The Devil's Handshake (44 page)

His young second-in-command summed up his
thoughts.

“
Lethal force!”

“
Are they fucking mad, Sir?
We haven’t any air cover, tanks, or anywhere near enough men!” the
Major said in response to the deadly force order as Alekseyevich
briefed him as to their new orders, completely unaware of the game
brinkmanship that was taking place on the diplomatic
battlefield.

“
We’ll worry about the
second part once we dealt with the first part,” he instructed the
young Major, putting him back in his place. He wanted their minds
focused on taking the airport first, although inwardly he agreed
with him.

The buzzer in the aircraft informing
everybody the loading ramp was opening brought him straight back to
reality.

Despite the Zaslon commander informing they
still held the airport, he knew this was a tense moment if the
planes were attacked by ground forces or by weapons shot by F-15s
as they came in to land then there was a good chance they would all
die before they got a chance to return fire, proving for all your
training and planning, all military operations always come down to
luck and whose side the lady chooses to smile on any given day.

The idea they would be using and trained for
was known by them as ‘the Grasshopper’ an adaption of the famous
Israeli operation on Entebbe airport, except in the Russian’s idea
it wasn’t a Mercedes-Benz pretending to be a Presidential car that
would come flying out the back of the aircraft. Instead, in their
case it would be a pair of adapted UAZ-49s Jeeps being deployed as
the first aircraft landed.

Once released, the Jeeps would then drive at
speed towards the Terminal Building providing covering fire, if
necessary, to the rest of the men exiting out the second aircraft
that was following the first plane to take up offensive movement
positions and run in groups of five towards the terminal returning
fire.

“
GREEN LIGHT–ONE!” The
signal for the first aircraft’s deployment came over the
loudspeaker. Telling the Commander and his men the Jeeps were now
seconds away from deploying, “GREEN LIGHT-TWO.”

“
DEPLOY! DEPLOY!” The jump
captain ordered releasing the two Jeeps.

Seconds after that, one hundred and sixty
Spentnaz commandos their weapons at the ready, followed them by
flying out of the back of the now almost stopped Il-76.The
commandos quickly running towards the Terminal Building.

The first Jeep quickly reached the Terminal
Building.

A young man with his hands on his head who
had exited out of the building greeted them.

“
FALCON!” the young Spentnaz
commando yelled in English, using the call sign to identify the
militia of the President, with his weapon trained on the young
man.

If he gave the wrong answer, the Commando
would shoot him dead.

“
HAWK,” was the response
from the beaming young Somali using the signal as he was ordered to
by President to indicate his non-lethal threat towards
them.

“
Welcome to Borama,” the
young Somali said as the men began to arrive in force as the
American F-15s buzzed them overhead.

The strategy of Martin and Wilson had relied
on was the element of surprise.

The fact that they failed in the most
important task of taking of the mobile communications masts of TLH
at the Cismah meant that the militia loyal to upper houses had been
able over the last hour to stall the coup d’etat and instead were
counter-attacking Wasir’s men at all the key locations around the
city.

This enabled the forces loyal to Jawari to
gain the upper hand as the world began to get more and more tweets
and live video that was being placed on the Internet and sent to
world media sources and not just what had been peddled by
Wasir.

It was to cost them dear.

50

Washington. D.C

The Russians placing their armed forces on
Elevated Combat Readiness had caught the Executive Decision making
arm of the United States of America on the hop.

It was something they had not done since
9/11. On that occasion, it had been a response to President Bush’s
decision to place United States of America armed forces on DEFCON
2. This was completely different.

“
Mr. President, I recommend
we do the same,” suggested the Chief of Staff as their Commander in
Chief sat back down in the situation room five floors down below
the White House swimming pool.

The President didn’t hesitate; he instantly
gave the order to do so.

This wasn’t a time for questions as to why
they had done it.

That was to come later.

Turning towards the young air force officer
in front of the safe computer connection over which messages are
exchanged through email via the National Command Centre and the
Kremlin the President asked his Secretary of State to propose the
message with the question as to why they had done this.

“
Foreign Minister Lavrov,
the United States is authorized under the Security Council
S/RES/2200 (2013) to provide support to the United Nations Mission
in Lughaya, why are Russian forces elevating their combat
readiness?”

The next ten minutes became a series of
arguments over who was right and wrong before the Chief of Staff
interrupted the Secretary of State and the President.

“
Sir, two aircraft have been
picked up entering Adwalland air space, our F-15’s report that they
appear to be two commercial Il-76s. He is requesting permission to
fire upon them to force them to turn around because they are
refusing to answer his requests to identify.”

The President gave his authorization.

“
Box Two, permission granted
fire a warning shot!” the Air Force Chief of Staff member
ordered.

Seconds later the direct link fired up.

“
The aircraft are carrying
military personnel to provide support for the democratically
elected President of Adwalland if you continue to fire on them, we
will respond accordingly!”

“
Have they lost their
minds!” said the President.

“
Where do we stand, John?”
he quickly asked the Secretary of State.

The tall Bonesman and graduate of Yale
answered that legally they were within their rights.

“
We can only respond within
the Mission guidelines despite whether or not the President they
are assisting is the one who ordered the attack on the
compound.”

“
What’s your
recommendation?”

“
Tell them we accept their
formal identification as Military Aircraft of the Russian
Federation and then advise them that if they deviate from their
predesigned course of Aden Isaaq International Airport we will
consider them as representing a direct threat to our rescue mission
and will respond accordingly. We argue about whether they are enemy
combatants or not in the Security Council in any case, it should
buy us time to complete the rescue mission!” he then
added.

The President nodded his approval towards the
computer operator then took over the conversation.

“
Foreign Minister Lavrov,
this is the President of the United States…” He started.

A moment later he had his answer from the
President of the Russian Federation accepting the terms with his
own caveat at the end that if American Armed Forces attempted to
give aid to the criminal Wasir Osman Hassan they would consider
this an act of war on an allied nation of the Russian Federation
and respond accordingly.

“
Typical FUCKING Putin!”
responded the Secretary of State with a shake of the
head.

“
Mr. President, BAILOUT is
on the ground and securing the mission!” The Real Admiral in charge
of Naval Special Warfare Command said, interrupting the
exchange.

“
Casualties?” the President
asked.

“
Looks like over eighty
dead, with eight survivors,” reported the Real Admiral.

The President grimly thanked him for the
update. “We need to get in the end zone on this!” he thought
privately to himself.

51

Borama

“
Packet. We have reached the
second floor!” shouted the Ukrainian commander over his radio to
Martin who was in his command location across the street with
Wasir. The battle had been raging for over two hours, and it was
going badly as none of Wasir’s useless bunch of cutthroats had kept
any of their objectives they had secured. It suddenly got a whole
lot worse for Martin once Wasir got off the phone with one of his
men.

“
Mr. Andrew, the Russians
are at the airport!” the ashen-faced Wasir stated.

“
What, how many!” Martin
replied. He tried to comprehend where the devil they had come from.
The Russians didn’t have any armed forces within nine hours of
Borama apart from the men guarding the President and fighting tooth
and nail across the street and who so far had taken out over ninety
men in the process.

“
My men tell me two planes
have arrived with over three hundred white devils with fighter jets
also in support,” the ex-pirate replied crestfallen. His plans in
ruins!

“
That’s it then, Minister. I
am afraid we have to retire!” Martin replied they were outnumbered
and now out-gunned.

“
No! If we can take the
President all is not lost!” ordered the Minister
desperately.

Martin looked at Wilson first then replied
over the radio, ignoring him.

“
Packet Four, withdraw.
Mission is a scrub!” he wasn’t about to send his men to their
deaths just because of the ego of a warlord.

“
No!” cried Wasir again this
time pulling his weapon. Immediately Wilson with his already in his
hands cocked his own weapon in the same movement towards Wasir, his
son, and his bodyguard before they even got a chance to pull
theirs. Not wanting to die, both men relaxed their
movements.

“
Minister, it is necessary
that we get you to safety,” offered Martin in an attempt to defuse
the situation.

“
That way you can fight
another day, my friend,” responded Andrew with his hands up in a
calming gesture towards the wild eyed Somali, not meaning a word of
it as his primary objective now was to get out alive.

“
He is right, father!”
replied Mohammed agreeing with the Englishman. He had no wish to
die in this room chasing a lost cause.

Wasir’s eyes continued flashed in anger, but
the primal need for survival overrode his desire to press on.

“
We go!” he said as he
stormed off with his son and bodyguard out of the room.

“
Time to go RSM,” Martin
said with a sigh, knowing his bonus had also left the
building.

“
I will let the Boss know
it’s a scratch!” Wilson answered shaking his head like his former
Commanding officer over the disappointment of the loss of the bonus
he had been promised and to tell Gourgamani to stay put at the
Sammo while they made their way to him as they had pre-agreed to
depart on his plane if things were scratched.

As they started to drive away in their Land
Cruiser, the former RSM turned to old commanding officer, his face
ashen.

“
I can’t reach
him!”

“
Sir!” Wilson said reverting
to type under stress and fearing what that meant.

Before Martin could say anything in response,
machine gunfire strafed their vehicle.

52

Moscow

As the President of the United States of
America’s face appeared on the television screen, the President of
the Russian Federation said nothing.

It wasn’t lost on him that it was the middle
of the night in America. That meant the Bored Kid, as he thought of
him, was as worried as he was despite trying desperately hard not
to show it.

“
My fellow Americans,
yesterday evening following a request from the United Nations under
resolution S/RES/2200 (2013), I ordered our nation’s Armed Forces
stationed at Djibouti to provide support to the United Nations
Mission that had come under attack from unknown forces. At this
time, due to the worsening situation in the country. …”

During the speech, in measured careful tones
he made reference to the fact that as Russian forces were currently
engaged in an effort to put down the civil uprising in response to
the outrage and had placed all Russian armed forces on an Elevated
Combat Readiness footing. This meant he was left with no choice but
to also do so.

The President of Russia wasn’t surprised by
the content of the speech. He knew the Americans would state that
it was Russia who had upped the ante by elevating the threat level
and accuse him of supporting genocide despite having been behind
the coup and the attack on the United Nations Mission so to justify
them entering the country.

“
All because they wanted to
undermine the Russian interests in the region,, Things never
change! Arrogant as ever!” the Russian President thought in
disgust.

Once his counterpart finished with his
grandstanding the Russian President also left his situation room to
make his way to his office, it was time for his response.

Walking briskly past the nervous State
Television Broadcast support team, he sat down behind his desk with
the Flags of Russia and his office behind him. He waited for the
make-up assistant to finish powdering his nose. Once she was
finished he gave a singular nod towards the camera and started his
rebuttal of the accusations of the Americans.