There was a moment's silence while Hafez waited for more. But there was no more. That was it: simple, direct, quick. Hafez looked at Sadiq. "What about the presidential security at the platform? They will cut your men down before they get out of their jeeps. Anyone not expected will be suspect and stopped."
Sadiq smiled. "But these men will be expected. Additional escort vehicles and personnel will be on hand in case the two presidents are unable to fly out from the observation site. The real military police will be diverted en route and our military police inserted. All you must do is keep your men from examining the jeeps closely, merely waving them on. The presidential security teams will see the military police jeeps approach, watch your men wave them through, and turn back to watch for other threats. Once my men get within fifty meters of the platform, nothing can stop them."
Again there was a moment of silence. Hafez's mind was racing a mile a minute in an effort to discover a flaw that he could use to dissuade Sadiq from carrying out his plan. Failing that, he found himself rationalizing, in reality he would have nothing to do with the actual assassination. Neither he nor his men had to pull a trigger. All they had to do was turn a blind eye to the two jeeps, both obviously belonging to the military police, and do nothing. To do so would be so natural, so innocent. Turning to Sadiq, Hafez continued to question him. "And what am I to do when the shooting starts? You cannot expect me to stand there like stone and do nothing."
Straightening up, Sadiq grasped Hafez by both shoulders. "The two presidents will fall with the first volley. When that happens, you will do your duty."
"You expect me to fire on your men? To strike them down?"
For the first time Sadiq's face went expressionless; his eyes narrowed. "Yes! I expect you to kill them, and they expect to die. They are ready to become martyrs in the struggle against the infidels and the nonbelievers. As we have learned many years ago, there is no greater privilege than to die for Allah."
Shaken, Hafez nevertheless managed to collect his thoughts. "Yes, yes, my friend. So true, so true. All is in the hands of God."
There is always the tendency for planners and leaders at every level to meddle with a plan right up to the last minute. This tendency is not all bad in that few plans take everything into account. Variables not considered during the initial stages of planning have the nasty habit of popping up at the most inconvenient times. These variables can unhinge the whole operation if the commander on the ground lacks the training, flexibility, and agility of mind to deal with them. There comes a point, however, when the planners and leaders removed from the scene must leave well enough alone and allow the commander on the ground to do his job. The most successful commanders learn this early, which is why they are successful. Colonel Nafissi would never be a successful commander.
Nafissi was not only a commander but a man concerned about power, always seeking to gain and control it. Such men are reluctant to relinquish or delegate that power. In a system where virtually all power rested in the hands of a select few, to do so would mean competition and, possibly, a threat. While Nafissi was confident in the plan, he was always mindful that the world of international politics was an ever-changing sea of sand. He was unwilling to trust or delegate his power to someone who was less attuned to the politics and strategy of the cause.
His desire to retain tight control of the operation was also based on a basic distrust of his Egyptian "brothers." Though the operation was supposed to be Egyptian, it was not. The Brotherhood, like most clandestine organizations in Egypt, was infested with Egyptian security agents, making security impossible. Nafissi's distrust of his Egyptian brothers was also based on a deep conviction that they were not as dedicated to the cause as they should be. Though they all professed to the same beliefs and goals, the Egyptians carried an air of superiority borne of a cultural heritage and centuries of identity as a nation. Libya could never match either. It bothered Nafissi that some of the Egyptians who claimed to be working for the establishment of fundamentalism often confused the goals of Islamic fundamentalism with those of Egyptian nationalism. They could not be fully trusted.
Hence the reliance on Libyan commandos. Because most of the commandos were Libyan, Nafissi insisted that the assault team maintain communications with Tripoli. Again, an inbred desire to retain tight control over everything overrode common sense. He understood that there existed the danger that an electronic signal could, and probably would, be intercepted. But he considered that risk to be negligible from his viewpoint, and therefore acceptable. Should the timing not be right, he wanted the ability to cancel the attack. The parameters or conditions that would cause him to do such a thing were not clear in Nafissi's own mind. Still, he felt much better that he had some control over the operation and could influence it. Periodic status reports from the commandos and final clearance to conduct the attack would be given by Nafissi alone. After all, what use is it to be a commander if one cannot command?
To date, all had gone well. The commandos had gathered at the designated rallying point. There the equipment and weapons were ready and waiting. They had conducted several rehearsals and even had driven most of the route twice in a civilian van. With nothing to do until the commandos made their final clearance check with him, Nafissi began to consider the possibilities of what would happen if the raid failed. One of the first considerations was retaliation by either Egypt or the U.S. — or both. The American raid of April 1986 was still a sore point, especially for air force personnel. That raid was far more damaging, in the eyes of world politics, than the Egyptian incursion of 1977. Though he counted on the presence of Soviet forces in Libya to act as a deterrent to retaliation by either Egypt or the United States, no one could be one hundred percent sure what would happen if the plot failed or was traced back to Libya.
Therefore, as a belated thought, Nafissi had the commander of Air Defense Command report to him on the current status of air defense. Not satisfied with his report, Nafissi ordered him to personally ensure that all was in order, in particular the systems covering the Cyrenaica, the eastern part of Libya. When asked the cause of his concern, Nafissi merely stated that he wanted to watch the maneuvers being conducted by the Americans and Egyptians closely, just in case they were using them as a cover for an attack on Libya. Though that story was nothing more than a means of keeping the commander of the air defense forces from becoming curious, Nafissi failed to appreciate the chain of events he set in motion.
Stretching, Dixon got up from his desk and walked over to the window. He was tired. The day had been a long one, one that didn't seem to have an end. For a moment he looked out the window. He was not ready to deal with the rush of events that was overwhelming him and his family. Little had gone right since he had been ripped from his nice, safe job in Washington and thrown into the middle of a tempest. Instead of preparing for retirement in Maryland, he found himself in the Middle East, preparing to face a potential international crisis. Instead of bringing his family back together and healing the wounds the war in Iran had opened between himself and Fay, he found the gulf between them widening daily as she struck out on her own, leaving him to muddle about on his own, dealing with his own problems as best he could.