Upfall

Upfall

Jonathan F. Keiler

Copyright © 2012 by Jonathan F. Keiler

Publish Green

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Minneapolis, MN 55401

612.455.2293

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents are the product of the author's imagination and/ or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-1-938564-49-9

Prologue

On September 6, 2007 Israeli fighter-bombers attacked a mysterious target in eastern Syria, near the Euphrates River. For many weeks Israel refused to formally acknowledge the raid. It is now known that the target was a secret Syrian nuclear site. Some sources opined that the attack was really a decoy to distract the Syrians, while a clandestine team of Israeli commandos actually hit the target.

Syrian spokesmen seemed to confirm the latter version of events by pointedly denying that Israeli ground forces were present, while at the same time acknowledging that Israeli planes had inexplicably bombed empty areas of desert. But few knowledgeable experts believed that. Rather, it appeared that the Syrians had indeed suffered some kind of devastating commando attack, but were too embarrassed to admit the truth.

Adding to the mystery was Israel's uncharacteristically stubborn silence on the matter. When Israeli jets destroyed Iraq's nuclear facilities in 1981 the Israel government was quick to claim the success. On this occasion, however, official Israeli sources remained mute. The likelihood that an Israeli commando force could be airlifted deep into eastern Syria, destroy a major nuclear facility, and get away, leaving no trace behind, is hard to credit. But the veil of secrecy Israel still maintains over the operation has led some to speculate that the Israelis had developed a new means of stealth transport that is so sensitive, only a very few people inside the Israeli establishment are even aware of its existence.

Chapter 1

Lieutenant Ron Shapira tried to ignore the nauseating shaking in the capsule by listening to Led Zeppelin on his Ipod. While "Over the Hills and Far Away" pounded in the small earpiece in his left ear, he stayed alert for messages that might come through the IDF issue radio-earpiece on his right ear. Like most Israeli soldiers he called the earpiece and microphone a Madonna—after the head-hugging set popularized by the singer. The other commandos in the cramped capsule also attempted to pass the time listening to music or daydreaming. Major Mofaz prayed. Bolander chewed gum. Only the unit leader, Colonel Danny Yatom, in his perch at the front, seemed completely unperturbed.

If the hammering blast of the capsule's arrival frightened and shook the Israeli commandos inside, it positively terrified the Iranians on floor of the Natanz nuclear facility. The scientists and technicians first assumed that another centrifuge had crashed. The massive facility was covered with over 6000 of the machines, all working day and night to separate and enrich uranium for the Islamic Republic's atomic bomb program. The mullahs had pressed the uranium enrichment factory into operation much faster than normal safety and manufacturing protocols would have permitted. As a result, centrifuges crashed all the time.

But that didn't explain the presence of the dark oblong capsule that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the facility around the detritus of wrecked centrifuges. Even stranger, the capsule opened, spilling out a dozen men dressed in bulky chemical / biological protection suits festooned with military style webbing and carrying black rifles. To the horror of the startled Iranian technicians, the men suddenly raised their weapons and began firing.

Yatom led the men out of the capsule onto the concrete floor,already full of shattered machines. In his ears the huge hall echoed from the crash of the capsule mingled with the insect hum of thousands of still working centrifuges. Like his men, Yatom was dressed in standard a MOPP level four protective suit. A plastic hood covered his head, a sealed mask and respirator his face. Suspended over his shoulders was a flak vest and webbing holding wide assortment of battle gear. On top of the hood Yatom wore a standard IDF Kevlar helmet. All the commandos carried American-made M-4 carbines.