Amanda stopped suddenly and Lee ran into her, "Amanda." His angry whisper cut through the night.

"This isn't going to work, Lee"

"It had damned well better work," Lee whispered harshly.

"It's not going to work." She sat back down pulling him after her and getting them out of anyone's line of sight.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No."

"Then let's go."

"No. Lee, how many of them do you think there are here?"

He cocked his head at her, "I don't know 50 maybe less, that's what the latest intelligence said anyway…" as realization dawned his shoulders slumped in defeat, "oh."

"Yeah, they probably all know each other. They're going to be able to pick you out in a second, Lee."

He took a deep breath, "Okay, so then we find somewhere to hide out until morning, we find Sullivan, and we get those bombs back."

Lee looked around at his meager surroundings. It wouldn't take an hour for Christophe's men to find them. They were both as good as dead if that happened. And he really didn't like the idea of what Christophe had in mind for his Amanda.

Amanda stared off into the distance. Campfires danced just yards away. The snorts and grunts of camels floated towards them on a wavering breeze. Men sat around smoking and telling stories and laughing. The women had all retired for the night. Jewel colored tents seemed to glow in the brightening moonlight. She didn't want to die, especially not here, not being able to tell her mother and the boys why. She began to rock gently in the sand.

Lee reached out and touched her arm. This was becoming far too common to them. "Amanda, I'll think of something, okay?"

She nodded then she jumped up as if she'd been bitten.

"What? Amanda, what's wrong?" Lee looked around expecting to see terrorists standing at his back.

"The Bedouins."

"What about them?" Lee looked off in the direction that Amanda was staring in and suddenly it was like he was reading her mind. He smiled, "come on. And stay low."

Amanda followed him through the darkness towards the encampment. Instinctively, Lee reached back and smiled as Amanda took his hand. He surveyed the area, trying to stay outside the firelight. Lee could still hear the activity in the base as men swore and doors slammed. In his head, he figured that they had a few hours left until sunrise. In June in Mareki, the sun rose around quarter past 6. That gave them a little bit of a buffer. He just hoped that he could get them back to Vakesh and as soon after the sun came up as possible. The temperature would soar to over 130° shortly after.

Lee did a double take when he saw the jeep parked next to the tent. The roof was gone and so were the doors, but he'd seen the Arabs driving it when they'd come in with this group, so it ran and it ran in the desert. That was really all that Lee needed from it anyway. He stopped, held his finger to his lips and motioned for Amanda to get down behind the tent. "And stay down."

She nodded and Lee stepped around the tent into the darkness and disappeared.