Natanz: The Final Notice Read online

  Chapter 5

  After a forty-five minute flight, the Iranian Air Force C-130 makes its approach and landing at Hesa Air Base near the city of Isfahan in central Iran. Two old Chinook C-47 helicopters and two platoons of IRGC soldiers are waiting as the military transport taxis onto the ramp. The Israeli prisoners have no idea where they are and what their fate will be.

  This situation is very familiar to them. Most of them are former Israeli Defense Force veterans and they have always been expected to endure whatever extreme situation has been forced upon them. Yosef believes that he knows what is going on. He knows that the Iranians will do anything to prevent their nuclear facilities from being attacked. He knows that he and his fellow Israelis have just became human shields for the nuclear facilities at Natanz and possibly the Fordo facility at Qom.

  Yosef also knows that this will not prevent the Israelis from attacking these nuclear facilities. The soldiers of Israeli Defense Force have always been willing to sacrifice their lives for the perpetuation of their homeland.

  The Iranians have used this strategy before. It did not work for them when they held the American Embassy hostages after the Islamic Revolution. The world frowns on kidnapping no matter what the reason and will not condone this attempt to protect their aggressive plans to develop nuclear weapons.

  But the Iranians see it differently. They are trying to buy time till all their centrifuges are completed and enough uranium has been enriched to weapons grade. Then the Americans and Israelis will not risk an attack that could send plumes of the contaminated dust into the atmosphere. This is the gamble that the Iranians hope to win.

  As the helicopters are loaded, Yosef is trying to dispel thoughts about escaping. He is trained to escape but he knows that the most important thing is to focus on gathering intelligence about the Natanz area and what resources the Iranians possess. If he is able to get out of this situation, he will be able to provide some very valuable information to his superiors. Escaping is not an option that he can think about at this time. His duty is to protect the lives of the engineers.