Chapter Seventy-Two End of July

Ahmed Rassi, chief engineer at the missile manufacturing facility, receives a call from his president.

“Ahmed, what’s the delay? We were expecting twelve cruise missiles to be completed in three months. It is now three-and-a-half months and you have only supplied eight.”

“President Mahmoud,” says a decidedly nervous Ahmed, “you ordered us to have twelve Shahab missiles ready for you by the end of this month. And then you ordered twelve new cruise missiles with the modifications the navy requests and you want them two weeks ago. I’m not playing with a product that you just throw together. Not only are the components sometimes difficult to obtain, the manufacturing process of the units themselves takes time, even without all the necessary changes the navy ordered. We have tried our best to meet your orders. You now have ten of the Shahab missiles ready, plus eight of the cruise missiles. We have done our very best to satisfy you, but we cannot pull missiles out of thin air.”

“When will you have the six remaining missiles ready?”

“I can promise you that they will be ready in four weeks, sir.”

“How long will it take your technicians to install the nuclear materials in each warhead after you have all the missiles I require?”

“Sir, we are currently installing the nuclear materials in each warhead of the missiles we’ve already built, and will continue to do so as each of the remainder is finished. All twenty-four will be ready at the end of four weeks.”

“Ahmed, let me be clear,” says Mahmoud quietly. “You have no longer than four weeks. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir, I understand,” Ahmed replies mournfully. I am a dead man if my people cannot pull off the impossible. The ignorance of these people! What do they know about manufacturing times and material deliveries? They seem to think that just because they say it is so, then things will appear as if by magic.