Sky Sentinels. Don Pendleton

President Gomez had promised to coordinate the timing with Iran’s own attack, equipping his own airplanes with the nukes and having them flown the much shorter distance from Venezuela to the United States. Of course the Venezuelans were not Muslim, and the pilots could not be induced to kill themselves with the ridiculous and childish visions of gardens and virgins. So Azria had sent his own suicide men along with the nukes.

      Javid Azria chuckled and his chest shook back and forth. At the same time, an Iranian aircraft carrier would fly the flag of some neutral nation, smuggling his newly restored F-14s within flying range of the U.S. Azria would send other nuclear-warhead-equipped F-14s directly into Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other Israeli cities. He would concentrate particularly on Christian and Jewish religious sites.

      It would be a three-pronged attack, Azria thought as he smiled and took another draw on the Koran-forbidden cigar. At almost the same exact second, the U.S. and Israel would find themselves the recipients of several dozen nuclear kamikaze strikes, and both nations would be crippled beyond comprehension.

      Azria’s grin slowly left his face and turned into a frown of determination. The timing was crucial. He had to make sure that the F-14s launched from the Iranian aircraft carrier coincided with those from Venezuela. And the F-14 strikes on Israel should come at almost the same instant, while both the Americans and Israelis were still in shock and their attention diverted.

      The Iranian president drew deeply on the cigar, remembering Fidel Castro’s words that the “second half of the cigar is always better.” The Cuban dictator had meant it as a metaphor, he knew. But it was true in a literal sense, as well.

      As he continued to smoke, Javid Azria’s eyes fell on the copy of the Koran on the corner of his desk. All in all, Islam was the perfect religion for a man like Javid Azria to use to control his people. He didn’t have to believe in it himself, and he didn’t. But it would keep the common Iranians in line during the inevitable retaliation the U.S. would heap upon his country, and keep public opinion on his side as thousands, or perhaps even millions, of his own people died.

      Azria made a mental note to remind the people of Iran that they would go straight to Paradise if killed by U.S. or Israeli bombs. He’d have it written into his next televised speech.

      Azria’s smile turned into outright laughter as he thought about it. The masses were so easy to control. Just include the word “Allah” in every other sentence and you had them bowing and scraping at your feet. Personally, he believed in a god about as much as he believed in the Western ideas of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

      There was no Allah. And Muhammad had been dead for hundreds of years.

      There was only Javid Azria.

      As he glanced again at the painting on the wall, he wondered if he might not change his title from President to Cyrus the Second when the smoke cleared and he returned Iran to the Persian Empire it had once been.

      He would have to ponder the idea.

      It had merit.

      S LOWLY, ALERTLY , the Kurds came down the mountain path toward the plateau. David McCarter and the other men of Phoenix Force had risen from behind the boulders. Still hesitant, a dark-skinned, broad-shouldered man of average height, wearing a soiled white turban and a much-patched-and-repaired robe, stepped forward. In a thick leather belt around his waist, McCarter saw what looked like a much-used Western bowie knife and an ancient ball-and-cap revolver.

      The rest of the Kurds were similarly armed with a mixture of old and newer weapons that could have filled a museum.

      “Name’s Abbas,” the Kurd leader finally said after carefully scrutinizing the men of Phoenix Force. His words were almost shocking, because instead of the Middle Eastern accent McCarter would have expected, they came out in a south-Texas drawl. But before the Phoenix Force leader could comment, the Kurdish leader transferred the battle-scarred bolt-action rifle he held to his left hand and extended his right. “I reckon this is the way you people in the West greet each other.”

      McCarter grasped the man’s hand in a firm grip. “It is,” he said. “And I’m McCarter. Your English is excellent, by the way. But curious. Where did you learn to speak the language?” Somehow he didn’t think this Kurd who had taken to the mountains to escape the Iranian government had grown up in the American South.

      Abbas shrugged his shoulders. “From an American I know,” he said simply.

      McCarter made a mental note to inquire about the man’s accent later, if they had time. But now, he quickly introduced the rest of Phoenix Force. Only then did he notice that Adel Spengha seemed to have disappeared. “Where’d the Rat go?” he asked no one in particular.

      “The Rat?” Abbas said. “You talking about Adel Spengha?”

      McCarter turned back to the Kurd. “I am. You know him?” In his peripheral vision, he saw Spengha rise from where he had remained hiding within the rocks and walk timidly forward. “Hello, Abbas,” he said uncertainly. “It is good to see you again.”

      The corners of Abbas’s lips turned downward in what could only be called a sneer of contempt. “Where are my camels?” the Kurd demanded.

      “I am sorry about that,” the Rat said, looking at the ground and wringing his hands. “I needed one to ride out of the desert. The other, I am afraid, I was forced to eat in order to survive.”