“Don’t worry about that right now. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but it seems like these really might have been the kidnapper’s parents. If so, that’s a big break, buddy. And there’s a way we might confirm it. I have with me a satellite phone that I confiscated. Is there any way you can access it without my having to come all the way back to Baghdad? It has a number that it called repeatedly over several months in its log, and I need to know where that number was located, and where it is now.”

There was a pause over the line. Luke looked at Ed. Ed pulled the zipper, closing the black bag over Greg Welch’s head.

“Yeah. I can do that. No problem. I’ll need you to use the phone to call a number I give you. You’ll be calling my laptop. Once we’re connected, I can look at the call record and trace where those calls went. It shouldn’t take me very long.”

“Okay,” Luke said. “Give me the number.”

Luke punched the digits in as Swann read them off to him. The phone was quiet for a long moment, then made a buzzing, humming sound as it connected to the computer.

“Luke, I’m going to cut you off for a moment.”

“Don’t make me call you back,” Luke said.

“I won’t. Just be patient for five minutes, okay?”

Luke checked his watch. It was 5:35. Maybe two hours of daylight left. “Five minutes, man.”

Ed Newsam was at an open bay door, scanning the skies for enemy activity.

“Anything?” Luke said.

Ed nodded. “Yeah. Black spots on the horizon, coming low and hard. Three of them, by my count.”

“Gentlemen,” Rachel said over the intercom, as if to confirm their worst fears. “I suggest you strap yourselves in. Syrian fighter planes approaching from the west. They should overtake us in less than a minute.”

Luke poked his head into the cockpit.

“How soon until we cross the border into Iraq?”

“About the same,” Rachel said. “One minute or less.”

“If we make the border…”

Jacob shrugged. “Doesn’t guarantee a thing. We encroached on their airspace. And anyway, they have missiles that could take us out right now, if they want. They could fire on us and take us out when we’re twenty miles into Iraq. We’re moving like a bumblebee compared to them.”

“Dammit,” Luke said. He gazed through the cockpit windshield. It was wide open desert in front of them.

“I’d strap yourself in, Stone. This could get interesting.”

Luke went back, sat down next to Ed, and strapped in. Ed was craning his neck behind them, watching out the bay door.

“Anything?”

“I can see one. He has us right on his nose. Coming hard like a missile.”

Luke took a deep breath. This was going to happen faster than the speed of sound.