Nir reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of rial notes worth just under two thousand dollars—the entire stash headquarters had given him in case they were somehow stranded in Iran. “Take this and get out of here.”

The man with the rifle nodded to one of the other men, who raced up and grabbed the cash. All three then ran off, leaving their sheep behind.

“Everybody’s got their price,” Nir said.

“Shouldn’t have let them go.” Yaron was kneeling behind a low stone wall, checking his Galil machine gun. “Now they’ll let everyone know we’re here.”

“Who are they going to call? The IRGC?” Nir moved to a spot ten meters away.

“Good point.”

“Term base, this is Term Lead. Be advised that we’ve taken shelter at a sheep pen at…” Nir reached in his pocket for his GPS but couldn’t find it. “Doron, give her our coordinates.”

Doron did so, then Nir continued. “We expect company very soon. At least 50. Any sign of our helo friends?”

“Negative,” said Liora. “We can’t even raise them on the phone anymore. I think they’ve stopped taking our calls.”

Nir couldn’t help feeling betrayed. The two marines had seemed like they understood the wider brotherhood of ops. Granted, they could only do what their superiors allowed them to do, but still…

“Keep trying. Term Lead out.”

Headlights crested a hill 80 meters away. A jeep took the rise, followed by a truck. They paused as if they were planning their approach.

Nir looked to his left. He could just make out Lahav behind a windowless wall that made up one of the three sides of the open shepherds’ hut. He was sitting with his legs tucked up and his head on his knees.

To his right he locked eyes with Yaron, who raised his eyebrows and gave a small smile. They both knew none of them would likely survive this. And for any who did, their fate might even be worse—captured, interrogated, tortured, executed.

Looking forward, Nir saw that both vehicles had begun to approach their location.

“Don’t waste rounds, guys. Take only good shots. Wait for my order.”

As he lined up his rifle, Nir’s mind drifted to Nicole. He wondered if she was praying for him right now. While he didn’t buy into all that Jesus stuff, she certainly did. Right now, he’d take all the help he could get. The two of them once had a conversation about dying, when she’d said she wasn’t afraid to die because she knew where she would go. He wished he had that same kind of confidence. If this was his last night on earth, he had no idea what would happen to him after.