“As the French commander I have nearly one thousand two hundred kilometers of border to guard, including four hundred and fifty kilometers of beaches that are nearly all suitable for amphibious operations of one form or another, and I have two regiments, who don’t play well together, with which to do it… aussi facile que la peinture sur l'eau…‘easy as painting on water’, as the French say.” Jie explained. “The beach will be the easier part of my mission. I won’t have to deal with mines, wire and a whole regiment shooting at me…,” he grinned broadly and added, “…unless I’m really, really unlucky!”
He would of course proceed with caution as it would be a great shame to have come all this way just to be rumbled at the last by an OP, a sentry or a roving foot patrol.
There was of course the element of the bizarre which had a way of throwing spanners in the works too.
He knew all about the Israeli arrest operation of an Arab militant that had been compromised by five hundred novices and nuns at a convent’s beach barbecue.
Some things just aren’t catered for in the ‘Actions on:-’ section of an ‘O’ Group.
There was another knock on the door of the captain’s cabin and this time it was a signaler handing over a slip of message pad.
It was the response to his query to fleet headquarters.
Li read it twice and then with a regretful shake of the head he dismissed the signaler and handed the slip to Captain Huaiqing.
Al Jazeera News report: Argentina claims to have attacked two surfaced submarines south of Falkland Islands. Both vessels allegedly sunk. Salvaged items of wreckage displayed to media appear to be of Russian manufacture along with items of Chinese and Russian uniforms.
Proceed on assumption Tuan and Admiral Potemkin lost.
On conclusion, scuttle vessels and evade.
“Bao needs to be informed of the changes immediately.” Jie Huaiqing said.
Li nodded in agreement.
“High tide shortly after dusk tonight if memory serves, and I trust that coming ashore high up the beach isn’t going to put you in a minefield buried in the sand is it?”
“We will not be bothered by mines on the beach.” Huaiqing replied with certainty.
Li looked at him quizzically. Triggering a land mine on the beach would strip away the vital element of surprise that the operation relied upon.
“Another part of the briefing I slept through?”
“A little reptilian told me we will only have bored and sleepy sentries to contend with.”
Captain Li shook his head slowly. This soldier was an odd one, always with his nose in a book when not working out in the limited space of the torpedo room, absorbing the most random information like a sponge. Nevertheless, he was intelligent, resourceful, and well respected by his troops.
As this new plan was their only viable option at completing the mission with the remaining resources, he had to trust Jie’s abilities.
“Well I hope your reptile informant is correct or we are all screwed.” He gathered up the maps and documents and returned them to the safe.
“Tonight would seem to be the night then, Major.”
CHAPTER 2
It was curiously quiet in the forest, although Colin could hear the drone of outgoing shells passing far overhead and impacting in the distance.
Looking up through a gap in the foliage he could see the base of the clouds toward the horizon briefly illuminated by the flashes of the shells exploding but it was several seconds before the crump of their detonation reached his ears.
The flashes of light also served to illuminate the shapes of Russian paratroopers silently emerging from the trees across the fire break, the light flashing off the long bayonets attached to their assault rifles. AKs have their own folding bayonet but these were at least two feet in length with serrated edges.
None of his men were opening fire though!
“Enemy to the front…fifty metres…rapid… FIRE!”
No one fired a single round despite the Russians being all out of the trees now and clearly visible in the firebreak, and then he saw all his men were Corporal Bethers and their lower jaws were missing.
Their shoulders shook with mirth as they turned to stare at him, the only one of the fighting patrol not dead, the only one not disfigured.
He rose to meet the Russian’s bayonet charge and gripped his own rifle firmly, but he felt it crack and then crumble to dust in his grasp.
His men were still shaking in silent laughter and not attempting to help.
“Give me a rifle someone!”
If anything they found his predicament even more hilarious and some were rolling on the ground.
“Here sir, come and get mine!” the voice sounded from behind him.
Robertson stood there holding out his own rifle, his face missing.
“But you are dead, you died yesterday!”
Colin turned back and froze at the sight of a Russian paratrooper charging directly at him, an impossibly long bayonet pointing unwaveringly at his midsection.
Colin tried to move, to dodge out of the way but his legs moved in slow motion.
He screamed aloud as the sharp steel transfixed him, driving through to pin him against the tree behind.
“Nikoli…help me mate!” he called out to his friend who had appeared in front of him.
But Fanny M glared with hatred at the British soldier.
“You killed me Colin, and I was just doing my duty. I saved you and you killed me…”
A nurse leaned over the mumbling, sweating patient, feeling for a pulse on the wrist handcuffed to the metal bedframe in the ICU at King’s College Hospital in Lambeth.
Outside the sterile unit, two prison officers sat staring through a large glass window at the nurses’ ministrations to their charge.
She took his temperature, noting and updating his progress chart before she moved on, and the prison officers attention returned to the paperback book and Angry Birds that were helping to pass the time.
The Australian continent was not yet under threat of immediate air attack but blackouts were in force across the country so as not to assist the enemy photo-reconnaissance satellites when they passed overhead.
The F-14 Tomcat entered the circuit with its crew spending a moment to peer down at an earth that was darker than the sky.
A vehicle with hooded headlamps on what had to be the Great Northern Highway on the right and a long and dimly lit train on the left satisfied the pilot that runway ‘36 Right’ of Royal Australian Air Force Base Pearce was down there between them and the controller was not lying.
They were on finals and thirty seconds from the outer marker before the landing lights came on, and then they dimmed perceptibly the moment their wheels had touched the tarmac.
At the end of the aircraft’s rollout the runway lights were extinguished, leaving the Tomcat with its engines idling. It sat there in the darkness at the end of the runway until a vehicle drove in front and a ‘Follow Me’ sign illuminated. The vehicle led the aircraft off the runway and along taxiways at a rate of knots greater than that demanded by the speed limits posted at intervals along the route. To the sides they could vaguely make out the dark outlines of war planes of various nations occupying No.2 Flying Training School’s flight lines and dispersals that were meant for the PC-9 trainers. Those trainers were now off on one of the many Australian Air Force airfields that were otherwise occupied just by caretakers, who maintained the runways and limited facilities for times such as these.