'She's advancing the state of the art in high-power lasers by five years every hour she works on the Dragon,' Jon said. But when Patrick glared at him, he held up his hands. 'Okay, okay, as soon as we launch, Kelsey goes home.'
While Sanusi's men and the Sky Masters tech crews loaded up the planes, Patrick and Sanusi met up with Dave Luger, Hal Briggs, and Chris Wohl in a meeting room, where charts and diagrams had been spread out on a table. 'I have never before seen the defenses in Tripoli so strong and tight,' the king said. He took out a notepad from his tunic, then started drawing circles and crosses on the charts. 'Zuwayy has definitely pulled in and reinforced his forces around Tripoli to prepare for air attacks. These are new mobile antiaircraft missile and gun emplacements-at least ten new units brought in within the past several days. We haven't been able to actually count the number of fighters stationed at Al-Khums and Miznah, but we believe all of their alert aircraft shelters are occupied-that's twelve fighter-interceptors on alert twenty-four-seven at each base.' He looked seriously at Patrick. 'With all due respect to your men and machines, my friend, it would be suicide to attack Tripoli now.'
'We don't have any choice, Your Highness,' Patrick said.
'Perhaps,' Sanusi said. 'But even if you do penetrate those air defenses, there is no way you can locate your wife and your men in the Garden labyrinth. We've narrowed the area down to the southeast complex, which is the presidential palace area, but that only narrows it down to two or three dozen rooms, defended by perhaps five hundred troops.'
'I know a way to find her quickly,' Patrick said.
Sanusi looked into Patrick's eyes, and his round eyes grew sad and his lips pulled taut. 'I think I know how you intend to do this,' Sanusi said. 'It's madness. Your son will lose both his parents.'
'It's the only chance we'll ever get, Your Highness,' Patrick said. He looked down, tracing his finger over the air defense circles surrounding their objective. 'I don't think I can go back without her again, Muhammad. The pain on my son's face was almost too much to bear.'
CHAPTER 10
'He is with that new whore every hour of every day now,' General Tahir Fazani, the Libyan military chief of staff, commented disgustedly in a low voice. He and the Minister of Arab Unity, Juma Mahmud Hijazi, were in Fazani's office in the Libyan Presidential Palace, where a military briefing had just wrapped up-minus the king, Jadallah Zuwayy, again. They had dismissed the rest of the military advisers and were preparing to brief the king on the military-readiness reports. 'We're getting ready to go to war with Egypt, and he's over there getting laid.'
'Or worse,' Hijazi mused. 'Do you think he's on the drugs again?'
'God, I hope not,' Fazani said. 'We're screwed if he is.'
'Tahir, why the hell don't we just blow town?' Hijazi asked.
'You know why, Juma-if we don't control the money or don't bump off Jadallah, we come away with nothing — and worse, he'll be coming after us for the rest of his life. We need to get those bank account numbers and passwords first.'
'Maybe if he was back on horse, we could get them easier,' Hijazi surmised. He nodded to the reports. 'How are we looking?'
'It couldn't be better,' Fazani said. 'Exactly as the planning staff predicted, the intelligence staff tells us Egypt pulled so many forces back toward Cairo that they're unable to set up any kind of meaningful defense, let alone mount an offensive. We don't have enough troops to take Salimah yet, in my opinion, but if Jadallah wanted to mount an offensive, now would be the time to do it. We set up a forward base inside Egypt, move a large number of troops and aircraft there, and we can hold off the Egyptian army forever.'
'And if the Americans intervene?'
'They won't-President Thorn is a spineless weakling,' Fazani said. 'But if he does, we withdraw-but not before destroying Salimah. We blow all the oil wells, just like Saddam Hussein did as his forces left Kuwait.' Just then, the outer door opened, and Fazani's aide stepped quickly in. 'What is it, Captain?'
'Sir, an American has been arrested by the security forces outside the gate of the Presidential Palace. He was demanding to see the king.'
'Why are you bothering me with this drivel, Captain? Have him arrested and taken to the interrogation center.'
'He also demands to see the prisoners.'
'What prisoners?'
'He says, the American prisoners,' the aide said. 'The ones captured after the attacks in the Mediterranean Seaincluding the woman, Wendy McLanahan.'
Fazani and Hijazi looked at each other in complete surprise. No one, they wordlessly reminded each other, knew about the prisoners-and they sure as hell didn't know any of the prisoners' names! 'Does this man have a name?'
'Yes, sir-he called himself McLanahan too. J3figadier General Patrick McLanahan.'
Both Libyan ministers jumped to their feet in surprise. 'McLanahan? He's hereT Fazani shouted. 'Is he armed?'
'Just a small pistol, sir.'
Thank God he didn't visit them as he visited Zuwayy in Jaghbub-with his bombers buzzing overhead destroying the place and wearing his medieval armor with the built-in bug zapper, Fazani thought. 'Bring him up here, right now!'
'I'll tell Jadallah-' Hijazi said.
'Not quite yet,' Fazani said. 'Maybe this McLanahan has information that is valuable to us. We'll tell Jadallah… in good time.'
A few minutes later, Patrick was standing before both Hijazi and Fazani, his hands shackled in front of him with handcuffs and a chain around his waist. He was wearing plain civilian clothes, similar to urban Arabs. One of the guards set a bag on the desk. 'He was found with this, sir,' the guard said. Fazani examined the bag: It contained a fake beard, Libyan citizen documents, Libyan money, a small digital camera, a palm-sized radio, a Russian Tokarev pistol-common in both Libya and Egypt-and a fake Egyptian passport. The guard held out another smaller bag-this one held colored contact lenses. 'He was wearing these as well. His hair is dyed black, too.' Fazani felt his hair-quick, cheap hair dye. 'No other weapons.'
'Very clever, General,' Fazani said in halting but good English. 'Fake documents, fake hair, even fake eye color. What do you hope to accomplish here, General?'
'I'm looking for my wife and my men,' Patrick said. 'I know you're holding them.'
'Oh, I am sure you will be joining them soon enough,' Fazani said. 'But we have questions first.'
'I'm not answering any questions. I want the Americans. If I don't come out with them, I'll destroy this palace.'
'You will? With what? This pistol?'
'You know how,' Patrick said ominously. 'The same way I destroyed Samah, Jaghbub, Al-Jawf, and Zillah.'
Both Fazani and Hijazi looked decidedly uncomfortable at that point. Fazani paced around Patrick, thinking hard; then: 'Then I have a better idea, General: You will recall your bombers immediately, or I will execute your wife and all your men right before your eyes.'
'If I don't report in to my unit by the bottom of the hour, Minister, this palace will be destroyed.' Hijazi looked at his watch: ten minutes to go. 'There is no abort code, Minister-either I report I'm still inbound, or I report I'm coming out with the prisoners, or this place gets leveled. I'm not afraid to die.'
'Then it was a suicide mission,' Fazani said. 'Because I assure you, we will be safe from any of your weaponsunless you intend on dropping a nuclear bomb on us. After the attack, we will all appear on the world news together and tell the world all about your doomed rescue mission and your homicidal bombing raids on Libya.'
