“That confirms, it then,” Tamir replied. “We’d heard that ISIS was staging a coup in Turkey tonight but didn’t know the extent of it. If Eric’s plane is on the ground in Batman, that confirms our worst fears.”
“Tamir, Stonewall. Jim wanted to know if you have any plans on the books for raiding Raqqa. I didn’t know if you would or not.”
“Nothing like we had for your last operation in Tehran, I’m afraid. I’m sure you know Colonel Elliott Morrison, your military attaché here in Tel Aviv. Let’s get together in the morning, say seven o’clock? We’ll need to coordinate everything as we’re putting a raid together to rescue our pilots and I know you’ll be putting one together as well, unless President Barre wants to nuke Raqqa, which would be about the only way to ensure all of your nukes were destroyed.”
“Seven AM works. We’ll see you then.”
“Colonel Marshall, I understand you are the pilot. Is that correct? I’m Major Emin Cantor.”
“Major, I’m the co-pilot, however, since our pilot was killed… yes, I’m the pilot,” Marshall replied. The fire in her eyes clearly betrayed her sense of decorum.
“I am sorry about that, Colonel. I understand you have some others that need medical attention.”
“Yes, we do, though I would like to know what took so long. We’ve been parked here for the last half an hour and no one came out to help us. I’m afraid our most serious cases no longer need attention,” Marshall continued, her hostility barely contained. “We now have nine fatalities and ten injured. We have a couple paramedics on board and they have done what they can. At this point, I don’t believe anyone will need to be hospitalized though I would like your medical staff to look them over.”
“Of course, Colonel, and I apologize for the delay. It would most likely be the quickest if you would direct your injured to the ambulances as they deplane, unless some of the injured need a stretcher.”
“No stretchers are needed. I’ll have everyone begin exiting, starting with the wounded.”
“Very well then, once your wounded have been attended to, we’d like to ask the rest of your passengers and crew to get on the buses we have provided for you. Again, I’m sorry for the delay in getting these for you.”
“Major, just where are you taking us and who do you represent?” Marshall asked.
“Al-Dawla”—Daesh—“and we’ll be taking you to al-Raqqa.”
“Major, I must insist on accommodations here in Batman and then allow us to arrange for another plane to come and pick us up.”
“Colonel, I don’t think you understand. You, Secretary of State Andrea Johnson, Secretary of Defense Eric Axelsson and the rest of your party are now guests of Imam Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He anxiously awaits your arrival in al-Raqqa in the morning.”
“Talk to me. What do we know?” President Barre stated as he walked into the Situation Room of the White House.
“Mr. President, there is still a lot we do not know, but we have learned a few things,” DNI Felix Jones began. “To begin with, ISIS has captured both Andrea and Eric. We don’t know their exact location but we have been advised that Eric has a GPS device on him. We had forty-five personnel on board and a crew of sixteen for a total of sixty-one personnel. I know we’ve had a few fatalities but we haven’t confirmed just how many. The last location we had for them was outside the small town of Bismil, Turkey — it’s about fifty miles west of Batman in southeastern Turkey.”
“The B-61s have been located in Raqqa, Mr. President,” General Kaufman continued. “It seems that ISIS has made a rudimentary attempt at building a landing strip in Raqqa fairly close to the Old Mosque, which has pretty much served as the capitol building for ISIS. We believe that the B-61s are stored in a warehouse just to the southeast of this landing strip, roughly a mile away from the Al-Qadim mosque. We also believe that Andrea and Eric, and the rest of their contingent, will be housed in the same mosque where the four Israeli pilots are already.”
“Stan, how certain are we of all this?” President Barre asked.
“As to the location of the bombs, near one hundred percent. Regarding all of the personnel, not as high, though still a very high degree. This is where the Jordanian pilot was housed before his execution, as were a few other notable hostages they’ve held. Plus, this is where al-Baghdadi holds court. We’re reasonably certain he’ll want the hostages close to him — I’m sure he’s thinking that proximity to the hostages will keep us from bombing him — which he’s right about that, anyway. This place is heavily guarded, for obvious reasons. Plus, there’s what amounts to a full brigade garrisoned in different sections on the eastern part of the city. Actually, it’s relatively close to this landing strip they’ve constructed.”
“Do we know what they have for anti-aircraft fire?” Tom Fleming asked.
“At this point, they have whatever the Turks had. Prior to that, I don’t believe they had much in the way of anything. Now, it’s a whole new ball game, as they say,” Carmichael replied.
“Very well. General, do we have any plans that would give us a reasonable chance at recovering all concerned?”
“We do, but remember, there’s a few things to consider here: We need to remove the threat posed by the ‘former’ Turkish military — especially their air force. We need to deal with ISIS’s immediate force in Raqqa — which is probably a significant force in its own right, as Jim just alluded to, along with the prospective AA fire. Then, we need to recover both the hostages and the B-61s. This isn’t going to be a simple operation. To do this, we’ll need a lot more in the way of transportation out of Raqqa than what we bring in. Relying solely on the one landing strip that they have built could be problematic — getting a C-130 in there, or several for that matter, does not appear to be a problem. However, if something happens to any one of them, it could shut down that makeshift runway for everyone else trying to get out of there.”
“Right now,” Kaufman continued, “we are looking more at the logistics of this than any operational plans. We have plans in the works and General Logan at JSOC is working on them as we speak. As discussed earlier, we’ve notified the Lincoln and her Strike Group to turn around and proceed at best possible speed for the eastern Med. Her Group consists of the cruiser USS Shiloh, six different destroyers and the submarine USS Michigan—that’s a hell of a punch right there — the Michigan alone carries over 150 Tomahawks. This doesn’t count the Bush Strike Group that’s replacing the Lincoln. I’ve put the 7th Bomb Wing out of Dyess and the 28th out of Ellsworth on alert. They’ve already got twenty Bones on the move: A dozen from the 9th will arrive at Lakenheath in England and eight more from the 37th Bomb squadron will land at Spangdahlem in Germany and, like I said, these are already in the air. We’re bringing in two more squadrons of F-22s and the second F-15E squadron from Lakenheath. These will be at either Al-Asad or at a base in Jordan. Ramstein has the C-130s we need and these are already on the move to Akrotiri in Cyprus. The C-130 doesn’t have the legs that the rest of the aircraft have and I want these close by. The Brits have already approved this. As for the Army, the 2nd Ranger battalion at Fort Lewis has been alerted and they’ll be airborne in a few hours. I won’t bore you with all of the details sir, but it’s a significant logistical operation when you consider all of the support craft we’ll need to get in place as well. We’ve alerted a couple additional SEAL Teams as well. Bottom line: By this time tomorrow we’ll have enough firepower to more than eliminate the threat that ISIS poses with their Turk reinforcements. In thirty-six hours, we’ll have more than enough to support an on-going operation for several days.”