“Yes, but with U.S. sanctions still in place, they don’t ship much to the West,” Martindale replied. “The new president of Libya, who calls himself King Idris the Second, is even worse than Muammar Qadhafi. Idris, whose real name is Zuwayy, has reorganized the Muslim Brotherhood, the group of Muslim fanatics that seeks to make every Arabic-speaking nation in the world a theocracy— governed and steered by strict fundamentalist doctrine. Libya, Sudan, and Yemen are solidly in his hip pocket; Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan are leaning toward him; Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Egypt so far oppose him.”

“And the Muslim Brotherhood has been linked with the assassination of President Salaam of Egypt and his wife,” Hal Briggs added. “Sounds like recruitment by intimidation to me. Join—or else.”

“It looks like Zuwayy’s going further than just assassination,” Martindale said. “Sergeant Wohl?”

“Intelligence experts suspect that Libya has imported surface-to-surface missiles from someone—China, Pakistan, Russia, we don’t know for sure yet—and has set up several bases from which to stage attacks into Egypt to destroy their military forces,” Wohl went on. “The rumor is, the missiles have chemical, biological, and nuclear warheads, as well as conventional high-explosives. We have been tasked to find those missiles, identify them, and destroy them if possible.”

“‘Intelligence experts’?” Patrick asked suspiciously. “Who might they be, sir? I know we’re not getting any cooperation from U.S. agencies.”

Kevin Martindale looked at Patrick with a mixture of irritation and surprise in his features. “A group hired by the Central African Petroleum Partners,” Martindale replied uneasily.

“You mean the oil consortium with a stake in the Egyptian oil fields?”

“Do you have a problem working for them, General?” Martindale asked.

“Sir, I want to head off trouble as much as anyone,” Patrick said. “And I certainly don’t like Zuwayy any more than I liked Qadhafi and the terrorist organizations they sponsor. But I don’t like the idea of being a hired gun for an oil cartel, either.”

“Would you like them better if I told you we would be getting our first paychecks out of this?” Martindale asked. “That’s the difference between this mission and all the others—we are given a target, but we’re also well compensated for our services.”