“No, Mr. President, the scales are now ‘even.’ Any attempt to unbalance the scales…, well, you know of our capabilities.”
“Mr. President, you’ve just poked a wounded Bear,” McDowell simply noted.
“Yes, I have, but that Bear needs to know that this Eagle is still capable of soaring to substantial heights,” President Barre replied with a grimace across his face.
“Are you okay, Mr. President?” Tom Fleming asked.
“Yeah, I’ve got a headache that’s been building most of the day — probably nothing that a little rest won’t fix.”
“Mohammed, did the Americans really just take out all of the Russian forces in Syria?”
“Imam, from what we are hearing… yes, I believe so, it’s hard to believe,” Baghdadi’s chief of operations replied, “but it certainly sounds that way.”
“Do they have any idea what they just did for us?” Baghdadi continued.
“No, I don’t think so. This has all the hallmarks of a typical kneejerk reaction — understandable but still, not smart. The attacks in Boston and New York happened just a few days ago. This is more retaliation, American style. I believe they refer to it as ‘shooting from the hip.’ I think everyone can understand their immediate reaction, though I don’t think too many of the cooler heads thought out the implications of what they just did. Secretary Axelsson, their Secretary of Defense, might have as well as their intelligence leaders, but their Secretary of State and National Security Adviser are both totally clueless. By taking the Russians out of the region, there is nothing standing in our way. I’m sure Axelsson understands this, but neither Johnson nor McDowell get it. They both come from academia and totally underestimate us.”
“Mohammed, we couldn’t have asked for a better tandem of National Security Adviser and Secretary of State than Pam McDowell and Andrea Johnson, though I detest everything about each of them. They don’t miss a chance to humiliate us,” Baghdadi added.
“Imam, I know you hate everything they stand for but as you allude, because of their ineptness, there is literally nothing standing in our way right now. Give me a couple days to realign our forces and our plans in Turkey will no longer be a question of whether we succeed, but simply how quickly we can make it happen.”
“Excellent, but won’t the Americans be able to pick up on what we are doing?”
“I’m sure they will, but the way we’ll be organizing everything, the obvious conclusion will be that we are targeting the Kurds. By the time they realize otherwise, it’ll be too late.”
“Excellent! That is what I was hoping to hear.”
XVI
“Ah, Colonel, are we expecting any visitors today?” Sergeant Gomez hollered to his boss, and base commander, Colonel Nathan Cadonau, as he charged into his office.
“Not that I know of, Gomez. What’s going on?” Colonel Cadonau replied, somewhat alarmed at his sergeant’s sudden outburst.
“Sir, we just received word of a SAM flight,” a Special Air Mission operated by the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, “SAM Two-One-Four will be landing in about 20 minutes.”
“What?!? Where’d that come from?” Cadonau barked. “Do the Turks know about this?”
“They received the message the same time we did, sir. I’ve alerted Colonel Todd. She’s getting her security personnel spun up as we speak.”
“Does she know if General Van”—the Turkish Base Commander—“received word at the same time we did? If not, let her know just in case. She’s going to love this.”
“Yes, sir. She’s aware of that. And sir, it’s supposedly the SecDef and the Secretary of State! What the hell, sir? What’s going on?”
“No idea sergeant, but I would guess it might have something to do with this morning’s activity in Syria — we just kicked the hell out of the Russians. I just love surprise visits!” Cadonau added sarcastically.
“Rahmi, have you heard? The American Secretary of Defense and their Secretary of State are coming! Now’s our chance!” Sergeant Aydin exclaimed.
“Yes, it is. Get Omer, grab your gear, and meet me at Supply in five minutes. If we’re going to act on this, we need to hurry. Once we meet up we’ll need to coordinate our own moves to make sure at least one of us gets a shot.”
“Todd, you ready for this?” Colonel Cadonau bluntly asked Lieutenant Colonel Gretchen Todd.
“As ready as can be on ten minutes’ notice,” Todd replied. “We’ve locked the base down and conferred with General Van’s staff — the General’s at Batman Air Force Base for an Air Force staff meeting — they’ve locked their folks down so anybody out and about that isn’t where they’re supposed to be is subject to arrest. We don’t anticipate any problems, obviously, but there’s a growing Islamic fundamentalist sect in the area so you can’t be too careful.”
“Understood, Colonel.”
“Aydin, Omer, here’s how I want to play this: We need to get them in the open — as soon as they either get in a vehicle or a building, we’ve lost our chance. So, Aydin, I want you up on the edge of Hodja Village — that’ll give you a clear line of sight of everyone that gets off of the plane. Hold off on firing until both Secretaries are about midway between the plane and the Base Operations building — I really don’t expect them to deplane anywhere else; it just doesn’t make sense. The only problem here, though, is that you’re going to be right next to the base security building — if they find you, there’s no escaping. There isn’t going to be much for cover so you’ll have to improvise — find a vehicle to hide under, a truck where you can open the back end and lie down, something like this but you’ll need to be quick about it. Omer, I want you to find a spot in the small storage buildings just off of the terminal, the ones between the terminal and the Base Operations building. If you can get in here, you’ll be firing pretty much at point-blank range so I want you firing on full auto. I’ll be on the opposite end of the tarmac from you, Aydin. I’ll be right off of the tarmac — if we wait until they are in the middle of the gap between the plane and the buildings, we’ll shoot right past each other. I think we all know that there’s no turning back from this — after the first shot is taken, the Americans will not be looking to make any arrests.”
“Not to worry, Rahmi, Aydin & I both know what we are doing — and Allah has certainly blessed us with this opportunity!”
“Excellent! Let’s go then, we don’t have much time.”
“Mr. Secretary, Madam Secretary, I’m pleased to meet both of you. I’m Colonel Nathan Cadonau,” the base commander said to the secretaries as they disembarked from the C-32A executive transport plane, which is in essence, a modified Boeing 757–200. “This is my XO, Colonel Jason Harris, and Lieutenant Colonel Gretchen Todd, in charge of base security.”
“Nice to meet all of you,” both secretaries replied in near unison.
“To what do owe the pleasure, Mr. Secretary?” Colonel Cadonau asked.
“Colonel, call me Axe,” Secretary Axelsson began. “Well, to begin with Colonel, you can relax. This isn’t an inspection or anything of the sort. You’re obviously aware of our actions in Syria earlier this morning. The president asked Secretary Johnson and myself to make a trip to Saudi Arabia to really spread the word on the Russian involvement in the attacks on Boston and New York. They’re going to try and spread the word about how innocent they are but we’re putting on a full court press over here. Since Incirlik is practically on the way, I told Andrea that I wanted to stop here and have a brief meeting with you and our Turkish friends….”