Lethal Trajectories - Michael Conley [21]
Wellington could have hugged Burkmeister for his reference to Collingsworth in the Rose Garden today. He would spin the president’s remarks to suggest that he had called Collingsworth a loose cannon and buffoon. It would be more than Collingsworth’s fragile ego could take; the senator’s explosive temper would do the rest. The cable networks would play back Collingsworth’s contentious remarks and grudgingly attribute the setting of the remarks to his show. Free publicity from his competitors—Don’t you just love this country? he thought.
8
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
14 September 2017
Prince Mustafa ibn Abdul-Aziz quashed an adrenaline rush as he impatiently awaited the arrival of his conspiratorial brothers. Much had changed in the last twenty-four hours, and timetables would have to be revised. The global preoccupation with the Chunxiao affair had to be a divinely given omen, and he was eager to assess their readiness for an attack.
Pushing back from his desk in their ramshackle headquarters, he took a healthy gulp of bottled water and pondered the new opportunities. The desert winds were now at their backs.
As Deputy Foreign Minister of the Gulf Cooperative Council, he was supremely confident in his skills as a shrewd geopolitical strategist. He understood the dynamics of global power and used his position on the GCC to gain a strong upper hand in OPEC. It is not rocket science, he thought, if one only keeps three things in mind: oil is the key driver in the global economy, OPEC is the dominant player in this dynamic, and Saudi Arabia and its GCC allies are lead players in OPEC. A change in any category, Mustafa knew, could disrupt the entire power dynamic.
One threat was the challenge posed by a nuclear-armed Iran to Saudi leadership in OPEC. He worried about Iran’s growing partnership with Iraq and detested the support Iran gave to the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Shiite groups in Bahrain. It heightened his fear that a Shiite-based alliance would crowd out the Monotheism he practiced.
Still, his greatest concern remained the continued presence of the Western infidels on Saudi and Middle Eastern land. Their unacceptable presence needed to be dealt with while there was still time. The fatwas against infidel influences were ineffective decrees, and the only way to rid Saudi Arabia and other nations of the corrosive effects of the satanic infidels was a jihad against all apostates and infidels.
After two years of arduous planning, he was confident that his small group was ready to launch their coup against the Saudi government and initiate a jihad. He knew an army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by sheep anytime, and his lions were more than a match for the corrupt Saudi government. Like a lion, they were waiting to pounce, and Chunxiao could well be the catalyst for action.
The first to arrive was Mohammed al-Hazari. He was Mustafa’s teacher, mentor, and coconspirator and one of the more influential Monotheistic mullahs. He had a powerful voice in all policy issues relating to the educational system that ran Saudi schools, selected the teachers, controlled the curricula, and molded the minds of young people—including those of Saudi princes and future leaders. His influence was enormous, and Mustafa admired him greatly. The remaining conspirators arrived soon thereafter, and Prince Mustafa convened the meeting after the appropriate prayers were said.
“My brothers,” Mustafa said forcefully, “we have long planned and waited for a favorable opportunity to launch jihad against the infidels. The incident in the East China Sea could well be the diversion we have sought. Dawn does not come twice to awaken a man, and I now want to assess our readiness to strike.”
Al-Hazari, operating at his usual highly emotional