March 31, 1998, 4:00 AM, Eastern Mediterranean coast.
Fifty-three missiles simultaneously launched.
They weren't coming from one direction.
They were coming from four directions.
The F-15I pulled up from deep within the Negev Desert, the AGM-142 "Have Nap" missile trailing a blazing white tail, tearing through the last darkness before dawn. The Dolphin-class submarine opened its launch tube forty meters below the Mediterranean's surface, the cruise missile flying five meters above the sea surface, having a radar cross-section smaller than a seagull's. The Jericho-2 ballistic missile vertically lifted off from a mountain base, climbed to the edge of the atmosphere, and then plunged down—the targets were Egypt's air defense radar stations, Syria's command centers, Lebanon's "Milk Tea Shop" outposts, and that damned row of newly built Mexican barracks deep in the Sinai Peninsula.
4:07 AM, Sinai Peninsula, Mexican Expeditionary Force 1st Armored Battalion base.
