Adira looked at the bottle hanging just two feet from her face. A Spec Ops soldier would not have even engaged with her. An experienced soldier would have put the bottle down and just kicked it over. Her eyes flicked from the bottle to the hand – only an inexperienced soldier would allow any part of his body to come within reach of an enemy opponent – especially one who was extremely well trained.

Adira exploded forward, dragging the chair with her. She grabbed Deck’s wrist with her unchained hand, and forced it back. The big man bent backward, and she shoved him hard into his more alert companion. Both collided with the wall, and by the time they had regained their feet, she was ready.

She swung the chair into Bill, and rounded on Deck, punching him twice rapidly in a two-knuckle blow to his temple. Bill went for his gun, but by then she was close enough to launch a vicious kick up under his chin, which caused him to bounce into the wall, and then pinball back toward her. She hit him again – a flat strike to the bridge of his nose. She could have killed them both, but it was enough that they would be unconscious for hours.

Adira stood silently, not even breathing hard, just listening – no sounds from outside the room. She kneeled quickly, finding the handcuff keys and freeing herself. She then stripped the men of their guns, money, both their two-way radios, heavy torches, concealed weapons and anything else she could fit in her pockets. She then tied their hands and legs behind their backs.

She picked up Deck’s water and sipped as she got to her feet, cracking the door a fraction and looking out and down the empty corridor. She eased out and moved quickly to an exit – escape from airport security would be simple. She was already on the inside of the secured area. US security provisions were extremely tough and effective against people trying to get into airports, not break out.

In another ten minutes she found the carpark, and jacked a small sedan. The parking card was in the glovebox.

“I love this country.” She shot out into the street, and turned hard onto the main boulevard. In a few minutes she was moving toward the city center. She knew the town, and knew there was a Mossad safe house nearby.

She needed to find Drummond, and for that she needed a connection to him – she needed Matt Kearns.

*

General Decker called for a break in the meeting so the group could grab coffee or food, or just generally stretch their legs.

Matt and Andy decided to walk for a bit in the huge grounds of Fort Benning. The secure grounds they were in was part of a massive complex the size of Rhode Island – offices, accommodation, restaurants, training fields, firing ranges, with huge tracts of land for field exercises and jogging tracks. In some areas, you felt you could have been in a secluded forest, and it would have been too easy to get lost.