I lifted my right foot, placed it against his right knee as a fulcrum and again grabbed the submachine gun and pushed it upward to my right, knowing that he wouldn't dare let go. As he made one last desperate effort to turn the muzzle in my direction, I grabbed his right arm with both hands and completed the throw. With a wild cry of rage and surprise, Karameh went spinning, landing with a thud on his back.
I was behind him as he started to sit up and tried to raise the Russian submachine gun. I was faster. With all my might. I chopped down on both sides of his neck with two sword-hand Shuto cuts. Karameh cried out in excruciating agony and dropped the machine gun, his collar bone broken.
Karameh was as helpless as a brand new baby! I dropped to my knees behind him, threw my left around his throat, placed my right arm on the back of his neck, locked the fingers of my left hand on my right elbow and the fingers of my right hand on the upper muscle of my left arm and began to apply a Chibku strangling clutch. Karameh struggled violently but only for a moment.
Suddenly he went as limp as a piece of wet tissue paper. I released my hold, pushed him forward on his face and stood up. I took one last look at the body, went over to where I had dropped Wilhelmina, picked her up and walked leisurely to where Miriam Karameh was lying on her back, Hugo still sticking out of her stomach. She was conscious.
I got down on one knee, Wilhelmina dangling loosely in my right hand. Miriam's eyes, shiny mirrors of pain and fear, moved up to me. Her mouth worked but no words came out.
"Your brother's dead," I said. "Karameh, too."
She managed to speak, her words weak, "Nick… I d-don't want to d-die like this. Help me… I'll tell you anything you want to know about us."
"I don't need to know anything about the SLA. You're all dead."
"I… I don't want to d-die like this, Nick…"
"You're not going to." I said and raised Wilhelmina.
Miriam didn't have time to speak. I pulled the trigger. Wilhelmina roared, and a hole appeared suddenly in the middle of her forehead. Her mouth went slack.
I pulled Hugo from Miriam's stomach, wiped the sides of the blade carefully on her shirt and shoved him into the sheath on my right arm, then reloaded Wilhelmina.
I looked for Risenberg and found him leaning against a rock, sitting butt-flat on the ground.
"How bad is it?" I asked.
"Did we get them?" he countered.
"They're all dead, including Karameh. I got him, and Miriam and her brother. What about your wound?"
Risenberg struggled to his feet, his right arm hanging limp. "One slug," he said, gritting his teeth in pain. "My right shoulder. I think the bone's broken, but the bleeding has stopped."
I put out a hand to help him but he shook his head.
"We have to climb down the slope," I said. "Think you can do it?"
"Watch me!"
Together we moved in the direction of the slope. He and I and the two other Israelis had a date with a helicopter.
We'd be in Jordan within an hour…
Chapter Fifteen
I had been wrong about Hawk. He had not remained in Tel Aviv. He had returned to the United States that day after I had been smuggled into Syria. Nine days after the three Israelis and I had escaped into Jordan by helicopter, I was in the hidden complex of rooms within the Amalgamated Press and Wire Services building on Dupont Circle in Washington, D. C., sitting in Hawk's private office, giving my personal report.
"The SLA is finished," I concluded my report. "The splinter groups in various Mid-East cities will try to form another central organization, but they'll not succeed. There'll be some shoot-outs, but that's all it will amount to."
I leaned back in the deep armchair and crossed my legs, my eyes wandering to Hawk's collection of miniature porcelain eagles in a glass case on one side of the room.
"Yes, I agree, Carter." He leaned forward and picked up the half-smoked cigar from the ashtray on his desk and studied it for a moment. "They're still dangers. You know what they are." He looked sternly at me, his shaggy eyebrows forming a big V. "The people involved in the LNG operation might try to pull it off to get even with us for killing Karameh. Why didn't you try to capture him?"
"Sir," I said stiffly, "at the time I was having some difficulty just staying alive."
"I guess it was rough." Hawk's voice softened somewhat and his attitude became more friendly. "But you got out in one piece. That's all that really matters."
I said, "I assume that AXE has set up the necessary machinery to inspect all incoming supertankers from Libya before they're allowed to enter any American port — and more that you can't tell me about?"
Hawk moved his lips back over his teeth in his version of a smile.
"I'll tell you this, Carter. The possibility of any exploding gas cloud is now zero," he growled. "Do you have any more to add?"
"No sir. The operation was a total success," I said. "The Syrian Liberation Army has been totally neutralized."
Stupid me! I waited for a Well done, Carter. It didn't come.
"I have work to do, Carter," Hawk said gruffly.
I took that as my cue to go, stood up and walked to his desk.
"We'll be in touch," he said. Then, puffing out a cloud of poison gas, he looked down at the papers on his desk. He pressed a button on his desk and three doors swung open silently. I walked into the supply closet and the doors again closed.
Ten minutes later, walking down the hallway, I thought once more of Leah Weizmann, with whom I had spent my last night in Tel Aviv before flying back to the U. S. She had driven me to Lod Airport, but hadn't waited at the gate to watch me board the plane. She was too practical for any kind of sentimental goodbye. Shalom was all she had said.
Hawk? He'd always be around.
Smiling to myself, I left the building and walked out into the sunshine…