Rogue Forces

he wasn’t quick enough to stop the AT-3. The wire-guided missile flew off its launch rail and hit one of the Humvees, sending it flying through the air on a cloud of fire. “Everyone okay?” he radioed.

“Everyone was clear,” Jon Masters said. “Thanks for the warning.”

“Can I bust some heads now, General?” Macomber asked.

“I don’t want anyone hurt, Rascal, unless they go for Jon and the techs,” Patrick said. “Take their weapons only.”

“When are we going to knock off the ‘Kumbaya’ routine around here, sir?” Macomber asked half aloud. “Rascal Two, can you take out the twelve-point-five and the Sagger without hurting—” But at that moment there was a small explosion on top of the second APC, and the gunner jumped out of the cupola, beating sparks and small flames off his uniform. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Charlie said.

Whack was taking sustained rifle fire from the Turks as he jumped off the APC and walked over to Evren; they didn’t stop firing until Whack grasped Evren by his jacket and lifted him off the ground. “I asked you nicely to leave us alone,” Whack said. “Now I’m going to be not so nice, arkadas.” As easily as tossing a tennis ball, Whack threw Evren a hundred yards through the air, almost all the way back to the highway. He then raced over and did the same to the other Turkish soldiers around him who hadn’t run away. “Is that okay, Genesis?”

“Thank you for showing restraint, Rascal,” Patrick replied.

Macomber jumped over to the other APC, but the Turkish troops had already run off…because they got a look at Charlie Turlock, aboard a Cybernetic Infantry Device guarding the other side of the crash site. She carried her own electromagnetic rail gun and wore a forty-millimeter rocket launcher backpack containing eight vertically launched rockets with high-explosive, antipersonnel bomblet, and smoke warheads, plus a reload backpack in the Humvee. “Everything okay, Two?”

“I’m clear,” Charlie replied. She pointed to the east. “That helicopter is in sight. Looks like a standard-issue Huey. I see a door gunner but no other weapons.”

“If he points that gun anywhere near our guys, take it out.”

“I got him zeroed in already. Looks like a cameraman in the door with him. Smile—you’re on Candid Camera.”

“Just great. Masters…?”

“I don’t even have all the access doors open yet, Wayne,” Jon said. “I’ll need at least an hour just to find out what’s what. It shouldn’t take long to pull the major components and LRUs—maybe three hours, tops. But I’d like at least eight hours to—”

“I don’t know if you have eight minutes, let along eight hours, but get moving and we’ll hold them off as long as we can,” Whack said.

“Maybe if you’d help us, we’d be done quicker,” Jon suggested.

Whack sighed inside his armor. “I was afraid you’d say that,” he said. “Charlie, you got security. I’m going to be a mechanic for a while.”

“Roger. That helicopter is starting to orbit us. Looks like they’re taking pictures. The door gunner’s not tracking anything on the ground.”

“If it looks like he’s going to engage, nail him.”

“With pleasure.”

“We’re engineers, not mechanics,” Jon corrected him. “But you’ll be the demolition guy.”

“Well, that sounds more like it,” Whack said.

THE OVAL OFFICE, THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

A SHORT TIME LATER

The president picked up the phone. “Hello, President Hirsiz. This is President Gardner. What can I do for you today?”

“You can call off your attack dogs for one, sir,” Kurzat Hirsiz said from Ankara, “unless you are looking for war.”

“You refer to the incident at the crash site north of Mosul?” Gardner asked. “As I understand it, three of your soldiers were injured and two armored vehicles were damaged. Is that accurate?”

“Have you an explanation for this deliberate attack?”

“You’ll have to talk with the Iraqi government. The United States government had nothing to do with it.”

“That is not the truth. Those…those things are American weapon systems. The whole world knows this.”

“The robot and the armored commando were experimental designs and they were never used directly by the U.S. government,” Gardner said, using the story he and his staff had conjured up the minute they got the call from Vice President Ken Phoenix from Nahla. “They belong to a private company that had been contracted by the U.S. Army to provide security for its forces in Iraq.”

“So they do work for the American government!”

“No, because after the incident with your reconnaissance plane, their contract with my government was immediately canceled,” Gardner said. “The company was then contracted by the Iraqi government. They were working for the Iraqis when that incident occurred. Frankly I don’t know why your troops were at that crash site to begin with. They weren’t looting the plane, were they?”

“I resent that implication, sir,” Hirsiz said. “Turkish soldiers are not criminals. The aircraft was involved in the downing of a Turkish jet and the killing of a Turkish pilot; the troops were merely guarding the plane until a formal inquiry could begin.”

“I see. You should have communicated your intentions better to the Iraqis and to us. But that would have been difficult in the middle of an invasion, wouldn’t it?”

“So is this your plan now, Mr. Gardner: let the Iraqis take the blame for American actions?”

“Mr. President, your forces are on Iraqi soil, bombing Iraqi villages and killing Iraqi civilians—”

“We target only PKK terrorists, sir, terrorists that kill innocent Turks!”

“I understand, sir, and I agree something needs to be done about the PKK, and the United States has pledged more assistance to Turkey for this. But we do not condone a full-scale ground invasion of Iraq. I warned you about unintended consequences.

“As for the contractors at Nahla: they are working for the Iraqis and not under our direct control, but we are still allies of Iraq and can intercede on your behalf. The United States would be happy to sit down with Turkey, the Kurdish Regional Government, and Iraq to facilitate an immediate cease-fire by all parties, including contractors; a withdrawal timetable; and more comprehensive security arrangements on the Iraq-Turkey border, including international monitors, to eliminate PKK terrorists from crossing the border. But nothing will happen while Turkish troops are engaged in combat operations inside Iraq, sir.”

“So, this is a conspiracy: America uses these robots against Turkish troops, pretends they are not involved, but then offers to be an intermediary in negotiations as long as there is a cease- fire,” Hirsiz said angrily. “Again, Turkey is the victim, forced to concede everything, pushed aside and ignored. Then no one notices when another Turkish plane is brought down or another police station blown apart.”

“Believe me, Mr. President, we want to help Turkey,” Gardner said. “Turkey is one of America’s most important friends and allies. I understand your anger. We can send in monitors, technology, even personnel to patrol the border. But nothing will happen while combat operations are ongoing. They must stop immediately, and Turkish troops must leave Iraq. There’s no other way.”

“There is only one way we will agree to international monitors along our border, Mr. Gardner: the Kurdistan Regional Government must disavow the PKK and all plans to form an independent state of Kurdistan,” Hirsiz said. “The KRG must remove its flag from all public places, arrest the PKK leaders and turn them over to us for trial, dismantle all PKK training bases, and shut down all companies that support the PKK.”

“Mr. President, what you’re asking for is impossible,” President Gardner said after a moment’s confusion. “The KRG administers the constitutionally authorized Kurdish region of northern Iraq. To my knowledge, they’ve never supported the PKK.”

“As long as the KRG exists and tries to separate its territory from the rest of Iraq, the PKK will use terrorism to try to force that into effect,” Hirsiz said. “You know as well as I that some members of the KRG leadership have