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Caliphate. This time, they promise our leaders will be allowed to leave the Caliphate alive. If we agree, they will send a team to help us escape before the people rise up and kill us as they did in Saudi Arabia. If we refuse their offer, they say, they will invade from land, sea and air, they promise to totally crush us in a single day.”
     
    “It’s nice of them to offer us a way out. Of course, that’s if one trusts them to keep their word. I think once we agree to their terms they will send agents to kill us, they’ll hang our bodies over the Parliament’s front door. Their troops will flow in while our people are confused and leaderless, they will be able to conquer us in a single day. That’s if we’re foolish enough to believe them. I don’t do you?”
     
    “No, sir.”
     
    “We have photos of their forces lined up along our borders, they’ve broadcast their intentions. They can’t allow us to live because they know we’ll publicly speak against them. Did they send another messenger?”
     
    “Not this time, I guess they didn’t appreciate getting their previous messenger returned in two parts.”
     
    “Oh well, send back a message asking for another couple of days, tell them we’re negotiating with a few countries to see who will accept us. They’ll buy that answer; they’ll relax thinking we’re going to accept their offer. Their military will stand down thinking they’re just going to roll through to a hero’s welcome. We need time. Hopefully, this will buy us a couple of days.”
     
    “Yes, sir.”
     
    “Ask the Field Marshal to join us.”
     
    Fifteen minutes later the Field Marshall joins the President,
     
    “I see you’ve exchanged your dress uniform for your field uniform, expecting to sneak out and fight on the line for Egypt?”
     
    “Yes, sir. I am. Once the shooting begins, I’ll be more useful on the front line.”
     
    “No, you won’t. There will be many front lines, the country needs you in the bunker directing the war from a central location. Let me show you our latest message from the Caliphate.”
     
    “Interesting, I agree with your response, we know they plan to hit us in forty-eight hours, I’d like your permission to hit them in twenty-four, we’re ready to go within minutes of you signing the order.”
     
    “Field Marshal hit them tomorrow just before dawn. Use the new shells the Israelis gave us. They should come as a nasty surprise to their tank commanders.” Smiling like a shark smelling blood in the water, the Egyptian President looks at his Field Marshal.
     
    “Yes, sir! I think it will ruin their entire day, maybe their entire week.”
     
    “I hope so. If the shells work as advertised, we should be able to attrit their tank forces before they know what hit them. Field Marshal, send them to hell before breakfast.”
     
    “Yes, sir.”
     
    The next morning, the Caliphate thinks they’ve won the battle for Egypt without firing a shot. The troops are relaxed; the invasion is now being discussed as a freedom parade. The troops will wear their dress uniforms; they're shining their boots so they’re glossy black as they march through the country. Their tanks have been being quickly spray painted bright green and polished. The troops have been told they can sleep in until seven, the mood in Caliphate camps is at an all-time high, their fear of dying is gone, they’re looking forward to showing the Egyptian women how friendly they can be.
     
    As the dawn sun peeks above the horizon, thousands of missiles and artillery shells explode over the Caliphate’s forces lined up along the border. The soldiers are still sleeping when the missiles and shells begin exploding, catching the invaders completely by surprise. The shells are some of the newest in Israel’s inventory, each shell has a small sensor which guides them to the top of the tank’s turret where the armor is the thinnest. The shells have dual HEAT warheads, the first generates a thin