"Very well, Madame. All this is subject to further negotiation, a written agreement, and His Highness's concurrence," Hijazi reminded her.
"Our deal will also have to be ratified by our People's Assembly," Salaam said. "And it of course presupposes that I will be given authority to negotiate anything with Libya."
"Of course. I understand."
"I have a demand, Minister," Salaam said.
"I thought you said we have nothing to offer you, Madame."
"This you will do, or all our negotiations cease immediately and we go back to war."
"Another ultimatum? How unskilled you are at negotiations, Madame. But please, proceed anyway."
"Zuwayy, you, General Fazani, and the entire Libyan government will endorse and support me as the next president of Egypt," Susan Bailey Salaam said.
"What? We… endorse you?"
"Not only you personally and as representatives of your government, but the king as leader of the Muslim Brotherhood," Salaam went on. "A full and public endorsement, without any reservation. I require an endorsement from all the other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood as well."
"If you want their endorsement, Madame, ask them yourself."
"If Zuwayy is indeed the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, then his word should be all that's required to give me what I want," Salaam said. "If the Brotherhood is nothing more than a paper tiger, then this is a good opportunity for me to find out before I give any further support for it."
"I… I cannot go in front of Zuwayy…. I mean, His Highness, and ask him to throw all his support behind the person who attacked his holy city."
"You will do it, or Libya does not get its partnership in Salimah, your workers stay in your country and fester in their poverty, and the Muslim Brotherhood starts to look on you and your king as a gutless failure while "Egyptian warplanes cruise their skies."
"This… this will be most difficult…."
"Then we have a deal, Minister?"
He hesitated once more-but there was no reason to do so. "We have a deal, Madame," he said. "If His Highness agrees, our forces will pull back immediately."
Juma Mahmud Hijazi walked into Zuwayy's office several minutes later, his face completely expressionless. "Where the hell have you been, Juma?" Tahir Fazani asked irritably. It appeared as if Jadallah Zuwayy was even more morose and depressed than before.
Hijazi ignored Fazani. "Listen, Jadallah, I think we have a solution to the problem," he said. Fazani looked quizzically at his longtime friend and coconspirator, but wisely kept silent.
"What are you talking about, Juma?" Zuwayy asked.
"A… a back-channel contact I've been developing in the Egyptian government," Hijazi replied carefully. "I just got a call from them. They're willing to talk. The government wants to negotiate a cease-fire."
"I will only accept a surrender," Zuwayy said. "The Egyptians surrender to me, and they allow us to occupy the Salimah oil fields as reparations for the death and destruction they've caused in Libya." Both Hijazi and Fazani both rolled their eyes in complete exasperation-now, they realized, Zuwayy had gone completely over the edge. He wasn't thinking clearly at all anymore.
"Don't worry about anything, Jadallah," Hijazi said. "The Egyptians will agree to aU our demands. They will cease attacking our bases, they will lay down their weapons, and they will withdraw from the frontier."
"I want Salimah too. They will cede Salimah to me immediately."
"Jadallah, they're not going to just cede Salimah to us or anyone-we have to pay to become part of this cartel."
"Pay? I'm not going to pay them to belong to something that is already ours!"
"Jadallah, we will become equal partners with the consortium of Western oil companies that built the pipeline and are drilling the wells-and we don't have to lift one shovel or get our hands messy," Hijazi said. "Our investment could be returned to us a hundredfold per year. They will also allow Libyan workers in to work there."
"What good is that?"
"We need to show that we won something from this battle," Hijazi said. "We can say we forced them to give us a stake in that oil project, but they can't say we forced them into giving it to us. We also take care of our workers by giving them access and jobs in the world's largest and richest oil project. They look weak because they handed over part of their project to us, and we look like a partner because we paid for our percentage."
Zuwayy shook his head in confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about, Juma," he said. "I want to just go in and take that oil field. Tahir says our troops are in place-"
"Then we risk getting bombed again by the Egyptians and whoever else they have working for them," Hijazi said. "We haven't been able to touch the forces that attacked Samah or Jaghbub-we certainly won't be able to get them over Egypt." He glared at Fazani, silently ordering him to start arguing on his side, or else.
"We need time and money to regroup, rearm, and reorganize our forces," Fazani said tenuously. Hijazi nodded. "This deal will give us the time and the money to do that." Zuwayy looked at both his friends and advisers, and seemed to be relenting.
"And all we have to do is endorse Susan Bailey Salaam as president of Egypt," Hijazi added quickly.
"What?" both Fazani and Zuwayy asked in unison.
"We need to do this, or this whole thing unravels," Hijazi explained. "Salaam is seen as the hero in all this, even though she did nothing but screw some American commander into bombing targets in Libya for her. She is inexperienced, naive, and idealistic. She will allow Muslim Brotherhood representatives into Egypt to argue before the People's Assembly for membership-that alone is worth ther price. If Egypt becomes a full member of the Brotherhood, all African and Middle East nations will soon follow suit. But in order for this to happen, Salaam must become president of Egypt. If you endorse her, and get all the other Brotherhood leaders to do the same…."
"What? Have all of the other members endorse an American to be president ofEgyptl Are you insane?"
"Jadallah, the Muslim Brotherhood can step out of the shadows and take its place in the center of the world stage if this happens," Hijazi argued. "Salaam is that powerful, that well known-and after this offensive against us, she looks more and more like a defender of Egypt. We need to tap into that power-and the best way for that is to embrace her as an equal, not as a victor. Only you can make this happen. She needs this from us as much as we need Salimah, Jadallah. Do it."
Fazani was still looking quizzically at Hijazi, still trying to figure out what his game was, but he nodded as he turned to Zuwayy. "Let's do this, Jadallah," he said. "Once we have our people in Egypt and get our cut of the oil revenues, then we can set about destroying Salaam and taking over. We'll put our spies in place all over Egypt, and we'll keep an eye on every move her military forces make. We'll play her game for a while, let her think she's won-and then, when she's gotten a little fatter off the oil money, we'll stomp her once and for all."
Zuwayy still didn't look pleased. He looked warily at both Hijazi and Fazani. "I will not wait long for all this to happen," he said. "A month or two, no more. We get our concessions from Egypt, and then we move in-and Salaam dies, this time for good."
At Amina Shafik's urging, Susan left the balcony of her Alexandria home late at night, got undressed, showered,
then stood in the steamy bathroom for several minutes, staring at the hazy reflection in the mirror. She had plenty of questions for that person in the mirror, but no answers were forthcoming.