CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
9:45 p.m. Tehran Time (1:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time)
The Skies above Eastern Iraq
Luke breathed pure oxygen through a mask affixed to his face.
He sat on a long bench inside the plane. At one end of the bench sat a young man, who for lack of another name, Luke was starting to think of as Ari Meil. At the other end sat Ed Newsam.
The two hadn’t spoken again since their fight at the secret Israeli airbase. Indeed, during their stopover at the American base in Basra, while Luke and Ed went into the PX for a bite to eat and took naps in a guest barracks, the Israeli disappeared again.
It wasn’t good. Luke was going to have to find a way to bridge the gap between them. Not just between Ed and the kid, but between Luke and the kid as well.
Luke checked the altimeter
