The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

and the convoy continued its drive to Bagram. They reached the base without furtherincident.The pilots roused the engines as soon as they saw the cars driving into the airdrome.The cargo bay of the IL-76 opened and the truck drove into the airplane. Once inside,technicians quickly secured the car in position with metal cables.Dolmatov and his operatives descended from the airplane to the tarmac.“Open the boxes immediately after takeoff,” he ordered Kurilov, who was toaccompany the “diplomatic cargo” to the Soviet Union. “They must have sufferedconsiderably in those stuffy boxes. Now you’re in charge of their lives.”“Don’t worry, Alexander Ivanovich,” Kurilov reassured him as he took his hand to bidfarewell. Dolmatov squeezed his hand so hard that tears nearly appeared in Kurilov’s eyes.It was unclear whether the tears were the result of him leaving Kabul or from the stress ofhaving just avoided mortal danger less than an hour ago. He didn’t know at the time that inless than two months, he would return to see the mountains, Kabul, Dolmatov, and hisfriends again. He would return with a weapon in hand, this time to engage in battle.The technicians sealed the airplane doors and the Il-76 roared off into the sky.Once airborne, Kurilov anxiously began prying open the containers with theassistance of Glotov and his operatives. It hadn’t been more than two hours since theministers had been sealed inside the containers, but it would be difficult for anyone tosurvive without air in such an enclosed space. Fortunately all three were alive. Sarwari, theheaviest of the three, his shirt drenched with sweat, had the most difficulty getting out ofthe container, but sprang to life as soon as he was back on his feet. He immediatelyapproached the window of the aircraft and asked, “Where are we now?” He was told that580