The only other inherent risk in this evacuation was the all-seeing eye of the U.S. satellites. But the urgency of removing the evidence of French Special Forces overrode this, and Ravi Rashood decided that the risk of American detection was worth taking. In any event no one could possibly have detected the nature of the copter’s cargo.
In contrast, the helicopter that would fly Ravi Rashood and his three bodyguards to Riyadh was brand new and had been flown into the military city the previous day by a two-man Saudi Army crew loyal to Prince Nasir. When it landed in the capital, it would be in the grounds of the palace of the Crown Prince.
The satellite pictures coming in on the link from surveillance were at once definite, but almost impossible to believe. The United States now had vivid pictures of all the oil installations ablaze in Saudi Arabia, but these new images were incredible.
They showed with immense clarity that the mighty Khamis Mushayt Air Base, home to almost eighty fighter- bombers, had effectively been taken off the map. The base, which sits five miles east of the military city, was on fire, the lines of aircraft blazing, the hangars collapsed with burning aircraft plainly still inside.
Lt. Commander Ramshawe, who had been in his office for seventeen hours, stared at the images and for the second time checked his map. No doubt about it, that was Khamis Mushayt okay, and it had been hit by an immensely powerful enemy.
Jimmy Ramshawe could compare it only to the Israeli drubbing of the Egyptian airfields in the 1967 war. It was simply not believable, right here in the year 2010, that some country, somewhere, could go to war with Saudi Arabia unknown to the rest of the world. It could not happen. But he, Ramshawe, was right now staring at the evidence.
“No,” he said loudly. “No one could have done this, except the Saudis themselves. And that of course is bloody silly.”
He called the duty officer at the CIA and spoke briefly to the Middle East desk. They were as bemused as he was. They were receiving reports from field agents in the Saudi capital that there was further unrest in the streets, but nothing to suggest a bombing raid in the south comparable to World War II Dresden.
Then he called Admiral Morris and awakened him with the words, “Sir, I think someone just declared war on Saudi Arabia. They started off by flattening one of the biggest air bases in the country. Took out eighty fighter- bombers at Khamis Mushayt.”
“They did?” answered Admiral Morris a little sleepily. “And now I guess you’re going to tell me French Combat Command sent in a squadron of Mirage 2000s and let ’em have it.”
“Er…nossir,” replied Ramshawe. “I thought their new 234 Rafale fighter jets were much more likely.”
The Admiral chuckled, despite the seriousness of the subject. “Any intelligence anywhere on this? CIA got any clues?”
“None, sir. No one has. It just happened, apparently. Right out of the blue. But of course we need to link the destruction of the oil fields on Monday to the demolition of the air base on Tuesday.”
“Whoever did it…well, it’s the same guys, right?”
“Plainly, sir. But this is a helluva thing, sir. The CIA told me the Pentagon is recalling all the senior brass as we speak. President’s in the Oval Office by o-two-hundred.”
“Gimme a half hour, Ramshawe. I’ll be right there.”
The Lt. Commander replaced the telephone and looked again at the pictures. He wondered what was happening at the military base. According to the CIA latest on the Net, there was some evidence of a firefight inside the main entrance. But nothing to indicate a bombing raid on the air base.
He sat back and thought, as quietly and as carefully as he could.
There was of course a gigantic flaw in his reasoning. He knew only too well the military and political chiefs would demand a motive. And so far as he could tell there was no motive.
He picked up the phone and asked someone to bring coffee for two to the Director’s office, not that there was any danger of anyone’s falling asleep.
Admiral Morris arrived and asked immediately to see any communication from the U.S. ambassador in Riyadh. But there was just a report about the unrest in the city, the mystery of the exploding oil fields, and reports of a military disaster in the south. Without U.S. satellite pictures, the ambassador knew less than they did.
Admiral Morris used a magnifying glass to stare at the photographs taken from 20,000 miles above the earth. “Clinical, eh?” he grunted. “All the parked aircraft, both main hangars, and what looks like the fuel farm. No bullshit, they only hit what mattered. And there’s no sign of general mayhem on the field or the runways. This wasn’t a battery of cruise missiles. Otherwise there’d be stuff all over the place.”
“They’re my thoughts,” replied Ramshawe. “This attack was made on the ground. And no one, apparently, saw anyone coming. Which sounds impossible. Those Saudi air bases are well protected, and this one stands right next door to one of the biggest army bases in the country. We’re talking thousands and thousands of armed men.”
“Jimmy. We’re not really getting anywhere…in this place you always have to work on the words of Sherlock Holmes…”
“When you have eliminated the impossible, only the truth remains,” Ramshawe replied.
“Precisely. So why don’t we spend five minutes eliminating the impossible?”
“Righto, sir…Number one, it was impossible for any attacking force to have blown up the oil installations in the middle of the desert. Number two, it was impossible for anyone to have blown out the tanker loading docks from the land. Number three, it was impossible for anyone to have obliterated the coastal refineries except with missiles.”
“All correct,” replied Admiral Morris. “How about number four? It was impossible to have bombed the Khamis Mushayt Air Base without being picked up on radar. And number five, it was definitely impossible for any invader to have reached that airfield with God knows how much explosives and blown every aircraft to pieces without a great deal of cooperation from forces inside the Saudi military. They must have had maps, diagrams, and time for recce.”
“Correct, sir. And how about number six? Whoever launched those missiles must have done so from deep water, otherwise they would have been detected. It’s impossible for the Saudi Navy to have achieved that.”
“So where does that leave us?” replied the Admiral, plainly not wishing to hear an answer. “It leaves us,” he said, “with one absolute truth. Somewhere inside the Saudi military there is a network of mutiny against the armed forces. It leaves us with a possible leader of that network, who may wish to seize power in Saudi Arabia. And it leaves us with an outside country willing to help that leader seize that power. And that’s gotta be a big enough country to own a Navy with a heavy submarine strike force.”
“Especially since two of ’em just went missing,” said Jimmy Ramshawe.
CHAPTER EIGHT
