“The deal was that we got twenty percent from Salaam once we paid for ten percent to the cartel,” Hijazi replied. “About nine hundred million American dollars.”

“Nine hundred million dollars? That’s insane! I’m not going to pay any bunch of European bastards or anyone else almost a billion dollars!”

“They insisted on their money up front—we couldn’t get them to agree to take the fee out of our royalties,” Hijazi went on.

“Jadallah, let’s just pitch in and buy the damned shares so Salaam will release her shares and we can start taking in some cash,” Tahir Fazani, the Minister of Defense, said. “In exchange for this investment to the cartel, we’ll be receiving one point eight billion dollars U.S. worth of value in the organization.”

“What good is that to me?” Zuwayy thundered. “I don’t have a billion dollars to spend!”

“We’ll earn that investment back in less than three years if the cartel increases production as planned,” Fazani added. “With an additional investment, we can enlarge the size of the new pipeline and—”

“Now you want me to pay more!” Zuwayy thundered. “Did you hear what I said? I don’t have a billion dollars to invest now—how do you expect me to invest more? And just breaking even in three years doesn’t exactly appeal to me either—while I’m waiting for my money, Salaam and the fat cats in Europe and America are raking in money hand over fist. It’s not right, and I won’t stand for it!”

“Jadallah, if the project is expanded, we can all stand to make an enormous profit in coming years,” Hijazi said. “And in the meantime, the cartel is providing employment for thousands of Libyans.”

“That’s another question we’re going to tackle—taxing Libyans working in Egypt!” Zuwayy said. “Why should our people pay Egyptian taxes?” He slapped his desktop. “I want Salimah destroyed, Fazani. I want it nuked, then I want to send in a ground force and take the entire complex. We’ve got the troops in place, lined up in Libya and Sudan—let’s do it.”

“Don’t be crazy, Jadallah. We’ll think of something else.”

“I want all Libyan workers to return to this country or they’ll be considered traitors and enemies of the state,” Zuwayy said hotly.

“We’ve got over twenty thousand workers in Egypt right now,” Hijazi said. “It’ll take weeks to get them back.”

“And I want Salimah shut down,” Zuwayy went on. “Use those neutron weapons again—that’ll work. We kill all the foreigners and Egyptians, and then we can just march right in and take over.”

“But what if Salaam calls up those American bombers again?” Fazani asked. “We’ll get clobbered. We haven’t found a way to stop them—we don’t even know where they came from or what they are!”

Zuwayy turned angrily on Tahir Fazani. “You will do as I tell you, Fazani, or you can turn in your uniform and get out.”