They would need to drive across the porous border – hundreds of miles of featureless, arid landscape. They followed a broad highway, and in the hours of travel only passed a single truck loaded with wood. It was only when they came to the town of Serhetabat that they knew they were already in Turkmenistan.

Traffic increased, and so did the number of checkpoints, but flashing their identification, while wearing both the uniforms and a disinterested expression, usually resulted in a deferential or panicked look on the faces of the officials. It seemed the IRG was a big player up here, and potentially an impatient one.

More hours stretched as they sped up the broad empty highway. It was another three hundred miles to the ancient city of Mary, and then they were turning west toward the Iranian border. Outside of Tejen they left the highway, following Adira’s instructions, and took to small roads, and then dirt tracks that appeared on no map. The car bounced, lighter now that the fuel was near exhausted, and Alex ached to be able to stand and stretch.

They had lost the sunlight hours back, and when they passed the city of Khvosh Hava, they knew they had only ten more miles to go. Tous was a much smaller satellite town in the northern Mashhad District.

Though they were dressed as IRG with perfect cover stories, any newcomer would attract attention, so they had decided to stay outside of Tous, and instead continued on to Shahrak-e Gharb, where they had booked several rooms at the Abtin Apartments. It was full dark when they rolled in, and their identification was barely looked at, each member of the team was treated with deference.

In the elevator, Sam spoke softly. “It’s like the KGB in old Russia – no one wants you here, but once you are, you’re everyone’s best buddy.”

“Old Russia?” Casey raised a brow. “You must have missed the guy currently in charge? It’s the good old days are back in there now.”

Out of the elevator, they split in different directions. Casey’s face had dropped when she found out she would be sharing a room with Adira. The last Alex heard from Casey was her warning to Adira that she snored … and loudly.

In their rooms, they immediately felt the pull of fatigue settling over them, and after securing the door and doing a quick bug sweep, they fell like trees onto their beds.

The next morning, a knock on Alex’s door brought Casey into the room. “She snores worse than I do.” She cast Alex a look. “But I’m thinking you know that.”

Alex grunted, as a second knock brought in Adira. She grinned at Casey. “I needed that. A good night’s sleep; feeling good.”

Casey groaned, but then she grinned. “Yeah, and you talk in your sleep. You must have hot dreams, huh?” She winked at Alex.