"And you're wondering why the SEALs are in on this," Coburn said.
"The question had crossed my mind. This looks like the sort of dream-sheet op the Delta boys would kill for."
"And the Army Rangers, and Airborne, and the Army Special Forces, and the Marines, and the Air Force 7th Special Operations Squadron up at Rhein-Main, and probably half a dozen special-warfare commando groups you and I have never even heard of. Right now, I imagine there's something very like a feeding frenzy going on back at the Pentagon, as all of the services line up for a piece of this one.
"The one advantage we have right now over all the rest is, we're here. And they aren't."
"Delta Force will probably get their tickets punched on this one," Monroe said. "They have a team ready for immediate deployment and local caches of arms and equipment. They were alerted as soon as we got word that the aircraft was off course and are probably working out scenarios right this moment. And you're right, of course. While the SEALs' combat responsibilities do extend inland, Skopje is one hundred sixty kilometers from the Adriatic. That's pretty dry, even for a SEAL."
"What Navy Intelligence is interested in," Coburn said, "is what went down at Salonika International two days ago. Even if this was an inside job, there had to be people at the airport who were in on it. Greek Military Intelligence is following that angle. And we're going to help them. But diplomatically."
"Sir?"
"To start with, we want your team to go into Salonika. Have a look around. Work with the Greek DEA. That's why we dug up Papagos here. Speaks Greek like a native."
"That's me, Lieutenant," Papagos said with a bright grin. "Nick the Greek Papagos."
"Where you from, Papagos?"
"Chicago. South Side. But my parents was from the old country, see? Patrai, down on the Peloponnisos."
"You ever been to Greece?"
"Me, sir? Never. I joined the Navy t'see the world, y'know? But I speak the lingo okay. Milao ellenika."
"How about you, uh, Stepano?" Murdock asked.
"I am Serb," the blond ET replied. Murdock could hear a fairly thick East European accent. "From Pittsburgh now, sir. Originally Belgrade."
"Josip Stepano was Yugoslavian," Coburn said. "Got into some trouble with the local police and had to skip the country. Naturalized citizen."
"I have been American fifteen years now," Stepano said, and Murdock could hear the pride in his voice.
"Well, I'm real happy to meet both of you," Murdock said. "Looks like we're going to need you guys. Salonika, huh?"
"That's right," Coburn replied. "How much do you know about our relations with Greece just now?"
"Prickly. That's about all I know."
"Prickly describes it quite nicely. Greece is a member of NATO, of course. So is Turkey, though, and Turkey and Greece are bitter blood enemies. Ottoman Turkey ruled Greece until the early 1800s. There were lots of massacres on both sides, and believe me, both sides have long memories.
"Then there's the Macedonian problem. You see, when Yugoslavian Macedonia voted independence for itself and applied for UN recognition a couple of years ago, we supported it, while Greece opposed it. The whole Macedonian question is very, very touchy so far as Athens is concerned. They'd like nothing better than to see the Serbs control Yugoslav Macedonia. An independent Macedonia might give their own Macedonians some unpleasant ideas."
"Like independence?"
"Exactly. Our relations with the Greeks have not exactly been pleasant lately. When the Pan-Hellenic Socialists came to power under Papandreou in 1981, the government went pretty far to the left, anti-European Community, anti-U.S., anti-NATO. The center-rightists took a slim parliamentary majority in 1990, but they've been just barely hanging on. The Greek economy is in a shambles. There have been threats of another military coup, like the one that ended the monarchy back in '67."
"I'm afraid the current Greek government has no particular reason to love us," Garrett explained. "There have been some unhappy incidents. One of our ships accidentally fired a missile into a Greek destroyer in 1992, during some joint maneuvers. Bad business, that. Besides, Washington has been leaning pretty hard on them for a long time to keep the lid on the Turkey-Greece conflict. Lately we've been leaning on them some more, trying to get them to bend our way over Yugoslav-Macedonian independence and to keep imposing sanctions against Serbia. And last year, Greece slapped an embargo on Yugoslav Macedonia, which, of course, is landlocked. Most of their oil comes in through Salonika. We've been at odds with Athens over that too."
"At the moment," Coburn said, "Greece tolerates us and is willing to cooperate on most matters, at least at a distance. But that toleration probably won't extend to allowing a major military presence in their territory. If Washington pulls its typical big-brother act, sends in the Marines or a division or two of Army troops, most Greeks are going to see that as the ugly Americans throwing their weight around, impugning their military's abilities-"
"Impugning their manhood," Presley put in. The others laughed.
"The Athens government won't like the implication that they're weak. Their armed forces won't like the implication that they can't keep order or handle their own military problems. We're going to have to tread very carefully over there."
"I take it we're going to have to cooperate with the Greeks on this one," Murdock said.
"So far as investigating the hijacking, which involved Greek security personnel and a Greek airliner over Greek territory, yes. Definitely. If it turns out the hijackers are in Yugoslav Macedonia, the picture may be different, but we're going to have to start south of the border. Our embassy in Athens has started the ball rolling so far as putting small U.S. military teams into Greece to work with local military and law enforcement agencies."
"Well, who the hell are the bad guys anyway?" Murdock wanted to know. "We must have some ideas, some place to start."
"We do," Garrett said. "There are several active Macedonian pro-independence movements going on both sides of the Greek border. The ones north of the border have a longer history, and more practice. The ones south of the border didn't really get restive until their cousins up north kicked over their traces, but they're making up for their late start with plenty of enthusiasm. Our best guess right now is that one of the Macedonian independence groups is behind the hijacking."
"What groups?" Murdock wanted to know. He disliked the idea of trying to come to grips with a faceless enemy. "Who are they?"
"The International Macedonian Revolutionary Organization is a good bet," Garrett said. The IMRO's been around since, oh, 1893 or so. First they fought the Turks. Then they fought the Serbs. And there are reportedly some splinter groups."
"The EMA's one of the biggest," Presley said. "They've been making a nuisance of themselves lately. Car bombings, assassinations, that sort of thing." Murdock blinked. "EMA?"
"A Greek acronym for a phrase that translates as 'United Macedonian Struggle,'" Garrett said. "We think they're a Greek offshoot of the Slavic IMRO."
Murdock shook his head unhappily. "I thought the Macedonians were Slavic, not Greek. Or am I missing something?"
Coburn laughed. "Son, you've just grasped the essentials of Balkan politics. No label can ever do justice to a hodgepodge mix of Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Greek Slavs." He stopped, took a deep breath, and began counting off names on his fingers. "Not to mention Albanians, Greeks, Turks, Croats, Hungarian Magyars, Greek Orthodox, Macedonian Orthodox, Serb Orthodox, Muslim, Catholic, atheist, and the Lord alone knows what else, most of them hating everyone else in the neighborhood. In this case, most Macedonians are Slavs… but there are plenty of Greeks who would like to see Greek Macedonia independent for one reason or another."