Not long after midnight on Dec. 8, 2024, dozens of people gathered in the darkness outside the military section of the Damascus International Airport. Carrying whatever they could pack, they piled into a small Syrian Air jet. Only an hour earlier, they were part of an elite cadre that formed the backbone of one of the world’s most brutal regimes. Now, in the wake of President Bashar al-Assad’s sudden fall and escape from the country, they were fugitives, scrambling with their families to flee.