particular. “They did a ‘breaking news’ thing — I thought we’d dropped a nuke on China or something.”
“Brutal,” Vice President Lester Busick said. “The guy’s a nut. He’ll be the laughingstock of Washington in no time.”
“I didn’t think you were allowed to use Arlington National Cemetery for political events,” Darrow Horton, the attorney general, said. “Maybe I should check into that.”
Robert Goff, the secretary of defense and the president’s de facto chief political adviser, nodded in agreement. “Good idea,” he said. “But I wouldn’t be too concerned about Martindale. When word about some of the things he’s been doing over the past couple years starts leaking, he’ll have no choice but to pull out. The American people won’t stand for an ex-president who uses his office to carry out secret mercenary missions.”
“Let’s get started, shall we?” the president began as he put away his PDA. “I saw the item in this morning’s news on the fighting in Chechnya. What’s the latest?”
“A bit more aggressive Russian response to what they view as escalating extremism in that region, sir,” Director of Central Intelligence Douglas Morgan responded. He knew enough to get his coffee with three sugars fast, sit down, and be ready to go right away, because he was usually the first to be called on. “We’ve been watching that for many weeks now, since the shake-up in Moscow following the imprisonment of General Zhurbenko and the implication of President Sen’kov in dealing with Russian mobsters. Bottom line: Sen’kov is cracking down on any kind of dissent in the Russian Federation, using more strong-arm tactics to gain maximum advantage for Russia.”
“Sen’kov has an election scheduled for 2005—it’s as if he’s already on the campaign trail,” Kercheval added.
“I just wish he’d be a little less bloodthirsty about it,” the vice president added. “The press said twenty-seven killed….”
“We believe the number is much higher — and that’s just in the past week,” Morgan said. “The death toll could be as high as fifty. The Chechens have an equally high body count — perhaps as many as forty Russian soldiers killed, as many as a hundred wounded in attacks. We can expect the Russian military to continue to crack down.”
“The question is where,” Busick said.
“Wherever and whenever they can,” Morgan surmised. “They have a vast, fractured empire that I think they would dearly like to take back.”
“I agree,” President Thorn said. He noticed the secretary of state make a quiet sigh and start examining his fingertips. “Comment, Edward?” Thorn asked.
“You know the question, Mr. President: What would we do about it even if we knew what the Russians were going to do?” he asked. It was no secret or surprise to anyone that Edward Kercheval was not a big fan of the president and his policies. What
“You’re right — I wouldn’t intervene in Chechnya,” Thorn said. “I wouldn’t intervene in any conflict involving Russia’s trying to quell any sort of uprising or revolution within its federation.”
“That’s certainly your prerogative, sir.” It was obvious from Kercheval’s tone of voice both that he expected the president to say as much and that he did not approve of that position. “However, sir, if you’re concerned that Russian aggression against its ethnic minorities might spill over to other countries, a course of action might be advisable.”
“I know you don’t think I’m showing much of a leadership role in world affairs, Edward,” the president said. “But I think it doesn’t make much sense to attempt to support the Chechen rebels when we’ve been uncovering some of those very rebels hitting United Nations peacekeeping convoys in Central Asia. Those are exactly the kinds of cross-efforts that I wish to avoid if at all possible.” Thorn turned to Morgan and asked, “Speaking of Central Asia, Douglas, what’s the latest there? We still have a few surveillance and counterterrorist operations running there, don’t we?”
“We currently don’t have any military or intelligence operations running in Central Asia, sir,” Director Morgan replied. “The last was Operation Hilltop, which was a recon-and-interdiction operation using unmanned combat aircraft to counter some Taliban raiders operating in northern Afghanistan.”
“That was run by Air Force General McLanahan and General Rebecca Furness from her new unit at Battle Mountain, Nevada,” Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Richard Venti interjected. “His force successfully uncovered and attacked a force of approximately two hundred Taliban fighters that attacked the convoy. It was an operation conducted solely from the air, with assets operated by a single unit.”
“So McLanahan finally decided to join the right team?” Busick asked. He glanced at the president, who did not react to the comment. Busick knew that the president had given McLanahan and many of his men their military rank and privileges back after a series of privately run and financed military missions. In the president’s eyes McLanahan was a leader — but in Busick’s eyes he was nothing but a loose cannon.
“General McLanahan has built a unit comprised mostly of long-range aircraft and unmanned armed drones,” General Venti went on. “Cutting-edge stuff.”
“I feel a ‘but’ coming, General Venti,” Busick said.
“McLanahan’s mission was a success, but the Taliban fighters weren’t completely out of the fight,” CIA Director Morgan said. “Apparently it was survivors from that attack that raided a border-crossing base in Turkmenistan, killed the base commander and a number of Turkmen soldiers, and captured weapons and vehicles.
“After that those fighters moved north, first taking on a Turkmen army patrol and then raiding a helicopter cavalry unit near the town of Kerki. Almost two thousand Turkmen soldiers deserted their posts and joined with the Taliban. The raiders then moved east, capturing another military post at Gaurdak, where they obtained large quantities of weapons, including heavy armor, artillery, armored personnel carriers, and more light weapons, plus as many as three to five thousand more recruits and deserters. They have captured several oil-pumping stations, power plants, and water-control facilities, all of which are vital to that region. The force is now moving west along the river, consolidating their gains and creating very effective supply lines. Their route of march primarily follows the TransCal oil and gas pipelines along the river.”
“That’s smart. Not only can they easily find supplies along the river, but they protect themselves from attack,” General Venti interjected. “Anyone attacking them risks blowing up the lines.”
“Maybe it’s time to lend our support to the Republic of Turkmenistan to help wipe out these Taliban fighters,” Vice President Busick suggested. “After all, we’re partly to blame for what this group of fighters is doing.”
“I don’t think we can rely on any cooperation from Turkmenistan,” Secretary of State Kercheval said. “I’ve received complaints from several nations — Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, even Afghanistan — claiming illegal overflight by American warplanes. All of those nations are demanding an explanation.”
Busick turned to Robert Goff. “We were assured this mission was going to be completely stealthy and foolproof, Robert. What went wrong?”
“According to his report,” Defense Secretary Goff responded, “McLanahan lost control of one of his unmanned combat aircraft for unexplained reasons. He could regain control of it only by flying in close proximity to it — unfortunately, that happened to be several miles inside Turkmenistan. He was fired upon by Turkmen air defenses and sustained some damage to his aircraft but managed to bring it back to Diego Garcia. Minor injuries, minor damage.”
“So why is Iran squawking?”
“In order to catch up to his drone, he had to overfly eastern Iran,” Goff replied. “He was briefly highlighted by Iranian and Pakistani air defenses but was not discovered or attacked.”
“Good God,” Busick moaned. “All that for a lousy drone?”
“That drone was a multimillion-dollar unmanned attack vehicle representing the absolute state-of-the-art in sensors, secure satellite communications, and weapons,” General Venti said. “General McLanahan felt that it might crash-land intact when it ran out of fuel, so he took the chance and tried to retrieve it.”
“ ‘Tried’?”
