"I'll be very interested," the President said as Goff was leaving, "to find out whom Susan Salaam calls next."
Goff paused, then nodded. "Yeah… me too," he said. "Me too."
"Well, well," Pavel Kazakov said. His initial anger at being awakened in the middle of the night vanished in an instant.
"Madame Susan Bailey Salaam, the esteemed president of Egypt, calling me personally? I'm flattered."
"Let's cut to the chase, Kazakov," Susan said angrily. "We all know you are the puppet master behind Jadallah Zuwayy. He got the neutron weapons from you; you've been arming him with hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of weapons over the past several months; you talked him into blowing up Mersa Matruh… "
"I don't know what you're talking about, Madame," Kazakov said. "I'm a prisoner, a witness for the United Nations, not an arms dealer."
"I said, let's cut to the chase," Susan said. "Zuwayy wants his filthy claws in Salimah-but so do you. You want back into the world oil game, and Salimah is your latest target. Fine. Help me stop Zuwayy, and you can have Salimah."
Pavel Kazakov was fully awake now. He buzzed for Ivana Vasilyeva, his aide. "I'm listening, Mrs. Salaam."
"Shut down Zuwayy-I don't care how," Susan said. "Order him, bribe him, kill him-it doesn't matter to me, just stop him from blowing up my oil fields and killing the workers. You take Zuwayy's shares."
"What will that give me? Thirty percent of a graveyard in the Sahara?"
"Not thirty-sixty percent of Salimah," Susan said. "Because if you do this, I'll buy out the Central African Petroleum Partners cartel and turn over their share of the partnership to you. I remind you, Mr. Kazakov, that Salimah represents the largest known oil reserves in all of Africa. Zuwayy only wants to rape it or destroy it, not develop it. You're smarter than he is. Shut him down, and you can have a majority stake in the biggest known oil reserves in the world west of the Caspian."
Pavel Kazakov was virtually shaking with anticipation. This was exactly what he was hoping for when he first struck this deal with Jadallah Zuwayy: a way to take control of Salimah without appearing to take control of anything. John D. Rockefeller once said that the key to wealth was "own nothing, control everything"-that's exactly what Kazakov wanted.
'"I'll try to stop Zuwayy, my dear Susan Bailey Salaam," Kazakov said. "But even if that ridiculous pig gets off a few shots, you will agree to this deal with me. You will ensure that a majority of shares in the partnership is transferred to me, and I'll see to it that Zuwayy moves to that ranch in Vietnam he's always wanted."
"You keep Zuwayy from attacking Salimah, or the deal's off."
"Madame, I'm not in Libya-I'm not Zuwayy's wet nurse," Kazakov said. "You're the one with the American white knights coming to your rescue-why not call on them to save you again?"
"If bombs fall on Salimah, Kazakov, the deal's off."
"If you try to cancel this deal, Salaam, I'll send a transcript of this conversation to every media outlet in the world-see how long your popularity in the Arab world lasts then," Kazakov said. "On the other hand, you give me what I want, and I'll make Zuwayy and his goons heel. Count on it."
There was silence on the line for several long moments; then: "I guess I have no choice. But I want Zuwayy out of the picture. No more threats from him."
"I'll make you a side deal, Mrs. Salaam-you give me the white knights, and I'll serve you up Jadallah Zuwayy."
"What?"
"You give me the Americans, the ones in the electronic battle armor, the ones with the fancy electromagnetic guns and the jump boots, and you can take control of the entire Muslim Brotherhood. Zuwayy will be a traitor to all loyal Arabs, and you slide right in as the leader of the Muslim world."
"I can't do that if Salimah gets wiped out."
"I can't help that," Kazakov said. "But if he does attack Salimah, he'll be slamming the lid shut on his own coffin. You, on the other hand, will have every bit of the power you want. You just have to give me the Tin Man."
"How am I supposed to do thai:?"
"You're a very beautiful, beguiling woman-you figure it out," Kazakov said. "I wouldn't be surprised if they're on their way to save you right this minute. If they come back to rescue you, all you have to do is tell me."
There was more silence on the phone-but it was shorter this time: "All right," Susan said. "Do everything you can to stop Zuwayy, and I'll do everything I can to bring you McLanahan."
"McLanahan, you say?" Kazakov asked incredulously. "That's his name? McLanahan?"
"General Patrick McLanahan."
Kazakov searched his memory. He had heard of that name before… where was it?
My God… he remembered where he had heard that name. The prisoners… the prisoners that he had ordered Zuwayy to segregate from the others before they were taken to their deaths in Mersa Matruh. One of the American prisoners still being held by Jadallah Zuwayy in Libya was a woman by the name of McLanahan. That was too much of a coincidence. It had to be the same… a relative? Certainly not a sister or wife? This seemed too good to be true!
"Why is that name important to you, Kazakov?" Susan asked. "Why.do you sound so…?" And then she stopped-she knew exactly why. "You have her," Salaam said breathlessly. "No, not you.. Zuwayy. Zuwayy has the woman named McLanahan."
"Who is she?"
"She is your death sentence if Patrick McLanahan finds out she's alive," Salaam said. "She's the reason he's fighting this battle-just to get her back. You're a captive in a fancy Icelandic jail-you're easy to get to. I guarantee, Patrick will move heaven and earth to get to her-and he'll destroy an entire nation if she's harmed."
"Call this General McLanahan off," Kazakov said, his voice fairly shaking with anger. "I don't care how you do it, but call him off. Threaten him, entice him, screw himI don't care."
"So he's worth something to you, then?"
"Don't try to dicker with me, woman. I can get McLanahan on my own time."
"You don't sound so sure to me-if you could get him, I imik you would have done it by now," Susan said. "Perhaps I should tell him that you ordered her execution, and you'll find yourself ripped into pieces by him. I assume you've seen his powered exoskeleton and electronic shock weapons in action? Don't think your lawyers will stop him."
The "powered exoskeleton" was a new one for Pavel Kazakov-it made his already fearsome battle armor sound even more fearsome. "All right, all right" Kazakov shouted. He thought quickly. There was an opportunity here-but Salaam had to play along. What did she want? What was her overriding desire? Certainly not this general.. "Here's the deal, Madame," Kazakov said. "You convince McLanahan not to attack us anymore. You keep the sixty percent majority ownership of Salimah, the Central African Petroleum Partners keep their thirty percent, and I'll take the remaining ten percent for myself."
"You cannot give me something that I already own, Kazakov," Salaam said. "Zuwayy extorted Egypt for twenty percent of Salimah, yet he has done nothing but threaten his neighbors and waste your money-and now he's put your very life in danger. He is a psychopathic killer with delusions of grandeur. He thinks he's a Libyan king, yet his henchmen are stealing money from their treasury as if it's free for the taking. Why do you support him?"
"Because he controls an organization that potentially controls forty-five percent of the world's oil reserves," Kazakov replied. "What is it you control? What do you-?"
And then he stopped. He remembered the recent items in the news, the rallies, the editorials on this beautiful, opportunistic, charismatic woman-they were calling her the "next Cleopatra." Could this work…?
"Are you still there, Kazakov? We'd better come to an agreement soon."
"Of course," Kazakov went on. "I know just what might change your mind."