It appears that Zuwayy has ignored our warning,” Patrick McLanahan said grimly as he began the briefing a few hours later, “so we’re going to put the strike plans in motion in about two hours.”

His entire group of Night Stalkers were inside the semiunderground bunker reserved for them by Susan Bailey Salaam and General Baris, south of the airfield in an isolated part of the sprawling Egyptian joint forces base. Patrick was wearing his battle armor with the helmet on the table nearby, the power pack and electromagnetic rail gun plugged in and ready to go in just a few moments. He was definitely ready for battle.

“The primary target area will be the command-and- control center at Benina, ten miles east of Benghazi,” Patrick went on. “It is located at a Libyan air force base, with a large mix of Russian and French fighters and transports based there, plus antiaircraft systems of all sizes. Our target is the air operations center.” He displayed a high- resolution image of the air base, with one building outlined with a red triangle. “This building is the headquarters of Libyan air combat operations in the eastern half of the country, and it is also an alternate national military command center. It forms the junction of all communications from the eastern half of the country to Tripoli.

“The attack will commence with a flight of three Wolverine cruise missiles, launched from over the Med,” Patrick continued. “They will spread out and perform a coordinated multiaxis attack on the air defenses north of the city of Benina. Each Wolverine will attack three air defense sites with cluster munitions, followed by ‘suicide’ attacks on the air traffic control radar site, the northern security headquarters here, and the southern security headquarters, here.

“The main attack will follow thirty seconds later—a flight of three more Wolverine cruise missiles. They will use a flight path cleared for them by the preceding Wolverine suppression attacks, but they will be programmed to divert if necessary to avoid any air defense sites missed or pop-up threats not targeted by the first flight.” He switched slides to a close-up of a small cluster of buildings on the northeast side of the large two-runway airfield. “This is the Benina Command Center, headquarters of Libya’s Eastern Joint Operations Center and Eastern Air Defense Sector. The heart of the facility is two stories underground, protected by twelve-inch reinforced concrete on each floor.