sensing the heightened danger she was now in, began to back slowly toward the building’s entrance.
“Where are you going Jew bitch?”
Mac watched as Densmore and two of his men cut off Ella’s path back to the building. Udi was now pointing his gun into Densmore’s back.
“Easy there – we ain’t quite at the point of no return just yet.”
Udi glared back at Mac as he continued to point his weapon at Densmore.
“I don’t take orders from you. You’re supposed to follow my lead – remember?”
The older Libyan who had first spoken to Ella turned around, trying to calm his men.
“We are not here for bloodshed. We are here to tell the Americans to get out of our country. To go back home and leave Libya to Libyans.”
“Fuck the Americans and fuck the Jews!”
Others among the Libyans began to repeat the words.
“Fuck the Americans and fuck the Jews!”
Densmore finally appeared to realize he was in just as much danger as Ella and her men were, as he trotted back behind one of the SUV’s, yelling into a cell phone that he needed help. Mac wondered who the FBI agent was talking to.
Several more Libyans had stopped their cars and were now walking toward the military transport truck, some of them already repeating the newly introduced mantra.
“Fuck the Americans and fuck the Jews!”
Mac spotted Jack moving slowly behind a row of palm trees as the sound of approaching sirens could be heard in the distance while Densmore and his men quickly jumped back into their vehicles and began to slowly drive away, leaving the growing and increasingly angry mob of Libyans to gather in front of Ella’s building. The bearded militant who had first shouted out that Ella was Jewish, pointed his assault rifle into the air and fired off several rounds. Several others among the armed Libyans were soon doing the same. Mac knew it would not be long before one of them pointed a weapon and fired it at the building itself.
The sound of the sirens grew closer as a Benghazi police car pulled in behind the gathering mob. A few of the militia members approached the police officer, firing their guns into the air while screaming for him to leave them alone. Mac watched as the police car quickly backed up and drove away.
So much for the cowardly cavalry…
Udi put his communicator to his ear, listening as he was told Ella was back inside the building.
As many as seventy Libyans were now gathered at the building entrance.
“Kill the Americans and kill the Jews!”
Mac looked over at Udi and winked.
“Hey, the good news is they changed their minds about fucking us!”
Ella approached from behind both Mac and Udi as they continued to lie on their stomachs peeking out at the Libyans below.
“So very glad you were sent to me Mr. Walker. I just love dealing with this kind of trouble so early in the day. You know, life’s just so boringly simple when you’re a Jewish woman in the middle of a city run by Muslim men who are born to hate everything about you.”
Mac looked back to reply to Ella’s words, but paused as he watched her moving forward along the roof, crouched low and carrying in both hands a World War Two era MG-42 machine gun.
“Udi, after I get this set up, I want you to yell out to those assholes down there that we mean business. If they don’t disperse, we are going to cut them into ribbons.”
Udi smiled back at Ella as she expertly extended the doubled legged base of the MG-42 and positioned its barrel to point just above the heads of the Libyans below.
“Mr. Walker, you can make yourself useful by helping to feed the ammo. That is, if you know how to do that.”
Mac grabbed onto the ammo belt.
“Oh, I think I can manage.”
Udi stood up and looked down at the Libyans gathered in front of the building and shouted down to them in Arabic.
“Hey! Hey! We are going to ask you to leave this area now! If you fail to do so, we are prepared to defend ourselves. We are well armed. Do you