“Uphill,” Vanner said.
He paused and let the Keldara lean on one of the trees then picked up the thermal imager he’d left hanging around his neck and swept the slope below. He’d gotten over the crest as fast as possible and now hunkered down to make sure they were alone in the area. He saw a couple of heat forms, but they had the look of animals. He didn’t see any heat coming from the cluster of boulders and that was the important part.
“Let’s move,” Vanner said, taking Ivan’s arm again.
The Keldara shuffled forward at his maximum safe speed and they began their creep down the ridge.
“Almost there.”
“Careful cresting the ridge,” Jeseph said. “Go across low and sideways. Less silhouette.”
“Okay,” Julia said, sliding forward.
She could barely see anything in the night vision goggles. The lenses had gotten fogged and then frozen so she was looking through a distorted foggy picture. For that matter it was starting to snow, big, thick, flakes. Something about the wind, though, the smell and the size of the flakes told her that it was about to storm like mad. They needed to get to shelter, fast. She slid on a patch of snow and went down on her butt just as she reached the far side of the ridgeline.
“Damn.”
“Up you get,” Jeseph said, lifting her and the pack. “No lieing down on the job. That’s for after your wedding night.”
“Like you’ll ever know, Jeseph Mahona,” Julia said, quietly, but she let loose a half stifled giggle.
“Take a knee,” Jeseph said. “Face east. Olga, west.” He pulled his thermal imagers out and looked down the slope. “There’s the sergeant. They made good time.” He paused and looked around some more. “Nobody else.”
“Then let’s… ” she said just as a gust of wind caught them. The wind tore the words out of her mouth it was so strong and in a second Jeseph, only a meter or two from her, disappeared in a wall of snow.
“Julia!” Jeseph screamed.
“Stay there!” Julia yelled back. This wasn’t just a snow fall, this was a blizzard, one of the fast moving ones of the early winter. The snow might all thaw tomorrow but tonight it was going to drop a ton. And they were caught in the middle of it. She had been living in these mountains her whole life but she’d never been this far from any shelter as she was right now. One of her cousins had been caught out in a storm like this and died. They had to get to Vanner and get some shelter set up. Or, possibly, just set it up right here, she wasn’t sure which. She suddenly realized, to her horror, that the decision was hers.
She shuffled in the direction she remembered Jeseph being in and felt his body through the thick gloves. At that range, even through her fogged glasses, she could see him.
“Olga?” she shouted in his ear.
“There!” Jeseph said, pointing then looking through the thermal imagers. “Yes, there!”
“Go!”
Olga had hunkered down and waited. Smart girl.
“Thought we’d lost you for a second,” Julia yelled.
“I was going to give you twenty minutes,” Olga yelled back. “What now, Jeseph?”
“We move,” Julia yelled.
“Agreed,” Jeseph replied. “Julia’s call and I agree. We have the GPS, we have the thermal imager. We can find them.”
“Jeseph, you lead,” Julia said. “I’ll take the GPS. Olga, check me. Hold onto my pack, I’ll hold Jeseph’s. Let’s roll!”
“I’ve got it, Ivan,” Vanner shouted. “You just keep checking for the rest of the team.”
“We could call,” Ivan yelled.
“Not on your life!” Vanner shouted. “We’d have to broadcast. Now shut up and watch!”
Vanner had set up a dome tent before, but never on solid rock and in a howling blizzard. He’d gotten the damned thing unrolled but it had nearly been snatched out of his hands twice so far. If they lost it it would have a number of bad consequences starting with the possibility of the Chechens finding it and continuing through “lack of shelter.”
He finally managed to get one side tied off to one of the boulders that they were sheltered in. With that side tied off he could manage it better. One bit of ground would take a stake. Another tie off. Finally he got all six points anchored and added a couple of anchors, groping through the driving snow, to make sure it stayed in place.
That done he started threading the poles. The snow was piling up so fast he nearly lost one of them but groping finally dredged it up. When the last one was stuffed into the loops and the tent up he grabbed his pack and tossed it inside then went to approximately where he recalled Ivan being.
“It’s up!”
“I still don’t see them,” Ivan shouted back.
“They’ll make it or they won’t,” Vanner said. “They’ve got gear for this, too. We need to get in the tent!”
Vanner got Ivan up and over to where he recalled the tent being. But it wasn’t there.
“Oh, tell me it didn’t already blow away,” Vanner said then shook his head. He’d tossed his pack in it on purpose. It had to be here somewhere.
He and Ivan shuffled forward carefully and then Vanner sprawled on the ground, fortunately not taking Ivan with him.
“Found one of the tie-downs!” Vanner yelled. He felt along the tiedown and then saw the ghostly outline of the tent. “Here!”
When they were finally inside, Vanner let out a breath of relief.
“Safe, by God.”
“Sergeant,” Ivan said, diffidently. “My pack is back where you found me. I only say that because it has my fartsack in it. I don’t think you want to share.”
“Fuck.”
Jeseph saw the boulder before he hit it with his nose, but only just.
“What?” Julia yelled.
“I think we’re there,” Jeseph said, scanning with the thermal imagers. It seemed to him that the picture had gotten dimmer, but it might be the snow. “I don’t see them, though.”
“Move into them,” Julia said, trying to look around through the spotty NVGs. “They have to be here somewhere!”
“They could have gotten lost as well,” Olga noted helpfully.
They wandered into the rock pile and after tripping several times and nearly slipping off a boulder they hadn’t even realized they were climbing Julia let out an exasperated sigh.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know,” Jeseph yelled back. “But we have to do something!”
“We make camp,” Julia said after a moment. “Try to find a reasonably flat spot! We’ll put up one of the tunnel tents! We need to find somewhere to tie it off!”
“Where am I going to sleep?” Jeseph yelled.
“What happens on the mission… ”
“The wind has died,” Jeseph said, nudging Vanner.
“I noticed,” Vanner said, quietly. It was what had awakened him.
He and Ivan had taken two hour shifts, sleeping and waking, hoping against hope that the rest of the team would show up. It was pre-dawn and the howling blizzard had finally started to die. Now if the rest of the team just hadn’t. But, they were smart and had nearly as good gear. The only difference was they had the tunnel tents.
Vanner kicked at the front of the tent where he could see snow had mounded up and then stuck his head out. The snow was still falling thickly but mostly straight down. It had dropped about a foot and a half overnight, with more drifted up against the rocks. The tent had a drift up against the side and front that was nearly three feet thick.