“Let’s move.” Alex began to head toward the tiny town of Jurn with Sam and Casey at each shoulder.

*

Leyla had her hands clutched to her chest, and could feel her heart beating under her tiny fingers. She had seen the light in the sky and had at first thought it was a shooting star. But it had been much, much more. She barely believed her eyes.

She remembered what her father had told her before he was taken, before the fire. That when things were darkest, then the angels would come.

The dust cleared some more, and then there they were – the three huge angels with glowing wings on their backs. She swallowed down her fear. They were giants, and powerful, but not as she had pictured them – they were frightening to look at.

Good, she thought. Father also said that they would strike like the hammer of God.

She stepped back further into the shadows. She watched them head toward Jurn, and she crushed her eyes shut, and prayed that her father would be rescued.

And if he was dead, then she prayed for a bloody vengeance.

CHAPTER 5

The HAWCs followed the signal frequency given to them by the Israeli Metsada, and it led to a small building on the edge of town. It was still dark, but dawn was coming fast. The small flat-topped building had curtains drawn and was tomb silent, but Alex knew they were being watched from the moment they approached.

He turned to Casey Franks. “And you behave, or you can walk home.”

Franks nodded, her mouth never losing its scar-pulled sneer. “Always.”

Alex knocked on the door, standing slightly to the side of the frame. He looked to Sam. “Give me thirty seconds.”

The HAWCs spread each side of the door as it was pulled inwards a crack. Alex pushed on the door and stepped into the ink-black room and waited. He could sense the people, three of them, without seeing them. One to his left and another to the right, both watching him from their dark spaces; the third was seated directly in front of him.

An oil lamp was suddenly lit, but it was turned down so low it only cast a tiny yellow circle of light over the person beside it. Alex lifted an arm and pressed a small stud at his neck. The full face shielding telescoped back into the collar of his suit.

There came a soft laugh. “Of course it would be you.” The woman smiled, and in her eyes there was genuine interest, and perhaps even delight at seeing him.