“Yes, you were, and it surprised the hell out of my team! They couldn’t believe it.”
“Back to your original question,” Chaos added as he laid out a small map of the area. “The Rangers are going to jump at six o’clock with the SEALs about an hour later. Falcon, think we can take the nukes on our own before they arrive?”
“I would think so. I’ve got several men with me and if Cougar plays his part, I would expect some of the guards will be pulled off to meet his threat.”
“Okay then, let’s try and have this part all wrapped up so when the SEALs arrive, all we have to do is load them up on the Hercs”—Hercules C-130—“and we can fly them out of here right away.”
“The airstrip’s only a few hundred yards away so I think that will work. Once the Hercs leave, we’ll then be able to hit the mosque from two different directions at almost the same time with a pretty potent force,” Arielle added. She was the operations officer for her Sayeret Matkal team. “If this works, we should be able to rescue the hostages relatively quickly. One minor detail, though, we’re probably going to need to set up a blocking force to keep ISIS from sending reinforcements to the mosque. If they can reinforce their position, we’ll be in for more of a pitched battle than a rescue operation. If that happens, we’re in trouble.”
“Good point. Let’s have Viking use two of his teams and set the blocking position right about… here,” Chaos added, pointing to a spot between the Mosque and the two bridges across the Euphrates.
“This is where it’ll start to get tricky,” Falcon added. “These two teams are going to be out there on their own until we get the hostages out of here. If they get surrounded, we’ll have another rescue to perform.”
“They’ll have air support and probably one JTAC per team. They’ll get it done. They know what’s at stake,” Chaos added. “But you’re right, we’ll need to hit hard and fast. If this thing starts to bog down, we’re in trouble.”
“Okay, folks, kickoff is just under four hours from now,” Lieutenant Colonel Tanya Jackson advised her crew. “We’ll be on station for any additional air support either the Rangers or the SEALs might need. We’ll be the top cover as the A-10s, AC-130s, and a few others will all be handling the immediate close air support. We have another dozen Bone’s from the 9th Bomb squadron and their task is to flatten, and crater, the airbases of Batman, Diyarbaker, Erhac and Erkilet in central and eastern Turkey. The navy will be hitting them with Tomahawks first but they generally don’t even put a dent in the runway — the 9th will take care of that.”
“With so much air cover, ma’am, are you sure we’re not just boring holes in the sky?” one of her pilots asked.
“Captain, you’ve been in the Air Force, what, eight years now? Are you really just a flight suit insert or one of my Bone pilots?”
“Ah… yes ma’am.”
“In that time period, when’s the last time anything went according to plan?” Jackson asked.
“Point taken, ma’am. Never mind.”
“Okay, any more questions? Very well, make any last minute plans, then let’s mount up.”
“Do you know if Stonewall’s on the ground, ma’am?” Major Lee Winters, Jackson’s copilot, asked.
“He can’t tell me any of his assignments, and I don’t ask. But, I can’t see him not being in the thick of this. He’s still in Israel as a liaison officer to either Mossad or the IDF’s Sayaret Matkal — I don’t know which and frankly, I don’t think it makes a difference. There’s no way he’d pass this up. If he’s there, I’ve got his radio frequency so we can at least listen in.”
“Chaos, we’ve got a plane coming in,” Falcon advised from their hide-sight. “What time did you say this was to start?”
“Didn’t think we’d see any of the C-130s for more than a couple hours. You sure this is one of ours?”
“I have no idea, but here it comes,” Falcon added as the C-130 landed.
“Hold on a sec” Arielle added as the plane taxied past their abandon roof-top position and came to a stop. “Okay, Chaos, that’s one of yours. I bet it’s the one Van took from Incirlik.”
“Doesn’t appear to be any cargo on board,” Jackson added. “Wonder who’s on board?”
“Wait a minute,” Arielle exclaimed as she looked through her binoculars and saw two passengers step off the end of the plane and hop into a waiting Humvee. “I know that guy. That’s Kayani. Stonewall, he’s their engineer.”
“Yeah, and that other guy looks like General Van from up at Incirlik. Falcon, do we have a way to follow them?”
“Possibly, it all depends on how far they go. We have several spotters on the lookout for Baghdadi. I’ll let them know to watch this Humvee.”
“General Van, Doctor Kayani, good to see you again,” Abdul Khouri greeted them as they entered the Odessa hotel.
“Likewise, Abdul,” Kayani replied. “I must say, I like the ‘ambiance’ of this place much more than the austerity of the mosque. I bet the Imam’s two guests appreciated it much more as well.”
“Doctor Kayani, you are here earlier than I expected,” General Shishani commented as Kayani and General Van entered the Imam’s office. “Has everything worked out as expected?”
“Everything is fine, General,” Kayani replied. “The ground crews were busy making their final preparations for this evening’s mission. I would expect they’ll be taking off within a couple hours, if not sooner.”
“That is very good news,” Baghdadi added. “How soon before you’ll be able to complete the work on the remaining bombs?”
“You realize, once you drop a single one of those bombs, the entire world will be after you,” Secretary of State Johnson interrupted. “You’ll be hunted down like the rabid dog you are!”
“You just wait, Madam Secretary,” General Van said to her as he grabbed her shoulder-length hair from the back of her head, pulling her head back while he pulled her towards him. “I have quite a few soldiers and airmen that can’t wait to spend some time with you,” he added with lecherous grin.
“She is right, though, General,” Shishani added. “Once the world witnesses tonight’s action, there’s going to be an international hunt for the rest of these like we’ve never seen — if indeed, the American’s don’t drop a nuke on us. Doctor Kayani, how soon before you can complete the rest of these?”
“It shouldn’t take much more than a couple days, but I need to get started. Have you made any progress on the fate of the two missing guards?”
“We have not. Your assistant tells us that nothing is missing so I would think that this shouldn’t affect your work.”
“Very good, I’ll head over there right away.”
“Arielle, isn’t that the same Humvee Kayani and Van were in when they left?”
“Sure looks like it and I’m pretty sure that’s Kayani in the front passenger seat,” she replied as they both watched the rig pull into the warehouse parking lot where they found the bombs several hours earlier. “Yeah, that’s him. Chaos, if we can take him out, that’ll be a huge blow to ISIS.”
“I hear ya. Figure he’s heading in to continue work on the bombs so he should be in there for a little while.”
“Falcon, any idea where he went? He wasn’t gone long so it must not be too far.”
“They were spotted leaving from the Odessa Hotel. It’s about a mile and a half from here. I have a team watching the place and will advise if they see anything.”