Dennis eased his hand off his sidearm and answered in Arabic. The man gestured again for a push.
“Come on Jim. He wants a push to the side of the road.”
Dennis and Hutchinson got slowly out of the defender. The man who’d asked for help was walking slowly away from the pair.
“Leave the engine running,” Dennis instructed his girlfriend.
They hadn’t gone more than a few paces when Hutchinson nudged Dennis’ arm and pointed at the Arab’s feet. Dennis looked but didn’t notice anything. Then he saw the british military issue boots.
‘What the fuck is going on’ he was thinking.
The man stopped near the Pajero.
“Push! Push!” He said in a heavy accent.
“Yeah! Push. Push.” Dennis replied.
The man under the bonnet turned suddenly and pointed an Ak-47 straight at the pair.
“Hands up!” he yelled.
Dennis and Hutchinson put their hands on their heads. The other man produced an AK-47 from under his robe. He levelled it at the windscreen of the defender and strode towards Natalie. Dennis could see the terror in her eyes.
“Bastards! If you hurt her?”
“Shut it!” the man covering them said. He took their handguns from them then told them to sit. Reluctantly they obeyed.
The other man opened the driver’s door of the land rover.
“Step out of the vehicle please Miss.”
She did as she was told. He lowered the gun.
“You can join your friends.”
As she walked towards Dennis and Hutchinson he rifled through their belongings in the land rover until he found what he was looking for. He climbed into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and drove the defender to the Pajero and switched it off. He got out and kept the AK-47 pointing at the ground.
“If this is a car jacking it’s pretty sloppy.”
“Just keep quiet can you,” the man covering them said, “Miss you sit there please.”
“You’re English,” Dennis challenged him, “Would you mind telling us what the fuck is going on.”
“In about thirty seconds I will mate.”
He spoke into his collar and Dennis now noticed this man’s gun was also pointing at the ground, no longer threatening. A low humming sound could now be heard. It got closer and louder. They could all now see a black dot in the sky that was getting bigger. It came in low, barely feet off the desert floor. As it got closer Dennis could see it was a Boeing MH6 little bird helicopter, also known as a killer egg because of its shape. Now he knew for sure who was detaining them.
“British special forces,” he said to his companions.
The little bird touched down on the road and the four men who were sitting half in half out of the small helicopter stepped out and walked swiftly towards the vehicles on the road. The helicopter lifted off again almost instantly and was soon just a speck in the sky again. One man clearly in command approached ahead of his men. None of their weapons were pointing in a threatening manner. The man who’d got Natalie out of the land rover came forward and handed over passports. They were quickly thumbed through. The man glanced at each face as he found each photograph, comparing the likenesses. Then he nodded at the man who been under the bonnet of the Pajero. This man slung his AK-47 over his back and offered his hand to Dennis to pull the journalist up.
“Sorry about that mate.”
Dennis swatted the hand away and got up. The passports were offered.
“Mr Peter Dennis.”
“Yes,” Dennis replied snatching the passports.
“Those fake Australian passports are very good.”
“How do you know they’re fake?” Dennis asked, knowing the copies were perfect.
“Because if our intel is correct you are Peter Dennis and Natalie Feltham, both british nationals and Jim Hutchinson of the united states. We’ve been tracking you since you entered and left Egypt. Mossad has been tracking you since you entered Gaza. We are with the british SAS. I’m Tosh. That there’s Deano, Smithy, Tommo, Richie and the jock with the ginger goatie is Angus.”
“What are your real names?”
“Those are our real names.”
Dennis smirked. Then asked.
“Where did you come from. I know that little helicopter has a range of over two hundred miles but there isn’t a base near here.”
Tosh now smirked at Dennis.
“Like I said. We’ve been tracking you since you left Egypt.”
“Did you say Mossad were watching us?” Hutchinson asked dusting the palms of his hands off. Natalie looked into the back of the Pajero and saw a pack of mineral water on the back seat. She opened the door and helped herself to a new bottle.
“Do you mind?” she asked the two who had been introduced as Deano and Smithy.
“Not at all darlin’,” Smithy replied eyeing the beautiful archaeologist up. Dennis chose to ignore it.
“Yes Mossad are tracking you also. They know about your meeting with Khalil Al Massri. They were watching you via satellite and were preparing to take you out with a single rocket strike. MI6 were able to convince them that you were working for us and that you were operatives in an undercover mission. Israel of course questioned your Australian passports and we were able to convince them that it was part of your cover. You should have been allowed into Israel without a hitch.”
“We were,” Dennis confirmed, “I knew there was something funny about that. Didn’t I say it was too easy?”
“You did,” Hutchinson replied.
“Well it’s bought us some time,” Tosh continued, “But not much. Israeli forces are planning to capture and arrest you anytime now.”
“How did they? You? Know that we visited Al Massri.”
“You were being tracked on your mobile phone signals. They now have a lock on Al Massri’s position. For all we know he may be dead already. Israel is using air strikes to eliminate insurgents.”
“So I may have sealed his fate.”
“Maybe mate. That’s for Israel to decide. Not up to us. Britain doesn’t get involved in that one, Israel’s problems I mean.”
“Only because they can’t,” Hutchinson said.
“I’m sure your government is itching to have a go though mate isn’t it.”
Hutchinson ignored the sarcastic comment.
“So what do you want with us?” Dennis asked.
“The british government want the German count Otto Brest Von Werner under the terrorism act. You were leading us to him but with the impending action by Israel, MI6 has decided that we come in as an extraction team. Our mission here is to locate you, apprehend Von Werner, alive if possible, dead if necessary and get out before we’re discovered.”
“Could we not just take him to the Israeli authorities for extradition?” Hutchinson asked.
Dennis looked at his friend.
“You really don’t know anything about Israeli politics do you.”
“We’re not exactly here legally either mate,” Tosh added.
“What?” Hutchinson didn‘t understand.
“Our presence here is not exactly known. Deano and Smithy have been out here for a couple of months now providing intel on various terrorist organisations but we’ve just nipped in over the border to complete our mission.”
There was a distant sound of Israeli fighter jets.
“And our helicopter was probably picked up on radar. It won’t be long before they coming looking for us. Let’s get ready to move out. Deano, Smithy, Tommo, Richie, Pajero. Mr Dennis, Hutchinson, miss Feltham, Angus and I are in the land rover with you. Oh and by the way,” Tosh said stopping the three of them, “Sorry for scaring you.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Pajero and the land rover had been climbing steadily into the Hebron mountains all afternoon. Captain John ‘Tosh’ Mackintosh of the british SAS had been receiving intel on the area from the british tri forces base in Cyprus via his wireless headset. He and his team of british special forces had flown in earlier that day by helicopter from a british warship patrolling the eastern Mediterranean.