Final Flight by Stephen Coonts

Sakol.”
    “Truly.”
    “Do you intend to use him for this operation?”
    “Yes, Excellency. He knows much that will be
useful.”
    “He will betray you if given the slightest
opportunity. The Americans would reward him
well, perhaps even forgive his crimes.”
    “He’ll have no opportunity. I’ll see to it.”
    “And the weapons expert?”
    “A fat fool with a very rich, very stupid wife and a
fondness for small boys. He would serve the
devil himself to preserve his filthy secret.
    I’m allowing him a quarter hour in the plan for
him to alter just one weapon. But for our purposes,
five or six hours must pass before the Americans
are in a position to generate a military response
to the incident. We need that time to escape. Then they
must face the fact that we have also had sufficient time
to alter the others. Of course, we don’t actually
have to do it. The Americans must merely be delayed
until they see that we have the personnel, the
equipment, and the time to accomplish the task.”
    Qazi searched El Hakim’s face. “The
beauty of these weapons is that one never has to use
them. They accomplish far more by simply existing,
ready for use, than they could ever accomplish
by exploding.”
    The ruler smiled. “What course do you
recommend?”
    “An announcement by you to the world press immediately after
the operation. This will cause alarm throughout the Western
world and create confusion in Washington, where all the
decisions will ultimately be made. The confusion will
give us time while the Americans assess how they
should react. We want a thoughtful reaction, not a
knee-jerk lashing out by the American
military. When they pause for thought, the Americans
will realize the implications of our deed and will accept
the new reality. The new reality will be that we are now
a nuclear power.
    They will accept it! They have no alternative.”
    They discussed it. The dictator prided himself on
his understanding of the decision-making processes of the
American government and his ability to predict its
policies. The Americans would be greatly
embarrassed, he thought, but the critical factor
would be the hysterical fear of Western European
governments that a military response to his
acquisition of nuclear weapons would lead to a
nuclear conflict on their soil or in their
backyard. After all, they would scream at the
Americans, “You are four thousand miles away from
El Hakim, with an ocean between you. We are here.”
So the Americans would wring their hands and suffer the
humiliation. It would be a bitter pill, but they would
swallow it.
    Finally El Hakim sighed. “Fortunately we
are smarter and more determined than the Americans,
praise Allah, even if we cannot match their
technology. When can we proceed?”
    “That we do not know, Excellency. The
United States is now patrolling off the coast of
Lebanon. How long she will be there no one can say.
    As you know, the Moslem factions, with Iran’s
backing, will do all in their power to embarrass the
Americans. And embarrassment is about all they can
accomplish.”
    El Hakim nodded his head a thirty-second of
an inch and his jaw tightened. He did not
appreciate being reminded of the limited options open
to a group with few political assets and still fewer
military ones.
    He had spent too many years in that position.
“We must be ready when the ship enters port, whenever
that is.”
    “We’ll be ready, Excellency. We are
monitoring the commercial hotels and airports at
various possible ports of call. The longer the ship
is at sea, the greater the likelihood that many
wives will come from America to visit their husbands when
the ship enters port. Advance hotel and airline
reservations will give us ample warning.”
    “We must not fail, Qazi. We cannot fail.”
El Hakim’s voice was soft, yet hard, like a
thin layer of sand over desert stone.
    “I understand, Excellency.”
    “The stakes are too high to allow my genuine
personal affection for you to have any