“Okay, good to know Chaos, we’ll look in to it.”
“Roger that, I’ll let you know when Odin-Seven is airborne.”
“Nightwatch, Viking. How’re things looking?” Johannes Edberg asked as he introduced himself to his combat controller.
“We’re looking good,” Nightwatch replied. “Chaos has secured the nukes and probably has half of them loaded by now. From the way it sounds, they were about to move a few more of them out of here. Once they’re done over there, they’ll join us raiding the mosque to free the hostages.”
“What’s the word from Cougar?”
“Nothing good. ISIS didn’t take the bait. They’ve actually set up positions by each bridge, keeping Cougar from crossing.”
“Okay, how soon before Chaos can join us? Do we know?”
“It should be pretty soon. He told Archangel they’d be airborne in about ten minutes. Let’s get him on the horn.”
“Chaos, Viking actual,” Edberg called to Stonewall.
“Chaos here, go Viking.”
“Any idea how soon you’ll have those bombs loaded?”
“We’ve got about two truckloads left. One is just leaving the warehouse and Falcon is loading the other one right now. Figure we should have them completely loaded in a little more than five minutes. The plane’s ready to go so as soon as the cargo is secured, they’ll be out of here. We should be able to hit the mosque in about ten minutes, tops.”
“Okay, Chaos, how do you want to play this since ISIS hasn’t taken the bait?” Viking asked.
“This isn’t going to be easy but here’s the way I want to play this out,” Chaos began, looking at a street map of Raqqa. “Viking, take two of your LAVs and establish a blocking position around the Clock-tower Round-about. This looks to be a natural choke point for any ISIS forces coming up from the two bridges if they want to fall back and reinforce their friends at the mosque so it’s going to be a pretty valuable piece of real estate. Once we’re done here, we’ll take our two LAVs, and the trucks we need to transport everyone else and assault the mosque from the south while you hit it from the north. We’ll wait for you to make the initial assault. Then, since we’ll be using their trucks and coming up from the river, we should be able to get a jump on them. With any luck, they’ll think we’re reinforcements. By the time they realize who we are, it’ll be too late.”
“What about Secretary Johnson and Colonel Marshall?” Viking asked.
“We’ll get them on the way out. We’ve had eyes on them for the past several hours,” Stonewall replied. “With any luck, they’ll have dropped their guard just a little thinking we don’t know where they’re at since, by that time, we’ll have driven by their location several times.”
“Imam, I think it might be best if we get you over to the mosque,” General Shishani advised Baghdadi. Everyone in the room could hear the constant rumble of the bombs exploding from their positions along the river as well as the constant roar of US aircraft overhead. “I don’t believe the Americans will get past the river but just in case, the mosque is much more secure than you are here, sir.”
“I think you might be right, General,” Baghdadi replied.
“Ladies, we are moving back to the mosque,” Shishani said to both Secretary Johnson and Colonel Marshall. “Here are your Burkas.”
“Keep it for yourself,” Marshall replied.
“Colonel, if you want to play ‘Lady Godiva’ that is fine with me,” Shishani replied.
“I’m with her,” Johnson replied.
“As you wish, Madam Secretary. Ladies, let’s go….”
“General!” Abdul Khouri yelled out bursting through the door. “The Americans have landed several planes here in the city!”
“What?!? Where could they land them? We only have the one air strip and General Van has his plane over there right now. Are you sure you’re not mistaking Van’s plane getting ready to take off, Abdul?”
“General, they’ve landed on Highway 6 just north of here!”
“How could they do that?” Shishani replied.
“I don’t know sir, but we have reports of American troops throughout the city!” And, as if on cue, the two LAVs from Viking Three and Viking Five whizzed right past the hotel, their 25 mm cannon firing as they went.
“Imam, it might be better if we stayed here. The Americans will most certainly target the mosque where all of the hostages are at. I’m sure they know of their location. However, I don’t believe they know we are here right now.”
“Okay, General, but get as many men here as you can — discretely! I don’t want to tip off anyone who might be watching where we are at.”
“Understood,” Shishani replied.
“What of General Van?” Baghdadi asked Khouri.
“I don’t know, Imam. I haven’t been able to reach him,” he replied.
“Hmm… Is there a problem here, boys?” Marshall brazenly asked.
“Shut up, woman!” Shishani yelled at her, striking her across the face with a backhand slap. Everyone in the room heard the crack as blood immediately began pouring from her nose as she fell to the floor.
“Or what?” Marshall defiantly replied, now back on her feet as she wiped the blood away from her face.
“Colonel, need I remind you that you are expendable?” Shishani explained as he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head back with his face merely inches from hers she could smell his putrid breath. With his free hand, Shishani grabbed his knife, placed the tip of it at the base of her throat and then traced the tip of it down her sternum and ended below her navel where, almost as a point of emphasis, he applied just enough pressure to slice the skin and draw blood. Marshall could not see the knife but could feel the tip of it as Shishani traced it down her skin. The small cut, combined with her own sweat, stung considerably more than she expected. “You are a valuable trophy, but expendable none the less. Do not push me any further or I will personally deliver you, ala your ‘Lady Godiva’, to one of our local barracks where the men would love to entertain you!”
“General, we need to move on the Americans!” Khouri interrupted.
“Tell Colonel Said,” Shishani began, still holding Marshall just inches from his face, “that the Americans have landed a force along Highway 6 north of the city and he needs to release a company-sized force to destroy them immediately! Have him send another unit to the airstrip to check on General Van as well. I do not like what I am hearing,” he finished, as he threw Marshall to the floor and sheathed his knife.
XXXIX
“Chaos, Major Sarah Carpenter,” the pilot of Odin-Two came up to Stonewall introduce herself. “I’ll be flying out Odin-Seven with my co-pilot. The co-pilot of Odin-Four will take Odin-Two and the flight engineers will stay with both Odin-Two and Odin-Four. It looks as though the plane’s all warmed up and ready to go. How soon before we can take off?”
“We’re unloading the last truck right now, Major. It shouldn’t be more than a few minutes and you’re clear for take-off,” Jackson replied.
“Excellent. We’ll climb aboard and get ready to go.”
“Viking Two-Six, Viking Four-Six,” Stonewall called out to the SEAL petty officers commanding the two SEAL teams that came in with Odin-Two and Odin-Four, respectively. The SEALs had already set up a perimeter around the loading area with their two LAVs and a dozen commandos from each Viking team. “Cougar is fully engaged with ISIS’s forces at the river,” Stonewall began his short briefing with the two petty officers, “so don’t mistake the relative quiet here for how easy the rest of this will be. Odin-Seven will be leaving momentarily with the nukes. We’ll be taking two trucks and the LAVs and hitting the mosque from here,” Jackson said, pointing to the mosque on his Toughbook laptop. “The mosque has a huge courtyard that occupies the northern three fourths of the entire facility. There is a long archway that spans the width of the courtyard and separates the courtyard from the mosque building proper. Baghdadi’s office, along with several other rooms, are in this building at the south end of the complex… here.” Stonewall said pointing at the screen. “Much of this building is open-air with doors throughout. On the south side of the building, there’s actually a parking lot of sorts. This is where Baghdadi and his staff enter and exit the facility. The south gate isn’t more than a hundred feet from the building and leads directly to it. Viking Two will take this gate and enter the building here. Viking Four will take the East gate and clear the courtyard from any more ISIS goons. We should catch them in a cross fire as they’re currently engaged with the rest of the Viking force coming from the north gate. Okay, we have two teams that are setting up a blocking position at the Clock-tower Round-about to keep any reinforcements away from the mosque. However, since we’re coming from the same direction where their reinforcements would be, we should have the drop on them. All of the hostages are going to be in the basement of the mosque. Count on plenty of guards, so there’s going to be a lot of close quarter’s action.”