But Patrick also knew that angry Libyan soldiers could surround Muhammad Sanusi and his men any minute now. He couldn’t just leave these guys to their fate. He spoke: “Patrick to Luger.”

“Go ahead, Muck,” David Luger responded. Sanusi shook his head and again silently marveled at the technology these Americans possessed.

“Let’s get the Megafortress uploaded with target information for Zillah Air Base and Al-Jawf Rocket Base,” Patrick said. “We’ll have to use the intel we got from the Egyptians.”

“It’s several days old, and a lot of shit has happened since then,” Luger pointed out.

“I don’t think we have any choice,” Patrick said. “Time’s running out. We need to...” Just then Sanusi received a frantic call on his portable radio. “Stand by, Dave.”

“I’m afraid time may have run out already,” Sanusi said. “My scouts reported a convoy of four tanks and five armored personnel carriers heading south. They’re about forty kilometers north of here, coming fast. They have also seen several helicopter patrols heading this way, but they have lost contact.”

“Low-level helicopters—could be attackers,” Patrick said. “Dave, let’s get the Megafortress ready to launch. Me, Chris, and Hal will have to go out with the king and his men and see what we can do, but if the helicopters get past us, the Megafortress will fight better in the air.”

The Sanusi Brotherhood “Sandstorm” warriors raced across the desert at full throttle in their jeeps and Humvees, leaping up and over sand dunes and gullies at more than sixty miles an hour. If they encountered a minefield, Patrick was sure they’d never set any mines off because they hardly touched earth at all. They passed the remains of one Mil Mi-8 helicopter gunship, downed by one of the warriors with a Stinger shoulder-fired missile; a few kilometers away, they found the remains of the warriors and their vehicle, blasted apart into a twisted hunk of burning metal and human tissue.

“Sorry about your men, Your Highness,” Chris Wohl offered over the roar of their speeding vehicle. “They took on a gunship and defeated it.”

“I wish I could say that their death made a difference, or that they will find peace in God’s hands as a reward,” Muhammad as-Sanusi said. “All I can tell their families and their fellow warriors is that they died trying to win back a kingdom we all believe in so much. All the others can hope for is the chance that their death might rally others to our cause. We shall see.”

They proceeded another few miles until they met up with one of the Sanusi Brotherhood patrols on a slight rise, about two miles west of the Tobruk-Jaghbub highway. From there they crawled over to the edge of the rise, where they could see the oncoming Libyan scouts approaching, now about five miles away.