“Lemme get that,” Mike said, hefting both of his bags as well as one of Anastasia’s and the big case he’d bought to carry her purchases. And apparently most of them were going to be shipped. Shit. He was seriously getting heavy in the clothes department.
“I told you not to let her go shopping,” Adams said, grabbing bags as well. “What’s up?”
“Command room,” Mike said. “Combat staff. Daria. Thirty minutes.”
“Got it,” Adams replied.
“We got ourselves one colossal fuck-up in the making,” Mike said, sighing.
Adams, Vanner, Nielson and a somewhat nervous Daria were gathered around the staff table all of them wondering what was up.
“Methinks I hear distant musketry,” Nielson replied.
“Not so distant,” Mike said, rubbing his eyes. “The Russians, the mob in this case, are selling nukes again. And this time to the Chechens.”
“Get out,” Vanner said. “Why in the hell would the Russians sell the Chechens nukes?”
“Money?” Mike said. “Sixty mil in this case. We recover them, we get twenty. There are supposed to be three. I hope even NSA can count that high. It’s not something you want to diddle with. A nuke here, a nuke there… The problem is time and location. We know the time but it’s just a couple of weeks away. And we’ve got minimal intel. I’m planning on sending Katya in to get some more, but that has problems, too. And getting there… it’s right in the middle of the Pansiki.”
“Gods,” Adams said, rubbing his eyes. “We could walk there in a couple of days. Drive there… about the same time as getting to Tblisi. That is… ”
“If there weren’t a few thousand Chechens in our way,” Mike said. “We can’t use any of the regular passes or trails. They’re all watched.”
“High,” Nielson said. “Way high up. Don’t take the low passes. Hell, in some cases don’t take passes at all, go right across the shoulders of the mountains. Serious alpine. Winter’s already started up there. It’s close here. It’s gonna be a bitch.”
“More or less my thinking,” Mike said. “Daria, darling?”
“Yes, Kildar?”
“Order climbing gear from Arctic Outfitters in Alaska,” Mike said, sliding over the list he’d made up on the way back. “We’re going to need everything from soup to nuts. Clothing, crampons, ice axes, the lot. Express ship. Make sure they know we need it now and I don’t care how much it costs. Charter a plane if you have to.”
“Yes, Kildar,” she said, making a note on the list. “I’ll match this to the Keldara teams. But you’ve got two sets of female gear. Who?”
“That’s up to Vanner,” Mike said, turning to the intel specialist. “Katya’s going to need commo. Her implants are short ranged. Which means sending in a commo team in advance.”
“Well, it’s the same problem, isn’t it,” Vanner pointed out. “Getting there. I mean, the girls are strong and I think they could make the walk. But they’re going to need the gear, first. Getting there ahead of Katya, or even ahead of the teams to pick up intel, that’s going to be tough.”
“Sure would, if they were walking,” Mike said. “I seem to recall you mentioning you were airborne qualified. Ever done any freefall?”
“Kildar… ?” Vanner said, warily.
“See, HALO makes so much more sense,” Mike replied, grinning.
“Oh, you have got to be out of your mind,” Vanner said, his eyes wide.
“I like it,” Adams said with an evil grin.
“Daria, another list,” Mike said with just as evil a grin. “Five sets of high altitude jump gear. Parachutes. Freefall trainer. The works.” He slid over another sheet of paper and grinned, again. “I’ve actually got both lists on files. I’ll give them to you.”
“Good news,” Adams added. “He’s a fully trained HALO instructor. Got thousands of jumps. Jumpin’ fool.”
“Great,” Vanner said. ” You go.”
“You know why I can’t,” Mike replied. “Two of your best commo girls, at least unmarried ones. I’ll assign a couple of shooters for security. And then we start training. Piece of cake. All you have to do is fall. You can fall, right?”
“All the way to the ground,” Vanner said with a sigh.
“It’s fun,” Adams said. “You’ll love it. Oh, prebreathing sucks and I imagine that the DZ is probably going to be a little small. Then there’s all the problems of where, exactly, ground level is and winds in mountains and… Actually, it’s going to suck. Glad it’s you and not me.”
“We gonna try to use any special weapons or techniques on this?” Vanner asked, ignoring the Master Chief. “With the support we’re getting we could probably get anything from the US government.”
“I don’t think so,” Mike said after a moment’s thought. “Trying to integrate special weapons at this point would really set us back. Let’s go with conventional approach. But, out of interest, what were you talking about?”
“There are some interesting sound weapons that are being developed,” Nielson said. “And the new thermobaric system the Marines are using.”
“Too much overkill on that for this mission,” Adams said. “Those things are used for flattening houses.”
“Be useful for interdiction,” Mike said. “But it takes coordination from what I’ve read. You have to penetrate the wall of the structure with a standard rocket round and then put the thermobaric through the hole. That is if you don’t have a window as a target.”
“How fast can we get some?” Adams asked. “I can set a few of the Keldara to training on them. Run everybody through, but Shota’s shown a real knack for the Carl. Which is good given how big it is.”
“I’ll check into it,” Nielson said, making another note.
“First thing is to call all the troops in,” Mike said.
“Already done,” Nielson said. “It will take about another day for Team Padrek to get back to pickup points.”
“Get with the Georgian military,” Mike said. “I’d rather that they not get back worn out from humping. See if you can get helicopter support to pick them all up.”
“Will do,” Nielson said, making a note.
“Call General Umarov,” Mike said, referring to the Georgian military chief of staff. “I don’t want any petty bullshit getting in the way. He should be up on this, if he’s not, wake him up.”
“Will do,” Nielson said.
“Vanner, we need to get the insertion of Katya as a high priority. Her primary mission is similar to Albania; find Marina, localize her for extraction and assist in assuring her safety during extraction.”
“Will do,” Vanner said. “You’re seriously planning on inserting me?”
“I’ll even let you have a weapon,” Mike said, grinning. “Set up the insertion on Katya as soon as we get the data dump from Chechnik and you run through it.”
“Will do,” Vanner said. “Does Katya know she’s being inserted?”
“That’s my next meeting,” Mike admitted, grimacing.
Chapter Eleven
“You wanted to see me, Kildar?”
Katya was, if anything, more beautiful than Anastasia and in the same mold, blonde, blue-eyed with a slight Tartar tilt. Great tits and a fine ass, delicious lilt to her voice and hips that swayed in a way that was truly extraordinary. The blue eyes could look as innocent as a child but she had long before discovered that Mike saw right through her. So the eyes he looked into, now, were as cold and dead as a shark’s.