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Quiet murmurs rose up. Predictably, most seemed enthusiastic about the idea.
“Don’t get too excited,” Rapp said. “We were going to slip out of town without getting anywhere near an ISIS patrol. Now we’re going to have to go looking for one.”
“Perhaps the rest of us should stay here,” Yusef offered. “You could get a vehicle and come back to pick us up.”
Gaffar reached out and slapped the young man hard in the back of the head. “Does he look like a bus driver to you?”
Rapp motioned for calm. “Because of all the debris, getting a truck back here isn’t going to be possible. And even if it was, it would attract too much attention. We go together and we get out of here together. Understand?”
More murmurs. Less enthusiastic this time.
“Gaffar, what’s our best bet for picking up a patrol?”
“If we go north about a kilometer, we’ll get to the edge of the territory that’s regularly patrolled. And it puts us in a good position to escape the city without being seen.”
“Then lead us out. I’ll take over at the rear.”
Shada followed on Gaffar’s heels, with the others respecting the intervals that Rapp had insisted on. Yusef, still leaning heavily on Mohammed, was the last to set out. Rapp paced them at a distance of thirty feet.
He kept an eye on his six, but the danger of being flanked was pretty minimal. His position at the end of the column was intended primarily as motivation and it seemed to be working. Every minute or so Yusef glanced back and each time his pace surged.
The buildings around them remained dark but were becoming less and less dilapidated. The rubble that made stealthy movement so difficult gave way to smooth dirt, and empty window frames evolved into ones protected by shutters and glass.
Rapp heard a gentle crack above and he swung his Glock in the direction of the sound. Sighting over the silencer, he spotted the outline of a cat leaping between a series of open rafters. Otherwise, everything was silent. ISIS had instituted curfew and blackout protocols, and the local population wasn’t inclined to defy either.
There was a vague glow becoming visible to the north and he stopped, turning his head to try to pick it up in his more light-sensitive peripheral vision. It turned out to be unnecessary. The sound of a car engine began to emerge from the same direction.
Rapp accelerated to a jog, passing the others on his way to the front of their ragtag column. As expected, Gaffar had stopped, taking cover behind a shattered fountain.
“It’s one street to the east,” he said, as Rapp knelt and motioned for the others to hold their positions.
“Seems like they’ll go for the edge of town and then double back on the street in front of us.”
“That would be my guess, too.”
“Then this is as good a place as any,” Rapp said. “If the opposition looks manageable, we stop them here.”
“And how do you define ‘manageable’?”
Rapp examined the road and the buildings on either side. There wasn’t much they could use to their advantage. Only surprise and the fact that the ISIS men would be unaccustomed to resistance from the locals.
“I assume you don’t have a silencer.”
“No. A revolver with five rounds. And a knife.”
“In that case, anything over eight men will be risky.”
“Eight? Are you sure?”
“You think we can handle more?”
“I was thinking less.”
“Don’t turn nervous on me, now, Gaffar. We’ll flag them down and I’ll go out there and try to make a few friends, get them to lower their guard. If you use my Glock, they’re not going to hear much and they won’t react right away. I—”
“No,” Gaffar said firmly. “We both know this is a terrible plan. I will go. Your accent is not from this region and you’re far more accurate than I am. Besides—and I mean no offense—you are not a man of great warmth. I, on the other hand, am loved by all.”
“Is that right? I didn’t know that about you.”
