Looking skyward, the crews in the choppers had little time to ponder the fate of the fighter pilot as they saw the hacienda disappear in a thunderous explosion, while all around them the desert began erupting in flashes of brilliant light that signaled the launch of dozens of missiles, all headed toward the inbound helicopters. Their worst fears had just been realized.
“Turn around!” Lev shouted. “They know we’re coming … the drones didn’t work!”
Before Wilson could even begin to swing the chopper around, they were enveloped in a fireball that sent the big helicopter spinning out of control toward the desert floor. Seconds later, a jarring crash ejected both Lev and Alon through the open door into an area of soft sand. Trying to come to grips with the fact that he was still alive, Lev rose to his feet and checked his body for injury before running toward the dark shape of the burning chopper, lying on its side like a giant wounded bird.
Inside the cockpit, he found Ed Wilson, his helmet cracked in half and his face covered in blood as his twisted body lay smashed between his seat and the crumpled instrument panel. As soon as Lev saw the man’s jerky, agonal breathing pattern, he laid his hand gently on Wilson’s torn shoulder and began to pray, for he knew from experience that the colonel’s last moments were upon him, and that soon he would be in the arms of God. Before his prayer was finished, the breathing had stopped. Ed Wilson-warrior, father, and husband-was dead.
“Get out of there, Lev!”
Lev turned away slowly and saw Alon standing outside. He was limping, and his left arm was hanging uselessly down at his side. It was only then that Lev noticed the flames in the back of the chopper. With his good right arm, Alon reached in and literally pulled Lev through the jagged remains of the cockpit door. Together they backed away from the Blackhawk just as the fire whooshed through the cabin and totally engulfed what remained of a once proud flying machine.
Lev fell to his knees as a series of explosions rocked the ground around them. One after another, helicopters began falling from the sky, littering the desert with heaps of burning, twisted wreckage, while overhead, an orange trail of fire marked the spiraling descent of an F-15 that was missing a wing.
In the distance, they could see the bouncing headlights of vehicles heading their way.
“We’ve got to get out of here, Lev. Come on … we need to head north.”
Lev focused his attention on Alon’s injuries. “Can you make it?”
“My arm’s busted, but my legs are still working. I think I may have cracked a rib or two, but I’ll make it. I’ve been worse off.”
“Ok, let’s go.”
As they alternated between hobbling and trying to run over the rocky desert terrain, they could hear sporadic gunfire in the distance. Darkness was a false cover, for they knew Acerbi’s men had night vision goggles. The small sand dunes covering the ground around them would be their only place to hide.
The headlights from the vehicles could be seen crisscrossing the desert, going from one piece of flaming wreckage to another, and then there were the gunshots. Lev shuddered when he thought of what was happening to his men out there in the darkness. He wondered how many had been able to escape.
“Get down!” Alon whispered. “There’s some men headed our way on foot.”
Flattening themselves against the ground behind a small dune topped by a large stand of cactus, they reached for the only weapons they had. Two pistols against a large group of men armed with automatic rifles. It was beginning to look like this would be their last stand.
“I think they’re over here.” A voice called out in the darkness. “Lev … Alon … is that you?”
Alon winced with the pain from his injuries. “Those are our guys!”
“Who’s there?” Lev shouted.
“It’s me … Ben … Ben Zamir!”
The two men lay there, unable to make themselves move as they peered at the dark shapes crossing in front of them in a zig zag pattern. In the light from the moon, they could see the young face of Ben Zamir leading a group of about a dozen men, including Leo and John.
Lev stumbled to his feet. “We thought you were all dead!”
“We thought the same thing about you, Professor. Your chopper was the first one hit. After they stopped shooting at the drones and started taking out helicopters I knew they were on to us, so I ordered everyone to land.”
“You landed! All of you?”
“The missiles took out five of the lead choppers before the rest of us landed. It was the only thing we could do with all those missiles coming at us.”
“But we saw dozens of fires on the ground … fires everywhere.”
“We set them. We wanted to draw Acerbi’s men in close by making them think they had shot all of us down. They thought they were coming to finish us off. You should have seen the looks on their faces when they drove up to an undamaged chopper sitting on the ground next to one of the fires we had lit. It was the last sight their eyes ever saw.”
“So that was all the gunfire we heard.”
“Yeah … most of our men are still out there. Acerbi’s people retreated back toward his compound. I figure they’re scared to death of coming back out here in the dark knowing the area is covered with American and Israeli Special Forces troops.”
“How did you know we were out here?”
“We found your chopper,” Leo said. “You weren’t in it, so we started looking.”
“Ed Wilson … he’s …”
“We know, Lev.”
Alon winced as he tried to stand. “That was a pretty gutsy move having all the choppers set down.”
“It seemed like a pretty clear cut decision at the time,” Ben said. “Basically, I just wanted us all on the ground.”
In the distance, they could hear the rattle of gunfire followed by a series of explosions that lit up the horizon.
“Our guys?” Lev asked.
“Yep … we need to get moving.”
Two large soldiers reached down and lifted Alon to his feet. They continued to support him as he limped behind the others past the smoldering remains of the crashed chopper.
“Right now, I have teams out there blowing every missile site they can find,” Ben said. “They probably won’t get them all before we have to leave, but at least they’ll get most of them. I’m hoping that will give us a better chance.”
“A better chance for what?”
“A better chance to fire up the choppers and get the hell out of here. We’re still outnumbered at least ten to one … maybe more, and as soon as the sun comes up we’ll be sitting ducks out here. We’ve got to make a strategic retreat and regroup.”
Lev looked into the hardened eyes of the men staring back at him. “This stops now. There will be no retreat. We’re going to do what we came here to do … or we’re going to die trying.”
CHAPTER 60
When the attack began, Acerbi had been sitting at a table inside the hangar when the first missile streaked skyward and exploded against one of the slow-moving drones. Seconds later, flashes of missile launches across the desert floor were followed by dozens of explosions in the sky as the leading wave of drones crossed over the ranch and were instantly destroyed.
After the first series of strikes, Acerbi’s main targeting computer began to sense that it was firing on unarmed decoys and quickly readjusted as the ground-based radar began picking up the F-15’s and low-flying helicopters coming in behind the slow-moving drones.
Looking into their computer screens, Acerbi’s men waited. As soon as the fighters and choppers were in range, their commander gave the command to let loose with their remaining missiles.