Bart had opened his mouth to answer when Ben's secretary stuck her head in the door. "I don't mean to interrupt, General," she said, "but Mr.

Chapelle from the U.N. is on the phone."

Ben clapped his hands, laughing. "Speak of the devil," he said. "Put Monsieur Chapelle through, please."

When his phone buzzed a few seconds later, Ben picked it up. "h.e.l.lo, Jean-Francois. I'm in a meeting with 86.Mike Post and Bartholomew Wiley-Smeyth, so I'm going to put you on the speaker if that's all right."

After a moment, Ben pressed a b.u.t.ton on his phone and put it back on the hook.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," Chapelle's voice said over the speaker.

Once greetings were exchanged, Chapelle got down to business. "It is good that you are there, Bartholomew, because you are part of the reason I called."

"Yes, what is it, Jean?" Bart answered.

There was a pause, and finally Chapelle cleared his throat. "I am sorryI failed to heed your warning of a few days ago, Bartholomew."

"So, the terrorists have finally made a move?" Bart asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. By means of faking distress at sea, the terrorists managed to board and take control of several tankers headed back to countries in the Middle East."

"But Jean, those tankers would have been empty," Ben said. "What did they gain by that?"

"Entry into the ports of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and several other countries, Ben. In fact, Kuwait was only spared because one of the tanker captains was able to warn them and then blow his ship out of the water before they could get to the port."

"You mean they used the tankers as Trojan horses to get into the ports?"

"Exactly right. Once they'd overpowered or killed the U.N. troops stationed there as guards, they landed sizable forces and then headed for the major oil fields of each country."

"Can't you stop them?" Bart asked.

Another pause. "The U.N. is forbidden to send troops on a mission of war, at least not without a full vote of 87.87.the General a.s.sembly. I am working as hard as I can to do that even as we speak."

"And meanwhile, the troops you already have stationed guarding the oil fields are being slaughtered, right?" Ben asked, his voice dripping with scorn.

"I am well aware of your feelings about the rule of law that the UN. has to follow, General Raines . . ."

"If you think I believe your organization to be a total waste of time, then you are correct!" Ben almost shouted.

Chapelle's voice remained calm. "Be that as it may, we will act to rid the countries of these invaders, although perhaps not as fast as you would wish, Ben."

"And you will be too little, too late, as always, Jean," Ben replied.

"What harm is there in a few days delay?" Jean asked. "After all, with the small number of troops in each country, they can't hope to hold the oil fields for long."

Bart snapped his fingers, his face blanching. "d.a.m.n! Of course, that's it!"

"I'm sorry, Bart," Jean said. "I didn't get that."

"It's plutonium, Jean," Bart said. "We have reports the terrorists recently acquired a substantial amount of weapons-grade plutonium.""You can't seriously believe these men are capable of producing an atomic weapon?" Jean asked.

"They don't need to blow the plutonium up, Jean. Just use a conventional explosive to disburse the plutonium dust over the oil fields, and they will be radioactive for hundreds of years. They can make over half the world's oil supply unusable with what they have in their hands right now!"

"Oh . . . Jesus," Jean whispered.

Ben leaned forward on his desk. "Jean, I suggest you let me and Bart send in some troops posthaste. Do what- 88.ever you have to in order to get the countries involved to cooperate with us, or you're going to have a catastrophe on your hands."

"Yes-yes, I'll see what I can do," Chapelle said in a stricken voice.

"I'll get back to you shortly."

"Better not waste any time, Jean," Ben said grimly. "Just tell the heads of those countries that they'll be poor as church mice without their oil, and I'm sure they'll see the light."

"Good-bye, Ben, Bart," Chapelle said, and hung up the phone.

"I've got an idea, Ben," Buddy said after Chapelle was off the line.

"Go on, Buddy," Ben said.

"Chapelle said Kuwait was spared and is still in control of its oil fields, right?"

Ben nodded.

"Instead of waiting for the U.N. to get permission for us to mount a counterattack from the countries involved, why don't we see if Kuwait will allow us to use their airfields? That way, we could be in the area and ready to go by the time Chapelle gets all of his bureaucratic bulls.h.i.t out of the way."

Ben looked at Bart and smiled. "I think that's a great idea. What about you, Bart?"

"I agree," Bart said enthusiastically. "I'll get on the horn and have a squadron of my SAS chaps ready to go within six hours."

"Mike," Ben said, "get in touch with President Jeffreys and see if he can get permission from Kuwait for us to mount an operation out of their country."

"What if the Emir won't agree?" Mike asked.

Ben grinned. "Tell Cecil to remind the Emir that if the terrorists aren't stopped, his country will be next on the 8989.

list of those to be attacked, and if his oil fields are destroyed, the entire royal family will have to go to work to earn a living like the rest of us."

Mike laughed. "That ought to do the trick. I'll get right on it."

"And tell Cecil if he needs to talk to me, I'll be right here getting ready to go kick some terrorist a.s.s!"

"Correction, Ben," Buddy said. "You'll be here getting ready to send us to go kick some a.s.s."

Ben's face fell. "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot I gave you command."

Buddy grinned and spread his hands. "You can always change your mind."

"No, I meant what I said. It's time for you to take over." He pursed his lips, "But of course, I'll still be around to give you some advice if you need it."

90.Luckily for Al Hazmi, the heaviest concentration of oil wells was in Eastern Saudi Arabia, near the port of Dha-hran, so he and his men didn't have far to travel to reach their destination.

They arrived at the old Aramco offices, now redesig-nated Unoco, for U.N. Oil Company, well before dawn. As at the port, the U.N. soldiers guarding the facility were at minimum force at this time of the morning.

A small guard cubicle and a wooden board blocked the road into the office complex, which was on the eastern edge of a very large oil field.

The board across the road could be raised and lowered by the guard.

There were two guards in the cubicle: one standing drinking hot tea, and the other slumped in a chair against the far wall, sound asleep with his chin on his chest.

Al Hazmi got out of the pa.s.senger seat of the lead truck and, holding his silenced pistol down by his leg, approached the guardhouse.

The guard stepped out of the door and held up his hand. "Yes, can I help you?" he asked in Arabic.

Hazmi talked as he walked closer to the man. "Why, yes," he said. "I have a shipment of oil field machinery to be delivered here today."

91.91.The guard consulted a clipboard in his hand. "I see no indication a shipment is due," he said.

When he looked up from the clipboard, he found he was staring down the barrel of a 9mm pistol. "Of course you don't," Hazmi said. "I lied."

With that, he pulled the trigger and shot the guard in the forehead,snapping his head back and dropping him to the ground. Hazmi stepped over the still-twitching body and leaned in the door of the guardhouse.

The sleeping guard stirred and opened his eyes. "Good morning," Hazmi said as he pulled the trigger, killing the man instantly where he sat.

Hazmi stationed four men at the guardhouse, along with a couple of LAWS ant.i.tank missile launchers and a fifty-caliber machine gun on a tripod.

"Don't let anyone pa.s.s," he told them.

"Yes, sir," one of the men answered.

Hazmi then directed the other trucks toward a building off to the side of the Unoco offices. It had several jeeps with U.N. insignias on the fenders, and he figured it was the barracks for the rest of the U.N.

troops a.s.signed to guard the oil fields.

He signaled for two men to follow him, and he walked in the front door, which was unlocked. When he stepped inside, he saw thirty bunks in the room, fifteen on each side, with a small office at the far end of the room.

He waved his hand, and a man took up stance on either side of the room while Hazmi walked down the aisle toward the office. He opened the door and saw a man sleeping, with a uniform hanging on a hook with lieutenant bars on it. Stepping to the side of the bed, he put his pistol inches from the man's face, and then he reconsidered. He didn't want to be covered with the poor man's blood and brains, so he picked up a nearby pillow and 92.put it over the man's head. When he fired through the pillow, the man's legs jumped and bucked for a few seconds, and then he was still.

Hazmi holstered his pistol and walked back down the aisle. When he reached the end, he glanced over his shoulder and said, "Kill them all."

As he walked outside, he heard the chatter of the AK-47's his men were carrying as they a.s.sa.s.sinated all of the UN. troops in the building.

Other than a few scattered screams and moans, there was no sound other than the distinctive chatter of the Kalashnikovs.

Hazmi got in his truck and told the driver to drive toward the oil fields. "There is no need to check the offices," he said, "None of the workers will be here at this hour."

After setting up a defensive perimeter around the edge of the field, Hazmi instructed the explosives expert to set the plutonium bombs around the area, paying special attention to the huge storage tanks off to one side of the producing wells. The bombs, which had been prepared in advance, were camouflaged to look like ordinary pump motors, so they would be hard for a bomb squad to discover and disarm in the event it came to that.

By the time the sun was rising, Hazmi had everything prepared. He spread his men out and had them dig in around the perimeter of the oil field, preparing deep foxholes in case some foolhardy government tried to attack his forces. He carried a special radio-control device with him at all times. With it, he could detonate the plutonium bombs from anywherewithin five miles of the fields.

Finally, he retired to his command tent in the middle of the field, and told his men to wake him when the officers of Unoco arrived. He had no illusions that his small force could defend their position against invaders, but he was counting on the threat of the plutonium bombs to 93.93.keep them at bay until El Farrar's second phase of the plan could be initiated.

A similar attack was carried out by Abdul Muttmain on the plains of Iran, with the oil fields there also taken after all of the defending UN. troops were killed. Unfortunately, by the time Muttmain and his troops got to the main oil fields, the Unoco officials were in their offices, and they were also killed without mercy by the bloodthirsty troops under Muttmain's command.

By noon of that day, oil fields in all of the major oil-producing countries of the Middle East were under the control of El Farrar's troops-all except Kuwait, where the intrusion had been prevented by the selfless sacrifice of Captain Jason Briggs.

In Kandahar, El Farrar, along with his a.s.sociates Farid Zamet and Muhammad Atwa, was jubilant at the news of their almost total success.

"It is a shame that we weren't able to take control of the fields in Kuwait, but they make up only a small part of the total production under the control of Unoco," El Farrar said.

"However, after the second phase of your plan his been accomplished, we should be able to move on Kuwait without any sizable resistance," Atwa reminded him.

El Farrar nodded. "Yes, and it is now time to put the second phase into operation," he said. He picked up the phone on his desk and asked his radioman to get him in touch with Jean-Francois Chapelle as soon as possible.

94."Monsieur Chapelle," El Farrar said twenty minutes later when the Secretary General of the U.N. was on the line. "I am sure by now you have heard of the events which have transpired over the past twelve hours."

"Mr. El Farrar, would you tell me what you hope to gain by this unwarranted attack against your neighboring countries? Surely you know that the meager forces you have in place cannot be allowed to stand?"

Chapelle replied haughtily.

El Farrar permitted himself a small laugh. "Oh, but I think you will reconsider your att.i.tude, Monsieur Le Secretary General, when I tell what will happen should your U.N. be so rash as to try and take the oil fields back."

"What do you mean?""My men have in each of the locations dozens of small packages of plutonium attached to high-explosive charges. These bombs, which are arranged so as to do maximal damage to the oil fields, will be set off if anyone tries to attack or otherwise interfere with my men."

"But . . . but that is insane!" Chapelle argued. "That would ruin most of the world's oil supply for generations."

"I am glad you understand, Chapelle," El Farrar said, all hint of civility gone from his voice.

"All right, it seems we are at an impa.s.se. What are your demands?"

"Not now, Chapelle. First, I am going to airlift in some more troops to each location, just to be sure you don't try anything stupid. Would you be so kind as to instruct all of the nations involved not to attempt any interference with the planes delivering my troops?"

"You know I cannot tell sovereign nations what to do with their airs.p.a.ce," Chapelle reasoned.

"Then, just inform them that if they do interfere with 95.95.any of my transports, I will explode my bombs and render their oil fields useless to them."

"But that would mean killing your own men."

"My men are perfectly willing to martyr themselves in a good cause, Chapelle. But you'd better hope they don't have to, for it will mean everyone has lost in this game we are playing."

"All right, El Farrar. I will do what I can."

"I will contact you once again when my men are in place. And Chapelle . . ." "Yes?" "I would advise you to keep the general a.s.sembly in close attendance. You will soon have some momentous decisions to make."

96.As Buddy and his team, along with Major Bean and his Scouts, boarded two large transport planes for the trip to Kuwait, he was surprised to see Ben Raines and Bartholomew Wiley-Smeyth approaching.

"Something else, Ben?" Buddy asked when they arrived at the ramp leading up into the transport."Yeah, Bart and I are going to hitch a ride."

"Oh," Buddy said, trying to hide the disappointment he felt. "So you are planning to resume command of the team?"