Grishkov frowned. “It still doesn’t prove much. Whoever was in charge of programming may have had a family member killed in traffic and had that show produced.”
Vasilyev nodded. “Also true. I’m glad to see that some of my skepticism is rubbing off on you! So, picture this. After each serious accident, the dead and injured would of course be removed. However, instead of towing away the wrecks they would be moved to the side of the road and left in place for a week or so, as a warning to other drivers. One wreck even featured above it a fender dangling from a second-story balcony, where it had evidently been thrown by the impact. You couldn’t drive any significant distance without passing multiple instances of such examples.”
Grishkov shrugged. “I saw none on our drive from the airport.”
Vasilyev smiled. “Just so. As I said, it is far safer to drive now than on my first tour. And here comes the man we have been waiting so patiently to meet.”
Chapter Six
Prince Bilal bin Hamad looked at Farhad Mokri skeptically. For this highly unofficial meeting they were in the offices of one of the many businesses controlled by the Qatari royal family, of which Prince Bilal was a high-ranking member. Bilal was wearing the same traditional white thobe and red-checkered ghutrah as nearly all other Qatari men, making him difficult to pick out from the busy office crowd. Farhad wore the slacks and dress shirt common for foreign businessmen visiting Qatar, and was equally inconspicuous.
“Are you sure it will be possible to detonate three nuclear weapons against Saudi targets simultaneously? You say the loss of Muslim lives will be minimal, but will not tell me which places are targeted. Who will provide these weapons?”, Bilal asked, and then paused.
“I have many more questions, but those will do for a start.”
Farhad nodded, and said, “I can assure you that we can deliver on the attack we have promised. In fact, we can give you the best guarantee of all.
Qatari tanks will not be expected to cross the border into Saudi Arabia until at least one of the nuclear weapons have detonated. The weapons are untested, and one or two may not work. But even a single nuclear explosion will be enough to create the chaos and confusion we need for success.”
Farhad saw with satisfaction that he had scored a hit from Bilal’s reaction.
He knew from it that it was a condition Bilal had planned to demand anyway.
“As for the targets, you understand that for the security of our operations we cannot share them, even if you decide to participate in our plans. The same is true for the source of our weapons. However, I can guarantee that we are not targeting any Saudi city. We know that mass casualties would turn the entire Muslim world against us. War is not simply killing. It is truly about breaking the enemies’ will to resist.”
Bilal shrugged. “Maybe so. But it will take more tanks than we have to fight through to Riyadh, even after the confusion that will doubtless follow your attack.”
Farhad smiled. “And you shall have them. Another armored force will join your push to Riyadh from a different direction.”
Bilal’s eyebrows flew upwards. “And the source of this mysterious assistance?”
Farhad laughed. “Your Highness, if your father is willing to commit to our plan I promise that much, at least, we can reveal. In fact, it will be critical for your forces to be in touch with the other armored force as you both close on Riyadh. After all, it wouldn’t do to have you shoot at each other.”
Bilal nodded. “Well, I will discuss your proposal with my father, and see whether he has any interest in pursuing it. Before the Saudis decided to impose their blockade again I know he would have refused. Now, though, I think he will at least consider it.”
Farhad nodded in turn. It was what he had expected. The Saudis had led the blockade when it was first imposed in 2017, supported by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. It had never been completely effective, thanks to help Qatar received from Iran and Turkey, though it had inflicted severe hardship and cost Qatar billions. Within a year the blockade had proved ineffective, and after both sides spent over a billion dollars each on public relations campaigns that even included Western TV ads, the Americans had finally appointed a former head of US Central Command to resolve the crisis.
That special representative quit in 2019, citing "the unwillingness of the regional leaders to agree to a viable mediation effort that we offered to conduct or assist in implementing."
The Saudis then escalated the entire blockade concept by beginning excavation of the “Salwa Canal.” First proposed in 2018, the goal of the sixty-kilometer long canal was to turn Qatar from a peninsula into an island.
Not stopping there, the Saudis proposed to make one end of the canal a tourist destination, effectively stealing tourists away from a massive Qatari seaside resort under construction just a fifteen-minute drive from the Saudi border.
To grind in the canal’s function of cutting off Qatar from the rest of the Arabian peninsula, the Saudi government also announced that its other end would be used as a nuclear waste dump. Never mind that though the Saudis had signed construction deals with both the French and the Koreans, no nuclear reactor had yet been built.
Of course, once Qatar had been turned into an island there would be no need for the Saudis to maintain substantial forces at its border to maintain the blockade.
Qatar appealed to the Americans to help end the blockade, but they just pointed to their earlier failed effort and refused. Fed up, Qatar’s ruler kicked them out of the US Central Command’s “forward headquarters” at Al Udeid Air Base.
And now there was every reason to hope the Qataris would join Al-Nahda, for the oldest reason of all.
Revenge.
Grand Ayatollah Reza Fagheh looked up as Guardian Colonel Bijan Turani was escorted into his office by his assistant. With a nod Reza dismissed him, and waved the Colonel to a seat across from his desk. Reza looked him over critically, not for the first time thinking it had been a mistake for Pasdaran soldiers to abandon the custom of wearing beards. However, he could find no other fault, for Bijan’s military bearing and obvious physical fitness made him look like he had just stepped out of a recruiting poster. Well, time to see if performance matched appearance.
“Report, Colonel.”
Bijan nodded. “I believe we have developed a plan with a high probability of success. I must warn you, however, that the plan is complex, and will require our best men and equipment to implement.”
Reza said nothing, and gestured impatiently for Bijan to proceed.
Bijan paused, and then said, “We realized first that we could never fly a nuclear weapon directly from Iran to Riyadh. No matter how many fighters the Saudis divert to the war in Yemen, there will be more than enough left to respond to a flight originating in Iran that proceeds to overfly the Kingdom.
In fact, the flight might be intercepted the moment it approaches Saudi airspace, since we know they monitor all air traffic crossing the Gulf, and fly regular patrols along the coast. Instead, we will fly the weapon into Bahrain Airport, where we have agents who can prevent its discovery by Bahraini officials.”
Reza nodded. This made sense. After all, Bahrain was just a short drive from the Saudi border.
Bijan continued, “We will have a Boeing CH-47 Chinook already at Bahrain Airport, ready to carry the weapon to its final destination. It will have a flight plan showing its destination as an oil field about twenty minutes flying time south of Riyadh. Since Chinooks are routinely used to deliver oilfield equipment and we have agents in place at Saudi Aramco, we will have no trouble with clearance.”