Realizing it was a one-time thing, once their leaves were over, they'd parted ways, but had remained good friends ever since.

Coop thought Jackie the most attractive and dangerous female he'd ever met, outside of Jersey.

Unfortunately, Jersey had found out about the affair, and had teased Coop unmercifully about it every time Jackie was in the vicinity. She wasn't exactly jealous, or so she told herself. h.e.l.l, it wasn't the first time Coop conquered a woman, and most a.s.suredly wouldn't be the last. She just felt Coop could do much better.

When Buddy told the team that Jackie was on her way to join them, Jersey immediately glanced at Coop. Seeing his grin and obvious joy at the news, she felt her blood boil.

Coop got to his feet and moved toward the team's rest rooms. "Going to take a shower and put on some froufrou for your girlfriend?" Jersey taunted.

Coop blushed a bright red as the rest of the team laughed. "No," he replied testily. "I just thought I'd put on some fresh BDUs. I've been wearing these for a week."

"Want me to iron them for you?" Jersey asked maliciously.

Coop turned and grinned at her. "Why, Jersey, that would be nice. It's good to know you've finally realized just what a woman's duties are."

Jersey was halfway to her feet with her hand on her K-Bar when Coop decided discretion was the better part of valor and ducked into the men's room.

When Jackie deplaned, Buddy and the team were there to meet them. Jackie stepped up and gave Buddy a smart salute, which he returned with a slight blush.

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115.

"Good to hear of your promotion, Buddy," Jackie said where only he could hear. "You deserve it."

"Thanks, Jackie," Buddy said. "I'll have Harley Reno show your troops where the quarters are and you can join Ben and me for lunch in his office."

While he was talking, Jackie's eyes searched the team standing nearby and came to rest on Coop's. She gave him a quick wink, which Jersey noticed. When Coop winked back, Jersey gave him a dig in the ribs with her elbow.

"Down, boy," she hissed out of the side of her mouth. "Don't get too excited, you might bust your britches."Coop grinned and hitched up his pants. "Yeah, it's a real shame you don't get this kind of response from men, Jersey. Perhaps if you were a little more feminine . . ."

"I'll remember you said that, Coop. The next time we're in a firefight and I have to save your scrawny a.s.s, I'll just bat my eyes and be feminine. How's that?"

"Uh, forget it, Jerse," Coop replied as his eyes followed Jackie and Buddy as they walked away. "I guess you'll do just as you are."

Jersey shook her head in disgust. "Men," she growled. "Always thinking with your little heads."

Coop put his arm on her shoulder and smiled at her. "Come on, Jerse. You know that's what you love about us."

She laughed. "Well, it does make it easier to deal with you Neanderthals at that."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Oh, all us women have to do to get what we want is unb.u.t.ton our blouses, show a little cleavage, and your IQs drop fifty points."

As she spoke, she stuck out her chest and let her b.r.e.a.s.t.s strain against her BDUs. When Coop's eyes involuntarily 116.

William W. Johnstone dropped to stare, she laughed and slapped him on the back. "See what I mean, big boy? Women's ultimate secret-the power of the big head over the little one."

117 SVENTEEN.

Al Hazmi, leader of El Farrar's troops in Saudi Arabia, sat at his desk in his headquarters on the outskirts of Riyadh going over reports from his field commanders. He wanted to make absolutely sure that all of the pluto-nium bombs had been set as per his orders.

His commanders, as experienced as they were with fighting guerrilla warfare, were not used to planting bombs designed to do maximal damage to existing structures. They were more used to fixing bombs to bodies of suicide bombers-a much less technical task.

His second in command, Taha al-Alwani, stood at attention in front of his desk while Hazmi went over the written reports al-Alwani had given him.

"You are sure the bombs are all in place and the radio transmitters affixed properly so the bombs can be exploded remotely?" Hazmi asked, glaring at his subordinate with hooded snake eyes.

"Yes, my leader," al-Alwani answered, nodding his head vigorously. "I checked each installation personally to make sure they were connected in the correct manner."

"Good. Now I want you to make sure your men are positioned around theperimeter of the oil field, and are dug in properly so as to repel any possible attacks on our positions."

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"But sir," al-Alwani asked, "do you think the infidels will dare to oppose us now that the bombs are in place?"

Hazmi sighed, hating to explain himself to men under his command. "No.

In fact I think it highly unlikely, al-Awani, but our commander, Abdullah El Farrar, has just sent me a radio message to be on the highest alert until our reinforcement troops arrive." He glared at al-Awani. "Do you wish me to radio El Farrar back and tell him my chief officer, Taha al-Alwani, does not think it necessary to follow his orders?"

Al-Awani's face looked horrified. "No, no, my leader. I did not mean any disrespect by my question. I will immediately do as you ordered."

"That is good, al-Awani, for if anyone manages to get into the oil field, I will personally cut off both your hands and make you eat them."

"Yes, sir!" al-Awani said, saluting smartly before turning on his heels and almost running from Hazmi's office.

Hazmi glanced skyward. "Allah, why must you plague me with idiots for officers?" he asked, and then blushed at his effrontery to question the Almighty G.o.d.

Ben Raines called a meeting of all of his staff officers in his office at the Kuwait City Airport. It was time to coordinate the attacks on some of the oil fields.

Buddy Raines, Major Jackson Bean, Jackie Malone, and the Englishman, Bartholomew Wiley-Smeyth, were all in attendance.

"Our Intel has detected radio traffic indicating several ships are on their way to the region carrying reinforcements for the relatively small forces that now occupy the oil fields," Ben said.

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"Is there an estimate of when they will arrive?" Bean asked.

"Sometime between forty-eight and seventy-two hours," Ben replied.

"That doesn't give us much time to plan and mount an a.s.sault," Buddy said.

"No, it doesn't," Ben replied, a small smile playing across his lips.

"That is why I'm only going to send in the very best troops in the world. There will be no plan, as such. You are going to have to take your troops in and proceed playing it by ear. We don't have any reliable intel on how many troops you'll be up against, where their positions are, or what kind of armament they have to use against you."

"Do we at least know where they are in a general sense?" Wiley-Smeyth asked.

Ben pointed to a map of the Middle East, with tiny oil derricks painted on it in various areas. "About all we know is where the major oil-rigconcentrations are in each of the countries that have been invaded. It stands to reason the invaders will be positioned in some manner nearby to protect the b.o.o.by traps they've planted."

"Do they have any idea we're coming?" Bean asked.

Ben shrugged. "That I don't know. It is my guess Jean-Francois Chapelle told El Farrar that I had not agreed to stand down, but whether he believes we will hit this soon is anyone's guess."

"How about transportation to the sites?" Wiley-Smeyth asked. "Since time is of the essence, I suppose we'll be going in by air transport."

"Yes. My Scouts and Buddy's team will all go in by HALO. That's High Alt.i.tude Low Opening parachute drops."

Wiley-Smeyth's eyes widened. "You're going to at- 120.

tempt HALO drops at night?" he asked as if he couldn't believe his ears.

Ben nodded. "Yes. Do you think your SAS men are up to that?"

Wiley-Smeyth shook his head doubtfully. "They would agree to it, of course, but they're certainly not trained for it. All of our parachute drops have been done in daylight or at the worst under a full moon in the past."

Ben frowned. "Then we probably shouldn't do it. You'd lose too many men in the drop and it would compromise your effectiveness. We'd better plan on inserting you via helicopters."

He hesitated. "The problem with that is it will be noisy, so we're gonna have to drop you a few miles away from the oil fields and your men will have to move across the desert a good ways."

Wiley-Smeyth smiled confidently. "That's no problem. My SAS chaps are in perfect physical condition. They're used to forced marches of up to twenty miles a day with full equipment packs on their backs."

"Good. Then here's the plan," Ben said, standing and walking to a large map of the entire region, which was on the wall. "The major oil fields in Saudi Arabia are in the southeast, near the city of Riyadh," he said, pointing to the city on the map. "My bet is that is where the enemy forces in Saudi are concentrated."

He moved his hand further north on the map. "Here in Iran, most of the fields are in the area surrounding the city of Tehran, so we'll concentrate our landing in that area."

"What about some of the smaller oil-producing states?" Bean asked.

"We don't have the forces to tackle all of them at this time," Ben answered, "so we'll just hit the two largest 121.

121and hope for the best. If we can protect Iran and Saudi Arabia, that will be over half the world's oil supply the terrorists won't be able to destroy."

"Which will considerably lessen their bargaining power with the U.N.,"

Buddy added.

"Correct," Ben said. "Now, since a range of mountains which are a bit high for helicopter overflights is between Kuwait and Tehran, I'll send my troops that way. The course to Riyadh in Saudi is flatter and the choppers won't have to go around any large cities, so it will be perfect for your SAS troops, Bart."

Wiley-Smeyth nodded.

Ben moved back to his desk and picked up a stack of maps. "Here are some detailed topographic maps of each of the regions. I'll let you study them while you get your troops ready for their incursion," Ben said.

"Ben," Jackie Malone said, "you haven't told me what my job is going to be."

"Your troops are to be on standby for immediate reinforcement of the Scouts and SAS troops once they've secured their targets. By day after tomorrow, there're gonna be thousands of terrorist troops swarming all over these areas, and it's gonna be your job to make sure they don't retake the oil fields."

Jackie nodded, but it was clear she regretted not being able to go in first. She was not the kind of person who liked to let someone else do the dirty work.

"Okay. Then I'll divide my battalion up into two parts and have each ready to go on a moment's notice," she said.

"Excellent," Ben answered. He glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Now, get to work, gentlemen and ladies. It's three hours to dusk and I want you on your way by then."

122.

Buddy Raines and his team, along with Major Jackson Bean and his contingent of Scouts, were loaded in a C-130 transport plane in readiness for their HALO drop in Tehran. Bartholomew Wiley-Smeyth and his SAS troops were loaded into a pair of Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters, each of which could carry forty-four men with their equipment at 138 knots.

As the sun set over Kuwait City, Ben shook hands with Wiley-Smeyth and wished him and his men good luck. After the Chinooks took off, their huge twin turbines whining with the effort, Ben walked over to the C-130, where Buddy and Major Jackson Bean were seeing to the loading of their troops.

Bean was talking with Willie Running Bear, Samuel Clements, and Sue Waters, his squad leaders, about the upcoming HALO drop when Ben arrived. Bean stopped and turned to Ben, holding out his hand. "Well, we're loaded and ready, General," he said.Ben took his hand. "Major, I know we're asking a lot of you, but the world is depending on you to kick some terrorist a.s.s."

Bean grinned. "That's what Scouts live for, General," he said.

"Since our Intel hasn't been able to find out the disposition of the enemy troops, I'm going to have your Scouts drop on the outskirts of the city of Tehran itself. Buddy and his team will be dropped a little to the north in the middle of the oil fields. You can keep in touch on the SOHFRAD, which I'll be monitoring from here at headquarters," Ben said.

Bean nodded.

"As soon as you've found the enemy base and se- 123.

123.

cured the city, give me a shout and I'll have Jackie Malone's troops airlifted in to help you maintain control," Ben said.

"Tell her to be ready by dawn," Bean said. "If we haven't done it by then, it will mean we're in big trouble."

"Roger," Ben said, and he moved over to speak to Buddy, who was just finishing getting his team situated in the rear of the C-130.

Jackie Malone was standing next to Buddy talking to Coop. As Ben approached, he saw Coop give a sheepish grin and nod his head before he stepped into the plane.

When she saw Ben, Jackie blushed and moved off away from the men. Ben smiled to himself. It was the first time he'd ever seen Jackie embarra.s.sed.

"Your team all ready to go?" he asked Buddy.

"Yes, sir," Buddy answered.

"Remember, keep in touch with the SOHFRAD, both with me and with Major Bean," Ben reminded him. "If you get in over your head, I can have some of Jackie's troops there within an hour or two."

Buddy gave a lopsided grin. "We'll be okay, mother hen," he said with a low laugh.

Ben returned the smile. "It's a lot harder than I thought it would be to send my old team off without me there to lead them."

Buddy put his hand on Ben's shoulder. "I know, Dad."

It was the first time he'd called Ben Dad in many months, and it touched Ben's heart.