Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller (29 page)

Javan hand-selected
Rahmati’s 19 man unit, including its Deputy Commander, Hadi
Hadari
. Rahmati
named the platoon the, ‘Immortals.’
This was
a
reference to
the elite troops that
fought for the ancient Persian Empire. 15 of the 19 men were top
special forces warriors in the Revolutionary Guards. The
significance of the number 19
was
drawn
from an enigmatic passage in the
Koran, Sura 74:30. It simply read, ‘Over it are nineteen.’ There
was little context provided.

The other four were
extremely tech savvy
Guards
. Their skills included
expertise with
various aspects of media like virtual and augmented reality,
photography, video drone operation, movie editing, and social media
techniques. Rahmati labeled
this
element of the Immortals as
his
‘Immersive
Media Team.’

Rahmati’s goal was to
target senior leaders of the Caliphate and eliminate them. During
these
battles,
the Immersive Media Team would gather footage and
produce innovative
social media. Rahmati would leverage these encounters to
voice
a new, superior
Islamic ideology. Over the next few months,
Commander Rahmati achieved a cult-like status. Video after video,
Tweet after Tweet, and
SnapStorm
after
SnapStorm
detailed the
Immortal’s victories over the Caliphate’s senior
leadership.

Rahmati’s Immersive Media
Team shot videos with sophisticated cameras and drones that
recorded
high-resolution
VR and AR footage. They edited their videos to
include scenes from the Immortal’s body and helmet cameras. Then,
the team uploaded the videos
to
A-Tube. Viewers could watch the videos
in
standard mode, with VR head-
mounts
, or through AR
glasses.

Millions of people
worldwide viewed the immersive videos. They featured an eloquent
and charismatic Rahmati, as he led the Immortals in
battle
against
the Caliphate. Social media pages dedicated to the Commander spread
all over the Internet. Rahmati gained an ever expanding number of
views, likes, and comments.

The Immersive Media Team
also countered Caliphate social media messages and literature. They
operated parody accounts spoofing of the lunacy of a return to the
seventh century. They also published
an e-magazine
to compete with the
Caliphate’s,
Dabiq
.

One effective campaign
labeled the Caliphate as sexual perverts for taking
nine-year-old
sex slaves as wives. Interviews with Caliphate recruits’ moms
and dads
were
posted
. The announcer asked the parents if
God was pleased with their son’s
kidnappi
ng, rape, and child
molestation. Rahmati’s messaging mocked the Caliphate
recruits
as a
band of socially awkward, un-Islamic pedophiles.

From the top of the hill,
Rahmati scanned Abu Omar’s small hideout through his
night-vision
binoculars
. The Commander was six foot
two. Aside from his good looks, the Commander’s most prominent
feature was his ice-blue eyes. Rahmati was a physical specimen,
with salt and pepper colored hair, beard, and
mustach
e. He had a
distinctive Romanesque nose.

Rahmati’s muscles popped
out of the sleeves of his olive-drab
T-shirt
. He wore camouflaged battle
trousers and dessert-colored combat boots. Over his
t-shirt,
Rahmati
was cloaked in specially configured body armor.

The armor had numerous
pockets on the outside to carry ammunition. At face value, it
looked like a vest with a lot of compartments.
However,
this
jacket
contained
body armor plates. The
nano
titanium
and ceramic plates could stop the
standard issue US ammunition. Attached to the back of the body
armor, between Rahmati’s shoulder blades, was a pouch. The quick
release
pouch
housed Rahmati’s sole weapon.

Rahmati’s vest also
contained four
high-resolution
cameras, looking forward and backward. The cameras could toggle
between different modes, including night
and thermal vision. A greenish hue imbued night-vision video,
as it magnified ambient light. Thermal imagery contrasted blacks,
grays, and whites. Hotter objects, like faces, appeared
whiter
. There
were also colored implementations of the technology.

Clipped to
Rahmati’s collar was a wireless
radio. It
allowed him to communicate with the other Immortals without hand
signals. Rahmati also wore an earpiece
to listen
to his team and receive
tactical intelligence from
headqu
arters.

“
I see two Daesh sitting
in chairs on the front porch,” whispered Rahmati. He spoke in
Persian, also called Farsi. “It looks like they are carrying
AK-47’s without scopes. I’d guess there couldn’t be more than four
or five in the house, including Omar.” AK stood for Automatic
Kalashnikov. AKs were
Russian-designed
assault
rifles. They were
extremely durable and easy to use. AKs jammed a lot less than
American weapons.

Rahmati descended the
hill. He gathered the Immortals. Rahmati’s platoon was outfitted
similarly to Rahmati, except they each wore the tactical combat
helmets, equipped with night-vision goggles and A-pro
helmet-cameras. Black bandannas completely covered the lower
portion of every member’s face. The bandannas were painted to look
like the bottom of the Immortal’s mask from the movie,
300
. The force also
carried a wide variety of weapons, including AK-74 assault rifles
with scopes and silencers, VSS Vintorez sniper rifles, and
PKP
Pecheneg
machine guns.

Rahmati addressed his
Immersive Media Team. “Once we’re in position, send the
drones
up on
my
command.
Fly one over the house using night-vision, and
the other with the thermal camera active. Look carefully. Tell me
if you see any other guards.” The drones used by the Immortals were
military-grade quadcopters. They could stay aloft for almost three
hours on a single charge. Above 20 feet, they were
silent.

“
I think Allah is with us
tonight. Omar has so few soldiers with him. I want two snipers
positioned on the hill. Take out the guards on my command. After
that, provide security and overwatch. Keep an eye out for any
reinforcements.”

Rahmati pointed to two
Immortals. “I want you to flank the house from a distance of 100
yards. Provide overwatch with your machine guns.
The rest
of us
are going to wait in position on the ATVs. Let’s do two men to each
quad. Hadi and I will be the lead vehicle.” Rahmati’s ATV looked
like a two-seat, militarized dune buggy. Communications gear filled
the back seat. The other ATVs were ruggedized four-wheelers, used
by Russian Spetsnaz.

“
Once we’re at the house,
I want you two to guard the perimeter of the
house
. Make sure no one
escapes through
tunnels
or
crawls out
windows—eliminate all
squirters.
Remember, we
’re
trying to take Omar
alive so
that
I can interrogate him. Gentlemen,
Allah has prepared you for this very night. Be
strong
Immortals. Be bold
like His Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him. Let’s move.”

Rahmati wore no tactical helmet. He
did nothing to hide his face.

The Immortals lined their
ATVs in a single row and waited
for overwatch
to get into position.
While the Immersive Media Team were trained soldiers and carried
assault
rifles,
they stayed behind at the staging era. Commander
Rahmati radioed to deploy the drones.

Rahmati examined Hadi. His
Deputy Commander’s hands tightly gripped the steering wheel of the
ATV.
Hadari
’s knuckles were white. “You ready?”

“
I’m more ready every day,
Muhammad. I believe in what we’re doing here. I don’t want any of
my children to have to pick up a rifle.”

“
Me neither,” said the
unmarried Rahmati. “These Caliphate assassinations are simply a
means to an end. No amount of bullets
are
ever going to defeat an
ideology as pervasive as Wahhabi-Salafi-Jihadism, especially as
long as Saudi Arabia and their Gulf allies bankroll
Jihadis.”

Whereas the West
saw
radical
Islam as a security and military threat; Rahmati saw radical
Sunni Islam as an intellectual threat. The first battle that
Rahmati needed to win was the war of ideas. It was true that the
West thought Iran was full
of
radical Shia-Islamists. America
didn’t differentiate between radical Sunnis or Shias.
This confused
the Commander.

No Iranians committed
9/11. Every hijacker was a radical Sunni. 15 of the 19 terrorists
were Saudi citizens. Osama Bin Laden was a Saudi, Sunni,
Wahhabi-Salafi-Jihadist. No Shia’s had conducted direct terrorist
attacks in Europe or America in decades. There were
radical
Shia-Islamists in Iran, but Muhammad Rahmati had a plan to
deal with that minority.

After seven minutes, the
drone operators stated it was
clear
. There were only the two guards
outside the house. Rahmati raised his night-vision
binoculars
and
gave the go-ahead to the snipers. Seconds later, Rahmati saw
the green-tinted, blood-mist waft through the air. The kill-shots
knocked the guards off their chairs.

“
Go!” ordered
Rahmati.

The Immortals raced toward
the house at top speed. Each
quad
carried two men. One Immortal
drove, while the second crouched on one knee, with a firm grasp
around the driver’s waist.

The ATV’s raced over the barley field
and arrived in front of the house. The Immortals on back rapidly
leaped off and stacked up on the front door. Rahmati and his Deputy
Commander jumped out of their covered ATV. Hadari had his AK-74
drawn. Rahmati’s hands were empty.

The Immortal on point
opened the unlocked door. He stepped aside, leaving the second
Immortal now on point. The new point man tossed
in
a flash-bang grenade. Now
the Immortals infiltrated the house like the highly trained
professionals they were. Off the living area
,
there were three other
rooms. The Immortals split up to
clear
the house.

Within seconds, three
Caliphate fighters were secured, hand
-and-foot
with plastic zip ties.
This all
occurred without firing a shot or any raised voices. But
there was no Omar. Commander Rahmati called for his media team to
enter the house and start filming. Rahmati lined up the three
members of the Caliphate, side-by-side. They were
blindfolded.

“
Where are
you,
Omar?
I am
Commander Muhammad Rahmati of the Immortals.
Tonight you are going to answer to Allah for your sins against
Islam. You are a murderer of Shias, and Sunnis, and innocents. The
Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him, founded a peaceful religion. You have
twisted Islam for your
own
purposes. You’re nothing but a murderer—with a
lot of Twitter followers.”

6:50 p.m., Monday, October 19, 2020 –
Columbia, MD

SWARM Op Center,
Sixth-Floor SCIF, Defense Innovations
Accelerator

General Shields observed Rahmati’s
every move on the SWARM Op Center’s video wall. Unbeknownst to
everyone in the Dabiq house, four actively camouflaged Swarmbots
witnessed the assault. Swarmbots penetrated the home earlier, but
could not find Omar. So they patiently waited, tucked in
corners—cloaked in plain sight.

“
Where the hell did
Rahmati get his intel?” snapped the General.

Samantha Powers sat at the General’s
side. “Why don’t you kill them both?”

Because of the
significance of the operation to
kill
Omar, the SWARM Op Center was in
command of the Swarmbots, not Gamers. Seven days ago, a CIA team
deployed the first eight Swarmbots on the outskirts of
Dabiq.

NSA logistics told the CIA
that the Swarmbots were a prototype surveillance platform.
After
deployment
, the Swarmbots rolled
through the small town. The drones stealthily performed facial and
voice recognition, searching for Caliphate terrorists on the kill
list.