Chapter Fifty
Al Kharkhir, Saudi Arabia
Ana should have listened. Tim had given her specific instructions to leave at sunrise, and she should have followed them.
Instead, she had waited. She couldn’t leave the boys behind.
And not just Nate, though she felt herself falling for him.
The others had become like brothers to her in such a short time, and she couldn’t fathom just running off to save herself. That was her first mistake.
The second was not shooting anyone who wasn’t them.
As the sun was rising, she had seen three figures heading her way, though she couldn’t make out who they were.
By the time she could it was too late, and men with rifles were shouting at her to drop her weapon and get on the ground.
Two simple rules, and she had broken them both.
Now, what she faced was far worse than if she had done literally anything else.
She almost wished that she didn’t speak Arabic; that way she wouldn’t have to hear all the things they were going to do to her.
These men were disgusting, and they had obviously been a long time without a woman.
That was all about to change at her expense.
She told herself that she would die fighting, but she knew they would simply knock her unconscious and have their way with her.
Even now, they argued what order they would go in and claimed different parts of her body as she cowered on the ground.
All she could do now was pray that the guys returned.
As if on cue, her prayers were answered.
Several gunshots rang out in the still morning air, and all three of her would-be attackers spun in violent motions, falling to the ground in a bloody heap, limbs oddly contorted.
She looked up to see four men walking toward her, two holding rifles in the air and one a pistol.
They moved closer, and she recognized Tim and Wally as they closed the gap and began checking the corpses for signs of life. Nate made a beeline straight for her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, kneeling and brushing the hair from her face.
“Me?” she asked incredulously as she looked at his beaten, bloodied, and altogether disheveled appearance.
“Yeah? Are you okay?” He didn’t see the irony, and she didn’t point it out.
“I am now.” She kissed him. “You know that’s twice now that you’ve saved me.”
“Yeah,” Tim interjected, “but I had to save him so he could save you. Where’s my kiss?”
Ana smiled, relief washing over her. “I do have a cousin,” she said with a laugh.
“Now you’re talking, sister,” Tim said, raising his eyebrows.
“I hate to interrupt the lovebirds,” Wally said. “But maybe we should make like a tree and get the fuck out of here.”
“Agreed,” Nate said, helping Ana to her feet.
“Wait a minute. Look at this,” Shane said. He had been searching the dead men. “A fellow sapper.”
Shane held up a suicide vest that one of the men had been wearing on his person.
It was a simple black vest with several blocks of what Ana assumed was some type of plastic explosive attached to it.
She couldn’t believe that one of the men had been wearing it.
Perhaps that was why he had wanted to go first, she thought absently.
It didn’t matter now, because Nate and the guys had stopped it.
The only danger now was from the explosives themselves.
“Is it safe?” Ana asked.
“Oh yeah. Pretty simple design,” Shane replied. “Explosives could come in handy, though.” He appeared to pull out a few wires, then slung the vest over his shoulder.
“Sooner than we think if we don’t get the hell out of here,” Tim added. “Someone will have heard those shots. We gotta move.”
They all hopped in the one working truck, cramming themselves into the extended cab.
Tim drove while Wally set about treating Nate and Shane for their injuries.
He addressed several cuts and bruises and checked for more serious injuries, fortunately not finding any.
Both men were severely dehydrated, and Ana marveled at Wally’s ability to start an IV drip on them as the truck jostled through the desert.
For her part, Tim had asked Ana to ride shotgun.
“Alright, sister, I need you to play spotter. Keep an eye out in front for any obstructions, and an eye out behind for anyone following us. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Maybe it was having a sense of purpose, or being able to actively help the team, but as the sun rose, so did her mood. They had escaped the clutches of the Al Qaeda camp and were back together, heading toward their final goal. For the first time, Ana felt like things might be going their way.
Novikov surveyed the area. Something was amiss.
To be more precise, something else was amiss.
The amateur-style ambush that had been laid in place for his team was not supposed to happen; however, it was not entirely unexpected.
His men had discovered it before they walked into the area through the use of night vision devices equipped with thermal imaging and had systematically gone about exterminating the terrorists’ exterior perimeter guard before converging on the camp itself.
It was a fairly simple matter. The Arabs were not well trained, and they all lacked discipline.
As a professional soldier it disgusted him to see such laziness, and it was only fair that it cost them their pathetic lives.
His men snuck up on each position and put a silenced round into each of the terrorists, one by one.
It was not surprising that Omar had sought to betray him.
Novikov would have done the same, were he in his shoes.
He could not hold a grudge against the man for that, nor did he.
It was simply business. However, he could not forgive the shoddy security situation of the camp or the lack of discipline in the troops Omar commanded.
But what they found in the camp was bizarre.
It was almost sunrise, and most of the terrorists were asleep.
There were a few men passed out around a smoldering fire, probably from the aftereffects of getting stoned off khat.
The same would be true of the men in the tents.
That was also normal and to be expected.
The strange part was the three bodies stacked in a ditch outside the camp, all killed by knife wounds.
In the center of the camp was a metal pole with restraints that had clearly been cut, and it was evident what had occurred.
Wilde’s friends had staged a rescue attempt, and a successful one at that.
While Novikov had sworn not to underestimate the man again, he had overestimated the terrorists.
He was correct in assuming they were incompetent, but the level of incompetency was astounding.
What he needed now was information, and he had his men round up the survivors for questioning.
He shot one man outright as a demonstration of his resolve before questioning the rest, and they were very forthcoming.
They had captured two men whom they were meant to hand over.
They were not planning to betray Novikov, but were prepared to do so if he had made the first move.
They had slept through the night and only now noticed that the captives were gone.
More importantly, they positively identified Omar as one of the men in the ditch.
The camp was a dead end, which suited him fine.
He would eliminate Wilde and his team himself, and do it right this time.
All he needed was a starting point. He knew the men had been here last night, so they couldn’t have traveled too far.
As if in response, rifle rounds cracked off in the distance, several miles to the north from the direction of the village of Al Kharkhir.
He couldn’t know for sure if it was his quarry, but it was a good bet.
He gave the word, and his men executed the remaining terrorists, gunning them down as they knelt in the center of the camp.
Novikov’s team was battle hardened, and this was hardly their first massacre.
When it was finished, they started the long walk back to their vehicles, which they had left several miles away.
Wilde and his friends were within his reach and would soon be dead.