“General, there are those of us at the Agency and in the military that share your concerns. I can assure you, though, that if I can get something concrete that I can take back to Jim, he’ll be able to take it to Secretary Johnson and Pam McDowell,” referring to the secretary of state and the national security advisor, “to do more than simply rely on economic sanctions and negotiations.”
“You have a lot more confidence in those two than we do.” Tamir said, with more than a little degree of skepticism. “However, I think we can help you out there. Let Arielle, here, know of anything you want. She’s been advised to be at your disposal for absolutely anything you want – and I mean anything.”
Hearing this, Jackson stole a quick glance at Dani. For a brief moment, her eyes seemingly locked on his until she looked away rather awkwardly. General Pardo, seemingly oblivious to this, continued on.
“Also, and I believe you are aware, we’ve been practicing for a raid on Iran for some time now – we are prepared to ‘go it alone’ if need be.”
“I am aware of that, and I know Jim, the Agency and the Pentagon is as well. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“We shall see, Colonel. We shall see. Now, I must apologize, but I can’t keep Bibi waiting any longer.”
“Nothing to apologize for, General. And thanks for your openness; I look forward to working with Arielle and her team.”
After the brief meeting with General Pardo, Dani took Stonewall to their operations center. Benjamin Givon and Yoni Cohen were in a small conference room in the middle of watching a live feed from a drone, currently flying over Iran’s Parchin military facility in Tehran. As Dani and Stonewall entered the room the feed switched over to more of an urban area which Jackson easily recognized as suburban Tehran. It took a few minutes but eventually the drone centered on a somewhat remote area in western Tehran. The area looked somewhat like a park of sorts. The picture on the screen eventually focused in on a residence and then centered in on the car in the driveway.
“Looks like someone’s home,” Yoni volunteered.
“Zoom in on the window in the southwest corner of the house. Can you see if there’s anything in the window? We told him to leave a couple plants in the window when he’s home; we didn’t want to simply rely on a car being in the driveway,” Ben somewhat rhetorically asked Yoni, his executive officer.
“Yeah, it looks like the good doctor’s home this afternoon,” Yoni replied.
“Looks that way. Okay, let’s get out of here. We don’t want to draw any undo suspicion here at this late stage,” Ben added.
“Gentlemen,” Dani interrupted, “our friend from the States has just arrived. Colonel Tom ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, this is Benjamin Givon, our Iranian field team leader, and Yoni Cohen, our executive officer.”
“The general said you’d be coming by later today. Nice to finally meet you. We’ve heard a lot about you, though you didn’t need to go and emulate General Dayan on us,” Ben added with a sly grin, referring to the black eye patch Jackson wore and which had been a trademark of the legendary one-eyed Israeli General Moshe Dayan.
“That was Jim’s idea; he thought it’d be easier for you to pick me up at the airport. I’ve got the glass eye as well and I’m comfortable with either one. As for what you may have heard, I wouldn’t believe everything you hear. I’m sure Jim embellished a few areas,” Jackson said, referencing his boss at the CIA. “I have heard a little about what you all do here, though. I know that over the past few years several Iranian scientists have met with, shall we say, an ‘unfortunate demise.’ We also know you managed to slow the Iranians down with that Stuxnet virus. That was nice work.”
“The brain drain caused by the loss of their scientists didn’t slow them as much as we had hoped. Stuxnet really set them back, though,” Ben admitted. “We followed that up with a Stuxnet variant which slowed them down even more than the original virus, but it didn’t stop them. We knew it wouldn’t; that wasn’t our intent. We simply wanted to buy some time, and in that, we really succeeded.”
“That’s what we heard. So, tell me, just how close are they to getting a bomb?” Jackson asked the small group.
Somewhat nonchalantly, Ben simply said “farther along than you’d believe. Tell you what, where do they have you staying?”
“I guess I really don’t know. I think it’s a place called the Daniel Hotel, or something like that. I’ve never been here so I’m really not sure.”
“Okay, Yoni and I have a couple things left to finish up. Let’s have Arielle take you over there so you can get checked in and all, then the three of us can grab a bite to eat. Sound okay?”
“Okay by me.”
“Arielle, why don’t we plan on meeting you at the Accad right there at the hotel? Give us, oh…, about half an hour to finish up and we’ll see you there.”
“Yeah, that sounds good; it’s new and I haven’t had a chance to get there yet. We’ll give him a proper introduction to Israel. You ready, Colonel?” Dani asked Stonewall.
“All set; my bag’s still in your rig, so I’m ready whenever you are.”
“Okay, we’ll see you guys there,” Dani said over her shoulder as Jackson accompanied her out the door.
“Dani, you can drop the formality; call me Stonewall, everyone else does. These days, no one’s using my rank.”
“Sorry, since Tamir mentioned you’re still active duty I thought I’d respect the rank,” Dani said as she walked to the car.
“No need to worry about that. Oh, and what’s with the ‘proper introduction’ idea? Anything I should know about?”
“They’ve got you at the Daniel?” Dani asked, ignoring Jackson’s question as he got into the car.
“Yeah, that’s the one; I haven’t even had a chance to look at it online.”
“Well, I don’t see a ring on that finger. Does that mean there’s no ‘Mrs. Jackson’ or someone else in your life?” Dani had that out there before she realized it probably sounded better in her head than spoken. “Ah… I mean, the Daniel is one of the nicest hotels in Israel, let alone Tel Aviv. If you wanted to spoil someone, this is the place,” Dani continued, noticeably blushing.
“Ah, no, there’s no one else,” Jackson replied. “But back to this ‘proper introduction.’”
“Oh yeah; it’s just the usual initiation we do for all new members of the Unit.”
“Excuse me?” Jackson replied, whipping his head around to look at Dani, caught more than a little off guard on a couple different levels. As he did so, he noticed that, as she had been driving with her left arm, the left sleeve of her blouse had slipped up towards her shoulder, revealing a long scar across her arm just above the elbow.
“Relax, it’s nothing to worry about, at least not too much. I mean, I’ve heard of the initiation some of your SEALs go through. We like to have fun, too, but that’s just crazy; we won’t embarrass you too much,” Dani said, with a bit of a mischievous grin. “I mean, it’s not like you have to drive somewhere tonight, right?”
* * *
Jackson didn’t realize that the elevator opened right at the Accad restaurant. He looked around to find Dani and finally noticed her back in a corner booth. As he walked up to the booth, he realized that both Ben and Yoni had already arrived. The “initiation” to which Dani had alluded simply revolved around each of them getting to know Stonewall, and he getting to know them – in essence, more of a job interview. Dani wanted to get to know this Special Forces, turned CIA, officer who had never been to Israel before but had come highly recommended for what she knew to be a very important mission for both of their countries. Ben and Yoni wanted to size up this intelligence officer to get an idea if he might be up for this mission. So, over a very casual dinner, their “interview” began.
“So, ‘Stonewall’, just where did that moniker come from?” Dani began, with somewhat of an edge.
Ignoring the tenor of Dani’s question, Jackson started, “It was back in “05 or “06 in northern Iraq. I commanded an A team that parachuted into northern Iraq. At one point, an entire Iraqi tank company confronted our team – mind you, the heaviest thing we had was a Humvee with a.50 caliber machine gun mounted on it – against several tanks and armored personnel carriers. We were outnumbered by about five to one. We had several of the new Javelin anti-tank missiles as well and we were facing some extreme ranges. We used them, and completely destroyed the tank company. With my name: Thomas Jackson, and the situation we faced, the colonel who relieved us tagged me with the moniker “Stonewall’, and it seemed to fit, reminiscent of the Civil War general.”
“Ah, I hadn’t thought of him; I can see that, now that you mention it. Tamir told me you’ve had quite the career with the Special Forces,” Dani replied. Her use of the Mossad director’s first name – again – did not escape Jackson; actually, somewhat surprised him as her tone implied more than a customary familiarity with her very powerful boss.
“As for the rest of my career with the Special Forces, I’m still active duty, just temporarily with the Agency. I can’t tell you much more than what you probably already know: I’ve served with the Fifth Group for the last sixteen years now and along the way hit most of the countries in the region. I had a few tours in Afghanistan, a couple in Iraq, and spent some time at KASOTC,” referring to the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center in Amman, Jordan. “Serving as a CIF team commander with the Fifth Group has probably been the highlight of my career. It’s been a great ride and I wouldn’t change anything. I was fortunate enough to find the time to get a doctorate in Persian studies a couple years ago.”
“CIF team?” Dani asked. “Aren’t those relatively new?”
“The Commander’s In-extremis Force team has been around since the 90’s but we’ve honed it into a very capable unit. The idea is that whenever a situation blows up in a group’s region, there’s a force immediately available for the group commander, or the president, should something that sensitive develop. Every group has a team and they’re permanently deployed to their region – that’s how I got to KASOTC. Every asset a team commander could possibly need deploys with them, from ground transportation to air assets, be it Apache Longbows, C-130’s or even half a dozen A-10’s. The team can literally be wheels up to anywhere in its region – or its proximity – within half an hour. We’ve learned a lot from you guys, and from our own successes – and failures.”
“We’ve both had our share of each, I’m afraid,” Ben admitted.
Dani and her teammates had Jackson at a little bit of a disadvantage as they knew some of Jackson’s history, given General Pardo’s relationship with Jim Carmichael. She knew he had three Silver Stars, one of which could have – and probably should have – been a Distinguished Service Cross, but due to Army politics, this had been downgraded to a Silver Star. She wanted to hear how Jackson described it, if he did at all. She appreciated his modesty in leaving this out.
Jackson hadn’t had the opportunity to learn much of anything about the Israeli team with whom he’d be working. Ben and Yoni looked as though they could have been part of his team with the Special Forces. They were both very well built, not overly large men as, at six two, Jackson was taller than both of them. Rather, they had a lean, rugged and confident air about them as having practiced their craft in the field rather than in the class room. Dani on the other hand, intrigued him. She fit right in with Ben and Yoni but women didn’t serve in a Special Forces unit, at least not in his army. He knew women served alongside men in most Israeli army units but this wasn’t the typical unit. She certainly had the athletic build and he had noticed that she moved with all the grace of a lioness on the prowl. Clearly, Dani looked as though she could certainly take care of herself.
“How about you guys; Jim sent me over here with very little advance notice.”
“Both Yoni and I started out in the Paratroopers,” Ben began. “I was about five years ahead of him. He was actually one of my platoon leaders when I was a battalion commander. My CO introduced me to General Pardo during some of our actions in Lebanon in the mid “90’s. The general took an interest in me and, shortly after the September “11 attacks in the States, he offered me a job with Mossad working with Iran’s growing threat in the region. I jumped at the chance. I had been heavily involved with the actions of Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, so the opportunity to work more on the Iranian connection, even inside Iran, seemed like a godsend. Several years ago, we had an opening on the team and I spoke with General Pardo about the possibility of bringing Yoni on board. He had much of the same experience I had so bringing him on board was a no-brainer.”
Looking at Dani, Jackson asked, “what about you?”
Ben initially answered for her. “She’s third on the team, in charge of operations. We call her ‘Arielle’.”
“Operations, really?” Jackson replied, clearly impressed. “And where does ‘Arielle’ come from?” he asked. “Just how long have you been working with these two?”
Ben replied first. “Arielle’s easy; it means Lioness of God. It fits.”
“So, is that what that scar’s all about?” Jackson asked Dani, looking at her left arm.
“Yeah; I’m sure you’ve heard the adage about bringing a knife to a gun fight, right? Well, several months back, I was the number two shooter on a bike team in Tehran. We were driving through a residential neighborhood and got separated by some kids playing in the street. We were only a second or two behind but that’s all it took for the target’s body guard to knock me off the bike. I lost my piece and so did the guard, but he had a knife. His first – and only – swing sliced my arm and continued across the left side of my rib cage. I disarmed him with his next attempt and killed him with his own knife.”
“Damn,” was all Stonewall could say.
“Told you; it suits her,” Ben added.
“My family’s been tied pretty closely to the Israeli Special Forces and Mossad since our independence,” Dani continued on. “My Dad and Tamir served together in the Paratroopers and my grandfather and Tami’s father served with General Arik Sharon in the Sinai in the “67 war.” For Jackson, that answered a few questions right there. “I talked with Tamir right after I finished my schooling as I wanted another challenge. Tamir offered me a chance to try out for the Sayeret Matkal” – Israeli Special Forces – “and four years later, here I am.”
“What did you do your schooling in?” Jackson asked her.
“I did my undergrad work in Tel Aviv in nuclear physics. From there, I got my PhD in nuclear engineering at Texas A & M.”
“Texas? Why Texas?” asked Jackson.
“A & M has a great program and I wanted to see the States. Everything I read made Texas look and feel like Israel so I applied and they accepted me. Outside of Israel, I consider Texas, my second home.”
“That’s cool; I hail from San Angelo. Always nice to have another Texan around.”
III
Dani arrived at Jackson’s hotel at six forty-five the following morning. “Hey, Stonewall, you ready?” she said into her phone.
“All set; be right down. Wasn’t expecting you for another fifteen to twenty minutes.”
“What’s the matter? I thought you Special Forces guys were always ready,” Dani chimed in.
“I’m ready; just need to put my shoes on and I’ll be right there.”
Jackson emerged from the lobby elevator to find Dani waiting for him – and her transformation could not have been more complete: Gone was yesterday’s ponytail and tomboy image and replaced with a Giorgio Armani business suit that seriously out-classed Jackson’s sport coat and tie.