On 8 November 2004, US troops entered Fallujah in force to flush out and destroy a stronghold of the Iraqi insurgency. Major Richmond, limping slightly but otherwise recovered, was on hand to help identify any rebels who tried to blend in with the civilian exodus from the city. One of the prizes was Hafiz Razak. Thanks to Richmond’s positive identification, the Syrian terrorist had made his last bomb and forged his last passport.
That same day, Ashe was instructed to attend a cursory MIT briefing in a secure room at Ankara Esenboga Airport. Also invited were Matthias Fless and Sherman Beck. The dull meeting turned out to be merely a prelude to a ride in a four-seater jet to the furthest reaches of eastern Turkey.
From the Turkish air-force base at Hakkari, the party was driven by military truck to a barren crossroads near Güzeldere, only ten kilometres from the Turkey–Iraq border. As a private from a platoon of regular Turkish soldiers waved them down, a black Mercedes limousine emerged from behind a covered troop-carrier. The limo’s rear door opened and the party was ushered in.
To the right of the chauffeur sat the rotund figure of General Ahmet Koglu, representing the Foundation for the Strengthening of the Turkish Security Forces (TSKGV), the army’s economic development wing. Koglu signalled the driver to follow the military truck. The convoy soon left the road and headed up a farm track that skirted a dull grey escarpment.
Koglu turned to his guests. ‘Today is an auspicious day, gentlemen. A special day for you and for my country. It gives me very great pleasure to demonstrate three things that bring credit to my country.’
Beck interrupted. ‘And will the press be seeing what we are about to see, General?’
‘Naturally, the press will in due course see what is of most significance to the public. You, however, will be privileged to report to your superiors the essence of three facts. First. The Turkey of today will not tolerate surprising developments that threaten the principle of national progress and democracy. Second. Our great army is fully in accord with this principle. Third. We shall show today that where the United States and Great Britain have failed, my country will succeed.’
‘I only wish Major Richmond were here,’ Ashe muttered to Beck.
‘Didn’t you know? He’s confounded the surgeons and is back in his boots!’
Ashe’s heart rose.
The car stopped at a temporary checkpoint. Ashe had the awful feeling that they had been dragged in to witness some appalling show-trial, the kind of thing Bolshevik Russia used to arrange for compliant foreign journalists.
Koglu spoke animatedly to the checkpoint officer. The officer pointed out the perimeter of a distant facility. Koglu nodded with satisfaction.
The truck continued up a hill. The limousine followed, its suspension tested to its limits. Fless began rubbing his fingers, anxious for his absent firearm. Beck tapped the sides of the windows. The general turned to them with a milk-curdling smile.
‘You are perfectly safe, gentlemen. The limousine is bulletproof.’
Ashe, seated uncomfortably between the two agents, was not reassured.
As the limo approached a breezeblock gatehouse, the party had its first view of the intended destination: a flat-roofed concrete army base, the size of a village school. Covered in cracked grey plaster, the facility extended from a main block to a small barrack block at the rear. A barn-like structure, next to the barrack, was still under construction.
Bursts of submachine-gun fire echoed from behind the main structure.
‘Please be calm, gentlemen.’ Koglu drew his pistol and stepped out of the car. He approached the gatehouse. Two soldiers from the truck in front restrained the terrified guard while the general calmly removed a cellphone from the guard’s trembling hands. Koglu walked back to the car and leant into the window. ‘Formalities, gentlemen. Please forgive the delay. Security, nothing more. Please be comfortable.’
Ashe pointed through the rear window. ‘Look!’ Fless and Beck turned to see lines of Turkish Special Forces in black combat suits emerging from cover to surround the facility. ‘They’ve been waiting for Koglu’s signal!’
‘Sure about that, Ashe?’
Before Ashe had time to answer Beck’s troubling question, the party caught sight of a group of tired-looking troops in green fatigues slinking out from behind the barrack-block, their hands on their heads. Right on cue, Special Forces from the truck in front jumped out to form a cordon for the disarmed men. At the end of the line, each man was body-searched, handcuffed and shackled.
Koglu directed with oily ease, returning again to the limousine.
‘These captured men have abused their position in the Special Forces. They are very extreme. Very extreme views. Fanatical types exploiting the requirements of the state in this troubled area.’
Ashe looked at Fless and raised his eyebrows. The two men knew well enough that, in the past, extreme rightists had proved useful enough to the dirty conflict that had been waged against Kurdish terrorists in the eastern provinces.
Koglu poked his head through the front window again, smiling. ‘I trust you will inform your superiors that Turkey always tidies up its own mess. We do not need to be told. See for yourselves!’
The captured men were herded miserably into the troop-carrier which then manoeuvred round and trundled off as fast as it could down the approach track. Koglu got back in the limousine.
Ashe looked at him pointedly: ‘The purpose of this facility, General?’
‘Yes, this has been an… interrogation centre, a centre for Special Forces. Fortunately, as a result of successfully dealing with PKK activity within our country, it has functioned chiefly as a supply and rest centre.’
‘It hasn’t been used as a spearhead base for sending forces into Iraq then, General?’
Koglu laughed. ‘You know as well as I do, Dr Ashe, that the Turkish army does not undertake such activities. Our government forbade helping the invasion of Iraq from across our borders. This, however, did not deter the invaders.
‘But, as Mr Beck is fully aware, the Turkish state is fully committed to the global war on terror. And to prove the strength of that commitment, we are bringing you here today: a special privilege. Here, gentlemen, you will see for yourselves the very weapons of mass destruction developed under the protection of Saddam Hussein that the Americans, the Israelis and the British failed to find. You are witnesses to the professionalism of Turkey’s military forces that have rendered this prize to the forces of justice without endangering the life of a single civilian.’
Fless looked at Beck and shook his head. If Fless had only been permitted to do his work…
Ashe was intrigued. Turkey would get both the credit and the weapon. Had he not been in such mixed and febrile company, he would have laughed his socks off. Turkey: ever a wild card, not to be underestimated.
Beck was having none of it. Scoring cheap points off the USA’s high-risk anti-terror and pro-democracy agenda was intolerable. ‘With respect, General, just ask the question: who’s providing the greater part of security for the Free World? Is it you?’
Koglu turned and looked Beck in the eye. ‘At this particular moment in your life, Mr Beck, it is. And I trust, on reflection, you’ll thank God for your ally.’