“What’s the pool?” Mike asked, closing his eyes. Fuck, now he was getting tired.
“Six to one says they attack first,” Vanner replied. “They’re really exercised about something. I think it’s the money.”
“Or that fucker we captured,” Mike said. “Heavy weapons?”
“Mortars are out there,” Vanner said. “They might be setting up. We think we’ve got coordinates. I sent them to the Predator guys. Sounds as if the heavy machine guns are still straggling forward. Might not make it before the other force. If then.”
“What I wouldn’t do for a Spectre or a few JDAMs,” Mike said, sitting up. He was not going to sleep. “Team leaders. Check in.”
“Sawn.” “Vil.” “Pavel.” “Dafyd.” “Yosif.” “Oleg.”
“Guys, do not, say again, do not use the new machine guns unless we have to,” Mike said. “We’re probably going to get hit soon. There may be mortars. Try not to use them in the first attack. Snipers concentrate on leadership. All the rest of you guys, fuck them over good. But try to play like we don’t have mediums. If they get right down to the line, open up. But not unless I say so.”
“Tiger Base, this is Tiger one.”
“Go Kildar.”
Mike liked that the commo people were all Keldara girls. It was just refreshing to hear a chirpy female voice.
“ETA on the next Valkyrie run?” Mike said.
“Twenty mikes, Kildar,” Base replied. “5.56, grenades, rocket rounds. Water, food and beer.”
“Hoorah,” Mike said. “Six casualties to go. Make Valkyrie aware that we are expecting an attack at any time. She should not, say again not, attempt to approach without my call.”
“Roger, Kildar.”
“Kildar, out.”
“Pedar is pretty bad,” Vanner pointed out. Julia and Olga had taken over tending to the wounded but Vanner had been giving pointers. “He needs some whole blood.”
“And it would be pretty bad if the Hind dropped on us in the middle of a major firefight,” Mike pointed out then keyed his throat mike. “Hey, Ass-boy One. You see if they’re moving into position, yet?”
“Negative, Ass-boy Two,” Adams replied. “Nada.”
“Kildar, Lasko.”
“You still hanging in there old man?” Mike asked.
“Yes, Kildar, I am,” Lasko answered, coldly. “They are putting snipers in on Hill 357.”
Mike looked at the map and shrugged.
“Snipers may engage at will,” he said. “Keep them off our backs.”
“Roger, Kildar.”
Mike looked at the boulders stacked over his head and started counting.
“Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one… ” There was a crack of a rifle in the distance and he smiled. “One sniper down.”
Lasko had kept up, but barely. And he had been ashamed that Pyotar, from Team Yosif who had taken over as his spotter, had done most of the preparation of the hide. But he had been totally worn out. So worn out all he could carry was his personal rifle and ammunition. It was left to Pyotar to carry the heavier Robar.
Now, though, he was back in his element. He didn’t need the Robar at this range, just the beautiful Mannlicher.
There were three snipers setting up positions on the hill, probably thinking they were out of sight or range.
Fools, if the enemy is in range, so are you.
Of the three, one was taking the most cover, and care, as he prepared his position. He was barely visible behind a rock, rolling more rocks in the way for cover. Really, all that was visible seven hundred and twenty three meters away was his head.
Stroke, crack.
Now he had no head.
Chapter Fourty
The president looked at the clock on his desk, sighed and picked up his phone.
“Amanda?” he said, “I do believe it’s quitting time.”
“Yes, sir,” his administrative assistant replied. “Schedule is now officially clear. No evening meetings.”
“Good, good,” he said. “Have a good night. See you tomorrow.” He hit the disconnect on the phone and touched another key.
“Pierson.”
“Ah, Colonel Pierson, I see they tracked you down. Status on the Keldara.”
“They’re pinned, sir,” Pierson replied. “Predators detected a Chechen blocking force in the pass. The Kildar elected to take a defensive position and hunker down.”
“What?” the president snapped. “That’s suicide!”
“We’ve been monitoring their communications, sir,” Pierson said, uncomfortably. “The Kildar is aware of the correlation of forces but he and Colonel Nielson believe it is possible to ravage the Chechen main force. I presume they believe that will force the blocking force to be committed to the battle. If they can sufficiently damage the main force and the blocking force they have the possibility of slipping out of the noose. Mr. Jenkins’ main worry is mortars and other indirect fire and the Predator has been tasked to look for those.”
“That sounds like more of a desperate wish than a plan,” the president replied.
“The reason that they feel that this is, in fact, a plan and not desperation has to do with some fairly high end battle theory, sir,” Pierson said. “Do you want me to cover it?”
“I’ve got ten minutes free,” the president replied. “Can you give me a summary in less than ten minutes?”
“Yes, sir,” Pierson said.
“Come up.”
The colonel had only been in the Oval Office twice before, but he knew the route. When he entered he went to the center of the rug, a presidential seal, and came to a position of attention.
“Colonel Pierson, reporting as ordered, sir.”
“Would you prefer to sit or stand?” the president asked, waving to a chair.
“Stand, if I may, sir,” Pierson replied.
“Go.”
“Theory on the psychology and processes of battle has rapidly advanced over the last ten years or so, Mr. President,” Pierson began. “Many battles in history had outcomes that defied conventional wisdom. Notable among those are Rourke’s Drift, Crecy and Aletia. In each of those cases, numerically inferior units comparable in apparent capability with their opponents were placed in a situation where defeat was, apparently, inevitable. Yet they prevailed. Countervailing these oddities were the much more common experiences where numerically inferior units failed. An well known example of the latter was the Battle of Little Big Horn.
“Various theories existed over time in classical warfare literature which tried to define the reason for these anomalous outcomes. Most of them came down to sayings: ‘On deadly ground, fight.’ ‘The moral is as the physical by three to one.’ And so on. But the mechanism was poorly understood and did not always stand up to tests. At Dieppe, for example, a unit that might have survived under other circumstances was killed or captured. Whereas in the same war, at Bastogne, another unit with comparable correlation of forces survived and beat their larger opponent.
“Recent theory of the psychology of combat indicates that certain forms of training are synergistic. That is one method of training laid upon other methods, along with a functionality best described as ‘esprit’, is capable of creating units that have a high ‘true’ force multiple in combat. A recent example was found during the entry phase of the Iraq war in which a heavy infantry company was cut off and surrounded by the near order of ten times their number. Despite that fact, they were able to not only defeat the attackers but ravage them. They killed nearly three times their number in attackers and suffered a single casualty, he only wounded.