“Stan, Jim Carmichael. Say, I’m following up on something we found out earlier this morning about ISIS. Do you know what type of PAL the B-61s at Incirlik had?”
“Yes, we do, they were predominantly CAT Cs. They’re an older device that we were in a bit of a rush to get upgraded. They disable the device but do not actually destroy the weapon,” Kaufman replied somewhat hesitantly.
“So, I take it that we can’t remotely access these devices, then either, can we?”
“No, we can’t. Why?” Kaufman asked with noticeable growing trepidation. “What’s up?”
“I just heard from Colonel Tom Jackson….”
“This the same guy you had in Iran a couple months ago, right?” Kaufman asked.
“Yes, it is. He’s currently in Aviano with Mossad’s agent getting the once over of the B-61. It sounds like they’ve identified an engineer by the name of Mohammed Kayani that’s currently up in Raqqa. Apparently, he worked under AQ Kahn in Pakistan.”
“What? You’re sure about this, right?”
“As sure as we can possibly be. The photos were taken just this morning.”
“We got a problem. I need to let General Logan know right away. Meet me at the White House in an hour.”
“General, I’ve just finished the eighth bomb,” Dr. Kayani advised General Shishani. “I need to get started on the planes as soon as possible if we are to meet our deadline.”
“Excellent. We need to let the Imam know right away. He is most anxious. How long do you think it will take to fix the planes?”
“That should not take too long. It might actually take longer to drive up to Batman than it will to update the aircraft.”
“That is very good news. Will the work on the bombs slow down due to your absence up north?”
“Not really, my staff knows how to disassemble the weapons. This has to be done anyway so while I’m away this evening and tomorrow, they’ll continue their work. Once I return, I’ll be able to work on their reassembly right away.”
“Imam, Dr. Kayani here informs me that he is ready to head up to Batman with the first of the bombs.”
“Wonderful. So, we could essentially launch the Mahdi operation Sunday evening? Is that correct?”
“Yes, I believe it is. I still hope to get up there tonight and that will give me all day to work on wiring each of the planes to accommodate the B-61s. I don’t anticipate any problems with the wiring so I would think tomorrow night we’d be ready to go. I’ll keep General Shishani apprised of the status of the work on the planes.”
“You’ll never get away with this,” Secretary of State Johnson piped in.
“Madam Secretary, glad to know you’re still with us,” Shishani said, giving her a lecherous look. “However, at this point, I don’t believe there’s anyone to stop us. You see, Dr. Kayani has disabled the GPS devices so you will not be able to track them but he has not done anything to actually destroy the GPS chips — if that is what you are referring to.”
“You see, Madam Secretary,” Kayani continued, “your American friends can still locate the GPS devices. We have simply removed these devices from the bombs themselves. Once we have all of these devices removed, we’ll simply move them to a warehouse on the other side of the city.”
“As to the actual mission… well, that is something you really don’t need to concern yourself with."
“Jeff, good to see you,” General Kaufman said to President Donner’s chief of staff, Jeff Taylor. “How’s the new president doing so far?”
“She’s doing just fine, General. Thanks for asking,” President Donner replied as she walked into the Situation Room.
“Glad to hear that, Madam President,” Jim Carmichael added as he entered the room with his boss, DNI Felix Jones. “Hope you don’t mind a bit of chaos on your first day as president.”
“I thrive on it, Jim. But before we get too far along, what do we know about Colonel Marshall?”
“Madam President, she’s something else,” Kaufman replied. “She graduated in the top five percent of her class at the Academy. She’s the consummate athlete playing tennis and swimming at the academy and currently runs about five miles every morning and holds a fourth degree black belt in Jiu Jitsu. She’s a bomber pilot, both Bones and B-2s, and served a couple tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq before transferring to her current assignment. Her husband was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber about three years back. She has a son who’s a senior at Columbia and a daughter following in her footsteps, she’s a sophomore at the Air Force Academy. Consistent over-achiever, I’d expect her to be putting on her Eagles sometime next year.”
“I assume we’ve notified both of the kids?”
“Yes, we have, though it is a bit early out in Colorado for a Saturday morning.”
“Good, not what anyone wants to wake up to but I’m glad we got to both of them first. Okay, what’s next?”
“Madam President, this morning, Colonel Tom Jackson called me from Aviano Air Base. He’s there with a Mossad contact of his who’s—
“Right, we just discussed this yesterday afternoon, though it does seem like last week,” President Donner cut him off.
“Well, Lieutenant Colonel Yaniv reviewed some photos their advance team took in Raqqa this morning and she identified a Pakistani nuclear engineer named Mohammed Kayani. This guy apparently worked under AQ Kahn.”
“Wonderful. General, what does this do to our timetable?” President Donner asked Kaufman.
“It accelerates it dramatically,” the general replied.
“Madam President,” Carmichael interrupted, “when I spoke with Colonel Jackson, he raised the possibility of him and Yaniv HALO-ing into Raqqa sometime early in the morning and meeting up with either one of the Mossad teams or a team of ours that we’ve managed to insert. Lieutenant Colonel Yaniv worked on Mossad’s Iranian team for a few years trying to snuff out Iran’s nuclear program — this would be a pretty similar operation.”
“Except that in Iran, the Israelis had an established safe house, operated in a much more civilized society and didn’t have the pressure of dealing with live nuclear weapons,” Pam McDowell added.
“Jim, what would you have Jackson and Yaniv do? What would their orders be?” President Donner asked.
“It’d be multifaceted: First, they’d be looking for the bombs. Each one has a GPS chip but, as General Kaufman told me about an hour ago, these could simply be removed and the bomb reassembled — and then moved and we’d have no idea where they’re at. Second, they’d be on the lookout for this Dr. Kayani and, if the opportunity presented itself, take him out. Third-”
“You mean assassinate him?” McDowell interrupted.
“Yes, I mean assassinate him,” Carmichael replied, glaring at the national security adviser. “Taking this guy out would definitely slow things down for them and give us more time. And third, since they’d be part of the advance recon team, anything they could relay back to us for the follow up raid that everyone knows is coming would only help matters.”
“Okay, General,” President Donner began, looking at Kaufman, “ISIS stole these things on Friday afternoon — their time. Just how long would it take this Kayani guy to remove or bypass the PAL and turn this into a functioning nuclear weapon?”
“No more than a few days and he’d have several of them done. To get all of them done, probably about a week.”
“So, ‘a few days’ puts us at Tuesday? Monday at the earliest? Can we react that fast?”
“Yes, ma’am. From a logistical standpoint, we’ll be ready to roll in about eight hours. I’d prefer to give Logan’s troops a few hours to get ready and finalize their planning. Plus, this will give them an opportunity to review the latest intel from the teams on the ground. I’d say kickoff around four AM local time, Monday morning.”