Rogue Forces

Patrick put a finger to his lips, and Jaffar nodded that he understood. “How about some coffee, Jon? It’s instant, but it’s okay.” He pulled out a pad of paper and wrote, ????

“Sure, Muck, I’ll give it a try,” Jon said. On the paper he wrote, New client. Patrick widened his eyes in surprise and stared at Jaffar, who simply stood at the doorway with his hands behind his back, looking impatient. “Here’s the report,” he said. “The number one Loser is code one. The freighter has a bunch of spare parts, which we don’t need right now—what we’ll need is the room to start hauling our gear out. The Loser can carry a lot of it, but we’ll need more space.”

“We’ll worry about that when the freighter arrives,” Patrick said. He wrote: Hire Scion? Jon nodded. Patrick wrote: When? Why?

Jon wrote: Tonight. Defend Iraq against Turkey.

How? Patrick wrote.

Take Nahla, Jon wrote.

I don’t see how, Patrick said.

Jaffar’s eyes widened with impatience. He snatched the pencil out of Jon’s hands and wrote, My base, my country, my home. Help, or get out. Decide. Now.

OVER SOUTHERN TURKEY

HOURS LATER

“Ankara Center, Scion Seven-Seven, level, flight level three-three zero over reporting point Afsin, estimating reporting point Simak in twenty-six minutes.”

“Scion Seven-Seven, Ankara Center copies, good evening. Expect handoff to Mosul Approach five minutes prior to Simak.”

“Scion Seven-Seven copies.”

The radios fell silent for several minutes until: “Scion Seven-Seven, change to Diyarbakir Approach frequency VHF one-three-five-point-zero-five.”

It was a rather unusual request—they were transitioning well above the local approach control’s airspace—but the pilot didn’t argue: “Roger, Ankara, Scion Seven-Seven switching to Diyarbakir Approach.” He made the frequency change, then: “Diyarbakir Approach, Scion Seven-Seven, level, flight level three-three zero.”

A heavily Turkish-accented voice responded in English: “Scion Seven-Seven, this is Diyarbakir Approach, descend and maintain one-seven thousand feet, turn left heading three-four-five, vectors to Irgani intersection, altimeter setting two-niner niner eight.”

“Here we go,” the pilot said cross-cockpit, taking a deep cleansing breath to control his quickly rising excitement. He keyed his intercom button: “They just vectored us for the ILS approach into Diyarbakir, sir.”

“Question it but take the vector,” David Luger said via encrypted satellite link from Scion headquarters in Las Vegas. “We’re ready.”

“Roger.” On the radio, the pilot said, “Uh, Diyarbakir, Seven-Seven, why the vector? We’re on a priority international flight plan, destination Tall Kayf.”

“Your transition through Turkish airspace has been canceled by the Turkish Ministry of Defense and Frontier Security, Seven-Seven,” the approach controller said. “You are instructed to follow my vectors for approach and landing at Diyarbakir. Once your plane, crew, and cargo have been inspected, you will be permitted to continue to your destination.”

“This is not right, Approach,” the pilot protested. “Our flight did not originate or terminate in Turkey, and we filed a flight plan. We are not subject to inspection as long as we are only overflying your airspace. If you want, we can exit your airspace.”

“You are instructed to follow my vectors for approach and landing at Diyarbakir, or you will be considered a hostile aircraft and we will respond accordingly,” the controller said. “There are fighters standing by that will intercept you and escort you to Diyarbakir if you do not comply. Acknowledge.”

“Approach, we’re turning to your heading and descending,” the pilot responded, “but I will be messaging my headquarters and advising them of your threat. We will comply under protest.”

“I have been informed to notify you that the American consulate has been notified of our actions and will meet you at Diyarbakir for the inspection and interviews,” the controller said after a lengthy pause. “They will remain with you at all times while you are on the ground and will observe all of our enforcement actions.”

“This is still not right, Approach,” the pilot went on. “You can’t divert us like this. This is illegal.” On the intercom, the pilot asked, “You want us to keep descending, sir?”

“One more minute,” Dave Luger said. The Boeing 767 freighter had actually been a test-bed aircraft for the high-tech sensors and transmitters mounted on the XC-57. Most of them were still installed, including the ability to network-intrude, or “netrude”—send digital instructions to an enemy computer or network by inserting code into a digital receiver return signal. Once the proper digital frequency was discovered, Luger could remotely send computer instructions into an enemy network that, if not detected and firewalled, could propagate throughout the enemy’s computer network worldwide like any other shared piece of data.