Ed turned around and faced front. “Here he comes.”

Luke looked to his right. Through the bay door, behind him, he saw the Syrian plane. It was a dark shadow, a blur, coming almost too fast to see. An image of a pterodactyl appeared in his mind.

His heart skipped in his chest.

“Oh man.”

The fighter zipped past, just over their heads, way too close. The shriek of its jet engines was LOUD. For a moment, they were everything. Both Luke and Ed plugged their ears with their fingers.

An instant later, the turbulence hit them and the tiny chopper shuddered. The Little Bird rode the unsettled air, then simmered down. A second passed, then another jet went screaming by. Another second, another jet.

“Ahhhnnnnh!” Luke shouted. He hated those fighter pilots.

The chopper bounced across the turbulent airfield. It was like being caught in the churn after a monster ocean wave breaks.

Out the bay door, Luke saw all three of the planes banking hard in single file, heading back the way they had come.

Luke let out a long breath. He felt his heart now, thumping steadily, thumping hard, but already almost like normal. His ears were ringing.

“Congratulations, gentlemen,” Jacob said. “We just crossed the border into the loving arms of Iraq.”

A long moment passed. Ed and Luke sat still, straps still holding them.

“This has been a day,” Ed said. He stared down at the body bag holding the former CIA translator.

“Amen,” Luke said. “Yesterday was bad, but this…”

“Brutal,” Ed said.

A burst of static came from Luke’s radio. He picked it up. Swann was back.

“Luke?”

“Yeah, Swann. What’s up?”

Swann’s voice was shaking. Just a guy doing some data mining, and yet he was nervous. He was lucky he wasn’t out there. Syrian fighter jets hadn’t just buzzed over his head.

“I ran the locations of that phone number. It’s also a satellite phone, and for most of the past year it barely moved, stationed in Geneva, Switzerland, the entire time. It seems that the parents were probably calling their son. This could be the real thing.”

Luke realized what was making Swann’s voice shake. He looked at Ed.

Ed’s eyes lit up. “Pay dirt,” he said.

“Where is the phone now?” Luke said into the radio.

“For the past twelve hours, it’s been located in the Sinjar Mountains, on the Iraq side of the border. The phone you took from the parents called that location twice.”

A feeling began to swell in Luke’s chest. Suddenly there was a chance. That was all he ever wanted, was a fighting chance.

“Sinjar Mountains?” Luke said. “Can you be a little more specific? The Sinjar Mountains doesn’t tell me a whole—”

“About a hundred and twenty miles due north of your current position,” Swann said. “Give or take a few miles.”