As the dawn began to break, James tried to imagine how the next few scenes would play out. The Iraqi Military, armed and dangerous, were honing in on their position and would be there within the hour. David offered protection in a bid to save the artifacts, though he was still half a world away. Tom would meet with David three days hence in Greece and arrange safe passage for the artifacts, provided they could get themselves and the artifacts to Greece. Those monitoring David and Tom's recent NETSAT communications, now had those same three days, enough time to plan and intercept the artifacts en route. Their whole team was presently stuck among the ruins of Babylon with limited resources, one commercial helicopter, and a single truck heavily laden down with a ton and a half of priceless artifacts. Together, these provided little protection against a nondescript and clandestine people, hell-bent on forcibly wrestling from them, everything they had in their possession. Should they make it to the border, how do two foreigners in hostile terrain explain to a border patrol, why they must steal a part of Iraq’s national heritage and take it with them to a safer place in a foreign land, without everyone being killed in the process, and without knowing exactly where safe was!
James knew this was going to be a very, very long day... and the sun had not yet risen!
