The first EB-52 Megafortress battleship that would lead the attack carried longer-range standoff weapons, including four Russian Kh-27 antiradar missiles in the forward bomb bay, eight Kh-15 long-range inertially guided missiles on the rotary launcher in the aft bomb bay, four R-60 heat-seeking air-to-air missiles on each external pylon, and two FlightHawk unmanned combat aircraft on wing pylons-unfortunately, the FlightHawks did not carry any weapons of their own. The second EB-52 Megafortress battleship carried a rotary launcher in the rear of the bomb bay that held sixteen one-thousand-pound unguided bombs in eight two-round clips, with inflatable parachutes attached to each one to allow them to be released from low altitude if necessary. The slant racks in the forward bomb bay held thirty-six five-hundred-pound unguided cluster munitions in six rounds of six bombs; and the external weapon pylons held two Kh-27 antiradar missiles plus four R-60 heat-seeking missiles on each pylon.
Even though the Russian guided weapons were state-ofthe-art, they couldn't interface well with the Megafortress. The antiradar missiles were programmed on the ground to detect and attack any height-finder radar, an integral part of a surface-to-air missile or fighter ground-controlled intercept radar; the air-to-air missiles' seeker was caged straight ahead and would only report if a bright enough heat source crossed its path-they would never know if it locked on or hit its target. The inertially guided missiles had to be programmed with a target on the ground before takeoff, and then their guidance systems had to be aligned on the ground before takeoff-and their accuracy couldn't be updated while in flight. -
Patrick took the king on a quick tour of the AL-52 Dragon. Workers from Sky Masters Inc., including Jon Masters himself, were still poring over it, adjusting components and voltages while a laptop computer measured magnetic fields and predicted power yields and safety margins. "A truly impressive weapon, Dr. Masters," Sanusi said after he had been introduced.
"I wish I could take all the credit for it," Jon said. He motioned inside the belly of the AL-52 just as a little girl emerged, covered in grease and dirt but wearing a big smile. "Your Majesty, may I present Dr. Kelsey Duffield of Nevada, my partner and chief engineer of this particular weapon system. Dr. Duffield, may I present the king of the United Kingdom of Libya, His Majesty, Muhammad as-Sanusi."
"Jon, for Christ's sake!" Patrick gasped. "Pardon me, Your Highness, but… Jeez, Jon, you brought Kelsey Duffield… to Libya!"
"I couldn't keep her away, Patrick," Jon said. "If you're going to yell at me, stand in line-Kelsey's mom isn't done chewing on me yet. Patrick, this is Dr. Kelsey Duffield, our new partner; Kelsey, Brigadier-General Patrick McLanahan, retired, our v.p. in charge of operations."
"Pleased to meet you, General," Kelsey said, giving Patrick a big hug and a kiss. "Don't worry about Dr. Wendy, sir-we'll get her back for you and Bradley." She gave Sanusi a little-girl curtsy, then went back inside the Dragon's fuselage and back to work.
"Not exactly what you expected, huh?" Jon asked.
"I expected anything but a nine-year-old in a war zone, Jon," Patrick said. "We will get her out as soon as we can."
"She's advancing the state of the art in high-power lasers by five years every hour she works on the Dragon," Jon said. But when Patrick glared at him, he held up his hands. "Okay, okay, as soon as we launch, Kelsey goes home."
While Sanusi's men and the Sky Masters tech crews loaded up the planes, Patrick and Sanusi met up with Dave Luger, Hal Briggs, and Chris Wohl in a meeting room, where charts and diagrams had been spread out on a table. "I have never before seen the defenses in Tripoli so strong and tight," the king said. He took out a notepad from his tunic, then started drawing circles and crosses on the charts. "Zuwayy has definitely pulled in and reinforced his forces around Tripoli to prepare for air attacks. These are new mobile antiaircraft missile and gun emplacements-at least ten new units brought in within the past several days. We haven't been able to actually count the number of fighters stationed at Al-Khums and Miznah, but we believe all of their alert aircraft shelters are occupied-that's twelve fighter-interceptors on alert twenty-four-seven at each base." He looked seriously at Patrick. "With all due respect to your men and machines, my friend, it would be suicide to attack Tripoli now."
"We don't have any choice, Your Highness," Patrick said.
"Perhaps," Sanusi said. "But even if you do penetrate those air defenses, there is no way you can locate your wife and your men in the Garden labyrinth. We've narrowed the area down to the southeast complex, which is the presidential palace area, but that only narrows it down to two or three dozen rooms, defended by perhaps five hundred troops."
"I know a way to find her quickly," Patrick said.
Sanusi looked into Patrick's eyes, and his round eyes grew sad and his lips pulled taut. "I think I know how you intend to do this," Sanusi said. "It's madness. Your son will lose both his parents."
"It's the only chance we'll ever get, Your Highness," Patrick said. He looked down, tracing his finger over the air defense circles surrounding their objective. "I don't think I can go back without her again, Muhammad. The pain on my son's face was almost too much to bear."
CHAPTER 10
"He is with that new whore every hour of every day now," General Tahir Fazani, the Libyan military chief of staff, commented disgustedly in a low voice. He and the Minister of Arab Unity, Juma Mahmud Hijazi, were in Fazani's office in the Libyan Presidential Palace, where a military briefing had just wrapped up-minus the king, Jadallah Zuwayy, again. They had dismissed the rest of the military advisers and were preparing to brief the king on the military-readiness reports. "We're getting ready to go to war with Egypt, and he's over there getting laid."
"Or worse," Hijazi mused. "Do you think he's on the drugs again?"
"God, I hope not," Fazani said. "We're screwed if he is."
"Tahir, why the hell don't we just blow town?" Hijazi asked.
"You know why, Juma-if we don't control the money or don't bump off Jadallah, we come away with nothing — and worse, he'll be coming after us for the rest of his life. We need to get those bank account numbers and passwords first."
"Maybe if he was back on horse, we could get them easier," Hijazi surmised. He nodded to the reports. "How are we looking?"
"It couldn't be better," Fazani said. "Exactly as the planning staff predicted, the intelligence staff tells us Egypt pulled so many forces back toward Cairo that they're unable to set up any kind of meaningful defense, let alone mount an offensive. We don't have enough troops to take Salimah yet, in my opinion, but if Jadallah wanted to mount an offensive, now would be the time to do it. We set up a forward base inside Egypt, move a large number of troops and aircraft there, and we can hold off the Egyptian army forever."