The ISIS Gambit

IV

“Mr. President, I’m terribly sorry to hear of what happened yesterday,” Russian Ambassador Dimitri Chekov said as he entered the Oval Office.

“Thank you for that, Dimitri,” President Barre replied.

“I’d offer any assistance you might need but I’m sure you have things well under control.”

“I appreciate that, and in that spirit, I’d like to know why two of the ships involved in yesterday’s attack were Russian. As you can see from these photos, the two ships here, the MV Admiral Ushakov and the MV Tibor Szamueli, which each launched fifty missiles, are clearly flying a Russian flag.”

“Mr. President, I can assure you, my government had nothing to do with this attack,” Chekov replied, clearly surprised by the photos.

“Yet, the fact remains that these two ships are clearly flying your flag.”

“Yes, I see that. In spite of these pictures, I can assure you that my government was not involved in this. Obviously, the same cannot be said for those in our merchant marine. And for that, you have my sincere apology. Just how bad is it?”

“It’s bad, real bad. The ‘kind-of-bad-that-countries-go-to-war-over’ bad. There were approximately 150,000 spectators combined in attendance at the four events in Boston and New York and all four facilities were practically demolished. Right now, we are estimating over 15,000 fatalities and several thousand more are in various hospitals throughout New England and New York. And two of these ships had Russian captains, Dimitri. I find it very hard to believe that two ships, each with a Russian captain, decided on their own to take part in something like this.”

“Mr. President, I can assure you that I will be taking this to my government and we will get to the bottom of this. I assume it’s too much to ask to speak to each of these captains?”

“Are you kidding? Not a chance. We’ll get to the bottom of this, Dmitri, and let you know what we find out. In the meantime, I believe you are aware of our little energy crisis.” President Barre referred to the recent Iranian attack on the US refineries and electrical infrastructure that brought the US west coast to its knees.

“Of course,” Ambassador Chekhov replied.

“Well, I’ll be announcing this afternoon that I’ve approved the development and construction of an additional pipeline out of Canada. The Keystone Pipeline has already started construction and once completed will help supply the US east coast. This will be another one similar to Keystone, though this one will terminate in California instead of Texas. In addition to filling the need for the west coast, I’m hoping that the additional oil supply to California and the rest of the west coast will ensure cheap energy prices for years to come. I realize that it’ll take some time to complete this, especially given that repairing several of our refineries will come first, but I think the mere announcement of this will help to lower the seriously high prices we’re facing right now. I’m sure you can appreciate the significance of this.”

“Mr. President, I understand your need to develop an energy policy in the wake of recent developments. I trust that this is truly part of your energy policy and not a reaction to anything else,” Ambassador Chekhov replied, knowing full well that any increase in the world’s oil supply — which is what a new pipeline implied — would have a dramatic impact on Russia’s economy. Oil and natural gas served as the only real exports that Russia had — and any corresponding price decrease on the world oil market would strike a serious blow to the Russian economy.

“Mr. Ambassador, I can assure you that this is all a part of developing a national energy policy. Many of my predecessors have campaigned on such an idea but none of them ever developed one. Well, that is going to change. I’ll make sure someone on my staff keeps you up to date on the status of our investigation of the Admiral Ushakov and the Tibor Szamueli,” President Barre added to conclude the conversation.

“Kemal, thanks for making the trip over from Ankara this afternoon,” General Aydin Tilki said to Kemal Atatürk, chief of staff to Turkey’s President.

“Not a problem, General, with the first squadron of F-35s to be fielded very soon, I wanted to be a part of the discussion.” General Tilki served as the commanding general of Turkey’s Air Force and he wanted Atatürk to know where he intended to base their first F-35 squadron. “We see these as a new first line of defense against any untoward Russian aggression out of Syria and we’d like them based as close as possible to the border. However, we need to make sure that these planes work as advertised. The first generation of something like this always has some quirks to work out. As such, I believe President Demirel would like them based here at Eskisehir where we can have a firsthand look at them rather than anywhere else.”

“And that’s one thing I wanted to discuss with you. Every one of the pilots and planes have been through thorough testing back at Luke Air Force base in Arizona. As such, I’m planning on basing all of them out at Erhac with the 7^th Air wing. I have no intention of basing…” and that was all the general got out before a massive explosion ripped through the building. Out in front of the building, a delivery truck had parked extremely close to the building. The driver had parked the truck, set the timer on the bomb, and then proceeded into the building as if he was looking for someone to ask about a delivery. The driver had promptly vacated the building via another exit. Word of this meeting of the Air Force high command had reached Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS’s supreme leader, and he saw a golden opportunity to strike at some of the key leadership of not only Turkey’s military, but to take out a key aide to President Demirel as well. The removal of both posed an important part of Baghdadi’s plans for the very near future of Turkey. If this strike was successful, they just might be able to carry out another one real soon, it’d be a little riskier, but one that offered so much more to gain.

“Have you been through here before?” Jackson asked Dani as they crossed into Syria from the Golan Heights.

“No, I haven’t. This border crossing just recently opened up,” Dani replied. “I figure we’ll take this through Damascus. The last real town we’ll pass through before Palmyra will be Ad Dumayr which is about 120 miles southwest of Palmyra. At some point between the two, we’ll pass under ISIS’s control. At that point, I’ll put on the burka and look like a good Muslim wife. Figure we’ll get there about the noon hour.”

“A ‘good Muslim wife,’ huh?” Jackson replied.

“What? I just need to appear that way.”

“Just don’t show your independent side to anyone,” Jackson added.

“I can be submissive. You just haven’t had much chance to see that part of me yet,” Dani replied rather sheepishly, and which brought a chuckle from Stonewall.

“No, I really haven’t.”

“You don’t need to laugh.”

“Well, let’s face it: I’ve known you for close to two months now and you are the most fiercely independent and competitive woman I’ve ever met. I thought my sister was independent, but you’ve got her beat in spades.”

“Ah, that’s right, I’m sure it took a little independence for her to become a B-1 pilot, right?”

“You bet it did, and a little determination, but nothing like what you’ve done. Don’t get me wrong, I like strong, independent women.”

“Well, that’s good, ‘cause I don’t plan on giving up my independence,” Dani added. “On another note, I know you’ve been with the 5^th Group your entire career and have several years in the region over here but Tamir’s was right about this mission — you’ll blend in perfectly: your fluency in Arabic and that light brown hair and those brown eyes of yours have Chechen written all over it. Plus, that eye patch says you’ve taken one for the cause. You’re not sporting the black eyeball underneath with the gold Special Forces logo, are you? That would not go over very good.”

“I wasn’t too worried about blending in. I’ve been over here enough that it’s almost second nature by now. And, yeah, I left that eyeball behind. Okay, back to my original question. You haven’t been through here before. Have you been in Syria before?”

“No, I haven’t, or well… our team’s been up to Latakia many times. However, this part of Syria is all new to me. Our raid on the Deir az-Zawr nuke plant was several years before my time with the Unit but it’s the type of stuff I’d like to be involved in. When the team was up there scouting the place out, we didn’t have anyone on the team that knew anything about nuclear technology. All they could do was take samples and bring them home. Yeah, they had a Geiger counter but all that told them was if their sample was hot but that’s about it. But someone familiar with nuclear physics could have added a lot more to the team.”

“No doubt about it. I bet you enjoyed working in Iran.”

“That I did — it’s what I signed up for. It was both a mental ‘puzzle,’ so to speak, trying to figure out the depth of their nuclear program and at the same time very much a military operation.”

“And the danger, the risk doesn’t bother you any?”

“Don’t even think about it. How ‘bout you? I know you’ve seen a lot more than I have.”

“Like you said, I don’t even think about it. I do what I can to manage the situation the best I can before everything hits the fan. After that, it’s just training and muscle memory. If you’ve managed the situation appropriately, everything usually works out alright in the end. Unless the other guy just gets lucky, and that happens sometimes, too. You know any of the pilots we’re after?”

“No, I don’t, but I’ll do everything I can to bring them home. After what ISIS did to that poor Jordanian pilot… I don’t even want to think about the repercussions if they do the same to our guys. The sheer horror that would evoke… I can’t even fathom that — if they burn four Israeli pilots alive, the repercussions will be unimaginable.”