butts kicked, Doug,' he said. 'What else do you have?'
'Another piece of the puzzle-but a corner piece, I think,' Morgan said. 'The remains of one Paul McLanahan were reported by customs agents in New Jersey being flown in from Tel Aviv by a funeral director based in Sacramento, California. The FBI's preliminary investigation confirms that Mr. McLanahan was involved in a suicide bomber attack in Rehoval, Israel, ten days ago. He was a guest at the Hilton Tel Aviv Hotel, checked in the day before. Airline tickets, visas, guided tour schedule-all checks. He was there on vacation.'
'Baloney!' Busick exclaimed. 'It's either the most incredible coincidence I've ever heard, or it's a lie, a coverup. Paul McLanahan is one of the Night Stalkers-hell, he's their main guy, next to his brother Patrick and former president Martindale himself. Martindale could have easily created the fake hotel registration, airline tickets, even police reports. McLanahan and the Night Stalkers are in Libya. I know it. He got killed in that raid on the Libyan missile base, and I'll bet the Night Stalkers are still in the region, in Egypt or Israel, getting ready to finish the jobor grab some payback.'
'So if the Libyans thought the Egyptians engineered that raid, the attack in Egypt could've been retaliation,' Kercheval said. 'If this thing goes hot on us, McLanahan and Martindale could be responsible for igniting a major war in the Med.'
'You know what it is, don't you?' Busick asked angrily. 'It's Sky Masters Inc. and Jon Masters. He's supplying the Night Stalkers with the weapons they need to do these damned secret missions. Those are weapons we funded. That high-tech combat armor, the aircraft, the weaponshe's supplying them all for this private little mercenary army of Martindale's.'
'We should slap Sky Masters with sanctions for their support of those nutcases,' Kercheval exclaimed. 'We should just shut them down, once and for all. And the Justice Department needs to conduct an investigation of Kevin Martindale. He can't be allowed to continue organizing private military operations all over the world. If Justice can't do anything, maybe the press should be told about this '
'That's already in the works,' Robert Goff said. 'Some of our Navy interceptors caught up with one of Masters's research aircraft-refueling a modified B-52 bomber over the Mediterranean Sea.'
'What?'
'I'm afraid we have photos-positive proof,' Goff said. 'It appears they had expended weapons too. Ite still circumstantial evidence, but it's pretty convincing to me. We have Masters's refueling plane in Greece right now, questioning the crew, after we think they had rendezvoused again with a Megafortress bomber last night. The bomber got away both times-it's too stealthy to track except up very close, and it doesn't let us get close enough.'
'Are those guys crazy?' Busick exclaimed. 'Are they trying to start a war?'
'Martindale is not doing anything illegal, at least not in the United States,' General Venti interjected.
'But we can refuse to shield him against foreign indictments,' Kercheval shot back. 'Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and a half-dozen other nations have all pressed criminal charges against Martindale for his activities-'
'Alleged activities.'
'Call it what you want, General-you and I both know he's involved,' Kercheval said. 'We can threaten to not block extradition.'
'We are not going to turn over a former president of the United States to any foreign country,' Busick said. 'That's crazy. Martindale will never believe our threat. But we can sure as hell bust McLanahan and his men.'
'Let's stick with the problem at hand, shall we?' Kercheval asked. 'We need some kind of consensus about what in the hell to do about Libya.'
All eyes turned toward Thomas Thorn. He considered it for a few more moments; then: 'Have the Reagan and Stennis groups proceed with their planned exercises,' he said. 'No changes whatsoever in their plans-in fact, I want Pentagon briefers to start including a few details of the exercise to the press, just so everyone knows we're not adjusting the exercise to threaten Libya.'
'Sir, are you sure don't want to put any additional military pressure on Libya?' Goff asked incredulously. He was accustomed to the various surprises served up by this very new and certainly different commander-in-chief, but he still couldn't control his reaction when he made such unexpected decisions. 'Mr. President, I'd like to prepare a briefing regarding Egypt's importance to-'
'Save it for now, Robert,' Thorn said. 'Gentlemen, I need to hear just one thing before I make the decision to commit American troops against Libya: that the people of Egypt want the help of the United States. From what you've said, that hasn't happened.'
'That's not true, Mr. President,' Kercheval said. 'We've had calls from the prime minister, from major opposition groups, from leaders in the Pan-African Leadership Council…'
'That's not good enough,' the President said. 'You say that Khan, the chief justice of their supreme court, might have been involved in the Salaam assassination-and then you tell me that he was the front-runner in the national election? This tells me that the people of Egypt condone and even embrace these actions.'
'Maybe they were too scared of Khan to resist him, sir.'
'I don't believe that's possible,' the President said. 'We've seen too many cases of common people toppling dictatorships, and we've seen too many cases of common people embracing dictatorships-not because they were coerced into doing so, but because they liked having a strongman in charge. If that's what the people choose, they can have it-and everything that goes along with it. Egypt is a progressive country. It currently has a free press, allows free expression of ideas, and easy immigration.'
'Mr. President, certainly, you can't believe-?'
'I most certainly do, Edward,' the President said. 'If Egypt wants our help, they need to prove to me that they really want our help-we will not impose our ideals on them, no matter how much we distrust Libya.' He turned to Goff and Venti and went on: 'I want the theater and naval commanders fully briefed on the situation in Libya, I want our forces in the Med, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Persian Gulf on the highest state of alert, and I want contingency plans drawn up for air strikes against Libyan forces that move against Egypt. But I am not going to threaten Libya or come to the aid of Egypt unless the people of Egypt elect a president that wants to ooperate and work with us.'
They outlined what they would discuss with the media, including a few items to be leaked by 'unnamed sources' in the White House and Pentagon, and then the meeting broke up. Thomas Thorn went upstairs to the residence to see what the family was up to and visit with the kids who weren't in school, and then he entered his bedroom and shut the door behind him. The children and his wife all knew not to disturb him now.
Thomas Thorn first learned meditation in the U.S. Army Sniper School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he trained as a sniper himself in order to be a commander of a Special Forces Group. To tell the truth, Thorn was not the best shot in the world, and he wondered if he could cut it. But he soon learned that being a sharpshooter was only twenty percent of being a sniper-the mental struggles and challenges of stalking and shooting a living target was the hard part. Snipers had to learn how to move without being detected, sometimes within there feet of the enemy, and they had to learn to detect a target out of camouflage or deep in cover. They had to have perfect eyesight and exceptional infantry and outdoorsman skills, but most of all, they had to have the mental discipline required to inflict quick, catastrophic, and 'one shot, one kill' finality to a pursuit. Thorn soon learned that mental discipline-what he called 'mental quietude'-was the most important qualification.
Not everyone at Benning used meditation, but it worked for Thomas Thorn. Meditation helped him relax, helped him rejuvenate his body and mind, and it helped him concentrate, focus, and clarify his task and objective. Some likened it to a catnap but, properly done, it was the exact opposite-it was a recharger, a rejuvenator. It served Thomas Thorn well after he left the U.S. Army-he had meditated for twenty minutes, twice a day, every single day since he received his mantra and learned how to do it properly.
It took only moments for Thorn to slip into his higher state of consciousness, and then the journey began. The reason Thomas Thorn never took vacations, rarely visited Camp David, played no sports other than T-ball with his children, and had no hobbies, was that he took a 'vacation' twice a day when he slipped into a transcendental state. Arriving at that level was like stepping off a supersonic jet and arriving at a different place every time.
But it was not such a journey this time. Instead of traveling himself in a different world, dimension, or time, he was a spectator this time, watching events happen. That was unusual-certainly not impossible or unheard of, since the soul has no beginning and no end-but why couldn't he watch it as well as experience it?
He awoke with a start-also not an usual occurrence. He glanced at his watch and realized with relief that his
