The rescue operation to get Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado out of Venezuela involved disguises, two boats through choppy seas and a flight, the man who says he led it told the BBC.
Dubbed Operation Golden Dynamite, the dangerous journey was cold, wet and long - but the "formidable" Machado didn't complain once, said Bryan Stern, a US special forces veteran and founder of the Grey Bull Rescue Foundation.
"The seas are very rough. It's pitch black. We're using flashlights to communicate. This is very scary, lots of things can go wrong."
Despite the risks, they didn't. Machado arrived safely in Oslo, Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize just before midnight on Wednesday.
Machado had been living in hiding in her own country since Venezuela's widely disputed elections last year, and hadn't been seen in public since January. Her grown-up children, who she hadn't seen in two years, were in Oslo to greet her.
