Nir jumped from the back of the truck, and the rest of the team followed.

“Make sure we have everything out of there, then lock it back down,” he said. “I’m going to raise headquarters. I want everyone geared up, locked and loaded, and connected to the coms.”

“Root,” sounded throughout the group.

“Imri, go see if they happened to leave us some keys,” he said, knowing the chances were slim.

“Root.”

Stepping away from the truck, he said, “Term base, you there? Term Lead to Term base.”

Yossi’s voice came on. “Term Lead, this is Term base. Go ahead.”

“We have a problem. Our chauffeurs have abandoned us.”

“They what? Hang on.”

As Nir waited, he heard Yossi say, “Dafna, you and Liora need to get back here now!”

Imri trotted up to his side. “Not only are there no keys, but they cut the gas line. This truck isn’t going anywhere.”

Nir was about to curse when Yossi said, “Give me your coordinates.”

After checking his GPS, Nir rattled off a latitude and a longitude. “We’ve got a clear sky and a half moon, so we’ve got some light. It’s rolling hills and open spaces. I can just make out a decline, which makes me think there may be a stream or a dried wadi to the north.”

Yossi was always very hard on his keyboards, and Nir could hear him pounding away. “Okay, I’ve got you three kilometers directly south of the village of Dash Bolagh, just southeast of the border to Kurdistan Province. Unfortunately, I don’t see any way to get live eyes on you. No satellites around or available.”

“Do you see anywhere we can get some cover?”

“I don’t. They did a great job dropping you in the middle of nowhere. You’ve got a road to the west and the freeway to the north.”

“Okay. Hang on, Term base.” Turning to his team, he said, “I’m thinking we go northwest. See if we can get some cover there. Once we get near a road, maybe we can find someone who can be persuaded to let us borrow their car.”

“Root,” they all replied—except for Lahav.

“Wait a second,” he said. He dug around in one of his cargo pants pockets and pulled out a small black disc, then ran to a boulder to which he attached the object. When he came back, he said, “Okay, now we have eyes on the truck. We’ll know if anyone shows up.”

“Achla,” Nir said.

Yaron clapped the analyst on the back, which made him beam with pride.

Nir started moving and said, “Okay, let’s go.”

As they jogged along, he asked, “Term base, can you get our ride to pick us up here?” He already knew the answer he’d likely get from Yossi.

“Our foreign friends have strict orders that it must be SKP or not at all.”