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With agonizing slowness the Boeing lifted its nose and swept past the icy peak with less than a hundred feet to spare

Down on the glacier, the ht 106

pilot, Date Lemk, in London and taken his place, peered into the distance through a pair of night glasses The northern lights had faded to a diainst the sky

The air was hushed with expectancy The only sounds cahts transmitter beacon into the hull of a helicopter

Suleiman Aziz Arnmar's eyes became accustoes scarring the wall of the ice floe

A for the sht 106 But the distant fireball did not materialize

Finally Alacier spread around hi and threw it into the darkness Next he removed a pair of specially handcrafted boots and took out the four-inch risers in the heels He beca beside him

"Good nize you," said Ibn, a swarthy type with a curly mass of ebony hair "The equipment loaded?"

Ammar asked

"All secured Was the mission a success?"

"A minor miscalculation The plane soiven Miss Kamil a few more minutes of life"

"Akhmad Yazid will not be pleased"

"Ka was left to chance"

"The plane still flies"

"Even Allah can't keep it in the air indefinitely"