembly of each one but it won’t be as bad as I imagined. It’s still a tedious process but not as bad as it could have been. We got started late yesterday afternoon and I worked well into the evening. So far, I have completed three of them. I should be able to rebuild five, maybe six, of these every day.”

“Excellent! That is very good news. Do you think you could have eight of them completed by tonight?”

“I would think so. I’ll need to get up to Batman as soon as I’ve finished with those. We’ll need to convert each of the fighters as well. Though the F-16 is capable of carrying the B-61, the Americans never installed the electronics for Turkey’s version of the fighter to carry the bomb. It’s a relatively simple upgrade but each plane will need to be converted to carry the weapon. Unfortunately, it’s not the same engineering package for every bomb the Americans field. I would expect I’ll be able to get up there and complete this process sometime tomorrow.”

“Outstanding!” Shishani replied.

“Wait a minute,” Secretary Johnson said, all of a sudden finding the courage to speak up. “I think I know you,” she said, indicating Dr. Kayani.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever met, Madam Secretary. I’m sure I would remember you,” Kayani replied with an admiring look.

Johnson gave him a very disapproving frown but followed up, “Kayani? That’s not an Arabic name, is it?”

“It is not. I am from Pakistan.”

“Oh, my God,” Marshall quietly sighed as the sudden realization hit her. “AQ Kahn. You worked with AQ Kahn, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. I’m impressed, Colonel.”

“I flew the Bone and B-2s prior to the C-32. I figured if I was going to be carrying nukes around, I wanted to know a thing or two about them, and who all had ‘em.”

“He was a brilliant man, though I’ve been able to make a few improvements to his design,” Kayani replied.

“And ‘Shishani?’” Johnson asked, looking at the general. “That’s not Arabic, either, is it?”

“It is Arabic, but it means ‘the Chechen,’ Madam Secretary,” General Shishani replied.

“Where have I heard that name before?” Secretary Johnson asked almost rhetorically. “I know, one of the captains of the freighters that attacked us. His name was Shishani, too.”

“Ah, so you know my brother. Yes, he was one of the captains of the ships that launched the missiles at your east coast cities. Neither one of us has any love for your country or the Russians!”

“Then, it was you who lost your wife and son at Beslan. Oh, my God!”

“Your intel is a little off, Madam Secretary. I lost my wife, son and daughter when the Russians stormed the school. I despise the Russians. And, yes, you will find the Caliphate has all kinds of ethnic groups in it. We even have a few Americans, as I believe you are fully aware.”

“Yes, I am, and it thoroughly disgusts me.”

“Madam Secretary,” Shishani replied, “I believe you are familiar with Victor Hugo?”

“Of course.”

“Well then, I am sure you are familiar with his notion that ‘There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.’ Madam Secretary, the time has arrived for the idea of the Caliphate. Nothing you do, nor that of your allies, can defeat the idea of the Caliphate. The ease with which we captured you and your countryman, as well as your own nuclear weapons, clearly demonstrates this. Your countryman will come and try to rescue you and recover the bombs. However, they will fail in their attempt to rescue you and they will be too late in their attempt to recover the weapons.”

“Just what do you have planned?” Colonel Marshall asked.

“My dear Colonel, you need not concern yourself with this,” Shishani replied. “I know you are familiar with the F-16 and its range. Just think of the targets within range of Batman. Virtually every city in western Europe can be reached.”

“You’ll never get anywhere near any city in Europe.”

“Colonel, it wouldn’t be that difficult. With the turmoil in Turkey right now, how difficult would it be to simulate a Turkish pilot, flying an F-16, ‘defecting’ if you will and flying to the West? Think about it, would anyone blame a pilot for fleeing the country and heading to Greece, Italy, or even Germany? And an F-16? Most every country in NATO flies the plane — the Greeks, the Italians, Belgium, even the Poles fly the plane. You think one or two Turkish F-16s will raise any suspicion? I think not.”

“You bastard!” Marshall simply replied. “You’ll kill millions. All in the name of Allah? You bastard.”

“Actually, in the name of the Mahdi, but yes,” Shishani replied. “Dr. Kayani, thanks for the update. We won’t keep you any longer.”

“Thank you, General. I will take my leave and get back to work.”

As Dr. Kayani left the mosque, no one noticed that one of the pedestrians across the street shot multiple pictures of the engineer.