give you a full refund and even pay for your plane ticket home.”
She shook her head and set her jaw. Her lips were a thin pencil line. “That’s very generous, Sam. But I’m too close to back away now. Not with my father still up there. So why is the mountain so dangerous?”
“All mountains are inherently dangerous. But particular to Ararat would be wolves, wild dogs, poisonous snakes, scorpions, brown bears, etc.”
“Bears?”
“They’re mostly harmless if you keep your distance. Higher up you have avalanches, gale-force winds, blizzards, electrical storms and hidden crevasses. Those are some of the reasons why the Turkish Department of Interior requires all climbers to use the local guides.”
She was quiet. I ground the last of the cigarette in the over-flowing ashtray. “Feeling okay?” I asked.
She nodded and I pressed the gas and we moved forward again.
Almost immediately, we were forced around a stretch of soft sand that would have mired the Rover. As I struggled with the truck, the sun appeared above the distant foothills, burning away the last of the mist that had been clinging tenaciously to the earth. But with the appearance of the sun, something flashed in the distance. I stopped the Rover.
“What is it?” Faye asked.
“Trouble.”
Chapter Twelve
I removed a pair of binoculars from the console between us, bringing the object into focus. “It’s a military truck,” I reported. “And a small camp. Maybe three or four soldiers. Sitting around a stove, drinking coffee. Unfortunately, they are guarding this very road.”
Faye shook her head. I think she still wasn’t convinced that this was a road. “Have they seen us?”
“Doesn’t appear so. And if they have, they plan on finishing their coffee before doing anything about it.”
“So what do we do?”
I scanned the surrounding brush with the field glasses. There. Two or three miles to the east, was another military Jeep, moving slowly over the uneven ground. And near the base of the mountain was yet another vehicle, discernible only by the trailing dirt cloud kicked up by the tires.
I lowered the binoculars. “It doesn’t look good for the home team, but I’m not without a back-up plan.” I pointed thirty feet ahead of us to where the land seemed to disappear below the horizon and start-up again a few dozen feet away. “It’s an arroyo, a dried riverbed, a one-time tributary from Ararat’s glacial run-off. In hotter summers, with severe glacial melt, the arroyo will transform into a raging river. But now it’s dry and should afford some cover. We should be well hidden.”
I moved the Rover forward, and out into the open. I knew we were exposed for the time being. But I was willing to gamble that the soldier boys were too sleepy to bother looking up from their coffee mugs. And just as I reached the arroyo, a small round bullet hole appeared in the Rover’s left front fender. I briefly wondered if my insurance would cover that when the report of a rifle echoed down along the arroyo.
Fifty feet away, hidden in the shadows and leaves of a copse of birches, was another Jeep with two camouflaged soldiers inside. One was leveling a semiautomatic weapon at us, grinning like a villain. We were his early morning target practice. After all, he could always tell his superiors we had resisted arrest.
He fired again and the weapon bucked in his arms like a hiccuping baby.
* * *
“Down!” I yelled, mashing the gas pedal to the floor. I heard the thud - thud - thud of bullets impacting the Rover’s side panels.
The tires spun, spewing dirt like a geyser. But we didn’t move, sinking deeper in the sand. Dust surrounded us, blown by the wind. The side window exploded. Glass washed over the dashboard. A bullet lodged into the air conditioning.
More thuds . White steam hissed from the engine.
Across the arroyo, the military Jeep roared to life. A ferocious sound.
And then the Rover’s tires found purchase, and we shot
She shook her head and set her jaw. Her lips were a thin pencil line. “That’s very generous, Sam. But I’m too close to back away now. Not with my father still up there. So why is the mountain so dangerous?”
“All mountains are inherently dangerous. But particular to Ararat would be wolves, wild dogs, poisonous snakes, scorpions, brown bears, etc.”
“Bears?”
“They’re mostly harmless if you keep your distance. Higher up you have avalanches, gale-force winds, blizzards, electrical storms and hidden crevasses. Those are some of the reasons why the Turkish Department of Interior requires all climbers to use the local guides.”
She was quiet. I ground the last of the cigarette in the over-flowing ashtray. “Feeling okay?” I asked.
She nodded and I pressed the gas and we moved forward again.
Almost immediately, we were forced around a stretch of soft sand that would have mired the Rover. As I struggled with the truck, the sun appeared above the distant foothills, burning away the last of the mist that had been clinging tenaciously to the earth. But with the appearance of the sun, something flashed in the distance. I stopped the Rover.
“What is it?” Faye asked.
“Trouble.”
Chapter Twelve
I removed a pair of binoculars from the console between us, bringing the object into focus. “It’s a military truck,” I reported. “And a small camp. Maybe three or four soldiers. Sitting around a stove, drinking coffee. Unfortunately, they are guarding this very road.”
Faye shook her head. I think she still wasn’t convinced that this was a road. “Have they seen us?”
“Doesn’t appear so. And if they have, they plan on finishing their coffee before doing anything about it.”
“So what do we do?”
I scanned the surrounding brush with the field glasses. There. Two or three miles to the east, was another military Jeep, moving slowly over the uneven ground. And near the base of the mountain was yet another vehicle, discernible only by the trailing dirt cloud kicked up by the tires.
I lowered the binoculars. “It doesn’t look good for the home team, but I’m not without a back-up plan.” I pointed thirty feet ahead of us to where the land seemed to disappear below the horizon and start-up again a few dozen feet away. “It’s an arroyo, a dried riverbed, a one-time tributary from Ararat’s glacial run-off. In hotter summers, with severe glacial melt, the arroyo will transform into a raging river. But now it’s dry and should afford some cover. We should be well hidden.”
I moved the Rover forward, and out into the open. I knew we were exposed for the time being. But I was willing to gamble that the soldier boys were too sleepy to bother looking up from their coffee mugs. And just as I reached the arroyo, a small round bullet hole appeared in the Rover’s left front fender. I briefly wondered if my insurance would cover that when the report of a rifle echoed down along the arroyo.
Fifty feet away, hidden in the shadows and leaves of a copse of birches, was another Jeep with two camouflaged soldiers inside. One was leveling a semiautomatic weapon at us, grinning like a villain. We were his early morning target practice. After all, he could always tell his superiors we had resisted arrest.
He fired again and the weapon bucked in his arms like a hiccuping baby.
* * *
“Down!” I yelled, mashing the gas pedal to the floor. I heard the thud - thud - thud of bullets impacting the Rover’s side panels.
The tires spun, spewing dirt like a geyser. But we didn’t move, sinking deeper in the sand. Dust surrounded us, blown by the wind. The side window exploded. Glass washed over the dashboard. A bullet lodged into the air conditioning.
More thuds . White steam hissed from the engine.
Across the arroyo, the military Jeep roared to life. A ferocious sound.
And then the Rover’s tires found purchase, and we shot
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