monitor at each station, with slide-out keyboards underneath. On the walls were detailed video maps showing the location of U.S. and foreign troops, as well as flags indicating trouble spots. Red flags marked present armed conflict, while green flags marked latent danger spots. Hood noticed that there was already a red flag on the Turkey-Syria border. Tucked in the far corner of the room was a table with two male secretaries. One took minutes on a Powerbook. The other sat by a computer and was responsible for bringing up any maps or data which might be required.
The heavy, six-paneled door clicked shut by itself. Above the highly polished table, two gold ceiling fans with brown blades turned slowly. Hood gave a general nod to everyone around the table as he arrived, saving a fast smile for his friend Secretary of State Av Lincoln. Lincoln winked back. Then Hood nodded directly at President Michael Lawrence.
'Good afternoon, sir,' Hood said.
'Afternoon, Paul,' the tall former Minnesota Governor said. 'Av was just bringing us up to date.'
The President was clearly in a high-energy state. During his three years in office, the President had not enjoyed any headline-making foreign policy successes. Though that would not be enough to lose him the next election, he was a born competitor who was frustrated at not having found the right combination of military strength, economic muscle, and charisma to dominate international affairs.
'Before you continue, Av,' the President said, holding up a hand, 'Paul — what's the latest on General Rodgers?'
'There's been no change in the situation,' Hood said as he made his way to the empty leather chair in the middle of the table. 'The Regional Op-Center is headed deeper into Turkey, to the spot from which General Rodgers telephoned.' He glanced at his watch. 'They should be arriving within the half hour.'
'Will the ROC mount a rescue attempt?' asked National Security Advisor Burkow.
Hood sat down. 'We're empowered to evacuate our personnel from unstable situations,' he said carefully. 'However, we have no idea whether that's feasible at this point.'
'Anything's feasible if you want to pay the price,' Burkow remarked. 'Your people are authorized to use deadly force to rescue hostages. We've got thirty-seven hundred troops at the Incirlik Air-Base, which is right around the corner.'
'There are two Strikers onboard,' Hood replied. 'But as I said, I have no idea what's feasible at this point.'
'I want to be notified personally of any developments,' the President said, 'wherever you are.'
'Of course, sir,' Hood said. He wondered what the President meant by that last comment.
'Av,' the President went on, 'would you please continue your briefing?'
'Yes, sir,' said Secretary of State Av Lincoln.
The powerfully built former major league baseball star looked at his notepad. He had made a successful transition into politics, and had been one of the earliest supporters of the candidacy of Michael Lawrence. He was one of the few insiders Paul Hood trusted completely.
'Paul,' said Lincoln, 'I was just telling the others about the Turkish mobilization. My office has been in constant contact with Ambassador Robert Macaluso at our embassy in Ankara, as well as with the U.S. Consulates General in Istanbul and Izmir and the consulate in Adana. We've also been talking with Ambassador Kande at the Turkish Chancery in Washington. All of them have confirmed the following information.
'At 12:30 p.m. our time, Turkey mobilized over a half-million men in their Land Forces and Air Force and put one hundred thousand men on high alert in the Naval Forces, which includes the Naval Air and Naval Infantry. That's nearly all of their total military power.'
'Including reserves?' the President asked.
'No, sir,' said Defense Secretary Colon. 'They can dig up another twenty thousand troops if they have to, then dip into the nineteen-to-forty-nine-year-old work force for another fifty thousand trainees if necessary.'
'We've been told that the land and air forces are going to take up positions down the Euphrates. and along the Syrian border,' Lincoln went on. 'The sea forces are being concentrated on the Aegean and the Mediterranean. We've been assured by Ankara that the naval troops in the Mediterranean will go no further south than the southern tip of the Gulf of Alexandretta.'
Hood looked at the map on his computer screen. The gulf ended about twenty-five miles north of Syria.
'The Turkish forces in the Aegean are to make sure the Greeks stay out of this,' Lincoln said. 'We haven't heard anything definitive yet from Damascus, though the President, his three Vice Presidents, and the Council of Ministers are meeting right now. Ambassador Moualem at the chancery here in Washington says there will be an appropriate response from Syria.'
'Meaning?' asked the President.
'Some kind of mobilization,' said General Ken Vanzandt, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 'Syria's got its highest concentration of soldiers in bases along the Orontes in the west, along the Euphrates in central Syria, and in the east near the Iraqi and Turkish borders. The Syrian President will probably send half of those troops north, maybe one hundred thousand troops.'
'How far north will they go?' the. President asked.
'All the way,' said Vanzandt. 'To within slingshot distance of Turkey. Since losing the Golan Heights to Israel in 1967, the Syrians have been pretty aggressive about defending their territory.'
''It's interesting that Turkey mobilized nearly six hundred thousand men,' said Secretary of Defense Ernie Colon. 'That's almost three times the total manpower available to the Syrian Army, the Syrian Navy, the Syrian Air Force, and the Syrian Air Defense Forces combined. Turkey's obviously saying, 'We'll take you on one-to-one. And if any other nations join in, we've got something left over for them too.' '
'That sounds good on the surface,' said General Vanzandt. 'But the Turks are facing a big problem. They have to fight this kind of terrorism, that's a given. But even if the Syrian military weren't a factor, a Turkish attack against the Kurds is a dangerous proposition. We know that the Kurds have been trying to smooth out their differences. Whether they caused the dam attack or not, it's certain to encourage and solidify the different Kurdish elements. A counterattack by Turkey will inspire even greater unity. There are fourteen to fifteen million Kurds among Turkey's fifty-nine million people, and they're ready to blow.'
'Who can blame them?' asked Lincoln. 'They've been shot at, gassed in their homes, and executed without trials.'
'Hold it right there, Av,' said Burkow. 'Many of those Kurds are terrorists.'
'And many are not,' Lincoln 'replied.
Burkow ignored him. 'Larry, what was that business in the Syrian Navy last month?'
CIA director Larry Rachlin folded his hands on the table. 'The Syrians did an A-one job keeping this out of the press,' he said, 'but a Kurdish mole assassinated a general and two aides. When the mole was captured, another Kurdish mole took the general's wife and two daughters hostage and demanded his release. Instead, they sent him his colleague's head. Literally. There was a rescue attempt. By the time it was finished, the general's wife, daughters, and the second Kurd were dead along with two Syrian rescuers.'
'If it's the Turks who are terrorizing the Kurds,' said the President, 'why did this mole turn on the Syrians?'
'Because,' said Rachlin, 'the Syrian President has come to the conclusion, correctly, that his armed forces are full of Kurdish moles. Some of them in very high places. He's vowed to flush them all out.'
Lincoln sat back with disgust. 'Steve, Larry, what's the point of all this?'
'The point is that we can't start bleeding all over for the Kurds,' Burkow said. 'We've been good to them in the past. But they're becoming increasingly militant, they're ruthless, and they've got God-knows-how-many moles in the Turkish military as well. If we get mixed up in this those Turkish moles may start turning on NATO assets.'
'Actually, things could be a whole lot worse than that,' Vanzandt said. 'The Kurds have a lot of sympathizers among the Islamic fundamentalist parties in Turkey. Individually or together, those Kurds and their sympathizers could very well take advantage of the confusion of war to try and throw out the secular rulers in both governments.'
'Out of chaos comes more chaos,' Lincoln said.
'You got it,' said Vanzandt. 'Out with flawed democracy, in with religious oppression.'
'Out with the U.S.,' Defense Secretary Colon said.
