fire on the voice. A single shot from a Dragunov sniper rifle took him in the throat, blasting his blood against the side of the ambulance. He dropped to the road dead.
“Hold your fire!” the Tunisian officer shouted.
“This is your last chance to throw down your weapons.”
Another shot from the Dragunov and another soldier dead.
“You will not get away with this!”
“You are being covered from an elevated position. You are compromised. There is no escape!”
The Tunisian officer opened fire. The hillside lit up with return fire and only stopped when the last soldier fell down dead. The only sounds other than the Kamov helicopter were the men on the hillside reloading their weapons. Slowly they came down to the road.
Inside the ambulance the policeman guarding the prisoner had his face pressed against the small square window. He could see the burning police cars. The ambulance crew were cowering in their seats. A wicked sound of machine gun fire came through to them as a Tunisian national guardsman was put out of his misery.
The policeman inside the ambulance backed away from the double doors at the rear of the vehicle as he heard footsteps stop outside.
“Stay as you are and you won’t get hurt,” the scarred man ordered.
Suddenly the doors were yanked open and he went for his gun. A single shot took him in the head and his brains splattered the interior.
The scarred man looked into the dead eyes.
“Stupid fool.”
The front doors were now ripped open and machine guns covered the ambulance crew as they raised their hands.
Former KGB agent Anatoly Petrov holstered his Glock 19 handgun.
“He has the handcuff keys,” the scarred man gestured towards the policeman Petrov had just killed. Petrov searched the body, found the keys and unlocked the restraints. The scarred man rubbed his wrists, the broken skin sticky with fluid. Petrov stepped down into the road and made way for the scarred man.
Count Otto Brest von Werner stepped carefully down onto the road. His private army of men saluted him.
“Welcome back sir,” the Russian spoke.
“Thank you Petrov. Any casualties?”
“No sir. My team is all accounted for. Your ship is ten miles off the coast.”
Two black hawk helicopters flew in low over the hills and landed in the road. Petrov gestured to Von Werner.
“If you’re ready sir.”
“Yes Mr Petrov. Take care of the vehicles.”
“Yes Sir. And them?” Petrov asked, nodding towards the ambulance crew. Von Werner looked at them both. They were on their knees in the road, their hands on top of their heads, guns still trained on them. They were clearly petrified. Von Werner considered killing them.
“They were only doing their job. Let them go.”
“Yes sir,” Petrov made a motion with his hand and the guns were withdrawn. The two ambulance men got to their feet, mumbled their thanks and fled into the night.
Von Werner watched as his men set explosives on the remaining jeep and the ambulance.
“There’s another prisoner here sir. Shall I let him go?”
“Why hasn’t he escaped already?” Petrov asked.
“He’s chained to the floor.”
Petrov looked at Von Werner who shrugged and headed for the first Black hawk. The prisoner began screaming and frantically pulling at his chains as the last of the men got into the helicopters and they lifted off and headed North for the Meditterranean. Von Werner looked back at the huge fireball that lit up the night sky when the vehicles exploded.
Major Al-assad surveyed the carnage on the mountain road. His special forces team were scouring the debris for clues. Of the police cars and ambulance there was nothing left. They were completely burned out. Just skeletons and ash remained. The jeeps, one on its roof, were twisted hunks of metal. In the lead one were the charred remains of a human still chained to the floor. A forensics expert examining the remains. The teeth on the corpse were completely bared.
“As quickly as you can with those results,” Al-assad said to the forensics team working on the corpse. They were scanning their samples into a laptop.
“Yes sir. Do you want DNA scans on all casualties?”
“No. Not necessary. Our man was heavily scarred on the face and hands. None of the other dead match those injuries.”
A lieutenant approached Al-assad.
“Sir we’ve got another body. This one was in the back of the ambulance.“
“The condition of the body?”
“Beyond recognition sir. He’s also been shot in the head. We did find a standard issue police handgun.”
“And the ambulance crew?”
“Unnaccounted for.”
“Is it possible they were completely incinerated?”
“Possible but unlikely. My guess is they