Hernandez nodded, and waved Robinson to the other chair in front of his desk. "Well, I guess it's time to see what he wants."
Hernandez punched the button that put the call on speaker. "This is President Hernandez. Who am I speaking with?"
The voice that responded spoke in careful, accented, but perfectly understandable English. "I am Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Vahid Turani. I have just been elected Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Assembly of Experts. I am speaking to you without an interpreter to try to ensure there is no… miscommunication, but have an interpreter here if one is needed."
Hernandez replied, "I have with me General Robinson, the Air Force Chief of Staff, and the White House Chief of Staff, Chuck Soltis. I understand you would like our help in communicating with your forces outside Riyadh, to persuade them to surrender."
There was a long pause, followed by, "Yes, that is correct. You should soon receive the text of the message I plan to send to them by radio. It is important that they hear my voice, which I am sure they will recognize."
Chuck hurried out to see whether any message had been received.
"Are you sure that they will follow your orders?" Hernandez asked. "I understand that you are not the person who sent them on this mission."
The answer this time was quicker. "It's true, I am not the one who sent them to attack a fellow Muslim nation. I am also not the one who attacked that same nation with nuclear weapons, and tried to do so with chemical weapons as well. But I think I can get our soldiers outside Riyadh to listen to me."
Hernandez nodded, and asked, "If you did not do these things, who did?"
Now the answer came instantly, and bitterly. "The criminal who for months had the title of Acting Supreme Leader, Reza Fagheh. He has already been tried, and answered for his crimes."
"I see," Hernandez said, as Soltis returned carrying a fax message in his hand. "Just a moment, please," he said, and pressed the hold button.
"From the Iranian Mission to the UN," Soltis said. "It's the text he proposes to read to his troops. It's pretty chilling stuff, sir."
Hernandez nodded. "Before I get into that, General, do we have the capability to do what he's asking, help him relay a radio message to his forces near Riyadh?"
Robinson shrugged and said, "Yes, sir. The Navy has a Triton on station in the Kingdom, and battlefield communication coordination is one of its primary missions. We just need their forces' command network frequency and any authentication codes they use, and we'll give them the frequency to use to communicate with the Triton and a one-time authentication code. We can easily boost the signal and make sure it's heard by any vehicle in the network that has its radio turned on."
Hernandez said, "Excellent," and then read through the proposed message.
Frowning, he punched the hold button to continue the call. "We have the technical capability to do what you request. Let's discuss what you plan to say…"
There were many palaces in Riyadh, but when someone talked about "the" royal palace they could only mean one, where the King had his principal residence. The Crown Prince strode forward through its main entrance to meet his father, for what he knew would be a difficult conversation.
He found the King sitting calmly in one of the Palace's many reception areas, reading a book which he put down at his son's approach. After they had completed the usual greetings and picked up their coffee cups from the service laid out before them, the King looked at him shrewdly.
"So, Talal, there have been developments not necessarily to our advantage," the King said, peering at the Crown Prince over his cup.
It took the Crown Prince all of his self-control not to spit out his coffee at the King's reference to the words Emperor Hirohito had used in explaining Japan's surrender to his subjects after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Well, it wasn't such a bad parallel, considering two nuclear bombs had also been dropped on the Kingdom. Fortunately, their casualties had been much lower than those suffered by the Japanese.
"Yes," he replied carefully. "Though the Qatari invaders approaching from the east have been defeated, we were not able to stop the Iranian force coming from the north."
The King nodded. "You now say definitely that the remaining invaders are Iranian. How did we confirm this?"
"We attacked their force with tanks, helicopters and drones. The drones sent back images from close range that our experts say include Zulfiqar tanks, which Iran builds and no nation but Iran uses. Also, the Americans have just contacted us and said they have confirmed the invaders are Iranian," the Crown Prince concluded.
The King shrugged and said, "Very well. In any case, no other nation ever made sense as an attacker from the north. Did the Americans say anything about assisting us against the Iranians?"
Now it was the Crown Prince's turn to shrug. "They claim they can get the Iranians to stop outside the capital, but said nothing about how. Since the battle took place about thirty kilometers north of the airport, I expect their tanks to reach here soon. I have a helicopter waiting outside to take you to the palace in Jeddah."
The King shook his head, and said, "No, Talal. This is my kingdom, and no invader is going to force me from my home. If it is my time to die, so be it."
The Crown Prince frowned and replied, "Father, you have a duty to your subjects to live, so that you may continue to provide them with the leadership that has helped our country move forward for so many years. Hundreds of our best tanks will be here from Yemen in a matter of hours, and Ali will be here fresh from his victory over the Qataris even sooner. Together they will sweep these invaders away from the capital. Don't make their victory hollow by waiting for an enemy who desires nothing more than your death."
The King shook his head again, and replied, "No, my son. There is no helicopter for my subjects in the capital. If I cannot protect them here, then I deserve to die, and our family should no longer claim leadership of this nation. Now go, and do whatever you can to stop the Iranians. Whether you succeed or fail, I know we will see each other again soon."
The Crown Prince started to speak, and then stopped and simply nodded.
After kissing his father on both cheeks, he left in an even greater hurry than he had arrived.
Colonel Hamid Mazdaki grinned, but there was nothing pleasant about his smile. He had just taken a quick look outside his tank’s hatch, and in the distance had been able to see the Kingdom Centre, a three hundred meter tall office building in the center of downtown Riyadh. That meant he would reach the royal palaces today, and be able to begin destroying the legitimacy of the Saudi royal family at a minimum.
If the King and his princes had been foolish enough to stay in their palaces, as they had been claiming over the radio, he might be able to deal with the Saudi royal family even more directly.
To his astonishment, he suddenly heard the voice of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Vahid Turani over the headset that he and every one of his tankers wore. Hamid realized several things in an instant. The first was that Vahid could only have obtained the frequency he was using to speak to his troops from the men who had sent him on this mission, and that could only have happened if Vahid were now the Supreme Leader.
The next was that in order for Vahid to be speaking to his men here, he either had to be in Saudi Arabia, or his signal was being relayed by someone with a more sophisticated communications capability than his force possessed.