The woman was almost on top of where he’d left Kaplan when he noticed Wiley approaching from the opposite quarter angle. Jake knew Wiley was cutting off any angle she had for escape. She needed to be silenced. Gauging from Wiley’s speed and angle, Jake would reach her only a second or two before Wiley.
Jake moved swiftly and silently. The woman seemed intent on reaching her destination, not looking from side to side. She was close. Close enough to recognize the gliders in the darkness. He had to make his move now.
With less than ten steps before he caught her, he broke into a run. The dirt crushed between his shoes and the rock hardened earth — clearly audible with each step. Jake was close enough to grab her when she spun around.
She pointed a gun at Jake’s chest. It was too late for Jake. There was no avoiding a point blank range shot. He didn’t know whether to dive straight into her or hit the ground. A decision he never got to make.
As the woman spun around and raised the pistol, a black figure appeared behind her simultaneously clamping a hand over her mouth and removing the pistol from her grip. Kaplan.
Jake’s heart raced.
The pistol fell to the ground. Kaplan jerked the headwear from the woman and turned her to face him. Then they spoke.
Jake was confused.
Wiley walked over and picked up the pistol. “Is this the woman from Sana’a?”
“Yes.” Kaplan whispered. “This is Baraka.”
Wiley handed her the gun.
“I was near Palace, heard noise. I come make sure nothing wrong.” She pointed at the tangled gliders. “Can still fly, yes?”
“That remains to be seen.” Wiley said. “Come with me Jake, let’s clean up Mr. Kaplan’s mess.”
Jake and Wiley separated the gliders. Jake pulled Kaplan’s glider free while Wiley lifted the tail of his glider. They worked in quiet synchrony, moving the gliders then inspecting them.
Wiley’s glider was unscathed. Scratches of no consequence on the tail. Kaplan’s glider was not so lucky. The right wing had been damaged by the wing low impact. The left wing tip dented from the slide into the other glider. Neither of which seemed to concern Wiley. He reached into the rear of his glider and pulled out a small leather tool wrap.
With several adjustments to the right wing, made from inside the cockpit, Wiley had cinched the wing back to its normal position. Then he pulled out a roll of black duct tape.
Wiley held up the roll. “This, young man, should be in every first aid kit.”
Jake controlled his laughter. Wiley seemed prepared for everything.
“I built these aircraft tough.” Wiley explained. “Designed them for rough terrain. Built to take abuse. They’re strong but not indestructible. Fortunately Mr. Kaplan was probably only going about forty miles per hour when he had his first impact with the ground. And since he didn’t hit anything stationary, the damage was minimal.”
Wiley pointed toward the cliff. “Now let’s line them up and ready them for takeoff.” Wiley said. “Then we’ll grab our gear and go retrieve Ms Hunt.”
Jake and Wiley pulled the aircraft in line for their eventual takeoff, Kaplan’s glider first followed by Wiley’s. Wiley reached into the cockpit of his glider and flipped a switch, a retractable motor and propeller popped up from the tail of the aircraft.
“If we had motors,” Jake said. “Why the hell did we have to use those crazy jet bottles and then have to worry about making it to this town?”
“These retractable engines are electric and totally silent.” Wiley explained. “Battery power for these aircraft is the one area I had to scrimp on. Batteries are heavy and I couldn’t afford to put on any more weight by using longer lasting batteries.”
“But if we weren’t going to make this landing spot, we would have used them, right?” Jake asked.
Wiley said nothing.
“Right?”
“No, Jake.” Wiley said. “The use of these before takeoff from here was never an option. We either made it on the JATO bottles or we didn’t. Their use is mission critical and only to be used strictly for takeoff and enroute to our rendezvous point.”
“So you would have let us crash land…at night, in this God forsaken part of the world?”
“If we couldn’t make this spot, then yes Jake, I would have force landed away from our destination.”
Jake followed Wiley to Kaplan’s glider. Again, Wiley reached into the cockpit and flipped a switch. The retractable motor and propeller popped loose but failed to extend.
“Not good.” Wiley said.
“What is it?” Jake asked. “Why didn’t the motor come up?”
“Apparently Mr. Kaplan’s landing has jammed the mechanism.” Wiley grabbed his tool bag. “We’ll have to pry it loose. If we can’t get this to retract, it will critically reduce the aircraft’s gliding distance.”
“Then what?” Jake asked.
“Then we won’t make our rendezvous point.” Wiley said. “We’ll have to land before our destination and hoof it out. But that isn’t our biggest obstacle.”
“How could it get any worse?”
“We might lose our cover of darkness.”
CHAPTER 30
Jake checked his watch for the fourth time in ten minutes, 3:59 a.m. local time. Wiley had been working on the retractable electric motor mechanism for twenty minutes. They were getting further and further behind schedule. According to Wiley’s initial timeframe, they should be entering Hajjah Palace at this very moment, but the old man refused to split the team up and send him ahead to start setting up the RTI.
Kaplan had been helping Wiley with the glider, offering an apology every few minutes. Jake could see Wiley’s frustration. The man was used to success. His missions ran smooth because of his keen insight and attention to detail. Wiley worked at a feverish pace wiping the sweat from his forehead. Jake noticed even the plunging temperatures of the cold night air wasn’t enough to calm Wiley’s exterior. For the first time, he noticed Wiley’s cool demeanor starting to deteriorate.
“There.” Wiley said. “It’s the best I can do.”
“The best you can do?” Kaplan asked. “Does that mean it’s fixed?”
“It’ll have to do. The motor is up and locked into position and functioning. You’ll have power for takeoff and climb out. The arm won’t fully retract so there will be a drag issue to contend with later. The mechanism will travel about halfway provided you don’t drain the battery. So try not to run it dry before we get to altitude.” Wiley patted the tail of the glider. “You wrecked it. You fly it out.”
“I’ll make it work, sir.” Kaplan tried to sound confident.
“You two gear up. Grab the equipment bags. Baraka and I will get a head start,” Wiley said. “We’re running out of time so we need to hustle.”
Jake stared at the fading lights of the Palace as a blanket of fog settled onto the mountaintop, they could use the reduced visibility to their advantage, he thought. Three men wearing backpacks followed Baraka through the unlit streets of the mountaintop village of Hajjah. Stealth was important, as was silence. They were lucky that Kaplan’s glider mishap didn’t disturb any of the village’s residents. Looking up, the Palace entrance was only six hundred feet from the landing site. Almost three hundred feet of that was vertical which meant climbing several tiers of switchback roads. A much longer hike.
Jake glanced at his watch as they approached the Palace. Another twenty minutes gone. He was winded and breathing heavy. He could hear Kaplan doing the same. Wiley and the woman didn’t seem fazed by the uphill trek or the thin atmosphere.