“Here,” Lt. Pope replied.
“The Keldara women handle fixed defenses,” J.P. said. “So your guys are going to have to interact with them. Rules on that are no male is to be present with less than two women at any time. Preferably work in groups at all times. But part of the defenses are bunkers and there are only so many who can fit in them. Make sure there’s no hanky-panky and brief your men that if there are any complaints, they are automatically considered to be in error if there was any way there could be a complaint. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Pope said.
“Full op order,” J.P. said, tossing sealed manila envelopes on the table. “In those is a sealed envelope containing secondary missions and communications details. If you’re told to open them, do so. In the event that you are in a position to be captured or killed, ensure the destruction of the contents. In the event that the carrier goes down, brief your personnel that destruction is paramount, even over survival. Clear?”
“Yes, sir,” the group chorused.
“Yes, we’re here as a deception mission,” Guerrin said. “But in the event that the deception fails we have a secondary mission. You get briefed on that only if it goes off. For now, just go play in the hills. The weather should be great for it.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The weather was preparing to suck.
The mountains were really steepening up. They’d gotten out of anything that couldn’t be called “low” at this point and were well into the “high-up.”
Between that and the decreased O2, Mike had slowed the pace. They weren’t quite going at “mountain speed” yet, but close.
It was coming on towards dawn and what he hadn’t seen, yet, was a good hide point. Hiding twenty people, above the woodline, was a chore. But they were going to have to go to ground. Soon. Like vampires, they couldn’t be out in the light.
They were moving up a narrow defile with an ice and boulder-choked stream running down the middle. He could just have them disperse to the sides of the canyon in their bivvies, but he didn’t like the looks of the weather. He also hadn’t been able to check his C2 gear recently. There was a storm coming in, but it wasn’t supposed to hit until late in the day. The way the clouds were building, it was going to be sooner. Given the storm, they might have to hunker down well into the night. The supply drop was going to be problematic.
They also hadn’t changed into their really heavy alpine gear, yet. The weather was still a bit too warm. The heavy alpine gear was for temperatures near or below zero farenheit. Currently it was just a tad above freezing and the standard fleece jackets were plenty. Probably too much, he was sweating a bit.
But the temperature usually climbed just a bit before a big storm. It would drop as it hit and drop more as it passed. Changing gear was going to be a pain in the ass, but necessary.
Finding a good hide site was even more necessary.
The stream had petered out and they were really scrambling, now. The slope was about sixty degrees, not quite vertical but close. Easier to negotiate on all fours, even with the ruck on his back. The line of Keldara struggled up the slope to just below the crest while the lead poked his head up. After a moment the lead turned and looked at Mike, pointing to his eyes.
Mike scrambled the rest of the way up the slope and cautiously poked his head up, turning it to the side to reduce the silhouette. Then he looked at the lead, Mikhail Ferani, and nodded, smiling.
Down below was a large cluster of boulders, probably dropped by the glacier they were headed for in its retreat. The teams could snuggle into the area, about an acre in size, easily.
The point had already made it up the next ridgeline but the trail was looking back and as Mike looked at him he pointed to the boulders. Mike gave a thumb’s up then turned to the lead and pointed at the boulders.
Their day-hide was in sight.
There wasn’t a fucking place to hide.
Adams didn’t want to push the movement much more. They were running along the side of a ridge, getting pretty close to the snow-line and not having a great time of it. The damned trails were slick with ice in places.
And there wasn’t a fucking place to hide. Mountains reared in every direction and he felt like an ant on a floor. Anybody could fucking see them as soon as the sun came up and it was already starting to get light.
The only choice was going to be to hunker down in their bivvies with netting over them and hope like hell nobody noticed them. It wasn’t good tactics at all.
The point had already crested the ridge and getting him back was going to be a pain in the ass. And the weather was closing in; the upper summits had already disappeared in clouds. It was about to either rain or snow, or maybe both, like a bitch.
Which would at least reduce visibility.
Finally he called a halt and signaled for the lead to go up and pull in the point. The damned sun was just about up and it was time to try to hide in plain sight.
He gestured for the team to spread out and then opened up his rucksack, pulling out his sleeping bag which was already encased by a bivvy sack. Short for “bivouac” the bivvy sack was a waterproof covering that could have a slight stiffener emplaced to keep it off the face. Adams hated the damned stiffeners so he always left his behind.
He rolled the bivvy out and secured it to the thin soil of the hillside then yanked out a ghillie net and covered the sack. Last he slid his rucksack under the net and climbed into the sack.
Dafid Shaynav, the assistant team leader, had followed his lead but now paused and made the gesture for “sentry.”
Adams shook his head and gestured to get in the sack and freeze. Then he pointed to the sky.
Dafid nodded then laid out his gear as the Master Chief had. But instead of immediately getting in the sack he began circulating, making sure everyone else was secure and camouflaged. That was his job.
Adams zipped the bivvy up, slid his hand out to pull up the net, then closed the bag all the way. He’d get out and look around in a minute, right now he wanted to check the weather.
He slid out of his jacket, got his weapon to one side and then pulled out the C2 satellite communicator. It was set to receive only but he could do a weather check.
Sure enough, the storm was moving faster than predicted. The satellite view showed it already raining at their location. This was so gonna suck.
When the sound of the Keldara getting into position died away he stuck his head out of the bag and looked around. It wasn’t full light, yet, so he slid out and walked up the hill.
It wasn’t as bad as he’d feared. Since he knew what he was looking for he could tell where the bivvies were. But the netting really did break up the outline. They didn’t look like much of anything. From a the mountainsides around them they were probably invisible. And even close up they were going to be hard to spot.
He slid back in his sack but kept the top off his face. The lead and the point still weren’t back. He wouldn’t really settle in until they were.
A snowflake hit his face and he winced. They’d better fucking hurry.
Danes Devlich shook his head.