Horgos, Serbian-Hungarian Border
Kane spotted the camera crew to the right as he stepped off the bus. He immediately raised his hand, blocking his face, then dropped it, glancing over at the reporters for just a split second before turning away.
“Cameras!” he hissed, Nazari immediately turning his head away, Kane successfully avoiding any suspicion since he had been the first to give the warning. He just hoped that his actions would appear suspicious enough to anyone back home reviewing the footage to flag him for special attention.
If someone there were to analyze his face, an alert would be triggered and Langley notified, they the only ones who would know his true identity. At least then they’d know he was alive and where he had been at a specific date and time.
And then knowing them, they’d try to intercept him, possibly with a brush pass where he could exchange some intel.
“Something’s going on!”
He turned toward where Nazari was pointing, the Hungarian border only a few hundred feet away, their bus already having left. Hundreds of riot police were rushing toward the border, creating a human barrier as several large trucks roared up.
Kane squinted as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
Shit!
It was a massive spool of chain link. He looked and could see posts extending as far as the eye could see to the left and right, the Hungarians obviously having been busy preparing to fence off their border. It wouldn’t stop the refugees, that was for certain, though it could definitely slow them down.
“If we’re going to cross, then we’ve got to do it now!” said Nazari to the others of their cell who had clustered together. He pushed himself up off the ground, using the shoulders of two of his men. “They’re trying to keep us out! We must run! Now, before it’s too late!”
He dropped down as the shouts were repeated, the message quickly spreading through the crowd, the panicked surge toward the border only taking seconds to begin. It was a true stampede in every sense of the word, a mass of flesh, chaotic, only concerned for itself.
And mostly young men.
Women and children cried out in terror but there was nothing he could do, he himself caught up in the surge, forced to move with it or face being trampled himself. He glanced to his left and spotted the woman from earlier, her anguished face as she tried to stumble along with her two children, heartbreaking.
Then one of them fell from her arms.
He shoved through the crowd, perpendicular to the flow, tossing a few elbows to get through, finally reaching the woman, now bent over, trying to pick up her youngest daughter. Kane yanked her to her feet then picked up the screaming child, tossing her over his shoulder. He took the woman by the hand and pushed forward, with the flow. His grip on the woman was like iron as those around them tried to break the link in their own desperate attempt to reach the border before it was too late.
He heard several distinctive pops and cursed.
Teargas!
He spotted Nazari just ahead, along with several of the others, the line of riot police still holding firm against the crowd now slamming against their shields. The teargas began to burn his eyes but there was nothing he could do about that now.
They cleared the unfinished fence.
He pointed to the left, down the fence line, away from the cordon of police officers and toward some thick woods on the Hungarian side.
“That way! Understand?”
She nodded as he handed her daughter back. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Kane smiled, the woman’s English near perfect. He pointed again. “Go, quickly, and don’t stop. Get into the woods then go farther inland.”
She nodded, her eyes wide but grateful, another family rushing up beside them, the man eyeing him with suspicion before they all headed for the trees.
Kane watched for a moment as they cleared the length of the police line, dozens of others figuring out the same weakness, the woods soon flooding with fleeing refugees. Kane continued forward, quickly spotting Nazari and the others as they broke through the line, realizing it was strong when you pushed on it, but rather weak when you pulled.
The line broke, the police falling back to regroup, yet it was too late. Kane raced forward, tossing an elbow at one officer who tried to stop him, then was through.
Still with no way to contact home.