“So where are we going?” Matt asked.

She turned. “We should be in Cyprus within two hours.”

“Cyprus?” Abrams recoiled. “What the hell are we going to Cyprus for…? And I thought we needed to pick up our documentation?”

“Exactly.” She stood with her hands on her hips. “We have an office in Cyprus. They will take care of us. It also means we can depart via normal airlines – just a few tourists on a Middle Eastern diving holiday, travelling from Cyprus to Alexandria – sound good?”

Matt snorted and nodded, but Abrams wasn’t mollified. “What do you mean, ‘we’? Who exactly is this ‘we’?”

She stepped in closer to Abrams. “Time for you to compromise, Major. You are not safe yet, you have not secured what you seek yet, and you are certainly not at home. You’ll need support and protection. Without me you’d be picked up in about fifteen minutes.”

“Goddamnit, Captain, why do I get the feeling I’m losing control of this situation?”

Adira’s smile never faltered. “You’re not. I’m making sure you remain in control, Major. Trust me.”

Abrams held her gaze, and then threw his hands up.

Tania Kovitz came back in from scouting the area. She glared at Adira, but then faced Abrams. “Clear, sir.”

Hartogg and Andy followed and nodded to Adira. Hartogg seemed to be enjoying the interchange between the two tough women. Abrams just sighed.

Adira nodded. “Good. Everyone bury everything we don’t need.”

Andy held up the few remaining items he had been carrying. “And what exactly will we need?”

“Truthfully, just yourself. Everything else twelve inches below ground…now,” Adira said as she checked a small box.

In another five minutes, she waved an arm. “Get down – clear a space. We need to get back about fifty feet from the pulser.” She walked away from the green-lit tube and crouched. The others did the same.

Matt waited; there was silence now, and the moon was sinking lower toward the water. He was conscious of the people close to him in the dark, but other than a fingernail-sized dot of green fifty feet away, there was just the hint of light from the low moon.

At first it sounded like a breeze was coming up from the sea, and then in another few seconds he heard Hartogg laugh softly.

“Nice,” the SEAL said.

An odd sharp-angled shape appeared; it was impossible to make out its exact form in the darkness, as it was black against a dark night. It came in near silently, and Matt marveled at how quiet the huge machine was. Turning side on, it looked to be about sixty-five feet long.

“So quiet,” Matt whispered.

Hartogg nodded. “You bet: it’s one of the best hunter-killers on the military market.” Matt could see his white teeth in the dark as he grinned. “You’re looking at a UH-60 Stealth – it was that baby that crept into Bin Laden’s backyard. The reason it’s so quiet is it’s got extra chopper blades, and a lower rotor speed. Added to that there’s no external rivets, and an infrared suppression finish in nano paint – this bad boy is invisible and silent as the devil.” He grinned again. “Like I said, it’s the best of the best…and that’s because it’s one of ours – we sold it to em.”