03:40 / 3:40 A.M. EET
Our fuel loss is unusually high,” Dove 2’s pilot said. “When we took fire, our fuel tank must have been nicked. There’s no way this bird is making it back to the nest.”
Nir put his hand to the back of his neck and looked out the open door. Is it too late for me to jump after Noblesse? This mission is turning into a fiasco.
“How long do you have?” Nir asked the pilot.
“Consumption is steadily increasing. I’d estimate 45 minutes to an hour.”
“Okay, let’s just run it out, then we’ll ditch your bird and all pile into this one.”
“Negative, sir. That won’t work. First, between the two Owls we’ve got 15 souls on board.”
“Fourteen.”
“Excuse me, sir, but we’ve got seven on board with us and you have eight with—”
“We’ve only got seven. Don’t ask.”
The pilot paused. “Right. Okay, that still doesn’t change the numbers. Capacity on the UH-60 is 11. Even that is pushing it with the distance we’re flying and the extra fuel load. Dove 1, check my math on this, but if we fly 30 more minutes, we’ll have just enough fuel left in your bird to take the max passenger load of 11.”
“Affirmative. Three people aren’t making this trip.”
Nir slammed his fist into the bulkhead. He saw the print it left and realized he still had the dead man’s blood on his hand.
“Boss.” Avi tossed him a bottle.
Nir poured water into his hands and then scrubbed them with a rag. He cursed to himself. Not only am I going to lose a Yanshuf, but three men on my team will have to risk their lives in enemy territory for a full day until they can be retrieved after dark.
He turned to look at his men. They all had their eyes on him.
Nir started to speak, but Avi cut him off. “Listen, Nir, you need to get back to Tel Aviv. Dima, Doron, and I will stay behind until another bird comes to pick us up.”
“You’re not staying without me,” Yaron said, the redness of his face and mostly shaved head showing his anger at being left out. Avi reached over and slapped him on the chest, and Yaron doubled over in pain.
“Sorry, achi,” Avi said. “This isn’t your fight.”
Yaron turned his head to glare at his teammate.
Nir shook his head. “Nobody is staying behind without me. This is my operation. First man off, last man on—all that tough guy military leadership stuff.” When Avi and Dima started to protest, Nir held up his hand. “Listen, you guys can argue and give your reasons if it will make you feel better, but I’ve already decided. Avi, you take rib-man there and get him back to Tel Aviv to get looked at. Doron, you’re our coms guy. I want you with me.”
“Root.” Doron rose to start collecting the needed gear.
“Dima, I want you there in case anything needs to be broken.”
Dima smiled, then also stood to pack up.
“We all good?”
Everyone gave their affirmation, although Avi looked unhappy with the decision.
“Okay, everybody listening?”
“Dove 1.”
“Dove 2. By the way, you have five men here who are ready to stay behind with you.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything different from Sayeret. I’d take them up on it, except I want to minimize the number we’re putting at risk. Here’s the plan. Fifteen minutes before you have to ditch the bird, I want us down on the ground. Preferably not in some militia’s backyard. Then fly the bird west as far as you can and put it down. Before you load onto Dove 1, I want you to set it up to blow in spectacular fashion. See if you can get the attention of every angry Arab in the area. I want them going that way instead of our way. Oh, that reminds me…” Nir turned to the pilot. “Can you get our logistics team back on?”
“Root.”
A moment later, he heard Liora’s voice. “We’re back.”
Nir took a moment to lay out the situation. “We’re going to need landing zones. So, as soon as they drop us, I want you guys looking at the satellite footage for three alternative LZs. We’ll try to stay near where we’re dropped off, but I want options in case we get company.”
“Will do,” Liora said.
Nir looked at Avi. “I want you in charge of the ops side. It’s your job to get us back out. Base, I’m giving the goye command of logistics. We learned two things from Noblesse. First, he all but confirmed that Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada is running the operation. At least he didn’t deny knowledge of it, which for me is good enough. Second, we know the attack will be in Abu Dhabi. But that’s all we know. Noblesse won’t be giving us any more information. Run it up the chain immediately. We’re going to need some high-powered liaising to see if UAE will even let us help them with this. Our friendship with them is better, but this will ask more of the relationship than they’ve ever given. They may let us run with it, they may relegate us to an advisory position, or they may shut us out completely.”
“On it,” Nicole, the goye, said, then added, “Be careful.”
Nir smiled, but he wasn’t sure why. He’d just lost his prisoner out the door in a 100-foot swan dive. He was about to be left behind deep inside of Syria. Yet Nicole’s words of concern felt good. He looked at Dima, who was grinning at him with one eyebrow raised.
“Shut up,” Nir said.
Thirty minutes later, Dove 1 touched down in the Syrian wilderness. Nir, Dima, and Doron jumped out and ran free of the rotor’s wash. Immediately, the bird took off. Within 20 seconds it was out of both sight and sound.
The three men ran to a small cluster of boulders and knelt. The landscape was more wilderness than desert. White wormwood, saltbush, silver feather grass, and saltwort grew in clumps on the dirt and rock-covered ground. Here and there a tamarisk tree spread its sparsely covered branches.
At least it’s slightly better than the surface of the moon.
The three men waited silently, trying to discern any noises that might be man-made. They still wore their full gear, having topped off their magazines, and they’d each added two bladders of water and a handful of energy bars.
Doron tapped Nir and pointed west. About 40 meters away sat two large stones big enough to give both cover and shade during the day. Nir nodded, tapped Dima, and the three sprinted to the rocks. Once there, they hit the ground and listened. After a minute, they felt comfortable enough to relax just a bit.
They all sat up, and Nir opened a protein bar. He thought they’d found the best cover in the area, but if anyone happened to come around, it wouldn’t be too difficult to spot them. Thankfully, the blunt-nosed vipers northern Syria was famous for were one enemy they wouldn’t have to worry about. The January daytime temperature wouldn’t get high enough for them to come slithering out of their holes.
He finished his bar in three bites, then stuffed the wrapper back into his vest. “I’m going to go up on the rise and see if I can spot anything.”
Dima shifted. “I’ll come with you.”
The two men ran forward in a low crouch, then up on top of the small hill, they laid flat. Thankfully, they saw no signs of life. One site made Nir’s heart sink, though. A hundred yards ahead the light of the full moon revealed a road. It wasn’t paved. It wasn’t even fully cut. But like spotting a game trail when hunting, he saw evidence that clearly told him vehicles passed through this area—and on a regular basis.