The Faithful, North African and Middle Eastern Islamic nations, are plotting to seize the oil resources of the Middle East. By controlling the earth's oil and its major trade routes, they plan to bring the world to its knees. Then, when the entire world is kneeling, the Faithful of Allah will read to them from the Koran, preaching the message of Islam, the True Faith. The Faithful will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. But how far will they go? And how many lives will it cost?

5. Straits of Sicily

5.6 Libya

5.6.1 Submarines

Three of the mightiest rivers in the world flow into the virtually land-locked, fresh-water lake called the Black Sea. Like a giant bathtub being filled by three enormous spigots, the sea fills and overflows through the narrowness of the Dardenelles and then into the Aegean Sea. There, at the "end of the world", the waters of Europe meet the waters of Africa's mighty Nile in a stirring, milling confluence.

As the waters from these mighty torrents meet and increase upon themselves, they pile upwards, threatening to engulf the lands around them. In their urgency, they attempt to escape, to flow downward as demanded by the laws of Nature. They would flow out through the Suez, but for one reason. After Man created this passage for his ships to ride the back of the great flood, he dammed it again with locks to slow the very flow he sought.

As the waters pile upon themselves, the pressure below increases to incredible proportions. In the end, the waters at the very greatest depths squirt out from beneath like toothpaste from a tube that has been trodden upon by an elephant. And so, in its depths, the Mediterranean Sea begins its long pilgrimage to the Pillars of Hercules.

Most of the waters flow along the coast of Africa, through a deep trench mirrored above by the parallel heights of the Atlas Mountains. Yet, there are other rivers which flow into the basin from the Aegean, the Adriatic and the Ionian Seas, and they, too, move westward.

Along the southern coast of Sicily, the sea-bottom moves upwards towards the surface, either as a long-forgotten piece of land which had sunk or presaging new lands still rising from the depths. Most of the waters move south along the arc formed by the headlands of Point Bon, but much of it moves steadily up the slopes between Pantelleria Island and Sicily. As it moves upwards, being compressed into a smaller space, its speed increases. And so, as it travels through these shallows, a steady current of about four knots passes by.

This current, with its swirls and eddies, had scoured the lands beneath the surface, just as the wind and rain had eroded the lands above. A tongue of deep water had been burrowed out of the Sicilian rise, affording a deep-water channel penetrating into the otherwise shallow places along the southern coast.

It was to this spot that the Libyan submarines had been dispatched to lie in wait for the American fleet. They were to lie there and listen, for the sea is a place of sound.

In the air above, sound travels slowly and dissipates its energies quickly. Above is the place of light and air and heat. Below, where light penetrates little and cold is normal, sound is king. All the sea is filled with the noise of its denizens. Shrimp and krill crack and crackle. Fish moan and scream. Porpoises shrill and click. The Leviathan sings a mournful song that can be heard half-way around the world.

The submarines were to emulate the creatures of the sea, at least in part. Unlike them, the subs were to make no sound, for sound was as much their enemy as their friend. Instead, they were to listen, for nothing passes in the sea which makes no sound.

The American warships floated on hulls of steel, which absorbed all of the noises generated within themselves, conducting those sounds through the barrier of the surface and into the depths. Once there, the reverberations of the ship's activities were transmitted through the waters, and the skilled listener could determine everything that was necessary to know about them. The mighty pulse of a steam catapult and the slam of the water dam could be heard for hundreds of miles. The crash of a plane landing upon a deck was as a bellow into the ear. The steady whine of turbines, the beat of screw propellers, even the wake of the bow made discernible noises which the knowledgeable could read like a book.

But, the Libyans were no longer a people of the sea. They had forgotten their heritage for it had been destroyed, first by Rome and then by other conquerors too innumerable to remember. The charts showed that, even at their shallowest, these waters were almost two hundred meters deep. At the place where they were instructed to lie on the bottom, the depth was almost five hundred meters.

Few vessels could achieve such depths. The Soviet Alfa, the only titanium submarine ever produced in quantity, could regularly travel at such depths. But, the Alfa was extinct. Even the great wealth of Libya could not furnish one.

Instead, they had purchased the ubiquitous diesel/electric submarine called Foxtrot by NATO. But, that ancient design had a crush depth of only two hundred meters. No captain in his right mind would test even a new boat to see if it would survive such pressures. These vessels, after thirty years of service and an unknown number of probably unreliable repairs, would surely implode like an egg-shell under the blow of a hammer at those depths.

So, they cruised at fifty meters below the surface, fighting the current, endeavoring to hear above the sound of their own passing. Using their quiet electric motors powered by huge banks of batteries, they cruised at an angle to the current, remaining motionless over the sea floor, while traveling at four knots against the current. Slowly, they zigged and zagged back and forth while listening to the beat of screws, the pounding of catapults and the launching of missiles.

Then, Allah provided. The solid, impenetrable screen of five escort vessels was broken. A huge fifteen-kilometer gap suddenly appeared in the solid wall of ships, helicopters and planes.

One captain ordered his boat to turn, increasing its speed to six knots. Combined with the current's speed, the sub would shoot through the gap before the Americans could seal it. Once beyond the anti-submarine wall, it would float in the current until it was near the American carrier. Then, the captain would fire all six of his torpedoes and escape downstream to Tunis.