The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [103]
"Take it easy, man." Russell said, noticing the man's tension.
"This job is never easy, my friend, and it is always very frightening."
"You look pretty cool, Ibrahim." It wasn't a lie. While brushing the dirt off, he looked like a doctor, almost, doing something real hard, Russell thought, but doing it. The little fucker had balls, Marvin told himself again.
Ghosn turned and grinned. "That is all a lie. I am quite terrified. I truly hate doing this."
"You got a big pair, boy, and that's no shit."
"Thank you. Now I must return while I still can. You really should leave, you know."
Russell spat into the dirt. "Fuck it."
"That would be very difficult." Ghosn grinned. "And if you got a reaction from "her", you might not like it."
"I guess when these suckers come, the earth really does move!"
Ghosn knew enough of American idiom that he fell backwards and laughed uproariously. "Please, Marvin, do not say such things when I am working!" Like this man! Ghosn told himself. We are too humorless a lot. I like this American! He had to wait another few minutes before he calmed down enough to resume his work.
Another hour's brushing showed nothing. There were seams in the bombcase, even some sort of hatch he'd never seen that before. But no fuse point. If there were one, it had to be underneath. Russell moved away some more dirt, allowing Ghosn to continue his search, but again, nothing. He decided to examine the back.
"There's a flashlight in my sack "
"Got it." Russell handed the light over.
Ghosn lay down on the dirt and contorted himself to look into the hole. It was dark, of course, and he switched on the light He saw electrical wiring, and something else, some sort of metal framework - latticework would be more accurate. He judged he could see perhaps eighty centimeters and if this were a real bomb, there would not be so much empty space. So. So. Ghosn tossed the light to the American.
"We have just wasted five hours," he announced.
"Huh?"
"I don't know what this thing is, but it is not a bomb." He sat up and had a brief attack of the shakes, but it didn't last long.
"What is it then?"
"Some kind of electronic sensing device, perhaps, a warning system. Maybe a camera pod - the lens assembly must be underneath. That doesn't matter. What is important is that it is no bomb."
"So, now what?"
"We move it, take it back with us. It might be valuable. Perhaps something we can sell to the Russians or the Syrians."
"So the old guy was worried about nothing?"
"Correct." Ghosn rose and the two men walked back to the truck. "It is safe now," he told the farmer. Might as well tell him what he wanted to know, and why confuse him with the facts of the matter? The farmer kissed Ghosn's dirty hands, and those of the American, which further embarrassed Russell.
The driver pulled the truck around, and backed into the garden, careful to do as little damage to the rows of vegetables as possible. Russell watched as two men filled a half-dozen sandbags and hoisted them into the truck. Next they put a sling around the bomb, and began to crank it up with a winch. The bomb - or whatever it was - was heavier than expected, and Russell took over the hand winch, displaying his strength yet again as he cranked it up alone. The Arabs swung the A-frame forward, then he lowered the bomb into the nest made of sandbags. A few ropes secured it in place, and that was that.
The farmer would not let them leave. He brought out tea and bread, insisting on feeding the men before they left, and Ghosn accepted the man's hospitality with appropriate humility. Four lambs were added to the truck's load before they left.
"That was a good thing