XIX
“Hello?” Jackson groggily answered his phone as he tried to focus on the clock on the nightstand—2:00 AM.
“Stonewall, sorry about calling so early in the morning,” Jim Carmichael said as Jackson answered the phone.
“Yeah, it is a bit early. What’s up?” fully recognizing Carmichael’s voice.
“How soon can you get up to Incirlik?”
“I’ll check with Tamir, but I imagine I could get up there first thing this morning, ah… probably eight o’clock or so. Not really sure, what’s up?”
“Secretaries Johnson and Axelsson are on a trip over to Saudi Arabia, and probably a few other places over there. They made a surprise visit to Incirlik — not sure why — and just as they got off the plane three Turkish airman tried to take out the entire party.”
“Good God!”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know if God was looking out for them but both Johnson and Axelsson are fine. Each one lost an aide, though, and the XO of the base died as well. Sounds like they are transporting six others to Landstuhl but I want you up there snooping around — take Dani with you as well. Having a couple snooping around, especially off base, might be better than a lone American. The Air Force, and I’m sure the FBI, will get their own teams over there to investigate, and I’m not asking you to do any of that. I want you out and about to see if you can pick up any chatter among the locals. Someone took out the Turkish Air Force high command on Monday and now this. Word over here is that this ISIS group is a little more of a threat than what Secretary Johnson thinks. She feels this group is nothing more than an upstart Al-Qaeda wanna-be. Her favorite term for them is ‘a bunch of minor leaguers.’ However, Adana boasts one of the largest mosques in the world. If there’s any radicalization going on, that’s a prime spot for it. Our Station Chief in Ankara just told me that the Director General of the Turkish National Police clued him into a possible threat to Incirlik or Izmir just last night — and now this. See if Tamir has any contacts up there and find out what you can. I’d like you up there as soon as you can get there.”
“You got it. We should both be able to make it up there. I’ll talk to Tamir when we get in the office.”
“Sounds good, I’ll tell Colonel Cadonau — he’s the base CO — to expect you. Check in with him as soon as you land. Lieutenant Colonel Gretchen Todd handles base security. Those will be the only two who know what you’re doing up there — and they know Dani’s Israeli, though not her actual capacity.”
“Understood. I’ll be in touch.”
“Orders. Did you hear any of that?” Jackson asked Dani.
“Sounds like we’re headed to Turkey. Didn’t hear everything though — everybody okay?”
“Both secretaries are fine but no, three killed, including the base XO, and several wounded.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah. Sounds like something might be brewing up that direction and Jim wants some boots on the ground. We’ll simply need to confirm that this was some lone separatist attack taking advantage of a target of opportunity rather than a full blown conspiracy. Shouldn’t be that difficult, right?”
“What about your nukes up there?” Dani asked. “It’s pretty much common knowledge that you store close to a hundred of the things up there.”
“Not exactly the best kept secret, huh? He didn’t mention them but I’m sure they’re on his mind. I mean someone takes out the Turkish Air Force high command and three days later, there’s an attack on two US Secretaries, at the same base where we keep close to a hundred nukes, and ISIS is growing in strength as we speak. What kind of conspiracy could there possibly be?”
“My thoughts exactly. Let’s try and get some sleep. I think we’re going to need it.”
“Mohammed, yesterday you said you wanted a couple days. After what some of our more excitable followers did yesterday, can we go today?” Baghdadi asked his chief of operations.
“Imam, we have made excellent progress in the past twenty-four hours,” Mohammed Shishani replied. “I had hoped to rest our men before we launched but we are ready to go. I’d like to wait until the late afternoon, early evening hours before we launch but we’re ready to go. Also, I don’t believe yesterday’s unfortunate events at Incirlik will impact us in any way. All three of the men were killed in the attack and nothing had been communicated to anyone up there of our plans. The Americans will obviously investigate but we’re ready to go. We actually might be able to hit them with a fait accompli in that regards.”
“Excellent, I was hoping you’d say that.”
“Imam, ideally, I’d really like to give everyone a twelve hour notice. Let them know that we’ll launch at precisely 8:30 tonight,” Abdul Khouri, Shishani’s chief of staff, replied. “By that time, the sun will have been down for an hour and it will allow us the maximum time for the cover of night. Plus, it will give our troops an extra twelve hours to make their final preparations.”
“That sounds reasonable, Abdul. However, once we give the word, I also need the flexibility to launch the operation immediately, just in case something else comes up.”
“That is understood, sir. Once we give the alert to all of our forces, they are aware that they might need to move on a moment’s notice — they’ll be ready to go.”
“Okay, get the word out. We launch at 8:30 tonight.”
“Consider it done, Imam.”
“Excellent. On another note, the American Secretaries… I understand they continued on with their trip. Is that correct?”
“It is. They left almost right away for the gulf coast. I do not know how long they will be there but I would imagine that if things go according to plan, they will have an abbreviated trip. I can’t see them staying there if everything goes as expected to plan. I’m sure the president will recall them.”
“That would be my guess, too. I’m just thinking about the possibilities, Abdul, and opportunities….”
“Hey Lion,” Jackson spoke into his phone when he heard his friend answer, “are you still stationed up at Akrotiri?”
“Stonewall, good to hear from you. Yeah, I’m still here. I’ve had a few opportunities to head back home but let’s face it, would you rather be up at Scapa Flow on the North Sea or here on Cyprus in the eastern Med? That’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned. However, since you referred to it as ‘up at Akrotiri,’ does that mean your back at KASOTC?” That is the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center in Amman, Jordan.
“Nah, I’m actually in Tel Aviv right now helping Jim Carmichael out for a bit. Say, think you’d be able to find an excuse to get over to Incirlik sometime today or tomorrow?”
“You’re helping Carmichael out, huh? Is that a temporary thing or are you still with the 5th Group?”
“Nah, it’s temporary, but I like the work, and… it’s better than being stateside right now.”
“Incirlik? Yeah, I could probably finagle that. What’s up?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard by now what happened up there yesterday afternoon. Secretaries Johnson and Axelsson made a surprise visit to Incirlik late yesterday afternoon and three Turkish fanatics ambushed them as they got off the plane.”
“Oh, yeah, think everyone’s heard that by now. Glad they made it out okay.”
“Jim wants me up there this morning to snoop around Adana for the next few days. With all your time on Cyprus, thought I’d pick your brain for a bit about what all you might have heard with what’s going on with the Turks, and the Greeks for that matter. If you have a chance to break away for a day or two, I’d be very interested to hear anything you might have to share that hasn’t gotten to Langley.”