“How sure are we of the locations? Baghdadi is known for not spending the night in the same place for more than a couple nights.”
“Madam President, we’re aware of that,” Carmichael added. “We’re pretty confident that since he has Andrea and Colonel Marshall with him, pretty much round the clock, he’ll be a little more confident in his security and, possibly, let down his guard just a bit. We fully believe that he’ll be in the Al-Qadim mosque along with the rest of the hostages. Plus, I’ve been in contact with Tamir Pardo in Tel Aviv, and they remain confident that their pilots are still in the same mosque.”
“Okay, get Colonel Jackson and his Israeli partner on the ground in Raqqa. They’ll need the frequency to locate the nukes so make sure they have that as well. Let them know that kickoff is scheduled for Monday morning. Anything else?”
“Not at the moment, Madam President.”
“Okay, what I’m hearing then, is that we could go in roughly twenty-four hours from now — approximately tomorrow at dusk in Raqqa or thirty-six hours from now which would be early Monday morning. General, how much lead time would you need if we launch tomorrow evening?”
“Probably a couple hours, Madam President.”
“That would be, what, about nine-thirty our time tomorrow morning. Okay, let’s reconvene later this afternoon, call it six o’clock — that’s the eight hours you indicated General — and see where we’re at with everything.”
“Oh, and General,” President Donner said, looking directly at General Kaufman with a fire in her eyes he hadn’t seen before, “if we get the chance, we need to put Baghdadi down like the rabid dog he is — and if Colonel Marshall is the one who does it, I am perfectly fine with that. Do you understand?”
“Perfectly, Madam President.”
XXX
“Colonel, we’ve been monitoring a warehouse in Raqqa, Syria, as requested. We’re seeing some activity outside the building. Actually, it’s from what might be the loading docks for this warehouse.”
“Lieutenant, just what are you saying?” Brigadier General Rod Manchester, the deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), asked his satellite imaging lead.
“Sir, we’ve had the Keyhole”—a KH-12 spy satellite—“parked pretty much directly over Raqqa and we’re getting real-time data. We recently saw a couple army trucks back up to what we believe to be the loading docks of this warehouse. The trucks are covered and they were able to get under an overhang from the loading dock so we couldn’t see what was loaded onto the trucks. However, we’re thinking that something was definitely loaded as the truck seems to be sitting a little lower, as if something pretty heavy was loaded on the truck.”
“Are you saying they’re moving those bombs?”
“That’s what it looks like. From what we could tell, they had a couple Humvees escorting them, too, so I’m thinking at the very least, they’ve started to move them. Where to, is anyone’s guess as we didn’t have the capability to follow the trucks all that far. We lost them at the north edge of town.”
“Good work. Hang on a second,” Manchester told his analyst as he dialed his phone. “Jim, Rod Manchester over at the NRO. One of my analysts just noticed that it looks like ISIS’s starting to move the bombs.”
“Are you sure about this? We’ve got GPS chips on them and everything looks as though they’re staying put.”
“We’ve got a Keyhole parked directly over Raqqa and we witnessed two deuce and a half trucks and a few Humvees escorting them away from the building heading north of town. If these are the same trucks our boys use, I’d guess they could probably hold about four bombs per truck. If that’s the case, we’ve lost track of at least eight of them.”
“You realize what’s north of Raqqa, don’t you Colonel?” Carmichael asked rhetorically.
“Yeah, I do,” came the fatalistic reply.
“How does the B-61 compare to your nukes?” Stonewall asked Dani. “I’m assuming you’re familiar with your own bombs.”
“Stonewall, you can be so infuriating at times,” Dani replied.
“What? You make it sound like that’s a state secret or something,” he replied with a grin as a lounge pillow came flying right at him.
“Yes, I am familiar with ours,” Dani replied, knowing she was clearly acknowledging the obvious. Yours is a little more sophisticated as the B-61 has a ‘dial-a-yield’ mechanism that can be set for a specific mission. We’ve never been concerned with adjusting the size of the yield — if we’re going to detonate one, there’s no reason for us to scale it back — we’re going to want the maximum effect.”
“Certainly understand that, if things have gotten that bad that you’re going to use a nuke, no sense in limiting its effect.”
“Does Rivka know how involved you are with everything that’s going on?” Jackson continued, changing the subject. “Now that you’re going to have either a niece or a nephew, is she going to be a little more concerned with what all you do for Tamir? I know this week’s a little more involved than most but the next few days could be pretty crazy.”
“I think in a way she does. I mean, I couldn’t really hide my injuries from Tehran. Plus, she’s seen the scars I’ve picked up — I mean, anytime I wear a short sleeve top the scar across my left arm sticks out like a sore thumb, and with a bikini at the beach, there’s no hiding the scar across the side of my chest. Of course, getting shot a couple months ago really got her attention. I think that shook her up a bit.”
“How much longer do you plan on staying with the Unit?”
“I don’t know. I love what I do, in spite of the danger. At the same time, both my dad and Tamir are pretty banged up physically. I mean, you can’t tell looking at them but… well you know, this lifestyle really takes its toll on the body. I don’t want to be an arthritic cripple when I’m forty — and that’s not too far off — so I’ll probably stay on for a few more years and then call it quits — unless something better comes along,” she added with an impish grin.
“’Something better’ huh?” Jackson replied. “And I’m sure you don’t have anything in mind, either, right?” he added, knowing full well what she meant.
“Oh… I might. How ‘bout you? You’ve been at this a lot longer than I have and that black patch over your eye tells a clear story of where you’ve been.”
“I’ve already moved beyond being one of the ‘door-kickers’ and I’m pretty much a ‘violence-manager’ when it comes to the actual action. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m not in the thick of it at times, as you well know. But, yeah, it’s definitely taken its toll on me. I’d like to stay in the business but move on to more of the strategy side of things at some point — especially if they give me a star. If that happens, pretty sure I’ll be kicked upstairs — but for right now, I really enjoy what I do.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ll be getting that star. What do you think our prospects are for getting everyone, and everything back?” Dani asked.
“And unscathed?” Jackson asked, finishing her question.
“Yeah, as this has ‘frontal assault’ written all over it.”
“Pretty good, I think. I mentioned a couple days ago that I’d worked with the Kurds a few years ago. They’re good fighters and I’m sure they’ll be helping us out with this. Since JSOC is doing the initial planning, I’m sure Logan’s included them in on this. It only makes sense — they’re already here and they know the landscape — plus, many of us in the teams have worked with them before and know several of them on a personal basis. The biggest hurdle we have this time is that ISIS knows we’re coming — they don’t know when, and they don’t know how, but they know we’re coming — and that makes achieving the element of surprise that much more difficult. That doesn’t rule out deception — that’s one of the main rules in the Special Forces. In this case, we need to figure out a way to make them believe what they see is what they expect — when that won’t actually be the case, make sense? We’ll do it but no one said it was going to be easy.”