Without Warning Read online

  PRAISE FOR JOEL C. ROSENBERG

  “His penetrating knowledge of all things Mideastern—coupled with his intuitive knack for high-stakes intrigue—demand attention.”

  PORTER GOSS

  Former director of the Central Intelligence Agency

  “If there were a Forbes 400 list of great current novelists, Joel Rosenberg would be among the top ten. . . . One of the most entertaining and intriguing authors of international political thrillers in the country. . . . His novels are un-put-downable.”

  STEVE FORBES

  Editor in chief, Forbes magazine

  “One of my favorite things: An incredible thriller—it’s called The Third Target by Joel C. Rosenberg. . . . He’s amazing. . . . He writes the greatest thrillers set in the Middle East, with so much knowledge of that part of the world. . . . Fabulous! I’ve read every book he’s ever written!”

  KATHIE LEE GIFFORD

  NBC’s Today Show

  “Fascinating and compelling . . . way too close to reality for a novel.”

  MIKE HUCKABEE

  Former Arkansas governor

  “[Joel Rosenberg] understands the grave dangers posed by Iran and Syria, and he’s been a bold and courageous voice for true peace and security in the Middle East.”

  DANNY AYALON

  Israeli deputy foreign minister

  “Joel has a particularly clear understanding of what is going on in today’s Iran and Syria and the grave threat these two countries pose to the rest of the world.”

  REZA KAHLILI

  Former CIA operative in Iran and bestselling author of A Time to Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran

  “Joel Rosenberg is unsurpassed as the writer of fiction thrillers! Sometimes I have to remind myself to breathe as I read one of his novels because I find myself holding my breath in suspense as I turn the pages.”

  ANNE GRAHAM LOTZ

  Author and speaker

  “Joel paints an eerie, terrifying, page-turning picture of a worst-case scenario coming to pass. You have to read [Damascus Countdown], and then pray it never happens.”

  RICK SANTORUM

  Former U.S. Senator

  Visit Tyndale online at www.tyndale.com.

  Visit Joel C. Rosenberg’s website at www.joelrosenberg.com.

  TYNDALE and Tyndale’s quill logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

  Without Warning

  Copyright © 2017 by Joel C. Rosenberg. All rights reserved.

  Cover photograph of jets copyright © by tcp/Getty Images. All rights reserved.

  Cover photograph of bomb run copyright © by wragg/Getty Images. All rights reserved.

  Cover photograph of black smoke copyright © by Rafeeq Abdul Rahman/EyeEm/Getty Images. All rights reserved.

  Cover photograph of Capitol building copyright © by Tetra Images/Getty Images. All rights reserved.

  Designed by Dean H. Renninger

  Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible,® copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

  2 Corinthians 5:8 and Luke 23:43 in chapter 49 are taken from the New King James Version,® copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Jeremiah 29:11 in the dedication and Psalm 9:3-6 in chapter 86 are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

  Without Warning is a work of fiction. Where real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales appear, they are used fictitiously. All other elements of the novel are drawn from the author’s imagination.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Rosenberg, Joel C., date, author.

  Title: Without warning : a J. B. Collins novel / Joel C. Rosenberg.

  Description: Carol Stream, Illinois : Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., [2017]

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016043153 | ISBN 9781496406163 (hc)

  Subjects: LCSH: Journalists—Fiction. | IS (Organization)—Fiction. | GSAFD: Christian fiction. | Suspense fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3618.O832 W58 2017 | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__lccn.loc.gov_2016043153&d=DgIFAg&c=6BNjZEuL_DAs869UxGis0g&r=ZlF6A1J_SMm9xAyjgyDor34CB-fqQRaraBLNVSdnrVo&m=h1jYR2pLoT7PFxKXR75R-NlvwYI-4BitFcUSR3jKdDg&s=xibuEi18yIFELVFlZcKAhTL81pOhNJOuNyJCElLRhD8&e=

  ISBN 978-1-4964-0629-3 (International Trade Paper Edition)

  Build: 2017-01-24 14:47:15

  To our youngest son, Noah—you have such an inquisitive and creative mind and, oh, what a storyteller you are! Your mom and I cannot wait to see the great things the Lord will do in and through you, young man, as you follow him with all your heart.

  “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’”

  JEREMIAH 29:11

  CONTENTS

  Cast of Characters

  Preface

  Part One Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Part Two Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Part Three Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Part Four Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Part Five Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Part Six Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93


  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  JOURNALISTS

  James Bradley “J. B.” Collins—national security correspondent for the New York Times

  Allen MacDonald—D.C. bureau chief for the New York Times

  Bill Sanders—Cairo bureau chief for the New York Times

  AMERICANS

  Harrison Taylor—president of the United States

  Martin Holbrooke—vice president of the United States

  Margaret Taylor—First Lady of the United States

  Carl Hughes—acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency

  Robert Khachigian—former director of the Central Intelligence Agency

  Paul Pritchard—former Damascus station chief for the Central Intelligence Agency

  Lawrence Beck—director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

  Arthur Harris—special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation

  Matthew Collins—J. B.’s older brother

  Lincoln Sullivan—attorney

  Steve Sullivan—attorney, grandson of Lincoln

  JORDANIANS

  King Abdullah II—the monarch of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

  ISRAELIS

  Yuval Eitan—Israeli prime minister

  Ari Shalit—acting director of the Mossad

  Yael Katzir—Mossad agent

  EGYPTIANS

  Wahid Mahfouz—president of Egypt

  Amr El-Badawy—general, commander of Egypt’s special forces

  Walid Hussam—former chief of Egyptian intelligence

  TERRORISTS

  Abu Khalif—leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)

  Tariq Baqouba—commander of ISIS forces in Syria

  OTHERS

  Prince Mohammed bin Zayed—head of intelligence for the United Arab Emirates

  Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Siddiq—onetime professor and mentor of Abu Khalif

  PREFACE

  From The First Hostage

  The camera zoomed in on the president.

  And then, on cue, Taylor spoke directly to the camera.

  “My name is Harrison Beresford Taylor,” he said slowly, methodically, wincing several times as if in pain. As he spoke, Arabic subtitles scrolled across the bottom of the screen. “I am the forty-fifth president of the United States. I was captured by the Islamic State in Amman on December 5. I am being held by the Islamic State in a location that has not been disclosed to me, but I can say . . . I can say honestly . . . I can say honestly that I am being treated well and have been given the opportunity to give ba’yah—that is to say, to pledge allegiance . . . to the Islamic State. I ask my fellow Americans, including all my colleagues in Washington, to listen . . . to listen carefully . . . that is, to listen carefully and respectfully to the emir, and to follow the instructions . . . he is about to set forth for my safe and expeditious return.”

  When Taylor was finished, the camera panned back to Abu Khalif, emir of the Islamic State.

  “Allah has given this infidel into our hands,” Khalif said in Arabic. “O Muslims everywhere, glad tidings to you! Raise your heads high, for today—by Allah’s grace—you have a sign of his favor upon you. You also have a state and caliphate, which will return your dignity, might, rights, and leadership. All praise and thanks are due to Allah. Therefore, rush, O Muslims, to your state. Yes, it is your state. Rush, because Syria is not for the Syrians, and Iraq is not for the Iraqis, and Jordan is not for the Jordanians. The earth belongs to Allah.

  “I make a special call to you, O soldiers of the Islamic State—do not be awestruck by the great numbers of your enemy, for Allah is with you. I do not fear the numbers of your opponents, nor do I fear your neediness and poverty, for Allah has promised your Prophet—peace be upon him—that you will not be wiped out by famine, and your enemy will not conquer you or continue to violate and control your land. I promised you that in the name of Allah we would capture the American president, and I have kept my word. The king of Jordan will soon be in our hands. So will all the infidel leaders in this region. So will all the dogs in Rome. The ancient prophecies tell us the End of Days is upon us and with it the judgment of all who will not bow the knee and submit to Allah and his commanders on the earth.”

  Khalif now turned to his right and faced a new camera angle. Behind him was a shadowy stone wall. When he resumed speaking, it was in English.

  “Now I speak directly to Vice President Holbrooke. Fearful and trembling, weak and unsteady, you and the infidels you lead have lost your way. Now you have three choices—convert to Islam, pay the jizyah, or die. You must choose your fate and choose it quickly. If you and your country choose to convert, you must give a speech to the world doing so under the precise language and conditions of Sharia law, and you will be blessed by Allah and have peace with the caliphate. If you choose to pay the jizyah, you must pay $1,000 U.S. for every man, woman, and child living in the United States of America. If you do not, or if you act with aggression in any matter against me or against the caliphate, the next video you see will be your beloved president beheaded or burned alive. From the time of this broadcast, you have forty-eight hours, and not a minute more.”

  1

  THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

  TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15

  I had never been in the Oval Office before.

  But I’d always imagined my first time going differently.

  The tension wasn’t immediately apparent as I stepped into the most coveted executive suite on the planet. But it would come. It had to. I would force it. And when it did, my fate would be sealed.

  At first, the president and I were both on our best behavior. As far as he was concerned, our past battles were water under the bridge. Yes, in Amman he had been blindsided by an enemy he neither truly understood nor saw coming. But in his eyes, the successful rescue effort had been enough to shift the balance of power, and he had adapted quickly. Tonight, as he addressed the nation and the world in a live televised speech to a joint session of Congress, he was at the top of his game. Soaring in the polls. Confounding his critics. Seemingly destined to leave the American people the legacy of peace, prosperity, and security they so desperately longed for.

  The president beckoned for me to be seated, then took a seat himself behind the Resolute desk, built from the timbers of a British naval vessel abandoned in a storm in 1854. As he did, he opened a black leather binder embossed with the presidential seal. He picked up a Montblanc fountain pen and excused himself for a moment to make a few final edits to his speech before we loaded into the motorcade to head up to Capitol Hill together.

  With every passing moment, my anxiety grew. In less than an hour, Harrison Beresford Taylor, the nation’s forty-fifth president, would deliver his annual report to the legislature. He would assert unequivocally, as he had on every other such occasion, that “the state of the union is strong.”

  Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

  I could take it no longer. It was time to say what I had come to say.

  “Mr. President, I very much appreciate you inviting me here. I know you have a great deal on your plate right now. But I have to ask you, not as a reporter, just as me. Do you have a plan to kill Abu Khalif or not?”

  It was a simple, direct question. But it immediately became apparent that Taylor was going to avoid giving me a simple, direct response.

  “I think you’re going to be very pleased with my speech tonight, Collins,” he said, leaning back in his black leather chair.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Trust me,” he said with a smile.

  “That’s not exactly in my nature, sir.”

  “Well, do your best.”

  “Mr. President, are you going t
o lay out for the American people a plan to take down the ISIS emir?”

  “Look, Collins, in case you haven’t noticed, in the last two months we’ve ripped ISIL to shreds. We’re targeting all of their leaders, including the emir. We’ve stepped up our drone strikes. We’ve taken out twenty-three high-value targets in the last six weeks alone. Is it going as fast as I’d like? No, and I’m pushing the Joint Chiefs. But you need to have patience. We’re making great progress, and we’re going to get this thing done. You’ll see.”

  “Mr. President, with all due respect, how can you say we’re making progress?” I shot back. “Abu Khalif is on a genocidal rampage. As we speak, he’s slaughtering Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, and anyone who gets in his way: beheading them, crucifying them, enslaving them—men, women, and children. We’re getting reports of unspeakable acts of cruelty, worse every day. He’s murdered your friends and mine. This is the guy who held you captive. If we hadn’t gotten there when we did, he would have taken a knife and personally sawed off your head—or put you in a cage and burned you alive—and uploaded the video to YouTube for the entire world to see.”

  “And now we have them on the run,” Taylor countered. “We’re blowing up their oil fields. We’re seizing their assets. We’re blocking their ability to move money around the world. We’re shutting down their social media accounts and cutting off their communications.”

  “It’s not enough, Mr. President,” I insisted. “Not unless you’re going after the emir directly. You’re hitting his men and his money, but, sir, you can’t kill the snake unless you cut off its head. So I must ask you again: have you signed a presidential directive to take Abu Khalif out, or not?”

  2

  The president leaned forward and glared at me.

  “I was there, Collins. I was in that cell. I was with those children. Every night their faces haunt me. Every morning I hear their shrieks echoing down these hallways. Don’t stand there and make it sound like I’m doing nothing. You know full well that’s not true. I’m not sitting on my hands. I put American boots back on the ground in Iraq. I sent America back to war in Iraq—against the will of my party and much of my cabinet. My base went ballistic, but I did it. Because it was the right thing to do. And we’re winning. We’re taking out ISIL’s forces. We’re cutting off their supply lines. We’re taking back land. We’ve got them on the run. What more do you want?”