Patrick knelt down and put an arm around his son, hugging him with joy. Bradley was more interested in Sanusi’s men, one of whom now had a splint around his left knee. “Have your men seen her? Are you certain?”

“We have not seen her,” Sanusi replied. “But the guards have reported to my men that the woman spoke her name, and that name was McLanahan. When this was told to me, I ordered my agents inside Tripoli to try to stay in contact with her, and I made arrangements to travel here to tell you myself. Because of you, my men and I are still patrolling the desert, probing for weaknesses in the Libyan army. We will help you all we can.”

“I’m grateful, Your Highness,” Patrick said. “I just hope we can reach her in time.” He turned away and spoke: “Patrick to Luger, Briggs, and Wohl.”

“Luger’s up.”

“Wohl’s up, in sight, your four o’clock.” Patrick turned, and Sanusi looked in the same direction—just as Chris Wohl peeked his head above the low concrete rim of an adjacent rest room building about a hundred yards away. Patrick had called and asked that he cover him and Bradley during this meeting—just in case.

“Very wise precaution, General McLanahan,” Muhammad as-Sanusi commented, his smile beaming. He waved at Wohl; his wave was not returned. None of them could see what weapon Wohl was carrying, but there were no doubts in anyone’s mind that he was more than proficient with it at this close range.

“Just a heads-up, Muck—Naval Intelligence has just initiated a foreign-contact log on you,” David Luger reported. “They’ll start setting up surveillance on you, probably tap your phones, all that stuff. The contact log said that Muhammad as-Sanusi made contact with you right there in Coronado?”

“He and his men are with me right now,” Patrick said. “So I should assume we’re under surveillance right now, correct?”

“I think that would be a safe assumption. What’s happening?”

“The king says Wendy and the Americans are alive.”

“Holy shit! That’s great! Can we confirm it? Do we have a location?”

“No, and no,” Patrick said. “But I want to get the force loaded up and headed back to Jaghbub right away.”

“You got it, Muck,” Briggs said. “But just to let you know, the feds have really cracked down on Sky Masters. They’ve got us in virtual lockdown as we speak, and Jon has received notice of an FBI security inspection team that wants unlimited access to inspect the base tomorrow morning. My guess is that they’re not there to do a security audit—they’ll shut down the facility. I’m sure we’ve got Defense Intelligence Agency guys on our butts, and now we’ll have to contend with Naval Intelligence.”