minutes. Their battle armor's power was almost depleted by that time-but they survived the attack.
The third bomber stayed low and accelerated straight ahead without using afterburners, as it was supposed to do in a defended area, so it was able to escape. But the second Tu-22 that did the hard bank turned away from the airfield-right into the waiting missile range of the Megafortress's AIM-120 missiles. Wickland dispatched it quickly with one Scorpion missile.
'You guys all right back there?' Tanaka asked.
'Everyone's in one piece,' Briggs said, 'and they didn't hit the airfield, so I think we're still in business. Where did that third bomber go?'
'He's bugging out-probably wondering where his two wingmen went,' Tanaka said. 'We're going to head back and finish the job on Zillah, then see if there's anything we can hit at Al-Jawf. Keep your heads down. Headbanger clear.'
Wickland pressed the attack at Zillah Air Base thirty minutes later by first firing one antiradar missile at the airfield surveillance radar at Zillah Air Base, then at another unexpected SA-10 mobile surface-to-air missile site that had just activated its radar, both from high altitude. After defending themselves from the SAM sites, Wickland used the laser radar and took second-long snapshots of the base, magnifying and enhancing the images until he could identify them as precisely as possible, then designated specific targets and loaded their coordinates into the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons. Once the target coordinates were entered, the attack computer loaded a released track into the autopilot.
The attack computer automatically opened the bomb doors and started releasing weapons when the bomber reached the release track. The AGM-154 JSOW did not need to be at a precise weapon-release point-at high altitude, they could glide unpowered for up to forty miles and flew to their targets with uncanny accuracy. Four of the six JSOWs were programmed for Zillah's main runway, cratering it enough so no heavy or high-performance aircraft could use it. For the other four targets, Wickland switched on an imaging-infrared sensor in the weapon's nose as it got closer to its target, and if the weapon was off-course he could lock it onto their exact impact points-a building they suspected as the base command post and communications center, the fuel farm, a power plant, and the surveillance radar facility at the base of the control tower. The one-thousand-pound high-explosive warheads made short work of all targets-Zillah Air Base was effectively shut down with just eight well-placed hits.
The EB-52 then headed toward Al-Jawf, three hundred miles to the southeast. Attack procedures for the Wolverine cruise missiles were much different from those of the other precision-guided weapons: They didn't need any procedures. Each missile was programmed with a large set of targets in memory, and the missiles were simply released when about fifty miles from the target area. Wickland used the laser radar to try to spot targets and designate final impact points for the missiles, but the Wolverines liked it best when they were on their own. They used millimeter-wave radars to search for targets; then they would fly over the targets and drop either anti-armor CBU-97 Sensor-Fuzed Weapons or CBU-87 Combined Effects Munitions on light armor or other vehicles. The missiles would continue their search for targets, even turning around and reattacking if they found they missed a target. Then, before the missile's jet fuel ran out, the missile would either find a building or use a designated target sent to it from the Megafortress and fly into it, destroying the target with a two-hundred-pound high-explosive warhead.
With no air defenses detected, Tanaka and Wickland were able to orbit the area, taking LADAR snapshots of the base, looking for targets to direct the Wolverines, releasing the cruise missiles one every three to five minutes so each had plenty of time to find new targets that might present themselves. Aircraft parking areas, helipads, large vehicle parking areas, fuel storage areas, and weapon storage bunkers were favorite targets for the Wolverines' cluster munitions and sensor-fuzed weapons.
Wickland picked out buildings that looked like headquarters buildings, barracks, security buildings, and hangars for the terminal targets-but what he was really looking for were the rocket storage sheds, or even some surface-to-surface rockets themselves. According to the soldiers who joined Sanusi's Sandstorm warriors, the rockets at Al-Jawf were housed in long half-underground sheds. When it was time for deployment, trucks would hook up to the rocket transporter-erector-launchers and tow them to presurveyed launch points. They could be moved in a matter of minutes, and readied for launch in about a half hour after arriving at the launch point.
But twenty minutes after starting the attack, Wickland was disappointed. 'Not one rocket anywhere,' he said. 'I didn't even see the storage sheds. Maybe they were one of the other buildings I attacked, but I didn't see anything that looked like it housed a Scud-sized rocket.'
Tanaka checked the fuel readouts and the strategic planning chart on one of his multifunction displays. The display showed the position and fuel status of their support aircraft, the Sky Masters Inc. DC-10, proceeding from Scotland to the refueling anchor over the Mediterranean Sea. The fuel status of both the tanker and the Megafortress were represented as large circles-as long as the circles overlapped, they could rendezvous. But the edges of the circles were getting closer and closer-they couldn't wait any longer.
'Castor, this is Headbanger.'
'I see it, guys,' Patrick McLanahan said. He was able via datalink to look at the same strategic chart as the flight crew-and in fact he had been looking at that very display. 'You're about fifteen minutes to bingo with the tanker.'
'Sorry we couldn't get those rockets for you.'
'Maybe you did get them-we won't know until we go in there and check. You did a good job, guys. Have a good trip home.'
'Roger that. Good luck down there. Headbanger out.'
Patrick met the Mi-24 attack helicopter as it settled in for a landing at one of the many helipads at the airfield near Jaghbub. He removed his helmet as Muhammad as-Sanusi climbed out of the helicopter and approached him. 'It is good to see you, my friend,' Sanusi said, embracing him warmly. 'And it is good to see this place still in one piece.' 'Two bombers got in, but they dropped well short of the airfield,' Patrick explained. 'No damage, no casualties on our side.'
'And your bomber is heading home?'
'He is a few minutes from rendezvousing with a tanker aircraft as we speak.'
'Too bad. I would have liked to learn more about that plane's capabilities.'
'We struck targets in Zillah and Al-Jawf,' Patrick said. 'The runway appears to have been cratered nicely, so the bombers and fighters there should've had to move to Surt Air Base. We struck several targets at Al-Jawf, but we can't be sure we hit any rockets. I'm afraid that threat still exists.'
'But you have given us precious time to finish capturing the weapons stored here,' Sanusi said. 'By tomorrow afternoon, we should be long gone, with several million dollars' worth of weapons-enough to keep our little army going another few months. Thanks to you, my friend.'
They heard the sounds of an approaching heavy helicopter, and a few moments later a CV-22 Pave Hammer tiltrotor aircraft settled in for a landing. Patrick extended his hand, and Sanusi took it. 'I wish you luck, Your Highness,' he said. 'I don't know what's going to happen, but I was glad to be on your side.'
'You are a good man and a fine leader, Mr. McLanahan,' Sanusi said. 'I am sorry about your wife; I hope God protects her. You will go home now to see your son, I presume?'
'Yes. But I have a little unfinished business in Alexandria first.'
'You do not seem to be the vengeful type to me.'
'I really don't know who or what I am anymore, Your Highness.'
'I think I do-and I like what I see. I hope your superiors see it the same as I.' Sanusi looked carefully at Patrick, then said with a faint smile, 'I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again, sir. I hope it is in happier times.
'I hope you're right, Your Highness,' Patrick said. 'But I don't think so.'
From the seventeenth-floor high-rise apartment, one of the best high-rise condominiums in all of Egypt, Susan Bailey Salaam had an extraordinary view of Alexandria. From her living-room balcony she could see west all the way to the Corniche and Fort Qayt Bay, built on the site of the Pharos, the four-hundred-foot-tall lighthouse that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. From her bedroom, she could see all the way down Abu Qir Bay, the mouth of the Nile, and at night even see the glow of Cairo far on the southern horizon.
That evening, Susan was standing on the living-room balcony, smoking a cigarette and letting the cool Mediterranean breezes wash over her. Inside, General Ahmad Baris was inside, sorting and organizing sheaves of
