Patrick fell silent, but the eagerness was evident in Hal Briggs’s and Paul McLanahan’s eyes. The reason was clear: They had the most to lose and the most to gain out of this. Martindale, Patrick, and Chris Wohl all had government pensions waiting for them; in addition, Patrick was a vice president of Sky Masters Inc., for which he was very well paid. But Hal Briggs resigned his Air Force commission well before retirement age, and Paul McLanahan had only a small disability check from the Sacramento Police Department, where he was a sworn officer for only a few weeks before being retired with a one-hundred-percent disability. Neither of them had earned any money in many months, and had been relying on gifts from Martindale and Patrick.

“How much are we talkin’ about here, Mr. President?” Hal asked.

“I accepted a twenty-million-dollar contract for our services, plus a bonus for complete destruction of all known missile installations,” Martindale replied. “I will pay every man in this room twenty-five thousand dollars a day, beginning as soon as you accept this mission.”

“Per ...day...?”

“Our support team members will earn ten thousand dollars . .. and yes, that’s per day, tax free,” Martindale went on. “The Night Stalkers will pay Sky Masters Inc. full retail price for the equipment and supplies we use. Sound okay with you, gentlemen?” Hal slapped his hands together excitedly, and Paul looked jubilant—even Chris Wohl nodded in approval, even though he wore his same expressionless warrior’s mask. Martindale studied their faces, then settled on Patrick’s. “All right with you, General?” he asked.

Patrick looked at Paul and Hal’s happy faces. Paul gave his brother an excited slap on the back—it had been a long time since he had seen him smile like that. “Yes, sir,” Patrick finally responded. “It’s okay with me.”

“Outstanding,” Martindale said. He punched up instructions into a computer, and the results were projected onto a large flat-panel monitor on the conference-room wall. “The intelligence we’ve received indicates several new Libyan missile bases scattered around the country. I’ll leave it up to you and your support team to figure out the best way to proceed, but after speaking with Master Sergeant Wohl here, he suggests a soft probe of the most likely bases, followed by an unmanned aircraft strike to soften up the base’s defenses, followed by a hard-target penetration. It’s up to you—but I hasten to remind you of a substantial performance bonus for each one of you if the danger to the consortium’s pipeline is eliminated. Enough said. Good luck, and good hunting.”