The mood lightened, briefly. But soon a pall fell over the group again. For the next 50 minutes they drove west along the Hamedan Freeway in silence. After passing Gharqabad, they pulled off the pavement and drove into the hills. Ten minutes of bouncing over a barely cut road brought them to the box truck. The father and son were waiting for them.

Before leaving the van, Doron set a detonator for an explosive charge that would remove any evidence left in the vehicle. Nir resisted the urge to tell him not to screw this one up. That would do no one any good.

The men were exhausted, and they stretched themselves out the best they could in the old truck. It was five hours back to Sanandaj, where hopefully a helicopter would be ready to fly them back to safety. Nir laid down, put his head on his pack, and closed his eyes.

He woke to a hand shaking his shoulder. “Nir, wake up.” It was Doron.

“Ma nishma?” Nir asked, wondering what was up.

“We’ve got a problem.”

Instantly, he was fully awake. Jumping to his feet, in the light of a battery lantern he saw Imri and Yaron speaking quietly near the sliding door. That’s when Nir noticed they were no longer moving.

A quick glance at his watch told him only two and a half hours had passed. “How long have we been stopped?”

“About five minutes. We felt them take an exit off the freeway. Then we bounced on some rough road for a couple of minutes before stopping.”

Nir was a little embarrassed that he’d slept through all that. “Any word from the cab?”

“That’s the thing. They always signal us when they stop—two hits on the side of the truck. This time there was nothing.”

Lahav was awake by now. “Guys, are we trapped in here? I hope not, because I’m going to get really claustrophobic really fast.”

“He’s right, we need to get out of here,” Dima said.

“How?” asked Imri. “The door is latched from the outside, and I’m not seeing any way to open it from in here.”

Lahav’s breathing was speeding up. “Seriously, we’ve got to get that door open. Besides, I really have to pee. I mean, it’s serious!”

“Lahav, man up!” Nir shouted. “Figure out a solution rather than whining.” Then he saw it. “Okay, Lahav, you want to get out of here? There you go.” He pointed at the tiny plastic window in the ceiling of the truck.

“Achi, I don’t think even Liora could fit through that,” Lahav said, eyes wide.

“We don’t need Liora to fit through it. We need you.” Turning to Imri, he said, “Get up on Dima’s shoulders and get that plastic shell off there.”