'I said, she's alive, dammit!' Patrick cried angrily. 'I'm going to find her even if I have to move every grain of sand in the desert to do it.'
'You cannot go back, Sekhmet,' said retired Egyptian army general Ahmad Baris, President Kamal Ishmail Salaam's national security adviser and longtime trusted friend of the family. Fifty-three-year-old General Baris lost most of his right leg in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, burned off in a tank explosion, but he stayed in government to serve his country as best he could, rising through the ranks from onion-peeler and tailor to intelligence coordinator to tactician to presidential military adviser. 'It is too dangerous. Al-Khan's henchmen and the Muslim Brotherhood assassins are everywhere.'
'Not even to bury my husband?' Susan Bailey Salaam said in a low voice. Her head and arms were swathed in bandages, and an Egyptian army doctor had inserted an intravenous tube into a vein in her leg because the seconddegree burns on her arms would not allow it.
'Especially not for a funeral,' Baris said sadly. 'Trust me. You would not be safe. There will be a simple ceremony for your husband, no more. It is too dangerous otherwise.'
Susan Salaam and General Baris were on board an Egyptian army helicopter, zooming low over the Mediterranean Sea westward, about five miles off the coast. Ahmad Baris had engineered an alternate escape plan for Susan to get out of the city after the attack so secret that not even the Presidential Guards knew about it. After the men and women killed or injured in the attack were taken away by ambulance from the mosque, Baris had Susan taken in several different ambulances to a waiting army helicopter and whisked out of the city.
'I feel like a coward. I feel as if I have abandoned my husband,' Susan said stonily.
The retired general sighed softly, then repositioned his right leg to ease the pain a bit, which easily got Susan's attention. 'Your husband is dead, Sekhmet,' he said softly, like a father speaking to his young daughter. 'Being killed at his grave site by more Muslim Brotherhood assassins would not help him or Egypt.' He paused, then added softly, 'You know I would follow your husband into hell, and I pledge the same to you. Tell me what you wish, and I will do everything in my poor powers to help you do it.'
'What do you suggest, General?'
'We are heading toward Mersa Matruh, our largest military base outside Cairo, about three hundred kilometers west,' Baris replied. 'I can have a foreign ministry transport waiting for us there. The plane can take us anywhere in western Europe-Portugal, England, Belgium, Ireland. From there, we can request protection from the American embassy-you are a dual national as well as a credentialed Egyptian ambassador, so that will not be a problem.'
'I will not leave Egypt,' Susan said sternly. 'It is my home now, not America.' She glared at him with her one unbandaged eye. 'I'm surprised you would even suggest it, General.'
'I am sorry, Madame. I was only thinking of your safety. I apologize if I have offended you or dishonored the memory of the president by suggesting you flee the country.'
'You are still one of the most respected men in all of Egypt, perhaps in the entire Arab world,' Susan said, reaching up and taking Baris's hand. 'Your loyalty is unquestioned, as is your heart.' She looked at Baris, paused as if considering her words, then said, 'You could be president, or prime minister, if you so chose. But you stay in the shadows. Your people need you, General. When will you stand up and lead them?'
'I have led men only once, at the head of a formation of tanks in the Sinai against the Israelis almost thirty years ago, and nine of every ten men that followed my orders died in less than a day,' Baris said. 'I was the lucky oneI lost only part of my right leg. I learned that day that I am far more adept at observing and advising than making actual decisions.'
'Nonsense, Ahmad.'
'As a famous American psychopathic renegade police officer once said, 'A man's gotta know his limitations,'' Baris said with a smile. His love for American cop movies and westerns-the more violent the better-was well known throughout Cairo. 'I am content and secure in the knowledge that I have given good, sound advice to many government officials over the years, and I believe I have served God and made Egypt a better place for it. That is enough for me.' He paused, studying Susan carefully, then asked, 'What is it you seek, Sekhmet?'
Susan Salaam did not respond for several moments, and Baris was surprised to see a faint smile on her lips when she finally replied, 'Am I wrong for saying 'I would like to see Zuwayy and al-Khan dead'?' Baris did not return the smile, so hers dimmed and her exotic eyes narrowed. 'The truth, my old friend?' Baris nodded, and she looked away and nodded as well. 'I'm happy to be alive. I'm glad I wasn't killed. And so I think that perhaps God had a reason for not wishing me dead. I feel there is something more I must do.' Susan shook her head, staring off into space as if reading a newspaper headline from a great distance. She paused, then looked at the retired general. He swallowed as he saw something ominous in her dark almond-shaped eye and full yet innocent lips. 'Yes. There is work to be done. You and my husband had plans to restore Egypt to its rightful place as leader of the Mediterranean nations and of the Arab world. I want to continue your goals.'
'My dear, the concept of a united Arab world is a dream, nothing more,' Baris said, chuckling despite the strange prickly sensation he felt on the back of his neck. 'Don't let the apparent successes of pretentious nutcases like Zuwayy or opportunistic zealots like al-Khan cloud your thinking. The people of Libya don't believe Zuwayy is a descendant of a desert king, and no modern Egyptian will ever believe a man is invested with the power of the gods to rule their land. The Pharaohs are dead, and long may it stay that way.' He touched Susan's hand, breaking her reverie, and smiled with relief when she smiled at him. 'Even though you are a thousand times lovelier than all of Hollywood's Cleopatras put together, Sekhmet, don't ever be deluded into thinking the world will tolerate an Arab empire.'
Susan's smile dimmed as she reached up and touched her eyepatch, then ran her fingers down the left side of her face and left arm, gently tracing the scars and the pain that outlined them under all the bandages. 'No one will ever think I am as beautiful as Cleopatra. Zuwayy's and alKhan's treachery has seen to that.'
'Don't let revenge and hatred fester inside you,' Baris warned her. 'Keep a clear head. Understand?'
'Yes, General.'
'Good.' The military helicopter had a computer terminal at the communications officer's station, so Baris swiveled his chair over to his computer terminal and logged on. His usual list of daily intelligence, status, and situation reports started popping up on the screen. 'Our first task is to get you to safety. I…'
'I must go back to the presidential palace,' Susan repeated. 'I must bury my husband first.'
'Your life is in great danger if you go back,' Baris warned her.
'I have no choice. If the conspirators want to kill me before or during the funeral, so be it-I will become Egypt's second martyr. My last duty to my husband is to help lead his nation forward beyond their grief.' She smiled at her friend. 'But I don't want you exposing yourself in a vain attempt to stop any attack if it should come. I want you out of sight, watching, as you do best. Leave me your best and most trusted aides. I think I'll be all right until after the funeral. After that… we will do what we must do. Let's go to Alexandria. Can you find a secure place for us there?'
'The Naval Academy on Abu Qir Bay east of Alexandria-the commandant is an old friend, and he can ensure your safety and security. It's isolated enough to keep us out of sight, but they have helicopter and fast armed patrol vessel facilities in case we must make a quick escape from Khan's goons. Your apartment is less than a kilometer away.' But as he scanned the daily reports, he came across a shocking one and read it quickly. Susan noticed his eyebrows lifting higher and higher with each sentence. 'What in hell…?'
'What is it, General?'
'Some sort of base-wide emergency happening at Mersa Matruh as we speak,' Baris replied, reading the report with growing surprise. 'Listen to this, Susan: On the night before the attack at the mosque, there was an attack against an isolated rocket base in Libya, including possible chemical and nuclear material discharge.'
'I remember. Kamal was briefed shortly after it happened. We mobilized our border forces, but otherwise did not want to make it appear we were in any way involved.'
'That's correct,' Baris said. 'A few hours later, there were a series of attacks by unidentified warplanes, presumed to be Libyan, against several civilian commercial vessels in the Mediterranean. We were told they were some kind of retaliatory attacks, the Libyans trying to find where the commandos that attacked their base came from. A total of seven lifeboats filled with sixty-three men and women evacuated from one of the ships, a Lithuanian-flagged salvage vessel, and were picked up by our guided missile frigate ElArish out of Mersa Matruh.'
