Susan shook her head in confusion. "Why are you telling me this, General?" she asked in a low, strained voice. "Why? Are you telling me that my husband died for nothing more than a dream, an illusion?"
"Because I'm trying to explain men like Zuwayy and alKhan to you, Sekhmet," Baris said. "Your husband died because he was strong in his heart, but perhaps not strong enough in his mind. He believed in something he could never, ever have. Now it's time for you to choose what you want, Sekhmet. Choose."
"Yes, I said Susan Salaam. She's alive!" Khalid al-Khan hissed in the cellular phone. "I thought I was seeing a ghost when she walked out on stage! And she's crazy! She actually attacked and seriously wounded some of my men-nearly killed them with a walking cane"
"A walking cane, eh?" Jadallah Zuwayy of Libya chuckled. He was relaxing in his office, flipping through reports and paperwork with several of his advisers. "I think you need to hire better bodyguards, my friend."
"She's accusing me of trying to kill her!"
"Calm yourself, Ulama. Let her rant and beat up on your bodyguards-it makes her look all the more unstable."
"Unstable? She's running for president of Egypt, Highness!"
Zuwayy froze, then sat bolt upright in his chair. "Running for president? How is that possible, Khalid? She's not an Egyptian! She's not even a naturalized Egyptian citizen!"
"The law allows it," Khan said. "The law actually says that she assumes the office of her husband if he dies in office-the law was amended in this case to allow her to run for the office."
"How in the world can you allow that to happen? What kind of lawmakers do you have out there?"
"'She is immensely popular here, Highness," Khan said. "Even after being hit by that explosion, she is still beautiful."
"You Egyptians sound like the Italians sometimesbeauty is enough to become a great politician, eh?"
"This is not a joke, Highness," Khan said. "The polls already show Salaam twenty points ahead, and she has not raised one penny or made one speech yet!"
"All right, all right," Zuwayy responded. "Listen to me, Khalid. Most of this fight is yours-Libya cannot become involved in Egyptian elections. You command considerable power in Egypt, especially in the outlying areas and with conservatives. Use that power. Rally your supporters. You also hold a high position, both in government and in your citizen's personal and spiritual lives-use that power as well. Don't just beat Salaam-destroy her. You can do it, Khalid. If necessary, get some secular advisers and help them design a campaign for you-don't rely on a bunch of clerics to fight a battle in an arena they know nothing about." Zuwayy paused for a few moments; then: "I may be able to help stir some things up in other areas, Khalid. But it is your fight. Fight to win."
Zuwayy cut off the call by angrily throwing the receiver back on its hook. He shook his head, deep in thought. "Khan is such a weakling, it's amazing he's even strong enough to venture outside his own bedroom by himself, let alone run for public office," he said to no one in particular. "Whining and bleating like a lost sheep because the wife of his political adversary is still breathing-deplorable." But he ordered his aide to dismiss his other advisers and staffers with a wave of his hand.
When his office was cleared, he looked at his military chief of staff, General Tahir Fazani, and his Secretary of Arab Unity, Juma Mahmud Hijazi. "What if the lovely Mrs. Salaam does win the election?" he asked.
"Khan will retain his post as chief justice of the Supreme Judiciary," Hijazi said. "He's almost as powerful as the president. Little will change."
"Salaam will certainly want to form even closer relations with the West than her husband," Fazani said. "That means more foreign military presence, more military ties, more foreign investment. Libya will be squeezed out of any development deals." He glanced at Hijazi, then added, "So will our secret benefactor."
"I am still opposed to making any more deals with Kazakov, Jadallah," Hijazi said. The two men in Zuwayy's office were fellow officers in the Libyan military who helped Zuwayy overthrow Qadhafi to take over the government-they were two of the few in all of Libya who could call Zuwayy by his real name, and still only in private. "The man's in protective custody by the World Court, for God's sake. This could all be an elaborate ruse to implicate us. Remember, he's ratted out half the organized-crime leaders in Europe in just the past year. Maybe we're next."
"I still say, let's take all the weapons Kazakov can put into our hands," Fazani said, "and blast the Egyptian military to hell right now. They may have American weapons, but they don't have any more power or support than they ever had. We have historic claims to the Salimah oil fields-let's just move in, wipe out the Western and ignorant Turkish roustabouts, and take over the entire Libyan Desert region of Egypt. We can lay claim to everything west of thirty east longitude and everything south of twenty-five degrees latitude, and I think we can hold it easily. Our forces in Sudan already have the region surrounded-it would be easy. We can pump oil and send it to Libya for six months, maybe a year, before the West starts to threaten retaliation. Then we keep the proceeds, destroy the wells, and get out."
"It won't work, Tahir," Zuwayy said. "What if we do occupy those fields? No one will buy one drop of oil we pump after we invade Egypt."
"There is always a market for crude, Jadallah," Fazani said. "If nothing else, we threaten to dump it on the world market if no one buys it at market price. Dozens of nations, including the West, will buy it at cut-rate prices just for the chance to store it and resell it at higher prices later? and the OPEC countries will buy it just to prop up oil prices. Once we make peace with Egypt, pay some measly reparations, and maybe even take our cut of the profits and move to South America or Southeast Asia, the West will be happy to deal with us again-they'll make a deal with Satan himself to get at all the oil we'll pump from Salimah."
"You tired of running the Libyan military, Tahir?" Zuwayy asked with a smile.
"Jadallah, I give you all the credit in the world for engineering this scam," Fazani said. "It was a stroke of pure genius, coming up with the whole Sanusi thing. Most of the folks in Libya and a good portion of the world bought it. But we're not in it to rule the damned country-we're in it for the money, remember? Libya pumps five billion dollars' worth of oil out of the desert a year. If we can siphon off even ten percent for ourselves, we'll be set up for the rest of our lives. Why do we want to stick around after that?"
"Because if we can take the Salimah oil fields, we can take twice as much," Zuwayy said.
"I'm all for that, Jadallah," Fazani said, "but I'd be just as happy splitting a five-hundred-million-dollar take. I can't water-ski behind more than one megayacht anyway. Besides, how much of those billion dollars do we need to split with Kazakov? He's got a reputation for killing off all his partners. I'd rather get out while we're still alive to enjoy the money."
"Don't worry about it," Zuwayy said. "We've got our escape plan ready to go-that's the mistake Qadhafi made, believing he really was some big-shot Arab desert chieftain. If we need to implement the escape plan, we won't hesitate. Until then, we press on with our plans."
"'Defeat her'-easy for you to say," Ulama Khalid alKhan murmured. He hung up the phone and held his head in his hands. "How do you defeat a ghost? Scare her away?"
"Sir?" Major Amr Abu Gheit, Khan's bodyguard and chief of the Supreme Judiciary security forces, asked. He waited for a few moments, then asked, "Can I get something for you, sir?"
"Nothing," Khan responded. "Nothing-except perhaps Salaam's head."
"I can get that for you, sir," Gheit said with an evil smile. "Just give me immunity from prosecution, and I'll do it tonight."