Tom Clancy's op-center_ acts of war - Tom Clancy [15]
Through the rising tear gas, Ibrahim saw the guard outside the booth go down. The guard in the booth began firing again, though the booth was lopsided and filling with tear gas. Walid drove forward a few feet, jerked into reverse, and hit the booth again. This time it went over.
Two men had emerged.from the second car. They were wearing gas masks. They, disappeared into the spreading orange cloud, and Ibrahim heard several more shots. Then everything was quiet.
Ibrahim looked back at the Syrian guards. They'd taken refuge behind their own weapons in their own booth, but they didn't fire.
After making sure that both of the Turks were dead, and after thanking Allah for their victory, Walid returned to his car. He motioned the caravan onward.
Speeding into Turkey, Ibrahim experienced a new sensation. A feeling of burning anticipation in his belly now that events had irrevocably been set into motion.
"Praise Allah," he said softly, involuntarily. Then his voice rose in his throat and he cried, "Praise Mohammad, peace be upon Him!"
Mahmoud said nothing. Sweat flowed from his temples along his swarthy cheeks to his tight mouth. In the back seat their companions were silent.
Ibrahim watched Walid's car. After two minutes the Cadillac swerved off the road onto the golden desert. The Dodge and Ford followed, spitting up sand as they plowed westward. After less than a hundred yards the cars became bogged down in the sands. The men got out.
While Ibrahim and Mahmoud removed the seats from the car and pulled the false floor from the trunk, the other men went to work swiftly and purposefully.
* * *
SIX
Monday, 2:47 p.m.,
Mardin, Turkey
The Hughes 500D is an extremely quiet helicopter due to sound baffles in the Allison 250-C20B engine. The small T-tail construction provides great stability at all speeds, as well as enormous maneuverability. It holds a pilot and two passengers in the forward bench as well as two to four passengers in the aft. With the addition of a side-mounted 20mm cannon and a.50-caliber machine gun, it makes an ideal vehicle for border patrol.
When the alarm from the guard north of Qamishli sounded at the Mardin Air Force outpost, the pilot and copilot were having a late lunch. They had already been out once on their hour-long late-morning patrol. They weren't scheduled to go out again until four o'clock. But the two men welcomed the signal. Since the government had begun coming down hard on the Kurds, things had been quiet. So quiet that the fliers feared they might become rusty. With an exchange of smiles and a thumbs-up, they were airborne within five minutes.
The two men flew low, passing isolated villages and remote ranches and farms on their way to the border outpost Unable to raise the two sentries by radio, the fliers were on high alert as they closed in on the border. The pilot guided his craft swiftly over the dry earth. He always kept the helicopter in front of the sun to present a difficult target to anyone on the ground.
The two fliers saw the wreckage of the automobile moments before they saw the destroyed guardhouse. Circling the area from just north of the border to north of the cars, they radioed headquarters that they saw the two dead border guards, as well as three dead drivers.
"The vehicles appear to have been shot at," the pilot said into his helmet microphone. He peered for a moment through his amber-tinted visor. "Two of the drivers are not moving and one of them is moving only slightly."
"I'll send a medical team by air," said the dispatcher.
"It appears as though the cars ran the gate, struck the booth, and were shot by the guard," the pilot said. "The survivor may not be alive for long," he added. "I want to go down and question him before he dies."
There was a short consultation on the other end. "Captain Galata says you are to proceed at your own discretion," the dispatcher told him. "What about the Syrian border guards?"
"Both men are inside the booth," said the pilot. "They appear to be unharmed. Do you want us to try and raise them?"
"Negative,"