Airport Security

The team’s plane was directed to land at Muscat airport’s main terminals. The airport was locked down due to the chaos in the region (Cairo, Jerusalem, etc.), the terminals full of passengers whose flights were suspended. The PA announced a phone call for one of Ilan’s cover-identities. It was from Mahoney, who, via a disguised message, told Ilan that he was around 20-30 minutes away, and that they were being watched. The team spotted two groups of observers: one appeared to be Omani, probably state police; the other appeared Easter-European, probably Russian. During the flight, Chana had received a message from her superiors at Mossad calling her back to HQ ASAP; she wished the team luck, then broke off top make her own escape. The team started heading toward the food court, hoping to slip out the back of a restaurant, but their Omani pursuers were close behind, looking nervous. Instead, Lynch snagged a janitor’s cart, and they all headed toward an out-of-the-way bathroom.

Baum headed for the urinals, near the only other civilians present. Vega entered the first stall and pulled his feet up. The police were focused on Lynch as he headed toward the back, half-heartedly playing the janitor part, drawing them such that their backs were to the others. When the lead policeman of the four challenged Lynch, the civilians zipped up and left in a hurry; Baum pretended to follow. As one of the policemen opened Vega’s stall door, Vega kicked it, knocking him into Lynch, and the fight was on. Baum and Lynch grappled with two, attempting to disarm them, while Vega broke off his toilet seat and attacked. Then one of the Russians entered and suddenly opened fire with a submachine gun. Vega charged the Russian with the toilet-seat and struck him hard in the head, but took a full burst from the submachine gun in the process; he was struck in the heart, and died instantly. When the dust finally settled, the Russian and police were all dead or bleeding out, Vega was dead, and Lynch was shot in the arm.

Outside the bathroom, injured and frightened civilians were running away from other firefights that had broken out in the terminal at the same time. Lynch and Baum hoisted Vega between them and blended with the crowd, toward the main lobby. Mahoney had arrived at the main parking lot just behind the fleet of ambulances responding to the emergency. He found one ambulance temporarily absent of its driver, collected the rest of the team as they exited, and drove away.