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AT PRECISELY THE SAME time, at a Syrian Air Force base so secret even the intelligence arms of the various rebel groups fighting at the country’s borders have not so much as a clue it exists, ground crews begin fixing air-to-ground missiles to the undercarriage of sixty-two SU-24 Sukhoi jet fighter-bombers diagonally lined up on the runway like dancers in some lethal corps de ballet.

Because the Sukhoi normally carries fuel for a range of 1700 miles and only some 120 miles round trip will be required for this mission, the Russian-made jets are modified to carry four extra missiles instead.

As the mechanics work, a general in a jeep passes down the line. He is nothing less than the Syrian Air Force chief of staff, thought to have been killed in a rebel suicide raid months earlier. Instead he has been working steadily in secret, totally focused on what he expects will be the capstone of his career. Compared to sending jets to strafe and bomb primitive rebel positions in the eastern hills, this will open for him the doors of paradise, where he will reside in eternal pleasure, to say nothing of assuring his place in the history of military aviation. Not bad for the third son of a grocer in Aleppo.