"On that basis, I suppose you're right." Risenberg's voice had softened. "But how do you propose we find Karameh — take the same route he's taken?"
"It's the only way, and the sooner you get us to one of the carriers that's left, the sooner we can catch him."
Risenberg spun the tank on its axis and headed it back to the two personnel carriers, the only vehicles left. I thought of Mohammed Karameh, admiring his cautiousness. He had hidden an armored car and a carrier in the ruins for just such an emergency as this. We had no assurance that we could catch up with him. I was counting on his carrier containing a full load, at least twenty people. There were only five of us. With less weight, our carrier would have the edge on speed.
"What about this tank?" Lev Wymann asked. "Are we just going to leave it?"
"We'll blow it up," I said, "as soon as we're sure we have enough gas in the carrier to get to Jordan."
Risenberg stopped the T-54 and the five of us got out. While Joe and I inspected one of the carriers, the other men, pistols drawn, gathered weapons and ammo belts from the various corpses on the ground. We found that the personnel carrier had a tank full of gas. There were also two jerrycans of gas in the storage compartment underneath one of the metal benches that was bolted to the inner side of the armored wall. The tripod, bolted to the flat section of the rear of the sloping cab, held a Czechoslovakian ZB30 light machine gun, the two box magazines full of 7.92mm cartridges. There were nine more boxes of ammo in the second storage compartment underneath the second bench in the rear.
Risenberg and I yelled for the others to get back and soon they had piled in the rear behind the driver's compartment, bringing with them a variety of weapons, including a Soviet AKM assault rifle, a Belgian CAL machine gun, a Franchi L557 sub-gun and a Vietnamese MAT 19 submachine gun. Ben Solomon even had two sacks of Chinese stick grenades.
"Now we get rid of the tank," I said. I turned and looked through the open oval hatch between the driver's compartment and the rear of the carrier. "Two of you get out and lob several grenades through the commander's hatch. We'll move ahead a hundred feet."
Elovitz and Wymann jumped from the rear of the carrier and moved to the tank. Risenberg moved the carrier forward. Seconds later we heard muffled roars from inside the tank. The two men were back inside the carrier and we were roaring ahead when the heat from the fire reached the 140mm shells and the T-54 blew itself apart.
"We've only a fifty-fifty chance of catching up with Karameh," Risenberg said grimly. "I suppose it depends where he's headed and how many people are weighing down his vehicle. Have you stopped to think that he might have another tank hidden up there?"
"I've considered the possibility," I said. "All we can do right now is play out the hand we've been dealt. If you have a better suggestion, I'd like to hear it."
"I wish I did."
Turning east, we took the same route that the Hawk and his people had taken, the eight solid rubber tires of the personnel carrier bouncing over small stones. To either side of us mounds of piled slab rock grew larger the further east we moved on the partially man-made road.
Bouncing up-and-down in the bucket seat, I considered all the possibilities, predicated on the premise that Mohammed Karameh was a very intelligent man. Either this trail was a shortcut leading out of the As-Suwayda hills, or else Karameh had some kind of hidden base in one of the numerous caves. But I doubted it. Whatever he had in mind concerned us. It had to be another trap.
Where the road was more or less level. Risenberg pushed down hard on the gas, speeding up the vehicle to maximum, almost 52.7 mph. We didn't have any trouble seeing ahead through the 5" X 16" driving slits. However, we had closed the square hatch covers above our heads. With them open, it would be too easy for a hidden sniper to zero down on us. For the same reason, the three men in the rear were crouched down.
Gradually the trail wound into a large arroyo; the stones underneath the tires became bigger which turned our forward movement into a series of up-and-down vibrations. To the left and right loomed granite and sandstone walls which formed, in places, a partnership with black Vishnu schist — crystalline rock having a foliated structure and lying in sheets. Here and there were red spider-web formations caused by iron oxide that had washed down from shale during the rainy season. Looking at all this barrenness, I became doubly determined to find the Hawk. As for Miriam Kamel, I had very special plans for her. Which reminded me of Risenberg…
"How did you know that Miriam Kamel had lied about the tower containing arms and ammunition?"
Risenberg gave me a quick, surprised glance. "What's the difference? We know she lied."
"I have a thing about knowing the full score, and when two and two add up to five, I get nervous."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I think you're more than an Israeli tankman," I said. "I think you're a Hamosad agent. If you are, maybe you have information that would help me. Let's be practical. Our goal is the same: to smash the Syrian Liberation Army and either kill or capture Mohammed Karameh. Once he's dead-meat, the entire organization will fall apart."
Risenberg slowed the Prime Mover and shifted' into low. "Would it ease your mind if I told you that Khalil Marras is working for SCID?"
"The Syrian Counterintelligence Department," I mused. I was confident now that in his way he was admitting to being a member of Israeli intelligence without actually putting it into words. "Does Karameh know about Marras?"
"I don't even know if he suspects. If he does, there isn't anything he can do about it. Karameh couldn't operate without the approval of the Syrian government. Marras is around to keep an eye on operations and keep Damascus informed. How about you, Carter? I have a feeling that AXE und Hamosad are working together on this operation. Does AXE have any information on KGB involvement with the SLA?"
I smiled inwardly. Risenberg was with Hamosad. No doubt about it. Just the same I said innocently, "What makes you think I'm with AXE?"
He laughed. "The same reason you think I'm with Hamosad. And you're not exactly unknown in the world of intelligence. Carter. At least by name."
"We don't think the Russians are involved directly," I said. "Anything the Kremlin is doing it's doing through the Syrian government. The KGB would have a fit if they knew what the Hawk is trying to do."
Quickly I told Risenberg about the liquified natural gas plot, watching his eyes widen as I talked.
"It's diabolical," he said after I had finished. "But it's typical of Karameh. You know what it adds up to as far as you're concerned: He has to kill you."
"Which leads me to believe we could be driving into another trap." I thought about the two men we had left behind, who had been blown into eternity in the stone prison building.
"What about the two Israelis we left behind?" I asked. "Were they with you and the others when the SLA grabbed you?"
"No. And they weren't Hamosad either. They couldn't tell Karameh anything because they didn't know anything to tell. Karameh didn't believe them." For a few moments Risenberg was silent, then he said, "I don't know about you, Carter. But I have a feeling we're not going to get out of this alive."
"We're not turning back," I was firm.
"Don't misunderstand me," he said quickly. "I don't mind dying. I just want to make sure the Hawk goes a few minutes before me."
The road — more precisely the bottom of the arroyo — turned to the southeast, and Risenberg and I became positive in our conviction that Karameh and the people with him were not taking a shortcut to the main road. We had to be driving into a trap.
Around the bend the road stretched straight out for several miles, a ribbon of wasteland that turned due south, to our right. The twilight had become a memory and there would have been complete darkness if not for the full moon.