Echo Six: Black Ops 5 - Strikeforce Syria by Eric Meyer Page A

destination before dawn. Unless…
    "Belay that. Lose the bodies, and we'll use the jeep. It'll be a tight squeeze getting us all in, but we should make it."
    They raced off, and he turned to Guy. "Make sure you cover any signs of the killing. Sooner or later, their people will come looking for them, and if they see blood in the sand, they'll know we're not far away. With the two men and the vehicle missing, they'll assume they drove off somewhere. Deserted, maybe, or gone to find a couple of women to rape. That’s their style."
    "Copy that," he acknowledged. They brushed sand over the two telltale blood patches, and then more men joined in to start sweeping and smoothing their backtrail. Footprints in the sand would give them away, as sure as sending the Syrians a greetings card.

    * * *

    The journey in the battered Russian SUV was uncomfortable, to the point of being excruciating. Rovere drove, and Talley was squeezed next to him in the front. A man's knees pressed into his back, and a pair of boots rested over his shoulder. Rebecca was also sitting in the front, next to the door. Because she was smaller, she'd managed to avoid the worst of the discomfort. He thought about her kill and turned to give her his opinion. Maybe it would start to break the icy shell with which she seemed to surround herself.
    "That was well done back there. Guy is fast, and yet you were quicker. I guess you've done this a few times before."
    A pause, and when she spoke, she didn't turn her head to look at him.
    "I have killed many enemies of Israel. It’s nothing special, not anymore."
    Her voice was cold, calm, and unemotional, the voice of a killer.
    "It doesn't worry you?" he persisted, seeking out her humanity. "There's something about taking a man's life with a knife close-up. It's…brutal. Not so easy as shooting him."
    She turned her head toward him. "These people are determined to destroy my nation, to create a second Holocaust. Why would I have any difficulty killing vermin like them? They are no different than the Nazis who massacred my people during the Second World War."
    He nodded. "I guess not."
    Talley assumed the conversation was over. He was surprised when after several minutes she spoke again.
    "Do you know what it's like, Commander?"
    "Being a Jew?"
    Her mouth moved into a tiny smile. "I meant to be an attractive woman in an organization run by men. Many of who think females exist for their amusement. It is not easy, and sometimes it is impossible to be treated as a normal person, and not regarded as a gaudy trinket.”
    She meant treated as a man. Maybe she was right. He'd felt the enormous pull of her beauty, and yet he’d seen her deadly killing skills. Except the two didn't go together, like a square peg in a round hole. It wasn’t…normal. Yet she was a soldier, like him, like the rest of the people in his unit. It was just, well, the usual male prejudice toward a pretty woman.
    "I'm sorry, maybe we made a bad start." He gave her a smile, hoping she didn't misinterpret his meaning as an advance. "How about we try again?"
    She thought for a few moments, and then returned his smile. "Fine with me, Commander."
    "It's Abe."
    She didn't reply, but he was sure he saw her give a tight nod, or maybe it was just another pothole in the road that had caused her head to move.
    What is she, sex object, lesbian, asexual, or maybe a female warrior who has no time for the temptations of the flesh? Fair enough.
    Rovere kept his foot down on the gas pedal, and they swallowed the distance to the outskirts of Aleppo. Finally, they crested a rise, and in front of them could see the lights of the city in the distance, about four kilometers along the road. He braked to a stop next to a signpost in Arabic.
    "According to my calculations, we're on Route 20, and we turn off for Sheikh Najjar in about half a kilometer. There's likely to be patrols and checkpoints from here on in."
    Talley nodded, trying to recollect the map they'd seen back at