Mullahs and bullets, Ephesus, Friday, May 22
It was the same breakfast at the same time as the day before. This time there were two new members who made it clear that they didn’t like each other. One was a mullah from Iran, a Shia. The other was a Sunni mullah from Saudi Arabia. They sat at opposite sides of the dining area and glared at each other. They were even more unhappy when they learned that there were Jews and a Catholic priest in the group.
Jeff sat the entire group down and explained to the new members how things were going to work. He told the mullahs that they had been represented by Hakan the day before. Hakan told them he had found nothing in any of the books and neither had anyone else. They felt better when he told them he was in charge of throwing the books into the container in which they were to be burned. Jeff didn’t know if this was because they had confidence in Hakan or they just liked the idea of burning books.
They went back to Oscar’s room, opened the door, the window in the hall, the dumpster lids and started going though Oscar’s stuff. They found a few more books in the trunk by the foot of the bed. It was mostly filled with clothing. Apparently Oscar wore the same trousers and shirts every day. They were looking through uniforms rather than a wardrobe for a man. They investigated his shoes, his socks and underwear. They were just starting to go through his bathroom kit bag when Hakan’s phone rang. He was still in the hallway, but everyone stopped while he spoke in rapid Turkish. He then walked over to Mark Cranley and whispered something to him, then took off running down the hall toward the entrance.
Cranley came in the room and said, “One of the Turkish guards is not checking in and may be missing. One of the staff members said they saw some activity up in the brush above the Roman Athletic Club. No one is supposed to be up there. Based on that information, let’s lock up the container and the room and get everyone back to the main building.”
They were back in the dig headquarters five minutes later. Mark told everyone to stay down. He opened a briefcase and handed Jeff an automatic pistol and four clips. As he headed for the door, Jeff followed and said, “Look, Mark. I am a lot more comfortable out there with you. I can be a lot more useful out there also.”
Mark said, “Our job is to protect Agent Solomon and you. Why don’t you let those of us who know what we are doing handle this?”
Jeff looked Mark directly in the eyes and said, “This is what I am good at: Better than most. I have been trained and I have experience. You may need me to help you protect Agent Solomon.”
Cranley looked at him for one moment and then said, “Let’s go, but keep your head down.”
They exited the building and headed up the main Roman road to the top of the ancient city. Just before they could see the Roman athletic area on their right, one of the other agents stopped them and said, “There is activity up on the ridge to the right above the ruins. We can’t yet tell how many, but we have seen an RPG and at least one AK.”
They cut to the left up behind the public toilet and started to climb. Behind one of the ruins they saw Hakan with an M4 in his hands. He waved to them and as they got closer they saw that he had three of the rifles lying on the ground near him and two boxes of clips. Jeff put the pistol in his belt by his back and picked up an M4. He jammed a clip up into the weapon, pulled back the lever and let it go. Hakan said, “I have about forty men on their way here. They should be here within fifteen minutes. If we can keep them up in the brush until then, my people will flush them out from the road at the top.”
Jeff peeked around the corner of the ancient building and could see a glint up on the ridge. As he followed along the ridgeline, he noticed where there were mounds of dirt piled up. Whoever was up there was going to use the brush line as a defensive perimeter and to offer covering fire to those who were going to attack. He looked at Mark and said, “See the mounds of dirt along the ridge line. I count five. That is probably where they have the heaviest of weapons and are going to provide covering fire for the attack. I think the attack will come from up the hill to our left. They want us to come out to face the attack and then they will hit us from our right. This will also keep their people out of the line of their own fire.”
Mark looked around the corner also and took a few seconds to view the ridgeline. “You might be right. What would you do if you were me?”
I would take your men further up to the left and flank the attack. As they come down the hill, they will be in the open. Pivot your men from the top down behind them and cut off their retreat. Pick them off in the open. When that happens, the guys up on the ridge will open fire to try to force you down. When they fire, they will reveal themselves. Then Hakan and I will pick them off. It isn’t foolproof but it may scare them off, especially if there aren’t that many of them. Hakan, how good a shot are you?”
“I am the best in the Turkish Gendarmerie.”
“Good. When I tell you, start from the right of the ridge and move left when they reveal themselves. I will start from the left. It is further away and I am not that good a shot but I am usually lucky.”
Mark nodded his approval, grabbed the remaining two rifles, a box of clips, and started to move off up the hill with his companion. When he was about five feet away, he heard Jeff say, “Mark, take care of yourself! If things go to shit, head back this way!”
Jeff took one of the boxes of clips and split it in two. He handed one group to Hakan and crept with him to the right corner of the ruined house. He had a clear line of fire from that point on the entire ridgeline. Jeff told him not to fire until he heard Jeff call his name.
Then, Jeff went around the other side, the left of the ruined house and took up a position where he had a clean line of fire. He stacked his clips down below the wall he was behind and waited.
Perhaps ten minutes went by and there was not a sound. Suddenly, Jeff heard the sound of automatic weapons fire. Specifically he heard the telltale sound of an AK-47. A sporadic series of shots were fired and then he heard the M4’s open up. After about fifteen seconds he saw fire start from the ridgeline. They were shooting up and to his left, as he thought they would. He shouted at Hakan and they both started firing. Within a minute or two, Jeff saw one or two men on the ridgeline get up and start running away. Then, a minute or so later the sound of gunfire stopped. Hakan called to him, “Jeff, should we start chasing them?”
Jeff said, “No, Hakan. Let them run. Let’s make sure Mark and his boys are all Okay.”
Another three or four minutes went by and Jeff heard Mark’s voice. “Jeff, come on up. Things look clean. Stay behind the buildings just in case.”
Hakan and Jeff climbed the hill behind the ruins until they spotted Mark and some of his men out on the road picking up guns from the bodies on the street. He and Hakan came out slowly. “Mark, are all of your people Okay?”
“Not a scratch. We count five enemy down. There must be a few up on the ridge. Let’s wait for Hakan’s people to go up there. Notice, they are all in black with the Arabic headpiece. I don’t’ think there is any doubt who this is.”
Mark decided to keep things locked down until Hakan’s people arrived which was about ten minutes. When he was sure the old city was secure, he took Jeff’s rifle and sent him back inside the headquarters. Everyone was on the floor when Jeff entered. He smiled and said, “I think you can all get up now. The Turkish Army is here and the attack was a failure.”
He looked at Agent Solomon and said, “Your detail is damn good at what they do, Beverly. They just saved all our lives.”
An hour later, Mark was in front of the assembled group along with a colonel in the Turkish Army. “We think we just got hit by a Syrian ISIS type group. We can’t be sure who they are. They have no identification on them. Three of them got away and were spotted by the Turkish Air Force. They refused to stop at a roadblock heading south and, when their truck was disabled, they took their own lives with explosives. So we may never find out who they are. Five of them were killed in the attack and another five were killed on the ridge. We think we are safe now but the colonel, here, has agreed to provide additional security while we finish our business. So, you can go back to work.”
An hour later, the group was back in Oscar’s room going through the rest of his things. After a break for lunch and the rest of the afternoon, there were only the things on Oscar’s desk, the family Bible and his storage locker to finish.
Mark’s security detail decided that everyone would have dinner at the Turkish Army base that night. It was the only secure place he could think of. The food in the mess hall was not as bad as everyone expected and the conversation was lively. Everyone was hyped up by the action that had occurred. Mark asked Jeff if he would write a short action report to include in his report. Jeff agreed. The two mullahs were convinced that the attack was aimed at them. It could have been. There was no way to know what was going on.
When he got to his room, Jeff sat down and wrote a very short action report: “Mark Cranley ordered Hakan Dogulu and I to stay down the hill to protect the entrance to the headquarters building. When he looked at the ridgeline, he ordered us to open fire on the line, me from the left and Hakan from the right if and when fire came from that ridge line. We heard the attack commence. We heard Mark’s team open up with their counter. When we saw fire from the ridge line, we opened up and tried to pick them off until we saw them run and gunfire stopped.”
He finished, put the report in a plain envelope, and marched down the hall to Mark’s room. He knocked on the door. Mark opened it. He was in his underwear and it was obvious he was writing his report as well. Jeff handed him the envelope and went back to his room.
About an hour later, just as Jeff was beginning to drift to sleep, there was s furious knocking on his door. When he opened it, Beverly Solomon, still in her pantsuit, came bursting into his room. She was mad. The color had drained from her face. She turned, looked at Jeff and almost yelled. “What the hell is wrong with you? My mission here is to protect you while you look through your uncle’s things. It is to make sure that you don’t find anything that will upset the international applecart. So while my team is trying to protect you, you march right out into the open and participate in defending us against an armed attack. You couldn’t stay in the protected area with the rest of us. No. You had to go out there and be the hero soldier-boy.”
She stood there waiting for an answer. Jeff didn’t know if there was a question other than “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with me. Why are you so upset? Everything turned out fine.”
“What if it hadn’t? What if you had been seriously wounded or killed? Where would that leave me and my team? How about all the other people who have put their lives at risk so you could put an end to this discovery thing? Did you think about anyone but yourself?”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“I mean when the call comes, you don’t think about anything. You focus on what has to be done. I wasn’t thinking about anything or anyone except how to kill them before they killed me. It is what I was trained to do.”
Some of Solomon’s anger began to abate. She paused, looked down, and tried to get ahold of her emotions. When a few seconds had passed, she looked back up at Jeff and said, “I just dressed down Cranley for letting you participate in any action of any kind. He told me his job was purely to protect me. He also told me that he would like it if you would offer to protect him on occasion. Agent Cranley told me you turned in an after-action report that gave him all the credit for the tactics used. He said they were all your tactics. He told me you looked over the situation and knew instantly what to do. He called it “Textbook”. So, you’re not only a military genius of some kind, but you’re also humble. You are disgusting.”
At that, she turned and stormed out of the room.
Jeff crawled back in bed, turned out the lights and thought that she was an unusual woman. She was pissed off because he did everything right. It made no sense to him. He hoped he could finish all this by tomorrow, Saturday. He was already having trouble with the TV in this room. There were soccer games on but no baseball. He wanted to go home.