"Yes, sir," Pupshaw replied.
The private stepped aside and Mary Rose opened the door. She smiled pleasantly as a short, light-skinned man entered. He was powerfully built, with a neatly trimmed mustache and deep-set eyes that were also the darkest Mary Rose had ever seen. His curly black hair was damp and pressed down. From a motorcycle helmet, she guessed. He wore a.45 in a belt holster.
Seden returned her smile. He bowed his head. "Good afternoon to you, miss," he said. His English was thickly accented, with the lengthened vowels and clipped consonants of his native tongue.
"Good afternoon," Mary Rose replied. She had been warned that Turkish men, even enlightened ones, would be no more than courteous to her. Though Turkey had long ago granted equal rights to women, equality was a myth in the minds of many Muslim men. As Op-Center's staff psychologist Liz Gordon had told her, "The Koran decrees that women should always cover their heads, arms, and legs. Women who do not are regarded as sinners." Yet this man had a warm smile for her. He seemed to possess a sweet, natural charm.
Colonel Seden turned to General Rodgers and saluted. Rodgers returned the salute. Seden took two steps toward Rodgers and handed the general a crisply folded yellow paper.
"My orders, sir," Seden said.
Rodgers looked at them quickly, then turned back to the screen. "You've come at an opportune moment," the general said. "We have one of your choppers on the screen here." He pointed to a sharp red object moving across an ever-changing green grid.
"That's strange," Seden said. "Military helicopters usually travel in pairs for security. Do you know where this one is from?"
"It came in from Mardin."
"Border patrol," said Seden.
"Yes," said Rodgers. "The radio operator there has been trying unsuccessfully to raise it. What kind of armaments do you put on those ships?"
"Typically, General, there is a machine gun and a side-mounted rotary cannon," Seden replied. "Usually the cannon is 20mm with a rotating barrel with one hundred fifty or so shells."
"Where could it be headed in such a hurry?" Mary Rose asked.
"I don't know that," Seden replied. He didn't take his eyes off the screen. "There's nothing out that way. There are no military targets and the villages are small and not strategic in any way."
"You're sure there are no terrorist groups based in any of them?" Rodgers asked.
"I'm certain," Seden said. "Nor has there been any movement to the region. We watch all of them very closely."
"Couldn't this simply be a hijacking?" Mary Rose asked. "Someone hides the chopper before it can be spotted, then uses it later for any number of things."
"That is unlikely," replied Seden. "It is easier for helicopters to be purchased in Russia or India and smuggled into our country in pieces."
"In pieces?" Mary Rose said.
"On boats, by air, or by land, amidst shipments of machine parts," Seden said. "It isn't as difficult as you might think."
"On top of which," said Rodgers, "the Turkish Air Force is certainly looking for this chopper by now."
"But not there," Seden said. "Somewhere along its original flight plan."
"We've picked it up," Mary Rose said. "Other radar is sure to. It will be found before very long."
"Obviously, whoever has it doesn't care," Rodgers said. "They're planning to use it now. Colonel, do you want to let the Air Force know where it is?"
"In another moment," Seden said. "I'd prefer to tell them where it's headed rather than where it will not be when they arrive."
Mary Rose gave a sideward glance at the officer. She caught Mike Rodgers doing the same. She could tell from his expression that the general was thinking the same thought she was, Is Seden interested in gathering intelligence or in delaying them?
The colonel watched as the map scrolled with the chopper. "Can I possibly see a larger view of the area?"
Rodgers nodded. He touched a key, and an expanded view of the region appeared on the screen. The chopper was now a small red dot.
Seden watched the screen for a moment and then said, "General, may I ask — do you know the range of the helicopter?"
"It's around four hundred miles, depending upon the load they're carrying." Rodgers looked back at Seden. "Why? What are you thinking?"
The Turk replied, "The only conceivable targets are several dams along the Firat Nehri — what you call the Euphrates." He pointed at the river, then traced its course southward through Turkey into Syria. "The Keban Dam, the Karakaya Dam, and the Ataturk Dam. All of them are within range."
"Why would anyone want to attack them?" Mary Rose asked.
"It's an old conflict," Seder said. "Islamic law calls water the source of life. Nations may fight over oil, but it's a trifle. Water is what stirs the blood — and causes it to be spilled."
"My friends at NATO tell me that over the last fifteen years or so, the dams of the Greater Anatolia Project have been a sore subject," Rodgers said. "They allowed Turkey to control the flow of water into Syria and Iraq. And if I'm not mistaken, Colonel Seden, Turkey is now embarked on an irrigation project in southeastern Anatolia which will reduce the water supply of those nations even further."
"forty percent less water will reach Syria and sixty percent less to Iraq," Seden replied.
"So some group, perhaps Syrians, steals a Turkish chopper," Rodgers said. "They keep the military guessing as to whether it actually has been stolen. Guessing just long enough for them to strike their target."
"The Ataturk is the largest dam in the Middle East, one of the largest in the world, General," Seden said gravely. "May I use a telephone?"
"Over there," Rodgers said. He pointed to the computer at the side of the van. "And you'd better hurry. That chopper is just about a half hour from the first of the dams."
Seden walked around Mary Rose. He went to the cellular phone, which was cradled on the side of the monitor and hooked directly into the ROC's uplink. He punched in a number. As he spoke softly in Turkish, he slowly turned his back toward them.
Mary Rose and Mike Rodgers exchanged a brief look. When Seden's back was completely turned, Rodgers tapped a few keys on the other computer. Then he turned to watch the simultaneous translation of the colonel's conversation.
NINE
The Ataturk Dam on the Euphrates River is named after Kemal Ataturk, the venerated twentieth-century political and military leader. The Armistice that ended World War I also ended nearly six centuries of Ottoman rule over Turkey. But because the Turks had sided with the Germans, the losing side, the Greeks and British felt free to seize portions of the nation for themselves. The Turks felt differently, and in 1922 Kemal and the Turkish Army drove the foreigners out. The following year, the Treaty of Lausanne created the modern-day Republic of Turkey.
Ataturk established the new republic as a democracy rather than as a sultanate. He instituted a Swiss-style legal system to replace the Sheriat or Islamic code, and adopted the Gregorian calendar to replace the Islamic one. Even the turban and fez were banned in favor of European-style headwear. He founded secular schools, gave women basic rights for the first time, and adapted a Latin-based alphabet to replace the old Arabic one.
As a result of his massive transformation of Turkish society, Ataturk caused significant resentment to build among the Muslim majority.
Like all Turks, fifty-five-year-old Mustafa Mecid knew the life and legend of Ataturk. But Mustafa wasn't preoccupied with the Father of the Turks. As assistant chief engineer of the dam, he thought mostly about keeping kids from playing on the walls of the dam.
Unlike the more spectacular, high-rising concrete gravity dams, or the sweeping, concave arch dams, embankment dams are long and wide and relatively low. Under the waters of the reservoir side is an upstream shoulder that slopes toward a peak like the side of a pyramid. On the top of the dam is a narrow wave wall with a walkway behind it. The walkway falls away as a sloping downstream shoulder. Typically, the downstream side is stepped. There's a berm halfway down to give the top level of stone a base on which to rest. A drainage layer is located halfway between the berm and the next level, a downstream toe. The effect, viewed from the side, is like a downward-sloping W. The core of the embankment dam is a high column of clay surrounded by sand. A thick layer of stone surrounds the core.