“Yes, it is. It’s much the same as the air force. Those army units in the south and east are predominantly supportive of us. As you move over towards Ankara, the Aegean and Istanbul, it’s more problematic. The key will be to get the air force to maintain control of the skies and how much of the government we can essentially paralyze before we can make our move.”
“You are confident we can do this?”
“Absolutely, though there is always a risk involved. We just need to manage the risks as best we can.”
“Very well, how much advance notice do you need from me to put this in motion?”
“Probably a few hours at most. President Demirel’s meetings are slated for the afternoon of each day so if you can let me know by eight o’clock the morning, we should be okay.”
“Very good, and what of our guests?”
“Dr. Kayani should arrive tomorrow. He’ll be staying at the Odessa. Our Israeli ‘guests’ are here in the mosque.”
“Very good. Let me know when Dr. Kayani arrives. I want to make sure we have everything he needs. We’ll deal with the Israelis later.”
“I see this place has the same door locks as the place in Tehran,” Jackson said to Arielle as she simply walked in the front door of the safe house.
“Absolutely. Is there anything better for a key than biometrics and behavioral analytics?” Dani replied.
“Hmm, smells like someone waited up for us,” Stonewall commented as the smell of coffee and the remains of the small unit’s chicken Marsala dinner permeated the place.
“Stonewall, good to see you again,” Zivah announced as Jackson entered what amounted to a relatively large conference room. Zivah, Levi and Jonah had been pouring over their laptops looking over the latest intel of their target. “Looks like the time off has done both of you quite well,” she added addressing both Jackson and Arielle.
“Time off? We woke up this morning in Palmyra and then took a couple Pedros to Al Tanf. From there, we flew home via H4 in Jordan. Now, after a swim in the Med, we’re finally here — I’ll be glad for some time off,” Arielle told her friend. “When Tamir asks if you’re ready to get back in the game, he really means it!”
“Were you out looking for our guys?”
“Yeah, and we found them, but we weren’t able to rescue them. We have a couple teams up in Raqqa looking for them so I imagine that as soon as this little operation’s over we’ll be heading up there.”
“I bet we will. Stonewall,” Zivah added turning to address Jackson, “it doesn’t look like a couple broken ribs slowed you down a bit. Arielle must be treating you alright.”
“She’s had her moments,” Jackson added, winking at Arielle.
“I would expect as much. Ya know, as far as I’m concerned, you could pass for any one of the Greek gods and I’d be your devoted worshiper,” she added flirtatiously.
“Zivah!” Arielle interrupted in mock outrage.
“Well, just sayin’,” came the flirtatious reply with a wink at Stonewall.
“How are we situated here?” Jackson added as Yoni Malka and Ayal Segal entered the house. Yoni and Ayal, the team’s explosive expert, had met Arielle and Jackson on the beach after their swim from the sub.
“It might be a little crowded for a couple days, but we’ll manage,” Yoni added. “Your SEALs are supposed to arrive tonight. Most of them will be here but I think one team will be at the other house.”
“Understand congratulations are in order,” Jackson added. “How’s Ben doing?” Yoni recently had been promoted to the team leader as Benjamin Givon, their prior commanding officer, had received a severe shoulder injury in their last mission that ended his career in the field.
“Thanks, not exactly the way I wanted the promotion but I’ll certainly take it. Ben’s doing about as well as can be expected. His shoulder is really messed up and he’s looking at some sort of permanent disability with it.”
“However, with your promotion,” Jackson added, pointedly driving the conversation for all to hear, “doesn’t that leave a vacancy for the XO spot?”
“That’s right,” Yoni continued, feigning an oversight, “so, with Tamir’s blessing, Arielle, it’s my honor to let you know that you’ve been promoted to Sgan Aluf and you’re now the team XO.”
“What?!?” Arielle exclaimed.
“It’s well deserved, Arielle. Ben himself put you in for it.”
“I don’t believe it. I mean, this is a surprise.”
“It’s well deserved,” Ayal continued.
“Congratulations, Colonel,” Jackson added with a wink at her.
“That’d be Lieutenant Colonel… but wait a minute, did you know of this?”
“Well, Tamir might have let it slip a couple weeks ago.”
“You’ve known about this for the last two weeks? And didn’t tell me?!?”
“Well, I told Tamir that Yoni should be the one to tell you, not me. So, yeah, I sat on it.”
“You are something else,” she added with an affectionate kiss in front of the team.
“Okay, let’s hit the rack. You two have to be exhausted. We’ll go over the mission briefing later this morning.”
XII
“Stonewall, have you met Lieutenant Commander Johannes Edberg? He’s commanding your SEAL teams,” Yoni asked as Jackson walked into the kitchen.
“I have not, nice to meet you, Commander. Colonel Tom Jackson, 5th Group, Special Forces,” Jackson said, shaking the commander’s hand.
“Likewise, Colonel. Ah, that’s where the ‘Stonewall’ comes from.”
“Nice to know someone around here knows some Civil War history.”
“Not to worry, Colonel. I’ve heard a little about you. Nice to be working with you.”
“So, have they told you about this little operation they have in store for us? Arielle’s made some allusions to it but no details as yet.”
“We received a few details a couple days ago. However, like our friends here, once the Russians based this network out of Latakia, what three years ago,” Edberg said looking at Yoni, “we’ve been playing with various plans on how to take it out with various commando raids. I came in late last night after sundown — sorry I slept through your arrival — Yoni and I’ve been comparing notes here for several hours and we have some similar ideas. As the ranking officer, you’ll be in overall command.”
“I’ll try and hold up Army’s end of this, Commander,” Jackson replied with a subtle jab at the Navy officer. “Well, let’s see what Yoni has in store for us. Yoni, can you get the team together?”
“They’re gathering now, Colonel. Everyone’s in the operations room in the basement.”
“Lead the way,” Jackson ordered as he had yet to receive a tour of this safe house.
“We have four air defense missile battery sites and the control tower — along with the rest of the base’s command and control facilities — that we need to take out,” Yoni began as he displayed a very detailed map of the airbase on the wall screen. “In addition, one of the battery sites is only a couple hundred yards from one of the barracks so we’ll need to be ready for any reinforcements that might try and join the fight. Each of the battery sites is composed of a mobile command and control truck, at least one — and possibly several different — radar units and the missiles along with their respective launchers. Fortunately for us, the Russians haven’t moved any of their equipment into any kind of bunker emplacements so taking them out will be much easier. We’ll be breaking up into four teams and each team will have as many javelins as they can carry. These will all be armed with a multipurpose warhead which we’ll drop on them from above. Stonewall, you’ll be in the tower so you’ll be able to see if we’ll need to follow up with a direct attack on any of the emplacements. We shouldn’t as all of the sites are in the open.”