by Niv Kaplan
“Yeah, but they wouldn't know of anyone who was sent and where he was sent to,” Collins remarked.
“I doubt it,” Kessler said, “but kids talk and there’s always a chance they might recall something.”
“You think Sam will let you do it? And the other families?” Collins questioned.
“Yes, I think they will. We did release their kids for them. Didn’t we?”
“So what do we do? Do we get them to Israel, or do it right here? We’ve got Sam and the three kids booked on a flight to New York tomorrow as soon as their travel papers get signed in the consulate.”
“Let me talk to Sam about it. You guys have plenty of bad news to dispense,” Kessler said, and moved towards where Sam was sitting.
Fleming went to gather the SAS operatives. They had three dead and two wounded. Among the dead were their commander Group Captain Ian Nesbitt, Lieutenant Murphy and Sergeant Crawford. They needed to make plans to ship the bodies and notify the families. Their success was tempered due to the regiment suffering one of its more disturbing blows.
Collins met with Lennon and Boone to make similar arrangements. It would be a black day for the Navy Seals as well.
CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR
The speedboat came in at eight thirty, its exhausted passengers stepping off carefully one by one into a waiting Jeep which raced to the airport, a kilometer away. Sam, Elena and Kessler greeted them outside the hangar. Lizzy had already reported the status en route. Devlin, Natasha and Aziz were still missing.
“We’ll go back there tonight,” Lizzy said once he ended his short description of the events.
Dori, the Israeli Special Forces commander joined in.
“We’ll come with you.”
“There’s only room for three of you, if we want to make it there and back,” Lizzy stated.
“Not a problem, Sergeant,” Dori agreed. “There may be more trouble there tonight than last night.”
“That’s for sure,” Rolston pitched in. “There was definitely increased activity on the coastal highway when we were there, waiting on the beach.”
“What if they don’t show up?” Kessler remarked.
Everyone looked at one another but no one knew what to say.
At six that the evening a black sedan with an American flag showed up and a thin, fragile looking man in a suit jumped out of the passenger seat. He hurried over to Collins and took him aside. Everyone stared as the two conversed in low voices, then the man disappeared back in the car which sped away.
Collins walked back to address the group.
“A phone call was received from a village in Lebanon claiming our three missing people are hiding near there.”
There was shocked surprise all around.
“What village?” someone asked.
“I believe it’s called Kfar Matta,” Collins said. “The call actually came from Beirut to our consulate here.”
“Who called from Beirut?” another asked.
“The caller was a woman who spoke good English, said she was a friend of Aziz and that he has called from this village asking to be extracted.”
All eyes turned to Kessler.
“You think it’s legit?” Sam asked.
“It could be one of several contacts he has there. Did she give a name?”
Collins shook his head.
Dori whipped out a map, spreading it out on the tarmac.
“Kfar Matta is here,” he said pointing to a spot on the map. “It’s almost a straight line east of Damour which is on the coast right here.”
Everyone was attentive.
“I’d estimate it to be roughly fifteen clicks from the coast,” Dori continued, “extremely rough terrain though. If it’s legit and they are really there, I’d say it’s got to be done with choppers!”
“We’ll need those Black Hawks again,” Rolston said, looking at Kessler.
“It’s not my call guys,” Kessler argued. “We’ll need authorization from the Air Force and general staff, if not the Minister of Defense or even the Prime Minister.”
“We can help with that,” Collins offered. Fleming was nodding his head in agreement.
David Kessler looked at the group of people who had gathered around him, all eager to complete the mission, all capable people who had just risked their lives and were willing to risk it again.
“How do we find them?” he finally asked. “We can’t just send choppers to search enemy territory…”
“Mike will find a way,” Lizzy pitched in eagerly.
“We can’t just leave them out there!” Mai-Li added.
“And we won’t,” Kessler reasoned. “I just need a good plan to take up with the top brass or they won’t approve it.”
“Time is of the essence,” Dori said. “Let’s get a Black Hawk up there with myself and my team and try to locate them. Worst case - we draw back. No one can plan for such situations. I can convince Gidron to approve it and recommend it to the Minister.”
“What about the Air Force?” Kessler questioned.
“Gidron will talk to Ishay. He’ll convince him.”
Ami Gidron was head of intelligence. Dori’s unit was under his direct command. Ishay Ziv was chief of the Air Force.
“Well, if we want to get this done, let’s get moving,” Kessler suggested, seemingly convinced. “Collins, can we scoot over to your consulate and work this from there? That way it will seem you are on board as well.”
“We are!” Collins said in exasperation, and signaled a jeep with UNIFIL marks to come over.
Kessler, Dori, and Fleming, joined Collins as the NATO jeep sped off toward the city.
*****
It was ten at night and Aziz was still not back.
Natasha moved closer to Devlin, seeking his body heat. She had been soaking wet when they reached the top of the ridge after seven hours of climbing through stubborn bushes and jagged boulders, the last section practically crawling her way up. The sweat from the excruciating day had already crusted but she was shivering in the cool night air.
They had found a spot overlooking the village, hidden between large boulders from three sides under thick bushes and branches of a cedar tree. It was the perfect spot with room to stretch out and even nap for a while but after five hours on the hard ground it was getting uncomfortable.
Devlin, lying on his stomach looking out into the darkness, his weapon next to him, felt her movement and put his arm around her. He felt her thin body tremble and looked at her. She looked worried, her perfectly symmetrical face inches from his. It was dusty and creased with mud but still stunning. He could feel her warm breath.
“You think he’s been caught?” she whispered.
“Damned if I know,” he answered, a little woozy from her closeness to him.
They could see the village lights shimmering below them but the trail to and fro was darkened by the night.
At midnight, Aziz appeared, causing Devlin to go for his gun as his dark figure suddenly came into his line of sight.
“I managed a call to Beirut and asked one of my contacts to call the US consulate in Cyprus where I believe everyone is gathered now,” Aziz explained, sitting himself on the ground crossing his legs, Arab style. He took a backpack off his shoulders took out a leather canteen and some pita bread with goat’s cheese and offered it to his companions who drank thirstily and devoured the food.
“I waited for two hours but my contact never called back. Well, you know, phone lines around here are quite unreliable,” he continued, taking a swig from the canteen.
“I was about to start back when some vehicles with armed men appeared. They camped out in the village square near the mosque until about an hour ago.”
“We didn’t see any activity from here,” Devlin remarked, his mouth half full.
“You couldn’t see it from here but my friend’s house is near there further down the ridge.”
“So we don’t know if the message went through,” Natasha surmised, wiping her lips wi
th the back of her hand.
“We need to assume they got it,” Devlin said, “and prepare to be pulled out. Question is: from where? This entire area is one big forest with nowhere for a chopper to land.”
“And assuming we find a place, how would we signal our position?” Aziz asked.
“I’ve got an emergency beacon Sergeant Boone gave me before they took off with the choppers.”
Both Aziz and Natasha looked at him in surprise.
“Why didn’t you say so?” Natasha asked.
“Well, we were kind of busy until now, weren’t we?” he said, smiling at her. “And it wasn’t quite relevant.”
“I could have asked my contact to inform them that we have a beacon,” Aziz said.
“True, but it wouldn’t have mattered much because I intend to use it regardless. Besides, Boone would know I have one. What we don’t quite know is when to turn it on because the enemy can locate us with this beacon as well. Now, what do we do about a landing zone?”
“The closest one would be the school playground in the village,” Aziz said. They have a miniature football field I believe the Black Hawk can land on.”
“A bit risky, isn’t it?” Natasha commented.
“I’d say very risky but the nearest place I can think of besides the school playground is by the coast or a day and a half’s hike from here eastward along this ridge.”
There was silence in their little cave as each considered the odds. The vehicles and armed personnel Aziz saw meant they were watching the village. The landing zone could become a trap if they were detected. On the other hand, a day and half hiking to anywhere in such conditions was something none of them could face.
“The biggest issue we have,” Devlin said suddenly, waking them out of their reverie, “is not knowing when to activate the beacon. It’s got a little radio transmitter but that can only reach a few kilometers.”
“So you have to be at the spot you want them to locate when you activate it?” Aziz asked.
“Precisely!” Devlin said. “If we choose the playground we’ll need to activate the beacon for as short time as possible so our pursuers will have little time to locate where we are.”
“Still, once the helicopter comes in, it’s bound to draw fire,” Natasha pitched in.
“Like I told you,” Aziz retorted. “Hezbollah does not frequent this village much. They have little support here. So they could be far enough away for the chopper to come in, pick us up, and take off without drawing any fire. On the other hand, if they detect us or are close enough to see the chopper, we could be in for a firefight.”
“I guess it’s our call,” Devlin said thoughtfully. “If they received your message, the choppers will come to wherever we’ll be.”
“I don’t think we have much choice,” Natasha surmised. “They’ll have to come here.”
*****
IAF Lieutenant Colonel Gershon Shemesh found himself for the second night in a row flying his Black Hawk into Southern Lebanon. With him was his copilot Captain Oren Gavish. Flight engineer Doobie Oz was in back with Colonel Dori, his select group of commandos, and two military doctors with their medical equipment.
The final go ahead from the Israeli Minister of Defense was received just minutes ago, when the chopper was already half the way to its destination, the village of Kfar Matta.
There was complete agreement that this village should be their target once the phone call from Beirut was construed to be legit. Looking at the map and aerial photographs of the area, no one thought their objects would attempt to go anywhere else.
Sergeant Boone recalled he gave Devlin a beacon, so LTC Shemesh felt confident he could find them. The Apaches remained several minutes behind him. They would cross the coastline only if he was in real trouble.
The coastline appeared in the morning mist a half hour later. Shemesh, who flew at 300 feet over the water now took the chopper to 3000 feet and crossed the shoreline above the sleeping city of Damour heading due east toward the Kfar Matta ridge.
While waiting for a beacon signal he kept looking for places he could land. The terrain below him looked rough and he kept wondering if his objects were still at large or Shiite prisoners by now setting a trap for them.
The village appeared below but no signal could be detected. Shemesh flew half a kilometer further east, then re-tracked and flew back toward the village again, east to west at 500 feet above ground.
The beacon signal appeared as soon as he made his turn and he heard a voice on the emergency radio bandwidth.
“We’re in the small football field a half click north of the mosque…” a voice was saying in English.
Shemesh looked instinctively for the mosque which would normally be found in the village center, found it, then looked to the right of it attempting to locate the football field.
“Over there…” Gavish called out, pointing to a small clearing and Shemesh banked his helicopter hard to the right, descending fast.
Dori’s people became alert, releasing their safety belts and holding their weapons at the ready.
As the Black Hawk swooped over the waking village a short burst of tracer bullets suddenly came at them from below and suddenly they were descending into a hot LZ.
Shemesh saw two vehicles in pursuit on a dirt road below them, firing up toward him. He called in the Apaches but kept descending. Doobie Oz, his flight engineer opened one of the side doors and now Dori’s troops were conducting a firefight with the vehicles below.
The football field was in sight. Shemesh had to decrease his speed considerably. Now Doobie Oz opened up the other door and more guns joined in the battle.
The Black Hawk was hovering over the field when three figures emerged from a side of a house and began running towards the descending helicopter, the figure in back kept turning and firing a weapon toward some unseen pursuers. The first figure, a blonde woman, ran without looking back. Suddenly she screamed a silent scream and tumbled to the ground.
Dori was out the door even before Shemesh could get the chopper on the ground, two of his men following him toward the fallen woman. The rest of his men, nine of them, jumped out and took positions around the helicopter firing at incoming sources.
Aziz reached Natasha first. He saw her back wound immediately. She lay flat on the ground, not moving. Dori and his two men arrived seconds later and without hesitation flung her over one of the trooper’s shoulders. The trooper took off with her toward the helicopter with Aziz and the second trooper covering their backs.
Dori remained crouched, aiming and firing his weapon at Devlin’s pursuers. He signaled to Devlin who came running to continue on toward the chopper while he provided covering fire. The trucks reached the edge of the playground and stopped dead, their passengers jumping off and taking cover.
Dori started running back to the chopper, shouting to his men to hop on board. A barrage of bullets hit the side of the Black Hawk but almost everyone was already on board. The last trooper was hit but his mates dragged him in as Shemesh disengaged from the ground. The side door was left open as the commandos returned fire. Shemesh cleared the trees and suddenly everything went quite.
As he ascended toward the west, he saw the two Apaches sending their missiles toward the football field then turn and follow his tail.
The two military doctors in the chopper were fighting to save Natasha’s life.
EPILOGUE
Winter came early to New York.
By the beginning of December, the quieter side streets of Lower-East-Side Manhattan were covered with a thin layer of snow. The larger avenues were already submerged in slush.
A sudden hush came over the crowd as the bride and groom came into the reception hall along with a young boy dressed in a black suit and tie. All eyes were on them as the three made their entrance then a loud cheer rose and they were surrounded by friends.
Elena looked stunning, her dark skin in stark contrast to the white marble dress that flowed from her bare shoulders.
Sam was smiling brightly in a tuxedo, shaking hands all around keeping his son, Sammy Jr., close to him.
The four maids of honor, stunning in their own right, surrounded the bride everywhere she moved.
Christine flew in from Paris a week before to participate in a two-day conference Black Jack had arranged with George Metzger, Annie Green and several other supporters of the Center.
Ali came in from Scotland. With her came Mike Devlin, Rolston, Lizzy, Jimmy, Copeland and Long-John.
Mai-Li had taken care of things at the office for the last two months, traveling twice to Scotland to see the gang and especially Malcolm Rolston who did not like letting her out of his sight for too long.
Natasha was there too, almost fully recovered.
She had opened her eyes almost forty-eight hours after being shot in the back. The military doctors on board the Black Hawk had saved her life. The bullet just missed her right lung but nestled dangerously close to her spinal-cord and was causing internal bleeding.
Both doctors estimated that she would not make it to Cyprus or Haifa if they did not stop the internal bleeding. So they had to remove the bullet from her body on board.
She was unconscious throughout and they went in through her wound at her back and managed to remove the bullet. The danger there was that they would cause nerve damage but that was secondary to keeping her alive.
Shemesh did not bother flying back to Cyprus. Instead he flew directly to Haifa where medical personnel were waiting for them at Rambam Hospital, near the Haifa port.
Natasha and the wounded commando, Ziv Barkan, were whisked away to the operating rooms. Devlin remained with Natasha. Aziz had to be taken into custody by the military police until his status was determined.
At Rambam they gave her a CT and an MRI and concluded she did not need further medical procedures except for some cleaning up and sterilizing the wound. The military doctors were commended for performing a clean job in the field, not damaging any nerves.