Yair nodded. “Good question, Lieutenant Reid. Answering that from a scientific perspective, I would say some sort of power source we still need to determine.” He rested his knuckles on the steel bench top. “But if I were to answer as a religious man, and totally off the record, I would say, the scarification on his face is that of mystical incantations, and they have somehow imbued him with life.” He shook his head. “No, no, let me correct that; animation, not life, more a sort of … living death.”

“Living death?” Sam growled. “Well, ain’t that great? So if you sewed this thing back together, it’d try and attack us all over again.” He placed huge hands on his hips. “This is why it couldn’t be brought down by being blasted with around a hundred high velocity rounds; because it’s already freakin dead.”

“Great infiltration capabilities,” Alex said quietly, using the probe to prod one of its fluttering eyelids. “Immense strength, unbending focus, immune to fear, immune to any of the mortal requirements of sleep, food, water, or shelter – the perfect damned delivery mechanism.”

“And someone is launching them … right at us,” Adira said.

“Not just someone,” Alex said. “Hezar-Jihadi and possibly Iran.”

“I don’t get it.” Sam shook his head. “These jihadis loathe Iran as much as we do, and vice versa. They’re already fighting border skirmishes with them now.”

“No, it makes sense when you look at their underlying philosophies.” Adira began to pace. “They both believe the end of the world will begin in the Middle East. In fact, their core beliefs are of a final decisive war, and that the new caliphate awaits the army of Rome, that’s the West, and whose defeat at Dabiq will start the countdown to the apocalypse – the end of the world. To them, death is the pathway to heaven.”

“Iran’s a theocracy, sure, but gambling with possible nuclear retaliation is suicide on a mass scale. Their people would revolt.” Sam shook his head. “Not sure I buy that.”

Alex exhaled. “Maybe not so far fetched. Hammerson told me that Iran has invited us to join them in a military coalition … in Dabiq.”

“Fuck it, they’re trying to sucker us in.” Sam rubbed big hands up through his hair.

“Doesn’t matter,” Alex said. “Whether or not Iran believes in any of this, or even cares about it, they know that dragging America into another war in the Middle East only helps them. They get to watch us waste blood and treasure. And imagine if they could arrange for another nuke to be walked into the center of our army.”

Sam groaned. “That’d hurt us bad.” He folded huge arms. “Still begs one huge question – how the hell are they sewing bodies together and reanimating them?”

“I doubt you and I could do it, but someone has found the right mix of chemistry, alchemy, or perhaps even magic,” Adira said.