Greta was watching on as the latest group of American and American-Lebanese citizens were starting to board Lieutenant Janet Goodman’s PELICAN, freshly back from Turkey, when her satellite phone rang. Grabbing that phone and looking at the caller I.D. number displayed on its small screen, she stiffened on seeing that she was getting a call direct from Washington. She however couldn’t say who in Washington was calling her. Still, that could only be something important. Maybe someone at the Pentagon was relaying to her some new information about some American citizens in Beirut. She thus didn’t waste time in conjectures and opened the line.
‘’Captain Visby, First Battalion of Sixth Marine Regiment!’
The voice she then heard made her heart accelerate at once.
‘’Captain Visby, this is the President speaking. I know that it is highly unusual for me to transmit orders like this directly to a junior officer in the field but time is short, very short and I didn’t want to waste time by passing through our military chain of command.
First off, do you have at least one VTOL transport aircraft presently available at your location, Captain?’
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‘’Yes, Mister President. It is presently on the rooftop of our embassy in Beirut and is in the process of loading up some of our citizens who sought refuge at the embassy.’
‘’Stop that boarding at once, Captain! I have a mission for your marine that is critical to our national security and to peace in the Middle East.’
‘’Uh, one moment, Mister President.’ said Greta before running to the PELICAN
and climbing aboard via the opened aft cargo ramp, to then shout to Janet Goodman, who was standing at the door of the cockpit, at the forward end of the cargo bay.
‘’STOP THE EMBARKATION AND HAVE THE PASSENGERS GET OFF YOUR
AIRCRAFT! WE HAVE A NEW PRIORITY MISSION DIRECT FROM WASHINGTON.’
Not waiting for the surprised pilot to ask her questions about what was going on, Greta ran back out and spoke in her satellite telephone.
‘’I am sorry for this delay, Mister President: I just ordered my pilot to stop the embarkation of civilians and to be ready for an urgent mission. What do you need my marines to do, Mister President?’
Master Sergeant Vincent ‘Mafioso’ Gambino, who was standing close to Greta, snapped his head around on hearing the words ‘Mister President’. However, he didn’t speak to Greta then, not wanting to interrupt what had to be a most important call. As for Greta, she plugged one hear, so that the noise of the rotating propellers of the PELICAN would not prevent her from understanding what the President was saying. For good measure, she nearly ran away from the PELICAN in order to decrease the perceived noise from the VTOL aircraft. President Bush then spoke in a most somber tone on the phone.
‘’Captain Visby, I want you and your marines to fly out of Beirut and out to sea, to intercept a cargo ship possibly carrying an Al Qaeda suicide team which is in possession of a nuclear warhead taken from Pakistan. That ship, the MONROVIA STAR, may be on its way to an Israeli port, possibly Haifa or Tel Aviv, where those terrorists are planning to detonate their nuclear bomb. I am told that they know how to detonate that bomb. If they succeed, then the whole Middle East could catch fire.’
‘’I will fly out in the following minutes, Mister President. What do you want me to do with that bomb and those terrorists?’
‘’Kill the terrorists and stop them at all cost from initiating that bomb. Once you will have control of that bomb, steer that cargo ship away from Israeli waters and head West to the open sea. One of our warships will then join you and assist you in fully securing that nuclear device. Do you have any questions, Captain Visby?’
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‘’Just one, Mister President: how long ago did this ship sail out of Beirut harbor?’
‘’I am told that it sailed out about ninety minutes ago, officially heading towards Alexandria, in Egypt.’
‘’We will do our best, Mister President. I will keep you informed of the results of my mission.’
What Greta didn’t add then was the words ‘if we survive this’.
‘’I know you will, Captain Visby. Good luck and God speed to you and your marines.’
‘’Thank you, Mister President. Captain Visby out!’
Greta took a deep breath to calm down as she ended the call and looked at Vincent Gambino.
‘’Take all our citizens who were due to board our PELICAN and lead them back inside the embassy: they will have to wait for the next PELICAN before leaving for Turkey. I will now assemble our Third Platoon in a hurry.’
‘’Uh, can I ask what is going on, Captain?’
‘’Sorry, no time for that!’ replied Greta, who then activated her pocket tactical radio.
‘’Alpha Three Six, this is Alpha Six, urgent message, over.’
Thankfully, the leader of her Third Platoon, Lieutenant Terence Green, answered her at once.
‘’This is Alpha Three Six. Send, Alpha Six.’
‘’From Alpha Six: gather your platoon at once and climb with your marines to the rooftop. We have a flash combat mission of the utmost importance to accomplish.
Make sure that your men are ready for combat but make it damn quick: the time is measured in minutes, over.’
‘’Understood, Alpha Six.’
Greta then looked back at her senior most NCO.
‘’Master Sergeant, I am going to fly out with our Third Platoon on a critical combat mission to intercept a ship carrying an Al Qaeda terrorist team heading towards Israel with a nuclear bomb. Once I am gone with Lieutenant Green, Lieutenant Weathers and his Heavy Weapons Platoon will be in charge of the embassy and of the evacuation process. I am counting on you to assist him as best you can.’
‘’Yes, Captain. Good luck on that new mission, maam.’
‘’Thanks, Master Sergeant.’
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Greta then ran back to the PELICAN, from which the last civilian would-be passengers were being led out, confused and frustrated. She ignored the few angry questions and protestations thrown at her and went to see Lieutenant Janet Goodman, who was about as confused as her civilian passengers.
‘’What is going on, Greta?’
‘’I just got an order straight from the President, Janet. We are to fly out to sea and intercept a cargo ship named the MONROVIA STAR, which is officially heading towards Alexandria but really is sailing towards Israel with an Al Qaida terrorist team onboard. That team has an ex-Pakistani nuclear warhead with them and they know how to detonate it, according to Washington. We will fly out as soon as my Third Platoon is aboard. Our mission is to intercept that ship, board it, kill the terrorists and secure that nuclear device.’
‘’Christ! You have a plan on how to do all that?’
‘’Nope, but I will improvise something. Be ready to fly out as soon as my marines are inside your aircraft.’
‘’Right! I will be in the cockpit. Just yell out once your marines will all be aboard.’
As she waited for Lieutenant Green and his marines to arrive aboard the PELICAN, Greta thought furiously about how she would conduct her air assault once they will have found the MONROVIA STAR. With a bunch of Al Qaida terrorists ready to commit suicide to accomplish their mission, any attempt by her at taking those armed men prisoners could only end up costing the lives of some of her marines, on top of wasting precious minutes. She thus decided that her marines would shoot to kill on sight, unless they met unarmed ship crewmembers. There was also the possibility that one Pakistani nuclear scientist could be aboard the MONROVIA STAR, in which case he would constitute a target of prime interest to be taken alive. Then, there was the question of what to do if they found that Pakistani nuclear device already armed and possibly on a countdown. However, there were too many unknown factors in that scenario at this time, so she decided to keep all her options open until she would be on the ship and will have found that device. Thankfully, Lieutenant Green and his platoon arrived at a run after only four minutes and climbed the aft cargo ramp, with Green stopping next to Greta while urging his men to go take their seats in the cabin.
‘’What’s up, Captain?’
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‘’Basically, we have to fly out, catch a cargo ship carrying an Al Qaida suicide team armed with a nuclear bomb and stop them before they could blow up Haifa or Tel Aviv. So, we will do a snap air assault, rope down on the top of that ship’s bridge superstructure, kill all the terrorists and secure the nuclear device. I will brief you and your men in more detail once we will have lifted off. LIEUTENANT GOODMAN, YOU
MAY LIFT OFF NOW!’
‘’DUSTING OFF NOW!’
With the PELICAN carrying less than half of its maximum payload mass, the VTOL
aircraft jumped into the air, making Greta’s and Green’s knees bend under the vertical acceleration. Going to the middle of the cargo cabin, Greta then shouted out her instructions for the intended air assault and answered the couple of questions she got in return from Lieutenant Green and his marines. With that done, she went forward and entered the large cockpit area, Green close behind her, where she took one of the four seats reserved for officers and senior NCOs of the marine unit transported by the PELICAN. There, she could see outside in a large arc of view and saw that the Sun was already quite low in the sky. If they took too long to find the MONROVIA STAR, then locating it in the dark would make things quite a lot more difficult. On the other hand, that would allow her PELICAN to approach the cargo ship in the darkness, something that would distinctly favor her marines, who were well equipped with nigh vision devices.
Getting up from her seat, she went next to that of Janet Goodman and spoke near her right ear.
‘’I believe that it would be a lot safer to approach and assault that cargo ship once the Sun will have set: that would give us more chances to take those terrorists by surprise. Would an air assault at night be too problematic for your flying?’
‘’Me and my crew practiced night assault operations a lot, Greta. I am game for it. On which part of the cargo ship will you want me to drop your marines?’
‘’Right on top of the bridge superstructure, if that’s possible. Landing on the open deck forward of the bridge would make us perfect targets for any terrorists posted on the bridge. If you have rappelling ropes aboard, we will slide down on the ship rather than jump out. That way, you will be able to stay clear of any ship’s mast or antenna atop the bridge house.’
‘’We certainly have plenty of ropes aboard for that. Go see my loadmaster and he will have those ropes readied.’
‘’Thanks!’
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Greta then walked out of the cockpit and into the cargo cabin, where she went to speak with the loadmaster, Chief Petty Officer Mat Schenke, to prepare in advance four rappelling ropes, one per each side door of the PELICAN.
Flying on a South-southwest heading and top speed, Janet Goodman kept an eye on her radar screen, trying to locate the MONROVIA STAR. There were actually quite a few radar contacts on her screen but most of them were heading in the wrong direction, going either westward or northward. That left only four possible contacts which could be the MONROVIA STAR. She thus looked to her right at her copilot, Warrant Officer Peter Jensen.
‘’We have four radar contacts which could be the MONROVIA STAR. We will approach each of them in turn from their rear and from low altitude, from the nearest to the farthest. I want you to use our long-range target identification camera and read the name of the ships we will approach, until we find which one is the MONROVIA STAR.’
‘’Got it!’
With Greta and Lieutenant Terence Green anxiously watching on, the crew of the PELICAN sped South-southwest at its top speed of 750 kilometers per hour and at an altitude of 300 meters. They approached their nearest radar contact after some ten minutes but Warrant Officer Jensen quickly threw cold water on Janet Goodman’s hopes that it was their intended target.
‘’Niet on this one, Janet: it is an Italian tanker named the UMBERTO FALCHI.’
‘’Damn! Then, let’s go sniff out our next candidate.’
Their second contact also proved to be the wrong ship, making Janet speed towards their third candidate, only to find out fifteen minutes later that the ship in question was a Turkish ferry ship. By then they were getting close to Israeli coastal waters, making Janet and Greta quite nervous. As they were now only minutes from starting to sail past the Israeli coastline, some forty kilometers away, Warrant Jensen shouted out in triumph.
‘’We have the MONROVIA STAR
in sight at our eleven o’clock, nine miles
away.’
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‘’Damn!’ said Janet with some frustration in her voice. ‘’The Sun is still up and won’t set for another twenty minutes. If we wait until darkness falls, then that ship will already be sailing past the Israeli coast. What do you want us to do, Captain?’
‘’We can’t wait further: we will make our approach and assault now. I will now go tell my marines to prepare to rappel out.’
As Greta left the cockpit with Green, Janet made her aircraft go down to just above the waves, so that she would be more difficult to spot from the MONROVIA STAR.
‘’Gunners, be ready to pepper any armed man who will come into your sights on this ship but hold fire until I say otherwise. Peter, use our zoom camera to watch for any gunman visible on this cargo ship.’
Janet then lowered her speed drastically, in order to make it safe enough for the marines to rappel down and to adjust her speed to that of the cargo ship. She was still flying at an altitude of fifteen meters and was some 250 meters from the back of the MONROVIA STAR when Warrant Jensen shouted a warning.
‘’ARMED MAN ON THE STARBOARD SIDE OPEN BRIDGE WING!’
‘’GUNNERS, ENGAGE! MARINES, PREPARE TO GO DOWN!’
In the cargo cabin, Greta grabbed the rope hanging down from the forward left side door of the PELICAN and shouted at her marines.
‘’GET READY TO SLIDE DOWN, MARINES. REMEMBER: MAKE IT QUICK, WALK AWAY FROM YOUR ROPE AS SOON AS YOU HIT THE ROOF OF THE
BRIDGE AND START A TOP-DOWN HOUSE CLEARING PROCEDURE.’
Greta, who had slung her rifle and was now holding her pistol between her teeth, looked across the cabin at Terence Green, who was holding the rope hanging down from the forward right-side door, and gave him a nod of encouragement, then did the same at the two marines ready to rappel down from the two aft side doors of the PELICAN. Chief Petty Officer Schenke, who was listening to Janet Goodman via his intercom headset, then shouted out loud while making the light above each door turn from red to green.
‘’MARINES OUT, OUT, OUT!’
Greta reacted immediately and started sliding down, using both of her feet and her hands to slow down her descent while applying only a minimum of pressure around the rope. She took less than two seconds to slide down the seven meters between the PELICAN and the top of the ship’s bridge structure. She actually landed with a ‘THUD’
on the roof of the bridge and, seeing that the port-side open bridge wing was close and only one level down from her position, took one side step and slid down further, still
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holding her rope. The moment that she landed on the deck of the open bridge wing, she grabbed her pistol in her right hand while still holding the rope with her left hand, so that the next marine to use her rope would also land on the open bridge wing. That marine was still sliding down when a man wearing a camouflaged combat uniform and armed with an AK-47 assault rifle emerged from the bridge via a steel door situated some four meters from Greta. That man never had a chance to point and fire his weapon before being killed by a bullet to his forehead. The man was still falling backward when Greta rushed to the open bridge door and rushed inside, her pistol held with both hands. She found three other men inside, one manning the ship’s steering wheel and the two others pivoting to face her and point their rifles at her. Two quick shots from Greta downed those two gunmen, with one of them reflexively firing a wild burst around the bridge as he fell on his back, a bullet in the heart. The man at the wheel, who also wore a combat uniform and had a pistol at his belt, attempted to do a quick draw but Greta beat him to it, hitting him twice in his upper torso and killing him. As that man crumbled to the deck, Lieutenant Green rushed inside the bridge from the starboard side door, one marine at his back. Greta immediately shouted an order to him.
‘’HOLD THE BRIDGE WITH YOUR MARINE WHILE I CONTINUE CLEARING
THIS SHIP.’
Not giving time to Green to possibly protest her order, Greta ran to the internal staircase leading down to the lower levels of the superstructures, then ran down the steep stairs, still holding her pistol in her right hand. She was nearly at the next lower level when a gunman in camouflaged uniform suddenly opened a steel door and appeared in front of her. The man swore violently in Arabic and tried to point his assault rifle at her but Greta was again faster than him, peppering him with three shots and killing him. She was about to pass through the door used by the gunman when a salvo of automatic fire coming from the adjacent compartment hit the steel door, piercing it. Greta barely had time to take a step back and avoid those bullets. Realizing that the steel partition wall she was now leaning against would probably not stop rifle bullets, she crouched down in a hurry. That decision probably saved her life, as a dozen bullets pierced the partition she had been leaning against, with one bullet missing her head by only a few centimeters. Truly pissed, Greta grabbed one hand grenade from a pouch and pulled its safety pin, then let fly the safety handle and waited three seconds before quickly throwing her grenade inside the next compartment. She then heard a warning shout in Arabic before her grenade exploded in a loud ‘BOOM’ that half deafened her. As soon
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as it exploded, Greta rushed inside that compartment, her pistol at the ready, only to find two dead men covered with blood from shrapnel wounds. Seeing another door at the back of that compartment, she ran to it but stayed to one side of it while holstering her pistol and grabbing her assault rifle. She then heard a panicked voice calling up in Arabic. While she didn’t speak Arabic, Greta had heard quite often in the past Islamist militants, Al Qaeda terrorists and militiamen shouting at each other during combat to understand that the man inside that other compartment was asking his two comrades if they were alive. Greta answered for those two by jumping inside the adjacent compartment, her rifle pointed. Blood rushed to her head when she saw that a single man, dressed in civilian clothes, stood beside a table on which lay a large conical object.
A panel was open on the side of the object, showing a complicated-looking mechanism and an indicator panel. On seeing Greta, the man had a flash of anger appear on his face and spat a few words in English at her.
‘’You fucking Americans! You devastated my country and killed my colleagues but you won’t win this time: you are too late and...’
Greta didn’t let the man, who had a pistol at his belt, finish his sentence and fired a four-shot burst, killing him. Cautiously approaching him and making sure that the man was dead, Greta then went to the conical object resting on the table and quickly examined it.
Her heart sank when she understood that it was the nuclear device she had been warned about and that it was now armed, with a half-hour countdown having just started.
She threw a dirty look at the dead man near her, then crouched down and quickly searched him. She found at once a wallet and a passport that made her clench her teeth: it was a Pakistani passport! That dead man, who had just activated that ex-Pakistani nuclear warhead, had to be the Pakistani nuclear scientist who had allied himself to Al Qaeda. Pocketing the wallet and passport, Greta then keyed her pocket tactical radio.
‘’Attention to all marines, this is Alpha Six. I have found the nuclear device but a terrorist had time to activate it. It has been set to explode in a bit less than thirty minutes from now and I can’t see how to prevent that. We will now evacuate this ship after turning it away from Israeli waters. Grab all the documents and papers you will find on the terrorists, then we will assemble for departure on the open cargo deck. Navy Bird Six, I will need you to land on the cargo deck and evacuate my marines. I will join you in a minute. Alpha Six, out!’
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Greta’s next move was to try to pick up the nuclear warhead but she quickly had to give up on that: the device was obviously not as sophisticated as its American and Russian counterparts and was quite heavy, weighing well over a hundred kilos. On the other hand, that could also signify that it was a powerful device containing a large amount of fissile material. Either way, she would have to leave it here, on this ship. Her priority now was to save her marines and to prevent that bomb from causing catastrophic damage to Israel. The best way to do that in the short time she had would be to turn this ship away from Israeli waters at full speed and put as much distance as possible between that ship and Israel before this bomb detonated. Taking out of one pocket a small still camera she carried, she took a couple of photos of the nuclear device, concentrating on the markings visible on it and on the mechanism exposed by the open panel. Next, she took a picture of the dead Pakistani man, then ran out of the compartment. Before going back to the bridge, she took the time to quickly search the terrorists she had killed, taking wallets and passports from them.
When she arrived back on the bridge, Greta found Lieutenant Green at the helm, holding the steering wheel. The young officer gave her a grim look at her arrival and fished out a passport from one pocket, handing it to her.
‘’I have turned the ship westward and pushed the engines to maximum. I found this passport on the man who had been holding the wheel before you killed him.’
Taking the passport offered by Green, Greta stiffened on seeing that it was a Saudi passport, and a diplomatic one at that. Throwing a dark look at the dead owner of that passport, she again took out her still camera and took two pictures of his face before pocketing back her camera and looking at Green.
‘’That nuclear device I found was way too heavy to be moved, so we have no choice but to leave it on this ship. Let’s set the auto-pilot to head West and then let’s evacuate this ship. We now have less than 24 minutes before that bomb explodes.
Hopefully, this ship will then be far enough from Israel to avoid heavy damage to be caused there. Are your men ready to evacuate?’
‘’Yes, they are, Captain. There is however a big problem: the auto-pilot system was shot up by some stray bullets and we can only steer this ship on manual mode. If we leave, then this cargo ship may well start turning in circles or, worse, head back East towards Israel.’
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That piece of bad luck left Greta aghast for a moment before she regained some composure. Taking out the passports and wallets she had taken on the terrorists she had killed, she added to them the Saudi passport found by Green, along with her still camera, and gave the lot to her subaltern.
‘’I will take the wheel. Take those documents and my camera and make sure that our intelligence people will get them. Now, evacuate with your men, quickly! This nuclear device may well be a fusion bomb, in which case our PELICAN will need to get the hell out from here if it wants to survive the blast from that device.’
‘’But...what about you, maam?’ asked Green, visibly horrified at her plan to stay aboard the cargo ship. Greta gave him a grave, resolute look.
‘’When I enrolled in the Corps, I was ready to serve our country, whatever the cost. Time for me to pay the piper, Terence. Now, leave! That’s an order.’
Greta saw Green’s lips start trembling, while tears appeared in his eyes. He however didn’t object further and, coming to attention, saluted her.
‘’It was an honor to serve under you, maam.’
‘’And it was an honor for me to serve with my fellow marines, Lieutenant.’ replied Greta, returning his salute. ‘’Now, leave! Our PELICAN is waiting for you on the open cargo deck.’
‘’Yes maam!’
Greta went to the steering wheel and grabbed it as Green ran out of the bridge and down to the open deck. He was soon inside the waiting PELICAN, which lifted off as soon as he was in. The VTOL transport pivoted on the spot once in the air, then sped towards the Northeast. Now alone on the ship, except for dead terrorists, Greta checked that she was still steering true west and that the ship’s engines were at full power, then looked quickly at a digital nautical chart of the Eastern Mediterranean displayed on a screen next to the steering wheel. If she kept that course and speed, she should be about 64 kilometers west of the Israeli coast by the time the Pakistani bomb detonated: far enough for Israel to avoid most of the damage, with the exception of the radioactive contamination the bomb was going to cause to the air and water of the region. She then started reflecting mentally on her life and accomplishments. At the age of 32, she could already say that she had done plenty of good and had served her country well. While continuing to steer the MONROVIA STAR, she started scanning the sea around her, hoping that no other ship would pass by her close enough to be hit by the blast from the Pakistani bomb.
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Looking frequently at her watch, Greta stayed at the steering wheel as the clock approached the time at which the bomb was due to explode. Strangely enough, she didn’t feel fear grow in her then, only resignation and the conviction that she had made the right decision. The sea around her was empty of ships when she checked her watch and saw that she now had less than five minutes left on the countdown. She suddenly started hearing an engine and propeller noise that was most familiar to her. That brought anger to her, the more so when Janet Goodman’s PELICAN appeared over the cargo ship. Grabbing her tactical radio, she keyed it and spoke in an angry tone in it.
‘’Navy Bird Six, what the fuck are you doing here? I told you to fuck off and return to Beirut. We now have about four minutes left before this ship goes ‘BOOM’.’
‘’Alpha Six, from Navy Bird Six: your ship is now far enough to prevent serious damage to the region. Even if it starts turning in circles now or turns eastward, it will still be out of lethal range from Israel at the time it will explode. Now, get the hell out on the open deck, so that we can pick you up with my rescue basket. Time to haul ass, marine!’
Understanding that any more delay would render Janet Goodman’s gesture pointless, Greta ran down to the open cargo deck, where she jumped into the lowered rescue basket waiting for her. The PELICAN started flying away from the ship at once, even before the rescue basket had time to be fully reeled back inside the aircraft. When Greta’s basket entered the cargo cabin of the VTOL transport, she found all of her marines waiting for her and smiling to her. She feigned an angry look and shouted at them.
‘’WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, SMILING LIKE IDIOTS? GET BACK TO
YOUR SEATS!’
‘’YES MAAM!’’ was the collective answer.
With her marines returning to their seats and buckling their safety belts, Greta ran to the cockpit, where she patted Janet Goodman’s shoulder.
‘’Janet, I will owe you a beer for this. Hell, I will owe you all a beer.’
‘’Now we’re talking! Time to see how powerful that Pakistani nuclear device is.
We have 98 seconds left on the countdown. You better sit down and buckle up now, Greta.’
‘’Right!’
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Sitting down and buckling her seat belt, Greta then grimly looked at her watch: evaluating the power of a bomb by the damage it made to you was not exactly a practical method.
‘’Ten seconds... Five seconds... Four, three, two...’
At that moment a blinding flash of light filled the sky for long seconds, nearly blinding the Americans sitting inside the cockpit area. They didn’t hear or felt anything at first but, some fifty seconds after the flash, a titanic detonation and a powerful shockwave hit the PELICAN, accelerating it forward as if it had received a powerful kick in the ass.
Thankfully, Janet Goodman was able to quickly regain control of her aircraft and then blew air out in relief.
‘’That was no puny nuclear device. Thank God: my aircraft seems intact.’
On Greta’s part, she looked at her watch and made a grimace.
‘’Shit! My watch was off by two seconds.’
‘’Could someone please beat the crap out of that crazy girl?’ replied Janet Goodman.
14:17 (Washington Time)
Tuesday, September 09, 2008 ‘C’
The Oval Office, The White House
Washington, D.C.
For this meeting, President Bush had decided to hold it directly in the Oval Office, as the number of his aides and officials meeting with him on this extremely sensitive foreign affair had been kept to only five: Vice-President Dick Cheney; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and General of the Army Joseph Shuman. Both to be more at ease to discuss and to be as far away as possible from the large windows of the Oval Office, Bush had made his visitors sit around the low table in the discussion corner of his presidential office and had strong coffee served by a White House steward. After taking his first sip of hot coffee, George W. Bush looked first at Mike McConnell.
‘’So, what do we know now about this mess in and around Lebanon, Mike?’
‘’That the duplicity of the Saudis seemingly knows no bounds, Mister President.
Thanks to the heroic actions of our marines on that cargo ship carrying a nuclear device, we now know that a senior Saudi intelligence operative who held a diplomatic passport
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was with the Al Qaeda terrorist team and probably directed it. The fact that he was ready to commit suicide in order to nuke Israel is a testament to the degree of religious fanatism and hatred towards Israel that are held by a significant number of highly-placed Saudi government officials. The Saudis also most probably engineered this whole plan and also probably assisted the transportation to Beirut of both the bomb and of the Pakistani nuclear scientist accompanying it. That scientist, Doctor Hamad Khan, was one of the few Pakistani nuclear specialists to survive our airstrikes on the Pakistani nuclear arsenal and production complex, some five years ago. Khan was also known to be a religious zealot and had many contacts with the Afghanistan Taliban and with Al Qaeda.’
‘’What about that nuclear device which exploded on that cargo ship? How powerful was it?’
‘’Powerful enough, Mister President.’ answered General Shuman. ‘’Our experts have since estimated its power to be around 200 kilotons: it was definitely a thermonuclear device and would have been powerful enough to destroy the whole of the Tel Aviv area if it would have succeeded in being brought to within a mile of the Israeli coast. In that, the Israelis owe us big, thanks to our marines.’
‘’Talking of our marines, how many casualties did they suffer while assaulting that ship and in securing our embassy in Beirut?’
Shuman answered that in a sober voice: every single one of his marines was precious to him.
‘’One of our marines assaulting the MONROVIA STAR was killed in a gunfight with three Al Qaeda terrorists, while another one was wounded in that battle but survived. As for our losses incurred while securing our embassy and protecting the evacuation of our citizens in Beirut, our losses to date amount to three dead and seven wounded. By the way, those losses may grow during the next few days: our embassy has started to be targeted with mortar and rocket fire. Thankfully, our cruiser U.S.S.
MONTANA is now sailing off the Lebanese coast and has started to support our marines with long-range gunfire. I ordered yesterday that our marines in Beirut be reinforced by one of our special forces units based in Germany, but the commander of our European Command was rather slow in having his units ready for action. In my opinion, General Horner, along with the commander of Sixth Fleet, Vice-Admiral Adams, should be relieved of command and replaced: both of them showed a shocking lack of initiative, along with poor judgment, in this crisis.’
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Bush nodded his head and threw a look at Robert Gates.
‘’I agree with General Shuman: sack Horner and Adams and find more competent flag officers to replace them.’
‘’It will be done, Mister President.’
Bush then looked back at General Shuman, a faint smile on his lips.
‘’I must say that our marines in Beirut have impressed the hell out of me in the last few days. Their commander, Captain Visby, has shown herself to be a truly heroic and effective combat officer, General. I hope that you have something in mind to reward their actions.’
‘’I do, Mister President. I am recommending that this marine rifle company be awarded a Presidential Unit Citation. As for the good Captain Visby, I am hesitating between a Medal of Honor and a Navy Cross: the fact that she was ready to sacrifice herself by staying at the helm of that cargo ship in order to steer it as far as possible from the Israeli coast was an incredible act of courage and self-sacrifice. As for the other marines who assaulted that ship and for the crew of the PELICAN which transported them and went back to save at the last minute Captain Visby from certain death, I am planning to award them all the Bronze Star.’
‘’Go for the Bronze Star and the Presidential Unit Citation, General. As for Captain Visby, this is far from being her first heroic action in the field: it is high time in my opinion to properly recognize her bravery and expert combat leadership. I will be most happy to personally give her the Medal of Honor. Have written recommendations for all those awards ready for my signature, General.’
‘’Thank you, Mister President. About our marines’ actions in Beirut, we now need to decide how far we will intervene in this present Lebanese shit pit and how we will
‘thank’ the Saudis for their duplicity, Mister President.’
‘’Judicious questions indeed! Condoleezza, what are your recommendations on how to handle this crisis in Lebanon and in the Middle East. Let’s not forget that we still are looking for at least one more hijacked Pakistani nuclear device, which I suspect could well be in Saudi Arabia right now.’
His Secretary of State thought for a moment before answering Bush.
‘’Personally, I would wrap the Saudis’ knuckles with a ten-pound sledgehammer and warn them that even more painful stuff would await them if they persist in their clandestine support of Al Qaeda and of other terrorists. However, the Saudis could
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retaliate in turn by cutting their oil exports to us, something that would prove quite painful for our economy.’
‘’Can’t any of our allies provide us with more oil, in order to compensate for any possible Saudi oil embargo?’
‘’In terms of dependable allies with large deposits of oil, I see both Canada and Iran as possible sources of oil for us. While the Canadian oil production capacity is significantly less than that of Iran, it is still quite important. They also have the huge advantage for us of being our next-door neighbor.’
‘’Indeed! Talk with Energy Secretary Bodman on this and arrange together a program for an alternate source of extra oil for our country.’
‘’It will be done, Mister President.’
‘’Talking of Iran, Mister President,’ quickly interjected McConnell, ‘’I believe that it is one major reason for the actions of the Saudis around the Middle East, something to be added to the Saudis’ long-time hatred of Israel.’
‘’How so, Mike?’
‘’Basically, the Saudis have been hating the guts of the Iranians for decades and even centuries, for religious reasons mostly but also because of their competition to export oil around the World. Saudi Arabia is a profoundly conservative Sunni Muslim country, where the extreme views of Wahabism, the same sect to which most Al Qaeda leaders belonged to, direct the views and actions of the Saudi government and people.
In contrast, Iran is still a moderate democracy where most of its people are followers of Shia Islam, which Sunni Muslims typically equate to heresy. By supporting Al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists of the same ilk, the Saudis are probably aiming to weaken us and our allies and to indirectly hurt our links with Iran. If they would have succeeded in their plan to detonate a nuke close to Israel, it could have inflamed passions around the Middle East, with most of the Sunni countries around that region then turning against Iran because of its commercial and diplomatic ties with Israel. Ironically enough, the situation was the complete reverse in the parallel universe known to Nancy Laplante, the dead time traveler, with Iran being the sponsor of terrorism around the Middle East and Saudi Arabia being our ally.’
‘’I see! I believe that it is now high time for us to put the Saudis back in their proper place and to counter their negative influence around the region. Now, how much of all this should we let the American public know about?’
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‘’Without divulging the most sensitive information we have about this affair, Mister President,’ said Vice-President Cheney, ‘’I would liberally smear the Saudis’ faces with eggs and fully expose their duplicity and support of terrorists to the American public.’
‘’I concur, Mister President.’ added Robert Gates. ‘’We should also cancel at once any military or other type of aid program we had with the Saudis and switch that aid to Iran. As a precaution against possible Saudi retaliation against Iranian oil tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf, I would also push a substantial number of our warships to that region and offer to escort the Iranian tankers sailing around Saudi Arabia.’
‘’Agreed!’ said at once President Bush. ‘’Let’s give a good lesson to these hypocritical Saudi bastards!’
22:24 (Sweden Time)
Friday, September 26, 2008 ‘C’
Single officers’ quarters, Life Guards caserne
Stockholm, Sweden
Despite all the news going around about the situation in Lebanon and the Middle East, a secondary item on the Swedish news channels was what Captain Alexander Akerman, of the Swedish Life Guards Regiment, had been looking for and was now enjoying watching. Greta Visby, in full ceremonial Marine Dress Blues uniform, was being given the American Congressional Medal of Honor by President Bush in person in the White House gardens, with a large crowd of dignitaries, V.I.P. guests and media reporters and photographers in attendance. Akerman felt pride as he watched Bush clip the light blue collar ribbon of the Medal of Honor, the highest American award for valor, around Greta’s neck.
‘’Only the second American woman to earn the Medal of Honor in history, after General Ingrid Dows: you richly deserved this, Greta. I can’t wait to be able to see you again...and kiss you all over.’
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CHAPTER 24 – A NEW PRESIDENT
