Strike Force

“You trust the Qagevs so much that you’d risk Noble’s life with those Iranians?” Maureen asked. “Noble would fetch a hefty bounty if they decided to turn him over to Ahmodod.”

“It was a risk we had to take, ma’am,” Patrick explained. “We’re in constant communications with Captain Noble, and we know exactly where he is through his hypodermal transceiver. An Air Force Special Operations team is en route from Afghanistan to meet up with them — they should rendezvous in less than two hours from now. He’ll be flown from Herat, Afghanistan back to the United States aboard a Black Stallion spaceplane. He’ll be home about six hours from now.” The President and most of his advisers in the Oval Office shook their heads at that news, hardly believing that someone could be taken from the middle of nowhere in western Asia back to the United States so quickly.

Secretary of Defense Gardner, however, was not impressed. “Any more forces in Iran?” he asked accusingly. “What about in the region? Who else have you sent out that way, other than a ten-billion-dollar space station and several dozen mini-satellites?”

“I deployed exactly what I briefed the national security staff earlier, Mr. Secretary,” Patrick said. “I ordered two EB-1C Vampire flying battleships deployed to Diego Garcia. They should arrive in about fourteen hours. They are carrying Condor special ops transport aircraft, each with a force of two Tin Man and CID ground units. They can be armed for suppression of enemy air defense, ground attack, or anti-air missions after they deploy the Condor transports. I have one AL-52 Dragon anti-missile laser aircraft deployed to Diego Garcia as well.”

“So you propose to locate and destroy all of the Iranian ballistic missile sites with four commandos, three bombers, and two spaceplanes?” Gardner asked incredulously. “It’s not possible. And do you expect to do all this without the Iranians finding out about it and screaming bloody murder? What if they discover your guys or your stealth bombers, fear we’re executing an all-out attack, panic, and decide to launch every biochem and nuke they have at Israel, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait? Will your toys stop them? If one nuke gets through and hits just one city like Tel Aviv or Doha, an entire nation ceases to exist. A dozen supertankers pass within Iranian anti-ship missile range every day. Are you going to take all those missile sites out as well too?”

“My concern is with Iran’s ballistic missiles…”

“Why are they more important than Iran’s anti-ship missiles or weapons of mass destruction, General?” Gardner retorted. “You’ve lost perspective here, General.” He turned to the President and went on, “Mr. President, McLanahan’s plan is impressive and very high-tech, and we’ve all seen his weapons’ effectiveness over the years, but unless we take the time to mobilize follow-on and defensive forces, we’re leaving ourselves wide open to disaster. An Iranian counterattack could be devastating.”

“But if we do nothing, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards strike…”

“Then they’ll have the blood of their own people on their hands,” Maureen said. “But if we strike, and the Iranians retaliate, we could possibly lose millions of friendly forces and allies. It’s too big of a gamble, Patrick.”

“But if we do nothing, we may be passing up our best chance of assisting a people’s revolution in Iran,” Patrick said. “Master Sergeant Wohl is traveling with the Qagev princess, and according to his reports the Qagev have a sizable political, civil, and military infrastructure in place…”

“Enough to defeat the Revolutionary Guards? I don’t think so,” Director of Central Intelligence Gerald Vista said.

“It’s another important factor in the array of forces opposing the Pasdaran and the theocratic regime…” McLanahan said.

“And it could be another complicating factor too, McLanahan,” Vista pointed out. “There’s absolutely no indication whatsoever that the military would accept another monarchy — especially a Qagev, a dynasty that was bloodlessly overthrown almost eighty years ago. Recent surveys indicate that only 30 percent of the population might accept another monarchy.”

“I’m familiar with those polls — they were taken either in secret during the current regime, or the respondents were Iranian expatriates,” Patrick said. “It’s not representative…”

“We’re not going to base our foreign policy or military response on surveys and polls, Patrick,” Maureen commented.

“I agree, ma’am,” Patrick said. “Nevertheless, the monarchists are viable, organized, well-funded, and on the move, and the regular army still hasn’t supported the Pasdaran’s efforts to shut down Buzhazi’s insurgency. We should make every attempt to support any uprisings in Iran.”

“Now you want to support this Azar Qagev instead of Buzhazi?” the President asked. “Which is it, Patrick?”

“Both, sir,” Patrick said. “We support both insurgencies and we try to steer the outcome in our favor.”