The red light extinguished, and the green light popped on. The jumpmaster pointed at Nir, and he fell out of the aircraft, the noise of the plane evaporating quickly. Because the night was dark, the sensation of the fall was muted. His sense of hearing recognized the sound of air rushing past, and his sense of touch could feel the lightness in his body, but without the sense of sight, his brain had no reference point with which to process the information.

Nir watched the glowing timer on his wrist. When the number reached 45 seconds, he opened his chute and began his float. Four minutes later, he was on the ground. He collected his parachute, then waited for his team to gather.

“CARL, wahed. We alone?”

Nicole answered. “Wahed, no other heat signatures near. A vehicle is approaching from six kilometers west, but it’s pinging as our asset coming to get your chutes.”

“Copy.” Turning to the team now with him, he flipped down his night vision goggles and said, “Let’s move.”

They kept a brisk walking pace and covered the distance to the Liwa’ Al-Arin training base. Nir had hoped they would find the leader, Waseem al-Masalma, here. But this afternoon Dafna had spotted him on a bank surveillance camera in the city of Daraa.

Maybe next time, Waseem.

“Wahed, CARL. You’re 30 meters out.”

Nir held up his hand, and the team halted. He could just begin to make out the shapes of the buildings through his night vision. Tis-a and ashara, nine and ten, were his Sayeret snipers. He pointed to them, then indicated this was where they should set up. The rest of the team got low and followed him as he slowly moved forward.

When they reached 15 meters out, they went to ground. Nir clicked his com twice.

Nicole responded. “I have three signatures patrolling. Two in front of you on the east side and one to the south. All should be in targeting range.”

Nir knew the snipers would have already acquired their targets by now. He gave a single click, paused, then gave three more. Two muffled pops echoed, followed by a third.

“Targets down,” said Nicole.

The men remained in the dirt. Although the pops would have sounded like gunshots to a trained ear, they were still unexpected noises in the night. Nir waited to see if anyone came out to investigate.

“No movement,” Nicole said. “Still have three more guards patrolling the north and west sides.”

Nir had expected that based on previous surveillance. He tapped sitta—six—the leader of the Sayeret team, who was on the ground next to him. Immediately, the commando popped up and began circling the perimeter of the five-building complex. The remaining members of his team, sab-a and thamanya, followed him. They would use their knives to noiselessly remove the threat of the other terrorists.