Separation of Power

chapter FORTY-FOUR
Baghdad, Monday night

Rapp had given the members of the Delta team one piece of serious advice. They were true professionals, men who did not take well to outsiders telling them what to do, so he was careful how he said it, but he was firm. He told them, "Be bold, be arrogant, and if anybody gets in the way, threaten to kill them." This was the way of Uday Hussein. He had learned it from his father, and young Uday had bested him. Saddam had no heart, but it seemed at least that there was some logic to his use of force. It was used to rule, to keep his subjects cowering. If the people cowered they couldn't look up long enough to strike back. Uday, on the other hand, seemed to take perverse pleasure in maiming and killing innocent people in the most random of ways.

Saddam tolerated Uday's brutal behavior for three reasons. The first was that Saddam himself was no saint, the second was that Uday was his son, and the third was that Uday's sadistic behavior served a purpose. It helped to spread fear among even Saddam's most senior people. The message was clear, don't screw up or you'll end up as Uday's evening entertainment.

The stories were well known throughout Iraq and in the western intelligence agencies. In 1995 Saddam's two sons-in-law, Hussein Kamel, and Saddam Kamel defected to Jordan with Saddam's daughters. After a short period Saddam convinced them to come back to Baghdad. He promised them that he had forgiven them, and that the important thing was that they were family. Upon their return to Baghdad, Uday convinced his father that they needed to made an example of them. Saddam was swayed by his son. Uday then proceeded to torture them for hours on end, kill them, and then as a final message to all the people of Iraq, he burned their houses to the ground. He did it all in front of his sisters, who were allowed to live.

Then there was the story of a friend who had dared to criticize the son of Saddam. Uday had a string tied around the man's penis and then forced three bottles of gin down his throat. The man died an excruciating death. Just a year earlier his father had sent one of his top advisors to talk to Uday about certain affairs of state. Uday felt the man was too condescending, so he had his testicles cut off and fed to his dogs. The man was allowed to live as a reminder to all that Uday was to be treated with absolute respect. Rapp had told all these stories and more to the Delta boys so they could understand the real fear that Uday Hussein strikes into the hearts of all Iraqis. It was this fear that they were depending on to get them into the facility.

The cars had proceeded without difficulty up Route 144. The six lane highway was very modern and relatively quiet as the clock approached 11:00 P. M. The few cars and trucks that they encountered moved quickly out of the way as the caravan of three white Mercedes sedans rolled past at 75 mph. When they reached the city limits they turned onto the Abu Ghurayb Expressway, another six lane thoroughfare that would carry them into the heart of Baghdad and right through the very teeth of the enemy. On the left was the sprawling Abu Ghurayb munitions factory and on the right was the main barracks for the Republican Guard, over ten thousand shock troops ready to put down any revolt launched against Saddam.

Suddenly Rapp noticed the lead car begin to slow a bit. Looking ahead he saw a police cruiser in the middle lane. He spoke decisively over the team's com net "Don't slow down. There isn't a cop in this country who'd pull over one of these caravans. Speed right past him."

The Mercedes all had deeply tinted windows so it was impossible to see in. As they passed the police cruiser Rapp looked over at the officer. Just as he thought, the man didn't dare to even glance at the speeding luxury sedans.

The computer mapping in the car was very nice. The system was uplinked to the Global Positioning System and showed them their exact location on a map of the city. Their course to the hospital was also clearly marked in green. As an extra precaution each member had also memorized the location of the hospital and the streets leading to and from it.

The lead car hit its right turn signal and began to move over. Their exit for the hospital was coming up. As they reached the top of the ramp, and prepared to turn onto Shari'Arba'at, Rapp saw a flash off in the distance. For a split second he thought it was lightning, but it was quickly followed by three more. The strikes were not coming from the sky, they were erupting from the ground. Suddenly fiery streaks appeared in the night sky, and Rapp realized they were cruise missiles. It was an amazing sight, like a low-level meteor storm. Bright flashes began popping to the south of them, each one moving closer until they could hear the explosions. The drivers kept moving toward the hospital. When they reached Shari'Al Mansur they took a left and sped down the road. Several blocks later they passed the Russian embassy and had to race around cars that were stopped in the middle of the road.

At that exact moment, a block in front of them, a blur of fire breathing cruise missiles screamed overhead less than a hundred feet off the ground. The cars shook from the noise, but continued on even faster. The hospital was only blocks away. Over the com net Rapp said, "Major, did you see the crowd gathering in front of the Russian embassy?"

"Affirmative."

"The locals know it's safe to go there during an air raid. The street might be blocked by the time we get out of here."

"Roger, we'll go with the secondary route. Did everybody get that? On the way out we're switching to the secondary route."

The drivers all confirmed that they'd received the order and the group pressed on. The explosions started occurring closer by the second and Rapp briefly wondered if they'd all lost their minds to volunteer for this operation. He'd specifically asked that the bombing start minutes after they'd arrived at the hospital, not before. His greatest fear was that the underground facility would go through a standard lockdown procedure when the bombing started.

They made one last turn, all three vehicles skidding around the corner. The side entrance to the hospital was up ahead on the left and the street was empty. Rapp didn't know if this was a good sign or a bad one. The cars skidded to a halt and twelve doors instantly flew open. Each man had a job. In the backseat of the first and third vehicles Delta operators popped up through the sunroofs and set up their Heckler & Koch 7.62-mm machine guns on tripods. The heavy weapons would eviscerate anything short of an armored personnel carrier, and if one of those or. God forbid, a tank showed up, they had three LAW 80 antitank guided missiles. The three drivers stood next to their vehicles, leaving the engines running. Each carried an M4A1 carbine with an advanced combat optical gun sight, and an M203 40-mm grenade launcher affixed under the barrel grip. The driver from the middle car would cover the door after the entry team went in.

The remaining seven Delta operators and Rapp moved quickly toward the door. Each man with the exception of Rapp carried a Heckler & Koch MP10 suppressed submachine gun. The weapons were silent 9-mm close-quarter killing machines. They were the best weapon available for the job, and if not for Rapp, they would have been left behind. The original plan had been to use AK-74's and AKSU's, the standard weapons of the Special Republican Guard, but Rapp had intervened, explaining that Uday was a gun nut and the men on his personal detail carried the best weapons money could buy.

The Delta operators and Rapp moved toward the nondescript metal door enmasse. None of them knew what to expect on the other side. The lead man shoved open the door just as an earthshaking explosion occurred from a bomb strike nearby.

The Iraqi soldier standing in the small room had a wall phone to his ear and a machine gun slung over his shoulder. His eyes were wide open with fear from either the explosion or the sudden arrival of the Special Republican Guard unit.

Whichever the case, Rapp did not wait around to find out. Remembering his words to the Delta operators, Rapp pushed his way through the men, limping like Uday Hussein would, and in Arabic yelled, "Hang up the phone!"

The man mumbled something quickly into the phone and nervously placed it in its cradle. Snapping to attention, he saluted Rapp and said, "General Hussein, we are under attack by the Americans. We must get you down to the shelter."

"I know we are under attack, you idiot! That is why I'm here. Take me to the bombs." Without hesitation the guard turned and inserted a key into a riveted steel door. He yanked it open and gestured for the man he thought to be Uday Hussein to enter. Rapp did so and stepped into a slightly larger room. The guard nervously inserted another key into a box on the wall. Two heavy doors slid back to reveal a large freight elevator. Everyone piled in and the guard pressed one of two buttons.

Rapp asked, "Is Dr. Lee here?"

The guard would not look Rapp in the eyes. "I'm sorry, General Hussein?"

"The Korean," he yelled.

"Yes, I think so," the man answered nervously.

"Who were you on the phone with when I arrived?"

"Headquarters, General."

"Why?"

"They are sending more men over just in case."

The Delta operators on the street could not hear what the Iraqi soldier was saying, so Rapp said, "Headquarters is sending men! Those idiots! All they'll do is attract attention to this place."

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Two guards were waiting for them. Both were at attention with their rifles at port, standing one on each side of a huge blast door. The guard who had ridden down with them asked, "I can call headquarters, General, and tell them not to send the men."

"Yes, do that!" Rapp yelled. He continued forward, marching with his fake limp through the blast door into a cavernous room, at least 100 feet by 300 feet, with twenty-foot ceilings.

Major Berg appeared at Rapp's side and in Arabic whispered, "Cameras."

Rapp looked up and in one sweep found four of them. He pulled the major close and said, "Deploy your men. Leave two of them here to take care of the guards." Rapp heard a loud humming noise and turned to see the large blast door moving.

"Stop!" screamed Rapp. "I gave no order to close that door!"

The guard at the wall smacked a red button with the palm of his hand and snapped to attention. Rapp barked at him, "Call headquarters and tell them I'm going to cut the balls off of the idiot who decided to draw attention to this place!"

The guard ran for the nearest phone and snatched the handset from its cradle. Rapp looked the length of the chamber and spotted a clean room against the far wall. Inside the glass-walled, environmentally controlled room he could see several people in white lab coats and hair nets. Rapp set out for the room with Major Berg and four of the operators. Rapp burst into the room and looked at the five Korean men covered from head to toe in surgical garb. "Dr. Lee!"

One of the men came toward them waving his arms. Rapp assumed it was Dr. Lee. In heavily accented English he said, "No ... no ... you can't come in here dressed like that."

Rapp drew one of the nickel-plated .45's, cocked the hammer, pointed it at the doctor's head and screamed, "No one tells me what to do!"

The scientist stopped in his tracks and lowered his head. "I'm sorry."

"Where are the weapons?" he yelled. Rapp had no idea if Dr. Lee had ever met Uday, but the disguise appeared to be working so far.

"The weapons?" asked the Korean.

"The bombs, you idiot! The Americans know about them. An air attack is under way and one of our spies tells us they are preparing to drop one of their special bombs on this place."

"But they aren't ready."

"I don't care if they aren't ready!" Rapp pointed to a cart on the other side of the room. "Put the crucial parts on that cart immediately! We have to get out of here fast!"

Dr. Lee turned and started giving orders to his people in Korean. Rapp glanced over his shoulder and looked at the two Delta operators who specialized in explosives and had been briefed on what to look for. With a head jerk from Rapp the two men set out to keep an eye on the scientists. Rapp grabbed Major Berg by the arm and walked back out into the large chamber. "Have your men leave one of the charges in that clean room." Each member of the assault team was wearing a satchel around their waist that contained enough C4 plastic explosives to level a house.

The major nodded. "Good enough. I'm going to put another satchel over by those canisters of liquid nitrogen."

"Make sure you save one for the elevator."

The guard who Rapp had told to call headquarters approached nervously. "General Hussein." The man stopped just out of Rapp's reach. "I'm sorry, but headquarters reports that your brother Qusai has given the order to secure the facility with his troops. They want me to shut the blast doors."

This was big trouble. Qusai was Udays older brother and their father's successor. "You incompetent fool!" Rapp lunged forward and slapped the man across the face. The guard dropped to his knees in a sign of submission. Rapp looked to Berg and mouthed the words, Hurry up. Addressing the cowering guard Rapp yelled, "Get up! You are coming with me."

Rapp marched the man back across the room and into the waiting elevator. They rode it back upstairs in silence. When the doors opened Rapp took one of his pistols and pointed it at the man's head. "Go back down there and help my men, and don't even think about closing those blast doors. If you do I will have your eyeballs cut out!"

Rapp left the elevator and went back out onto the street. As he emerged from the building two hulking armored personnel carriers came around the corner. The first thing Rapp heard was one of the Delta operators say. "Shit, we've got two Russian BTR-80's. Get the LAWs ready."

Rapp limped off in the direction of the steel monsters. Over the group's com link he said, "Hold tight for a second, guys. Let me see what I can do." He stopped the vehicles halfway down the block by sticking out his hand and holding his ground. The vehicles stopped and one of the doors opened. An Iraqi colonel appeared wearing an SRG uniform. Rapp instantly knew he was in trouble. There was a good chance this officer had dealt with Uday on a more intimate level.

Rapp kept up the facade. "Colonel, get your men out of here immediately. My father has sent me on a special mission. If he finds out you were here he will have your head."

The officer stopped eight feet from Rapp and looked at him strangely. With a frown on his face he asked, "Uday?"

Rapp could tell by the look on the man's face that he had pushed his luck far enough. With lightning speed he drew his gun and fired a shot straight into the center of the colonel's forehead. The heavy .45 caliber round knocked the man from his feet and sent him to the street. Rapp stepped forward, screaming at the top of his lungs, "How dare you talk about my father that way!" He squeezed off three more rounds into the already dead body and spat on it. Then, looking up at the armored personnel carrier he waved his gun in the air and yelled, "Get out of here right now, or my father will have your heads!"

Quickly Rapp turned and limped back toward the cars. Over the team's com net he said, "I sure hope you guys have got those rockets ready."

"Roger that," someone said.

"Then use them right now, before they have a chance to call in what I just did." Rapp watched as one of the Delta operators reached into the car and pulled out a LAW 80 rocket. He expertly extended it into firing position, stepped clear of the car and yelled, "Get down!"

Rapp dove for the pavement and before he hit the ground he heard the loud swooshing noise of the 94-mm rocket leaving the tube. A split second later there was an incredible explosion and the armored personnel carrier burst into flames. With debris still falling Rapp saw one of the other Delta operators run to the other side of the street with a second LAW in his hand. The man dropped to his knee in a doorway, acquired the second armored personnel carrier in his sights and fired.

Rapp covered his ears, the explosion lifting his body off the ground an inch. After a moment he scrambled to his feet. As machine-gun fire erupted he raced for the building and yelled, "Major Berg, our cover's been blown, get up here ASAP!"

Rapp ran into the building and made it to the elevator. "Give me an update, Major."

"We've got the bombs, or at least the parts that matter most."

"Wax the guards and get up here," said Rapp with urgency.

"What about the scientists?"

"F*ck!" He'd forgot about them. He looked around for a moment and said, "Bring 'em all up, and do it fast."

"Roger."

Rapp went back to the street. The shooting, at least for now, had stopped. Nervously, he looked at his watch and swore under his breath, wishing the rest of the team was already up here. The Delta operators had fanned out a bit and were scanning in every direction, ready to shoot anything that moved. Rapp headed back to the elevator and paced back and forth until the door opened. When it did, two Delta operators raced past him with the cart. Next, Dr. Lee stepped off, loudly protesting in English that the components were too fragile to be moved like this. Rapp delivered a well placed left hook to the scientist's jaw and grabbed him as he began to crumple. Tossing Lee over his shoulder, Rapp motioned for the other scientists to get off the elevator. They stood cowering in the corner as one of Major Berg's men threw his satchel charge into the elevator and pressed the button to send it back down. The doors closed and the whine of the elevator could be heard as the cable unwound. Rapp backed out of the room and yelled at the other scientists, "Do not leave this room or you will be shot!"

With that he closed the door, went through the small room and out onto the street. Rapp dumped Lee's body into the trunk of the last car and put a pair of flex cuffs on his wrists.

Berg appeared at his side. "What in the hell are you doing?"

"Dr. Lee is going to spend the next several years of his life telling us everything he knows about Saddam's nuclear weapons program."

Berg grinned. "Good idea. Now can we get the hell out of here?"

"Yep. Have one of your men close that door over there and set one more satchel charge with a thirty-second delay."

Berg barked the orders in Arabic, and his men went to work. One by one they retreated to the vehicles and loaded up. The gunners standing in the sun roofs covered the withdrawal until the last man was in. Each car did a head count and Berg gave the order to move out.

The cars sped away from the burning vehicles to the sound of air raid sirens and antiaircraft guns, punctuated by the heavy explosions of bombs. The night sky was ablaze with tracer fire and the streets were empty. The bombing had driven people for cover. Moments later they turned onto Shari'Al Urdun, another major thoroughfare, and punched it. Less than a mile later the road turned into Route 10, an empty six lane highway. As Major Berg radioed Colonel Gray their status, the cars flew down the road at 110 mph toward the waiting choppers, safety, and success.