The Four Apostles: A Breath Away

By J. Judson Lacko

In the last half of the twentieth century, Russia and the United States were involved in what was classified as the Cold War. Both countries had large arsenals of nuclear warheads and large land and sea armed forces. Sometimes, both sides utilized extraordinary tactics to achieve the balance of power. This story, although fictitious, demonstrates how certain factions try to take an upper hand by the kidnapping of a physicist and a rescue mission across deserts in the Middle East, which almost brings the world to a thermonuclear war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524535971

J. Judson Lacko

The author was raised in Munhall, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; graduated from Munhall High School in 1961; served in the US Air Force for four years in electronics (1962–1966); received medical technology certification from additional Air Force training; graduated from Point Park College with a BS in science and medical technology; had EMT/paramedic training, serving in the field and teaching and evaluating; has been an EMT and paramedic for fourteen years; taught in medical/technical schools and two universities for thirty years; was first emergency services coordinator in Greene County (1979–1980); was supervisor in Pathology Department for fifteen years at Montefiore Hospital; and authored the book A Breath Away: Life’s Final Chapter (June 30, 2015).

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by J. Judson Lacko.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016913669

ISBN:      Hardcover       978-1-5245-3599-5

                Softcover         978-1-5245-3598-8

                eBook              978-1-5245-3597-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/25/2016

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Chapter 1 Crisis

Chapter 2 Extraction Team

Chapter 3 Conflict Within

Chapter 4 Operations Underway

Chapter 5 Operation Blue Light Begins

Chapter 6 Helo Prep and Mission

Chapter 7 Flight into the Desert

Chapter 8 Chase Across the Desert

Chapter 9 Two days Prior to These Events…

Chapter 10 Complicated Operations

Chapter 11 Back Channel

Chapter 12 Israeli Response

Chapter 13 Anatoly Vertof

Chapter 14 Standoff in the Mediterranean

Chapter 15 Desert Mission

Chapter 16 Peril at Sea…

Chapter 17 Showdown

Chapter 18 The Transfer and Prelude to War

Chapter 19 Chris Returns Home

Chapter 20 De’Jevu…

DEDICATION

…… This book is dedicated to my brother, John David Lacko, Chief Warrant Officer, United States Navy (Retired), and to his loving wife Kelly June Burchett Lacko. My brother was a naval warrior for almost thirty years, and help assure the safety of our great country on the high seas. Like most of those he served with, he was part of a well defined brotherhood who firmly believed that ‘NO ONE is left behind’. He held positions that dealt with destroyers, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. On land, he held positions in naval base law enforcement.

His parents and his three brothers are ‘Navy Proud’.

Kelly June Burchett Lacko was his most devoted wife and support in their fourteen years of marriage. It was through her editing assistance that I was able to complete my first book, ‘A Breath Away – Life’s final Chapter’. Kelly passed on Mother’s Day, 2016. I shall always remember her as a person of many talents and a true friend as well as my sister-in-law.

Acknowledgements

… Thanks to Daleen Berry, two-time New York Times Best Seller author for her savvy and insightful and editorial advice. I couldn’t have completed this project without her taking the time to help a fellow author.

… John David Lacko, Chief Warrant Officer, United States Navy (Retired). His knowledge of the Navy and protocol helped make the military portions of the book possible. A special thanks to my brother for all he did for me.

Prologue

Over the past fifty years, the advances in technology and socioeconomic systems would hardly have been considered or thought possible prior to World War II. By the end of World War II, the military and national defense agencies in the United States were moving to the forefront- in all phases of enhanced military hardware and counter-espionage programs. Some of the agencies in existence today are the offspring of the ones that emerged from World War II.

The time line for this story covers the mid-1960’s to 2008. The ability of the United States government to observe what is happening around the globe has gone from spy planes to space satellites that can observe what is occurring at distances of more than twenty miles in outer space, in any vicinity of the world, and be monitored in real time.

This story is fiction. Some of the modern military hardware and capabilities are fiction. They are used for effect to explain and enhance the plot development.

The Four Apostles theorizes what might happen if the United States ever placed four top-secret military satellites in space over the Middle East to protect U.S. interests in that section of the world. Further, it ups the ante by positing the idea of cobalt lasers as a new covert weapons system.

Certain cities and towns I mention are classified and therefore not open to public knowledge, so I’ve also portrayed them as fictional. The terms and verbiage used as well as coding sequences, etc., lay in the realm of fiction. An example of this is the coded call signs used to identify command areas and military ships, GPS positions, and aircraft.

The characters I describe, and the part they play in the story, are used to enhance the plot.

This story might make you think of the possibilities of things which are similar to actions which may or may not have been taken in the past, and a look into the future, which holds secrets that we cannot visualize currently, but at the exponential rate of research and development, may, indeed, be probable in the years to come.

Chapter 1

Crisis

The secure phone line had a red button set into the base of the phone, which would flash in times of crisis. If depressed, that button would automatically connect the phone to the White House Rapid Response Center. At exactly 0200 hours on (Sunday, October 12th 2008) the line went hot. Jack Logan was still half asleep when he reached over and picked up the phone, pushed a similar red button on his phone.

Jack Logan, ID 374, he said.

Jerry Whitfield, ID 177, a man replied. …Eagle (the President) wants everyone associated with this briefing, code name ‘Operation Blue Light’ to assemble in the Rapid Response Center ASAP. The Four Apostles Project has been compromised. A coded message sent to a terrorist group headquarters in Lebanon by one of their operatives here and was intercepted by the CIA. The message speaks of appending military action that could end up destabilizing the entire Middle East, resulting in big problems with our allies there. The briefing begins at 0300 hours. Better bring some coffee, Jack. It’s going to be a long night.

With that, the phone went dead. Jack looked at the receiver, and replaced it in its cradle, wiped the sleep out of his eyes and got out of bed.

Jerry Whitfield, the White House Chief of Staff, had sounded forboding, to say the least. Jack, as the new Director of Middle East Strategic Operations Services Group, had only been briefed on his duties the day before. The preparation for The Four Apostles Project spanned almost two decades, and held the highest level of federal secrecy and Jack knew that that briefing was just the tip of the iceberg. He still didn’t know what he didn’t know -- but The level of pending information he would soon learn would be far and beyond what Jack could have imagined.

Jack hurriedly dressed, kissed his sleeping wife on the forehead, and rushed down the stairs and out to his car where the cool autumn air further woke him up.

As he turned from his driveway onto the cul-de-sac, the headed toward the Beltway driveway on to the cul-de-sac, then towards the Beltway, Jack was aware that more secured lines were going hot, as they