Tess Awakening (33 page)

Chapter 53

Carmen and Nicola arrived at JFK Airport in
the morning. General Turner sent a car to pick them up and bring
them to the office.

They went up on the elevator and spilled into
a modern professional lobby. Tess was waiting for them. Carmen
squealed and embraced her. Jake shook Nicola’s hand and ushered him
into a comfortable conference room.

Tess and Carmen went into a large private
office, tears in their eyes, delighted to see each other, but also
aware that the reunion, unfortunately, was not for the right
reasons.

The first thing that Carmen said was “I am so
sorry, Tess. What happened was horrible. I can’t begin to guess how
you must feel.”

“I feel unbelievably angry, Carmen; anger and
despair that are hard to describe. I can’t believe that Amir was so
cruel to hurt me so, particularly since all along he had professed
his love and devotion.”

“Tess, Nicola and I will do everything we can
to help you bring your baby back.”

“I know that I should not ask you to get
involved in this, Carmen, but I need to work with people I trust.
You still can beg off the operation and I will understand. You have
met a good man and now and you have something to look forward
to.”

“I wouldn’t miss the action for one minute,”
Carmen replied. “You are my best and only friend. Anyone that hurts
you has to deal with me.”

Tess hugged Carmen again. “You are a true
friend.”

They walked into the conference room. Jake
and Nicola were talking. Tess shook Nicola’s hand then hugged him.
“I am so pleased to meet you, Nicola. You have made Carmen happy,
and that means the world to me.”

“And you are the famous Tess. I must say that
Carmen did not exaggerate: you are amazing.” He looked at Jake.
“You also have one hell of a husband.”

Shortly afterward, General Turner and four
other men joined them. The General immediately took charge.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, these four men with me
are the best operatives that anyone could wish for. They were in
the Special Forces and worked for me for a long time. They still
do, but they are not in the Army anymore. They are here to help us
implement the plan to retrieve little Morgan and to hit back at
Amir. John Powers is a weapons specialist. George Kimmel is a
superb military intelligence professional. Ken Ross is a crack
sniper and Joe Slezak does magic things with computers as long as
you keep him supplied with peanuts.”

Joe corrected the general, “Cashews and
pistachios.”

General Turner smiled and briefed the men on
the rest of the team. “Tess, my daughter, is a skilled chopper
pilot and so is her friend Carmen. They have worked together very
closely while in Iraq. Jake Vickers, my son in law, is also a
military intelligence specialist, not to mention he has a memory
like an elephant that won’t let him forget anything,” he added
jokingly. “Last but not least, Nicola Orsini is our resource man.
He is an Italian chopper pilot that has access to European
equipment, particularly helicopters that are presently being
prepared for delivery to the Iraqi military. He has agreed to let
us ‘borrow’ them.”

“Why can’t we use American hardware that we
are familiar with?” asked Carmen.

“Because I don’t want to get the U. S. Army
involved in this operation, they have their hands full in Iraq.
Besides, even with my contacts, there would be far too many
questions asked. If things don’t go well, the Army would have to
answer why it got involved in something that is not part of its
mission there. We need secrecy because this is going to be a
sensitive operation that in some eyes might be considered
illegal.”

“At this point, the legality of this
operation is the furthest thing on my mind,” Tess scoffed. “Amir
thinks that the law is a quaint notion that only applies to the
peasants. He has seized my son as if the law did not apply.”

“Not to mention he tried to kill us,” Jake
added.

Nicola added, “You should not be concerned
about operating the Mangusta choppers. This is excellent, modern
equipment. Experienced pilots can master the aircraft with just a
little training that I will provide.”

The General resumed his briefing. “The
objectives of this operation are to find little Morgan, take him
away from Amir and bring him home. The second objective is to make
Amir pay for his crimes. He is a man that has to be stopped because
he is becoming increasingly important in Iraq. It would not
surprise me in the least that he is aiming to run the country. If
that happens, he becomes Head of State, and there will be no way to
get to him, so time is of the essence.” Now, Jake, if you will,
please brief us on the plan that you have developed to find and
retrieve the baby.”

Jake stood up and went to a large map affixed
to the wall. “The first thing we need to do is find out where they
are keeping little Morgan. I don’t think that Amir will risk taking
him to one of his houses in Istanbul, France or London. It would be
too obvious.

“My guess is that he is now likely to reside
in a large and confusing city that is a perfect melting pot. This
narrows down the possibilities to somewhere in Istanbul because it
would be harder for us to find them there than other European
cities. I believe that the relative proximity of Turkey to Iraq
makes it convenient for Amir to continue plotting to increase his
power. At the same time, he will be able to visit the home where he
has stashed little Morgan and probably his daughter Aara. I am
pretty sure that the house must be owned or leased under another
name, again, to throw us off the scent.

“George and I were able to tap our
intelligence sources in Canada. They confirmed that a prosperous
Iraqi couple with a baby left Montreal heading for Europe. The
passports appeared legal, so they did not raise a flag for the
authorities until I asked them to look into Iraqis with private
planes. Eventually, things added up, but too late to apprehend them
before they flew out of the country. We checked the plane’s
itinerary. It was supposed to go to London, but they changed their
flight plan while in the air. They landed in Dublin to refuel then
proceeded to Istanbul. This is why we believe the baby is somewhere
in the city.”

“That is helpful,” said the General, “but I
have been in Istanbul, and it is a big place. We are still looking
for a needle in the haystack. We need a source to tell us where
little Morgan is being held, and I am afraid that Amir is the only
one that can tell us.”

“That means that we need to corner him and
pry the info from him,” Jake added. “This means that we need to
deal with a powerful General in his own country. Even if we get our
hands on him, he is pretty tough and it would take extreme measures
to have him spill the beans.”

“I would not worry about extreme measures.
Wait until I get my hands on him. I will turn him into a eunuch!”
Tess sounded like she really meant it. The group laughed. In fact,
she was not joking.

“There might be a better way to approach
this,” Tess added. “Amir’s sister Fadime is very close to him. She
is basically a decadent socialite living the high life in Europe.
It is possible that Amir may ask her to look after the children at
least temporarily until the coast is clear. Spending time with
children is not what Fadime would normally do, but I am sure that
she would agree to help her brother.”

Jake added, “Fadime is not hiding. Her
whereabouts are an open book. Soon, it is likely that Amir will
summon her to go to Istanbul, and that’s our chance to find out
where his new house is.”

Joe Slezak, the computer expert, explained
his part on the project. “I can access just about any database out
there. I think that I can monitor Fadime’s movement through the use
of her credit cards. I can also do the same for Amir’s. When he
leaves Iraq to go to Istanbul, he is bound to charge for purchases
somewhere close to his residence. If nothing else, this monitoring
narrows down the area we need to explore.”

Jake looked a little skeptical. “Aren’t bank
systems extremely hard to crack?”

“Not for me,” Joe responded, a little annoyed
that anyone should question his magic.

The General summarized. “Very well; at this
stage we have no choice but follow this plan. We can always change
it if the situation warrants. Now, before we discuss the plan on
bringing Amir down, I suggest we have some lunch.” The group
wholeheartedly agreed.

Chapter 54

Amir inspected the troops and he was not
pleased. I spite of considerable training, the men were still not
motivated and kept complaining about being assigned to missions
against insurgents. The Americans had provided tons of hardware,
and most of it was not being used properly if at all.

Much of the problem had to do with the
political appointees in the officer corps. By government policy,
many of the competent Sunni officers or Baathists that had led the
troops during the Saddam era were not welcome in the new army. In
one instance, a leading Sunni general in northern Iraq whom
American officers lauded for his operational skills was ousted and
replaced by a Shiite officer.

The new crop of mostly Shiite officers
received their commissions due to nepotism or bribery. Many of them
preferred being stationed in Baghdad. The city, in spite of suicide
bombings and assorted insurgent attacks, was less dangerous than
other parts of Iraq. The officers were more likely to be found in
the cafes and restaurants in the city rather than in the field. The
rank and file troops, on the other hand, were housed in stifling
hot barracks and under the leadership of NCO’s, many of whom were
no better than the officers that lounged around the city’s
amenities.

In an army, there is nothing more
demoralizing that having indecisive, absent or self-serving
leaders. Whenever signs of conflict occurred, many officers made
themselves scarce. When the need for combat arose, the common
soldiers got cynical very quickly because they knew that many of
their officers were incompetent, ineffectual and cowardly. The
general question was: ‘why do we have to risk death or injury if
the leaders don’t lead?’

Amir was able to achieve a modest level of
proficiency with troops stationed in Baghdad. The only reason that
he got support from the legislature was that the ministers wished
to safeguard themselves. They were less enthusiastic about
protecting other places, mainly Sunni and Kurdish areas. The
malaise was stifling and depressing.

Amir planned to take over the government at
some time in the near future. He had groomed a few selected
officers to be the vanguard of his movement, but he needed more. He
knew that his ascension required maintaining a veneer of the
democratic process; otherwise the Americans may be again tempted to
interfere. Once in charge, he was sure he could do pretty much as
he pleased. The Americans had learned a hard lesson: don’t get
involved in sectarian wars, especially when religion is thrown into
the mix.

His plan required a cadre of trusted officers
and troops that would be deployed at once when the mobilization
order was given. They would take the government buildings and
presidential palace, arrest as many ministers as possible, and
declare martial law. Soon after, Amir would emerge as the savior of
the country, announcing that in the interest of the public good, he
would take over and pursue corruption in all its forms. He would
then order the execution and exile of key members of the government
and eventually, make himself the official leader of the country,
supported by a hand-picked parliament.

The only impediment to executing his plan was
the dismal state of the armed forces. Incompetence and
demoralization were the norms, and Amir had trouble recruiting
enough conspirators to reach critical mass. He also did not know
that he had a spy in his midst, an officer called Major Nizar
Hamdani, who actually worked for General Turner, Tess’s father.

Chapter 55

General Turner had implemented Plan B. This
consisted of a series of operations that would ultimately lead to
the disclosure to the Iraqis of Amir’s plan to take over the
legitimate government. If that happened, he would be declared a
traitor, leading to the expected repercussions.

Jake and team members George Kimmel, Ken Ross
and John Powers were now in Iraq under the umbrella of SRD, the
consulting branch of Jake and Tess’s company. Their official task
was to review the effectiveness of the Iraqi Army’s weapons
training under a contract managed by a senior Iraqi government
official.

After hours, the men drove to a remote house
outside of Baghdad and met with Major Nizar Hamdani, their
informer. Nizar was one of the few Kurdish officers in Iraq’s army.
He also happened to be a relative of Kejal, the woman whose family
had died in a gas attack. Subsequently, she was imprisoned and
abused by Amir, eventually giving birth to Aara, Amir’s daughter.
She died helping Tess escape when she was first imprisoned by Amir.
Nizar was out for revenge. Unfortunately, he was not yet part of
Amir’s inner circle. He did have access to information about Amir’s
movements; so far there was not much to go on.

Tess, Carmen, and Nicola arrived in Iraq a
few days later as official members of SRD. They immediately started
to familiarize themselves with the Mangusta helicopter provided by
Nicola, ostensibly to test the capabilities of the aircraft. Pilot
training on the craft would usually commence with sessions on a
simulator. Due to Tess’s and Carmen’s experience, Nicola was
confident that to achieve proficiency, they would just need some
practice on the chopper’s controls, flight characteristics, and
weapons systems.