Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 05 (53 page)

 
          
“The
President—you mean, the President of fucking
Iran
?”
“Hey, watch your sacrilegious language,
young man,” Briggs scolded Wohl. “This is serious, man—some bad shit could be
happening any hour now out in the Gulf. Nateq-Nouri told us about it, he asked
for our help, and he sprung the colonel for us to show he’s for real—he
probably just sacrificed his own life to help us. In return, he wants us to
trash
Iran
’s aircraft carrier ...”

 
          
“What?”

           
“Never mind now, Chris—when we get
back, we’ll get hold of Future Flight and get them loaded up for bear again.
Right now, we gotta get the colonel before the Pasdaran troopers shut the door
on us for good. Let’s hit it, Marine.” Briggs and Behrouzi trotted off down
their preplanned exfiltration route, leaving a totally perplexed Chris Wohl and
his fellow ISA commandos shaking their heads.

The White House Oval Office,
Washington, d.c.

27 APRIL 1997
,
2136 HOURS LOCAL TIME

 
          
“General
Buzhazi, this is President Kevin Martindale, calling from
Washington
,
D.C.
How are you this morning?”

 
          
The
translator’s voice responded, “Very well, thank you.” A Farsi-speaking
interpreter listening in on the line made notes on a computer terminal in front
of the President, verifying the accuracy of the Iranian translator.

 
          
“I
wish to speak to you about the aircraft carrier
Khomeini,
General,” the President said. “My government has received
disturbing news. We have learned that the carrier is carrying a cruise missile
with a nuclear warhead.”

 
          
There
was a very long pause after the translation; then: “The Islamic Republic cannot
confirm or deny the presence of any nuclear weapons that may or may not be in
our possession, Mr. President.” Martindale swore under his breath, glaring
angrily at the wall as Vice President Ellen Whiting, Secretary of State Jeffrey
Hartman, Secretary of Defense Arthur Chastain, and National Security Advisor
Philip Freeman looked on. The President recognized Buzhazi’s response—it was
the standard response of the
U.S.
military when asked that very same question
about any of its bases or warships. The
United States
never spoke about its deployment of nuclear
weapons. “I see, General,” Martindale said.

 
          
“Is
there anything else, Mr. President?”

 
          
“You
do realize, sir, that
Iran
’s possession of nuclear weapons and
long-range maritime missile technology fitted with such warheads is in
violation of the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the 1993 Missile
Technology Export Treaty,” the President said. “
Iran
signed these treaties without
reservations.”

 
          
“The
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was signed by the traitor Shah Reza Pahlavi’s
regime, Mr. President,” Buzhazi reminded him, “not by the Islamic revolutionary
government. It holds no validity for us. I am not familiar at all with the
other agreement.”

 
          
“Your
membership in the United Nations, the World Bank, OPEC, the Seabeds Committee,
and the International Civil Aeronautics Organization also predate the Islamic
revolution,” the President said. “Should we consider your membership in all
those organizations also without validity?”

 
          
“You
may do as you wish, Mr. President,” Buzhazi said sternly. “In any case, all of
this is of no consequence. The aircraft carrier and the destroyer
Zhanjiang
are both the property of the People’s
Republic of
China
’s People’s Liberation Army Navy. For a fee,
Iran
has been allowed to service and refurbish
these vessels, and perform flight training on them. In time, they will be
returned to
China
. Whatever weapons these vessels carry is determined by the People’s
Republic of
China
. Perhaps you should speak with Premier Jiang Zemin.” Jiang Zemin, the
successor to the powerful and popular Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping, was a
well-educated, well-spoken man—young for a top Chinese leader, at age
sixty-eight—but was even more enigmatic and unpredictable than Buzhazi. Since
the Chinese mini-invasion of the Philippines and the Chinese transfer of
potentially devastating weapons to unstable regimes such as North Korea, Syria,
Iraq, Sudan, and Iran, relations between the U.S. and

 
          
China
had been strained, and Martindale and Zemin
did not have much to say to each other.

 
          
“Since
you control the movement of the
Khomeini,
General, I’ll speak to you,” the President said sternly. “Your forces
unsuccessfully attacked the U.S.S.
Abraham
Lincoln
last night with long-range bombers, and now we observe your
aircraft carrier sailing out of the
Gulf
of
Oman
toward our carrier group. We regard that
movement as a hostile action, and we will take steps to stop it if it is not
returned to port immediately.”

 
          
“Then
it shall be returned to port,” Buzhazi said. “The carrier
Khomeini
and the destroyer
Zhanjiang
will be returned to their home port. . . of
Ningbo
.”

 
          
“
Ningbo
. .. where’s that?” the President asked the
room, covering the receiver. Seconds later, the information appeared on his
computer screen from a military intelligence analyst: Ningbo was the Chinese
Eastern Fleet headquarters, situated on the East China Sea—within easy fighter
range of all of South Korea, including Seoul; the Japanese main islands of
Kyushu, Shikoku, western Honshu, and all of the Ryukyu Islands, including
Okinawa; and the island of Taiwan. “You’re sailing a nuclear-armed aircraft
carrier to the
East
China Sea
?”

 
          
“It
is what the customer ordered, President Martindale,” Buzhazi’s translator said.
“We shall be conducting trials in the
Arabian Sea
and
Indian Ocean
, possibly with a cruise up the
Red Sea
to a port call in
Libya
first; then, we shall transfer the ship
first to
Victoria
, then on to
Ningbo
. I trust the
United States
will not interfere with the transit.”
Victoria
was to be the newest Chinese naval base— on
the
island
of
Hong Kong
, about to be transferred to Chinese
control.

 
          
“We
strongly object to that ship carrying nuclear weapons,” the President said,
“and we will urge all nations through which this vessel will pass to prohibit
you from entering their waters.”

 
          
“And
I object to the
United States
flying its stealth bomber across our
sovereign airspace, attacking our airfields, and killing our citizens,” Buzhazi
interrupted hotly. “The
United States
has sailed nuclear-armed warships past our
country for over forty years, in your ‘national interest’ and ‘defense’
interests—now we shall do the same. Is there anything further, Mr. President?”

 
          
“I
should like to inquire about President Nateq-Nouri’s condition and his
political status,” Martindale said.

 
          
“I
regret to inform you, sir, that President Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri was found dead
in his home in
Tehran
not too long ago,” Buzhazi said, completely without emotion. “He was
found with a single bullet wound to the head, made by an Italian-made Beretta
Model 92 handgun—I believe it is the standard issue to American military
forces, is it not... ?”

 
          
“You
son of a
bitch!”
President Martindale
snapped. “You
murdered
President
Nateq-Nouri!”

 
          
“An
investigation is under way, but we believe the incident may have been a murder
by foreign assassins,” Buzhazi said matter-of-factly. “The President may have
been coerced into using his office to release a foreign prisoner from a
military prison facility, then killed. Such a regrettable incident. I hope
Allah has no mercy to those who did such a deed.”

 
          
Martindale
slammed the telephone back on its cradle in absolute anger and disgust. “That
bastard!”
he shouted. “That insane
bastard! He had Nateq-Nouri killed for helping Paul White escape from
Tehran
! ”

 
          
“I’m
sorry, Mr. President,” Philip Freeman said. “I’m sorry my guys got him in this
predicament. I take full responsibility for Nateq-Nouri’s death.”

 
          
“Bullshit,
Philip, it had to be Buzhazi himself who did it,” Secretary of Defense Chastain
said. “He was looking for a way to off the President for a long time—it’s no
secret that Buzhazi wanted the presidency, but he’d be completely unable to
stand for an election. He’s a power-crazy madman.”

 
          
“And
right now, he has the ear of the mullahs, including Khamenei,” Secretary of
State Hartman said. “If he survives the scrutiny of the Leadership Council, his
power will grow exponentially—especially if he helps cement a strong
relationship between
Tehran
and
Beijing
. He will be quite unstoppable then. He may
gather enough strength to weaken or even topple the religious leadership.”

 
          
“Our
problem right now is that carrier,” the President said. “I don’t want it to
leave the
Gulf
of
Oman
. Philip, can your boys stop that thing
without starting a war in the
Middle East
?”

 
          
“We
had trouble in our last sortie, sir,” Freeman said. “The Iranians have
apparently figured out a way to detect the stealth bomber.”

 
          
“They
what?”
Chastain retorted. “What
happened?”

 
          
“Three
radar sites—land, sea, and air—perfectly synchronized,” Freeman explained.
“Each one receiving the other’s radar signals and combing them on one display.
The off-axis lobes created by the stealth design are picked up by other sites
and reported to the master radar site. It’s enough to get a weak return. After
that, just vector a fighter close enough to that blip to get a visual or
infrared signal, and he’s yours. An Iranian fighter got close enough to fire a
missile at our secret B-2A bomber—the missile was diverted by the bomber’s
active countermeasures, but one engine was shot out. Jamieson and McLanahan
barely got away. ”

 
          
“Thank
God,” the President breathed. “So what’s the solution?”

           
“The solution, sir, is to knock out
the synchronized radar sites,” Freeman said. “We have anti-radar missiles that
can destroy the radar sites from five to ten miles out. The problem is that
Iran
has got every air machine they have in the
air, and they’re sure to intercept the missile shooters at long range. The
other problem is that the only anti-radar missile shooters we have in the
region right now are on the
Lincoln
—the EA-6 Prowlers, the A-6 Intruders, and
the F/A-18 Hornets. It’ll take just about every one of them to take out all the
Iranian radars.”