Damn, he had good people.
But it looked as if their fearless leader was going to be the last one down.
“What the fuck, over?” Adams said as his head peeked around the door of Mike’s office. “I thought I was working late.”
It was nearly three AM and Mike was sitting in front of his computer peering at it as if it were a snake.
“Route planning,” Mike replied, distractedly. He clicked the mouse and then snarled, clicking again. “There’s no way that the Keldara can plan their own routes through the mountains. So I’m having to flip between these topo maps Vanner made and the actual satellite shots to find the best route. You realize most of the ground we’re going to cover has never been explored in known history.”
“Point,” Adams said, opening his mouth again and the closing it. He could turn a computer on, surf the internet for porn and sort of use Microsoft Word. He had trouble with e-mail. There was no way he could do… whatever Mike was doing. Or help.
“I’m doing this on the nights I’m not training or supervising packing,” Mike continued, exasperatedly. “There’s just shit in the way of every single insertion route. Cliffs, scree… The Keldara hump these mountains but we’ve never trained them in real mountaineering and I can’t expect them to tackle a Class Five slope without training. I’m not even sure they can do a Class Two. And every time I find what looks like a good route, there’s shit in the way that I can see on the satellite views but doesn’t show on the topos. Then I gotta back up and find another way. I’m getting about one done a night. I’ve got three more to go. We’ve got five days left. Do the math.”
“The math is that the mission commander is going to be totally wiped at the beginning of a tough mission,” Adams said.
“The ladies are off packing duty so I’ve got all five nights,” Mike pointed out. “If I can get these three done tonight and the next two days that’s two nights of rest. I’ll be mission capable. But fuck this is frustrating.”
“Get some rest… ”
“If you haven’t got your health… ” Mike continued. “Yeah. I will. You just make sure the teams are dialed in. I’ll be there with bells on. And solid routes.”
“… And set the autopilot,” Marek said over the intercom. “There. Now we can go to sleep until we reach ///.”
The Hinds had been outfitted with auxiliary fuel tanks slung under the dual pylons. With those and the improved engines they had a range of a bit over a thousand kilometers. Plenty of range to reach ///. And at 310 kilometers per hour cruising speed, it was going to be a bit over three hours to get there. Have lunch, refuel, back in the bird, repeat as necessary. Two and a half days to get to the Valley of the Keldara.
Two and a half days, and two nights, mostly alone with Marek. Crap.
“I think I’m going to stay up,” Kacey replied, smiling. “Just in case any big birds decide to hit us.”
“The intakes are armored,” Marek said with a grin in his voice. “It will take more than a goose to crash one of these.”
“How about a Cessna?” Kacey said. “Nearly hit one of those one time. Guy was in a no-fly zone. No civilians, anyway. He nearly got taken down three ways, me, a SAM site and an F-16. They eventually had me fly back and explain to him that he needed to land. I don’t think he even got jail time. I hope they at least pulled his license.”
“I had actually wondered if you wished to work the bird a bit more,” Marek said. “Your employer is, after all, paying me for instruction time even now.”
“Love to,” Kacey replied, taking the Hind off auto-pilot. “My bird. I need as much stick time as I can get.”
“I take it you mean flying,” Marek said. “But, yes, there is no such thing as enough ‘stick time’.”
“Especially this time,” Kacey said, raising an eyebrow at the comment. So far Marek had been the sans pure instructor pilot. “When we get back we have to go straight into ops. High altitude, most of it night, most of it tactical. Training ops with the Georgian military.”
“You’re kidding,” Marek said, seriously. “You are very good with the bird but… That is not easy flying. I take it you told your employer to blow it.”
“Actually, I said ‘Yes, Kildar,’ saluted and flew to the Czech Republic,” Kacey replied.
“For a training operation?” Marek said, sarcastically. “He wishes to buy two new helicopters, and training for new pilots, so soon. And I would have thought you had more sense.”
“I do,” Kacey said. “Marek? Let’s just fly the bird. I think we need to get Tammie and Dominik on the horn and do a little follow the leader.”
“I agree,” Marek said. “Slowly at first, though. Later I will show you just what this bird can do. Perhaps we play hide and seek, yes?”
“What you planning on hiding?” Kacey said, making sure the intercom was off.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Sergeant Vanner,” Jeseph, his voice pitched low, “I have found a hide point for the jump gear.”
“Good,” Vanner said, bent over Ivan’s ankle. The shooter was the only one of the five who had managed to find a bad spot to land, a rock he hadn’t seen until the last moment. It looked like it was only a sprain, but it was a bad sprain and they really needed to unass the DZ. Fortunately, Vanner had just gotten done wrapping it. “Julia, you, Jeseph and Olga get started on cacheing the gear then catch up with us. We’re going to get off this DZ. I’ll help Ivan.”
“I can walk,” Ivan said, his face working with pain.
“Yep, and you’re gonna have to,” Vanner said, raising his voice against a rising wind. ” With your ruck. I’ll just be trying to take some of the weight off. Jeseph, give me a hand getting him up and the ruck on his back. Then we’ll move out. Follow the route on your GPS. We’re moving to point 478. We’ll set up camp somewhere around there. And hurry. That storm’s nearly here.”
“Yes, Sergeant,” Jeseph said. The wind threw his parka hood up and he pushed it back, looking around nervously. “This storm is going to be bad, Sergeant. I can smell the snow.”
“ Don’t lose us,” Vanner said. “Walk in through the beginning of the snow if you have to. I’ve got the dome tent, worse comes to worse we can all bed in there.”
“Fortunately, it’s all downhill from here,” Vanner said as they crested the ridgeline. Getting the Keldara up from the small valley that had shielded the DZ from observation had been no joke. “There’s some rocks I spotted on the sat map for a possible assembly area. We’ll take a hide there.”
“I am not sure which is worse,” Ivan said, wincing and grabbing at one of the spindly fir trees that covered the slope. They were right up at the woodline, and the ground was already covered by a thin dusting of snow. Some of it had melted away but there were plenty of patches to slip on in shadow. And they were hard to see with the night vision goggles. Unfortunately, the clouds preceding the storm had already arrived and the night was black as pitch. NVGs were a necessity.