Ransom

by Belle Ami

  He yelled above the deafening din of assault rifle fire, “We’ve got to get inside and stop the missile.” And then he heard his worst nightmare, the sound of rocket boosters.

  Aryeh shouted, “Stand back. I’ve got this.” Aryeh removed his backpack and pulled out a yellow-orange brick of Semtex and deftly molded two pieces to each of the door hinges and inserted the fuses. “Stand back.” He lit the fuses, and both men flattened themselves against the building on either side of the steel doors, covering their ears. The boom blew the doors off their hinges, and both men ran in through the smoke and froze. The missile was launched and rose up through the opening in the roof. Cyrus and Aryeh stood helpless. Elon’s shouts in their earpieces snapped them out of their dazes. “What the hell is going on? A missile is rising out of the building.”

  “Mustafa locked himself inside the greenhouse. He only had a few minutes, but it was enough,” Cyrus fired back.

  “Headquarters saw everything. Tel Aviv is mobilizing a response. We’re ordered to proceed as planned to the extraction rendezvous. You need to clean up the mess. Our orders have not changed. I repeat our orders have not changed. No survivors. Over.”

  Cyrus’s voice filled with frustration and fear. “How the hell are they going to stop that rocket?” All he could think about was Layla and Cerise. He fought back the guilt that threatened to eviscerate his ability to perform his duty. He wasn’t there for his family again, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

  “They have a plan B. Over.”

  “What did you say?” His worry was already beginning to alter his effectiveness. He needed to pull himself together.

  “I said they’ve switched to Plan B. Over.”

  “What’s Plan B?”

  “I have no idea.”

  »»•««

  Ash ran with his Colt M4 assault carbine raised and aimed. Bouncing on his back was his Barak, HTR sniper rifle. He glanced at his watch following the GPS to where Nira and Daniel were bogged down fighting and ran in that direction. He needed to find some high ground where he could take out enemy combatants and even the score so Nira and Daniel would have a fighting chance. They were heavily outnumbered and were under immense fire from Hezbollah opposition. Ash figured the enemy consisted of about thirty to fifty armed men. He needed to pare the number down and stop an all-out assault on the two trapped Mossad agents.

  When Ash halted, Yitzak and Ben stopped behind him. “Why are you slowing down? Didn’t you hear Elon, Daniel’s wounded and Nira’s holding off the barrage by herself? I don’t think she can hold out much longer.”

  Ash had been so focused on figuring out a plan of action he’d missed Nira’s SOS. He scanned the area and hissed. “Damn-it, I need to find some high ground.”

  The deafening sound of machine gun fire hitting metal assaulted them. “Over there,” Ben yelled, “behind the tractor. That’s where they are.”

  Ash adjusted his night goggles. The tractor where Nira and Daniel had taken cover was inadequate. Their precarious position could be easily overrun. He took a few seconds to scan the area surrounding the tractor. He pinpointed where the bulk of the assault against them was coming from and made up his mind. It was a metal storage shed of some sort. He could see the muzzle flash of rounds fired coming from inside and around it.

  Running in the opposite direction he gave a wide berth to the enemy. He’d spotted a tower. It would have to do.

  Ash calculated the tower was about a thousand meters from where Nira and Daniel were holed up. The Barak rifle was accurate at eight hundred meters. Ash knew he was the best sniper the IDF had produced, but he also knew to be accurate at a thousand or more meters was going to be a challenge. The biggest problem was he’d be out in the open, an easy target for the enemy. The tower offered no cover, what it did offer was a birds-eye view.

  Yitzak gave him a leg up, and he hoisted himself up to the lower level of the tower. He jumped and grabbed the metal bar above him and did a pullup lifting his weight up. He was loaded down with arms and ammo, and he could feel his muscles straining as he climbed higher.

  “Mazel tov,” Yitzak called up to him, before taking a position of safety in a drainage ditch. Ben took cover behind a cypress tree. Between their two machine guns, they’d keep the Hezbollah combatants busy.

  Ash would need the traditional Hebrew wish of good luck, Mazel Tov. He climbed the tower hoping the moon would remain behind the cloud cover. Even in his black ninja suit, he’d be a sitting duck if the night sky filled with light. He was on the third rung when his fingers on his left hand slipped. Barely able to hold on, dangling precariously thirty feet above the ground he was holding on by his fingernails. Grunting, he swung his legs and managed to grab onto the bar with his free hand. He hung for a moment catching his breath and then with an adrenaline fueled determination he resumed his upward climb. He refused to dwell on his close call.

  And it sure wasn’t a time to dwell on his personal feelings, but he couldn’t help but acknowledge them. Everyone knew how he felt about Nira, except for Nira, of course. All of their back and forth bickering was his only outlet when it came to his feelings for her. She considered him a womanizer and a pest and had made it clear she had no interest in him. Ash had long ago accepted her rejection, but it didn’t stop him from incessantly teasing her. He was like the teenager who picks on the girl he likes because it’s the only way of getting her attention. Nira could hurl all of the insults she could muster at him, but when it came to making the ultimate sacrifice, nothing would stop Ash from giving his life to save her. Thinking of her made him fight harder.

  He reached the midway platform. Below with his night vision goggles, he could see the lay of the land. He knew if he went higher he’d lose accuracy. He brushed aside the thought that at this distance he was completely vulnerable. Keeping Nira in mind kept him focused.

  He laid along a narrow slat of metal and removed his goggles. The sighting-scope attached to the Picatinny rail would give him perfect night vision. He lowered the bipod that hinged under the forend and balanced the rifle on the rail. It was precarious, but when Ash focused his powers of concentration, he would be steady as a rock. He quickly attached a sound suppressor to the muzzle. From firing thousands of rounds, he knew suppressors didn’t affect accuracy or velocity but on the contrary increased both. He’d trained to compensate for any deviations affecting point of impact.

  Pressing his eye to the scope, he scanned the open ground between the storage building and the tractor. A group of four men crept from the building. They inched toward the tractor where Nira and Daniel were pinned down by enemy fire. Ash aimed. Holding his breath his finger curled around the trigger he slowly squeezed. In his head, he knew the expansion of propellant gasses drove the bullet through the muzzle at fifty-thousand pounds per square inch. The bullet exploded from the rifle, and he saw his first mark hit the ground. He took a breath and the world fell away from him. Training, practice, and talent had transformed Ash into a killing machine. Barely conscious of his surroundings the killing machine was unleashed. He fired round after round, seamlessly reloading a new Magnum cartridge as he emptied them. One after another he took out each combatant who made the mistake of trying to get to Nira and Daniel.

  Bullets cracked by him, and the enemy made a concerted effort to bring him down, but Yitzak and Ben kept up a steady stream of machine gun fire which disrupted their attempts to get to him.

  He had no idea how much time had passed, but he kept a count of his kill. By the time he’d reached thirty-two, the gunfire had all but ceased. He looked down and could see Yitzak waving an all clear. Climbing down from the tower, he reached the lower platform and froze. The sound of rocket boosters firing, and then the sight of the missile lifting out of the greenhouse made him freeze. It seemed impossible. The team, his team, had never failed before. What the hell’s gone wrong? He jumped down, and Yitzak and Ben joined him. The three men stared with disbelief as the rocket ascended into the night sky.
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  »»•««

  Zara stood outside the van with her assault rifle held limply in her hand its muzzle to the ground. Elon climbed out of the van and stood beside her. Both of their gazes were fixed on the rocket climbing into the skies over Lebanon. The look on their faces mirrored their fear. The missiles launch was perfect thanks to the know-how of the North Koreans. Because of Lebanon’s proximity to Israel, the trajectory of the missile had been straight up. She wondered if the EMP would affect Lebanon or Syria. Her neck craned backward as she watched the missile ascend through the cloud cover disappearing from view. “What have they unleashed, mon ami?

  Elon clenched his fists. “My mother and sister are at home alone. I should be…” His words lay unfinished. They hung in the air between them with no good answer. The truth was too painful to voice.

  Tears crept down her face as she imagined the outcome of a nuclear explosion in the upper atmosphere. Worthless tears, she scolded herself. She’d cried enough tears over the years, mourning every attack where innocent lives were lost or ruined. Angrily, she wiped away her emotional reaction with her sleeve. The resulting chaos that would follow an EMP strike filled her with anger.

  “Who did this? How did they get past Aryeh, Cyrus, and the team?”

  “Mustafa launched the missile. He locked himself inside the greenhouse.”

  Zara felt her mouth go dry. “Where is he? Did they get him? She should have killed him when she had the chance.”

  The butt of the rifle came down like a hammer on Elon’s head and knocked him out cold. Before Zara could lift her rifle to respond, the muzzle of the rifle that knocked Elon out pressed against her back, and the man who claimed to love her said, “Don’t move Zara.”

  She froze. “Mustafa…how—”

  “Never mind how. It’s not important. Start walking, we need to get away from here. The rest of your cohorts will be here momentarily.”

  “But where—”

  He pelted her with a harsh, brittle reply. “Stop your bullshit, Zara. Drop the rifle, put your hands in the air and start walking.”

  There was no arguing with him. She did what he ordered. The AR-15 slipped to the ground, and she put her hands up.

  “Now move. We’re heading West back to Beirut.”

  She stumbled ahead with the muzzle of his assault rifle pressed hard to her back. “Mustafa, this is ridiculous. We can’t walk all the way to Beirut.”

  “Who says we’re going to walk? I have a motorcycle stashed at a farm not far from here. Don’t you think I would have prepared for every eventuality? Mon amour, how little you know of me.”

  They walked in silence for a quarter of a mile. She waited for Mustafa to initiate a conversation with her. What he doesn’t know is probably eating away at him. Her silence paid off.

  “Tell me what happened at the vineyard, and don’t lie to me, Zara. If you do, I swear I’ll kill you right here and finish it.”

  She turned and looked at him, thrusting out her chin in defiance. “If you’ve made up your mind already, why should I answer? Just shoot me and get it over with.”

  He smiled. “Always the show of bravery, Zara. I suppose it’s why I fell for you. You surround yourself in a mantle of iron will and unbreakable righteousness. Your beauty and bravado has been irresistible to me since the moment I first laid eyes on you.”

  She huffed indignantly. “You see what you want to see Mustafa. You have from the beginning.”

  “I see the woman I love. The woman who betrayed me.”

  “I never betrayed you.”

  “Tell me what happened at the vineyard. I have to know.”

  “Can we sit for a moment? I’ve been through a lot tonight.” She raised her swollen face to him so he could see the blue-black marks left by Amir’s fist.

  He hissed under his breath. “The bastard.”

  “You have no idea what a monster he was.”

  “Tell me. It is important for me to know.”

  She told him everything beginning with his beating her when she’d baited him. “You saw the video camera. You must suspect what he intended to do to me.”

  “It made me sick.”

  “He was going to film his rape of me and then strangle me as he filled me with his disgusting semen. He bragged he'd done it before.”

  “How did you get away, who helped you?”

  “Mossad figured out everything you were planning and sent a team to stop you. My friend is part of the team. I’ve worked with him before. He warned me to leave. He came to get me.”

  “Didn’t you trust me?”

  “Being held prisoner doesn’t work for me. I’d begun to feel like I was your prisoner. Thank God Aryeh came, or Amir would have gotten away with all of it. Aryeh and Amir were in a fight to the death. Amir was winning. I got free and shot Amir. He deserved a much worse death. He blew up a bus in Tel Aviv and brutally murdered a Palestinian girl the same way he intended to kill me. He killed all of your men at the vineyard.” She spit. “Good riddance to garbage.”

  Mustafa paced back and forth. “So you didn’t betray me to Mossad.”

  She looked at him without expression and answered. “No.”

  He scrutinized her.

  She wondered if he would believe her. “Mustafa, did you even hesitate for a moment before launching the missile?”

  His eyes clouded. “For a moment I considered not pressing the button. But then I thought of my father, uncle, and brother, and the promises I’d made to them. When I saw my son and wife’s face before my eyes I was filled with a hatred you could never understand. I pushed the button.”

  “Did you think of the destruction you would unleash on women and children, the elderly, the innocent?”

  “Do they think of us when they send their bombs?”

  “This is why we can never be. Two wrongs don’t make a right. We see the world through a different lens.”

  He ignored what she said. “We need to go, habibi. I’ve done what I set out to do. It’s time for us to leave this valley, to leave Lebanon. No matter what occurred, nothing has changed the way I feel about you.”

  “I can’t, mon amour.”

  “Why not? I know you love me. We can make a life together away from all of this.”

  She shook her head. “Mustafa, for a time I believed it was possible, but no more. When the missile climbed into the sky, it took with it any possibility of you and I sharing a life. I can’t live with what you’ve done.”

  “With time you’ll forget. With time everything will be as it should be. We can make a new life together.”

  “No. With time I will grow to resent you. I will grow to hate you, and I don’t want to hate you. But one day I will.”

  He studied her face as if memorizing it. “You will never hate me, my love. You are only trying to convince your heart, but your heart will never listen.”

  “You may be right, but I can’t come with you now. I won’t come with you now.”

  “I will wait for you to come to your senses. One day I will reach out to you, find you, and you will come to me.”

  She didn’t answer because she wasn’t sure whether he was wrong or right. Her feelings ran deep for him. She prayed with time she would forget him. “You’d better go. My friend will be looking for me. He won’t rest until he finds me.”

  “He loves you?”

  “No. But we share a lot. We saved each other’s lives in the past. It’s a bond neither of us will ever break. If he finds you, he will kill you, Mustafa.”

  “I could stay and kill him, ambush him.”

  “I won’t let you. I’ll throw myself in front of your bullets if you try. You’d better shoot me now because there’s no way I’ll let you harm him.”

  He studied her face. It took less than a second for him to make his move. Before she could push him away, he embraced her pinning her to his chest and his lips claimed hers. He kissed her, and she didn’t have the will to refuse him. He broke the kiss releasing her. “This doesn’t
end here, Zara.” Without another word he walked away and disappeared into the darkness.

  Zara stood staring at the space where he’d stood. Her lips wet from his kiss. Tears pricked her eyes. She fought them, but she might as well have stuck her finger in a dam about to overflow. There was no way to stop the flood of feelings. Her life had become an abyss of emptiness and loss.

  The minutes ticked away and the tears finally subsided. A branch crunched, and Zara turned. Out of the darkness came Aryeh his rifle ready and finger on the trigger. She put her hands up. “Aryeh, thank God you’re safe.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Gone.”

  “Where, Zara? You know what he did, he has to pay.”

  “I can’t help you. I have no idea where he’s gone. He didn’t trust me with that information.”

  “He didn’t harm you?”

  “No. He tried to convince me to escape with him, but I refused. When he realized I meant what I said he left.”

  “You could have stopped him. Delayed him until I got here. You knew I’d come for you.”

  “Aryeh, leave it alone. I couldn’t play a part in his death.”

  His face reddened with anger. “Let’s go, the helicopter’s on its way. You’re endangering the team, or don’t you care?”

  Her cheeks filled with heat, but she swallowed her outrage like a bitter pill. “Let’s go. I will pretend you didn’t say that to me.” She walked past him back toward where the team was assembling.