Rogue Forces

“The PKK terrorists are on the run, trying to make it to larger towns and cities,” Guzlev went on. “It will take hard work to dig them out, but we’ll do it. We’re hoping to keep them in the countryside so they don’t escape to Irbil or Kirkuk and blend in with the population. The peshmerga remain a significant threat, but they are not engaging us as of yet—they are fierce defenders of their towns, but they are not attacking us. That may change.”

“A diplomatic solution will be necessary with the Kurdish Regional Government to find some way to allow us to look for the PKK terrorists without battling peshmerga,” Hirsiz said. “Washington has been calling all night demanding an explanation. I think now is time to talk to them. Press on, General. Pass on to your men: Job well done. Good luck, and good hunting.”

“Excellent news indeed, sir,” General Orhan Zahin, secretary-general of the Turkish National Security Council, said. “Better than anticipated. No one is opposing us except for a few peshmerga fighters and PKK terrorists.” Hirsiz nodded but said nothing—he appeared to be lost in thought. “Don’t you agree, sir?”

“Of course,” Hirsiz said. “We expected to get bogged down in the hills, but without organized opposition, northern Iraq is wide open…especially Irbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government, who refuse to crack down on the PKK.”

“What are you saying, sir?”

“I’m saying that if we squeeze Irbil, we can force the KRG to help us hunt down the PKK terrorists,” Hirsiz said. “Everyone knows companies owned by the KRG cabinet and senior leadership funnel money to the PKK. Maybe it’s time to make them pay a price. Destroy those businesses, close down the KTC pipeline, close the border crossings and airspace to anything or anyone associated with the KRG, and they’ll be begging to help us.” He turned to Minister of Defense Cizek. “Get a list of targets in Irbil that will specifically target KRG resources, and work with General Guzlev to add them to his target list.”

“We should be careful about mission creep, sir,” Cizek said. “Our goal is to set up a buffer zone in northern Iraq and wipe it clean of PKK. Attacking Irbil is far outside that objective.”

“It is another way to destroy the PKK—by having the Iraqis help us,” Hirsiz said. “If they want to see an end to our attacks and our occupation, they’ll help us eradicate the PKK, as they should have been doing years ago.” Cizek still looked concerned, but he nodded and made notes to himself. “Very good. Now I’ll go talk with Joseph Gardner and see if he has any desire to help us.”

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

A SHORT TIME LATER, EARLY AFTERNOON

A phone right beside Chief of Staff Walter Kordus’s elbow beeped, and he picked it up immediately. “Call from Ankara, sir,” he said. “Signals says it’s from the president himself.”

“Finally,” President Joseph Gardner said. He was behind his desk, watching the cable news reports about the invasion of Iraq with his national security adviser, Conrad Carlyle, Secretary of Defense Miller Turner, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Marine Corps general Taylor J. Bain. On a video teleconference feed were Vice President Kenneth Phoenix at Allied Air Base Nahla in Iraq, and Secretary of State Stacy Barbeau from Aviano Air Base in Italy, where she had diverted instead of continuing on to Iraq from Washington. “Put him on.” He thought for a moment, then shook his hand. “No, wait, I’ll make him wait and see how he likes it. Tell him to hold for me and I’ll speak with him in a minute.”

Gardner turned to the others in the Oval Office. “Okay, we’ve been watching the shit flying all day now. What do we know? What do we tell whoever’s at the other end of that call?”

“It’s plain that the Turks are going after the PKK hideouts and training camps and are being very careful not to cause any Iraqi or American casualties,” National Security Adviser Conrad Carlyle said. “If that’s truly the case, we tell our guys to hunker down and stay out of it. Then we tell the Turks to back off in case there are unintended consequences.”

“Sounds reasonable to me,” Gardner said. “They’re driving pretty deep into Iraq, aren’t they, a lot farther than their usual cross-border raids?” Nods all around the Oval Office and on the video teleconference monitors. “Then the question is: Are they going to stay?”

“They’ll stay long enough to slaughter any PKK rebels they find, and then I’m sure they’ll leave,” Secretary of State Stacy Anne Barbeau said via her secure video teleconference link from Italy. “We should call for United Nations monitoring as soon as possible in case Kurzat Hirsiz is no longer in charge and the Turkish army wants to go on a rampage.”