Thomas Nathaniel Thom was the first third-party candidate since Abraham Lincoln to be elected to the White House. To be elected president of the United States without a massive, well-organized political machine behind you was unusual enough—but Thom was odder still. He was a loner, a politician who seemingly shunned crowds and the spotlight. He was rarely seen in public, although now into the third year of his term he was seen more and more on the reelection campaign trail. He worked long hours in his private study or in the Oval Office in a very hands-on but decentralized management structure. The executive branch of government was the smallest in sixty years, all carefully orchestrated by a man who used to kill for a living but was now perceived as one of the gentlest, nonconfrontational, and nonconformist commanders-in-chief ever to occupy the White House.

As was his custom, Thom glanced up with an unspoken request in his eyes, first to his vice president. “Park a carrier battle group off the Libyan coast,” Busick said.

“I agree, sir,” Secretary of Defense Goff chimed in. “One carrier battle group would just about equal the entire Libyan military’s strength.” Left unspoken was the fact that an aircraft carrier battle group was just about the only option open to them—since one of Thomas Thom’s first acts as commander-in-chief was to bring most troops stationed overseas home. Although the United States still had basing rights in all of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries and still deployed overseas often for joint military exercises, no U.S. combat forces were permanently stationed anywhere in Europe or the Middle East.

“Of course, we would condemn the attack in the United Nations, in the media, and in every appearance we made for the next few weeks,” Secretary of State Kercheval said. “I think it would be easy to swing world public opinion against Libya. But I think moving an aircraft carrier off Libya’s coast would send a pretty strong message as well—the United States thinks it is definitely in our best interests to defend Egypt.”

Thom turned to General Venti. “General? Who’s over there?”

“The Stennis carrier group is cruising in the Med right now, sir,” Venti responded. “The Reagan group is scheduled to join them in four days. They have a week of joint exercises planned in the Med, and then the Stennis was scheduled to come home. The groups have canceled their exercises and are at threat condition Delta. The Reagan sails with an amphibious squadron assigned—three to five ships, two thousand Marines. We also have an amphibious group assigned to the Med attached to the Stennis with twenty-one ships and approximately fifteen thousand Marines.”

“How far out are other forces?” Thom asked. “If we did have to go into Libya or Egypt in the next twenty-four hours, what other forces would we have to draw on?”