“What about my father?” Marina asked, relieved but still tense.
“That is up to other people,” the captain sighed. “But they are very good. He will be fine.”
“Fuck me,” Vanner muttered.
“Did I just see what I think I saw?” Julia said, quietly. “Is that Katya in the bed now?”
“Roger,” Vanner said. Shit, he was going to have to broadcast send a message.
“Marina has been extracted, replaced by Katya,” Vanner typed into the C2 system. “Repeat, primary hostage is extracted. New extractee is Cottontail.”
He set the recording to hold then hit the send button on the transmitter. It was a risk but the most anyone was going to get was a brief electronic squeal.
This was precisely the worst time to get an update from Vanner but Adams held up his hand for a pause when he felt the vibration against his thigh. He pulled the device out and held it up to his eyes, cupped to see the data.
He paused, assimilating the information then tried very hard not to swear. What the fuck was that girl playing at?
Whatever. He’d get Katya and then figure out where the other bitch went. Why could women never stick to a plan?
The Keldara used equipment that while not identical to US, it was better than most units had, was fully compatible. So as soon as Adams got the news, so did the President.
“Whatever does that mean?” the President asked, puzzled.
“Cottontail is the code name for one of Mr. Jenkins’ agents,” the Secretary of State said, with only a glance at her notes. “She was inserted in advance to localize and protect Dr. Arensky’s daughter. I’ve seen pictures of both and there is some superficial similarity. Apparently she chose to take the daughter’s place and somehow managed to smuggle her out of the building.”
“Mr. President,” the Air Force major said, looking at his laptop. “We just got a communique from Russian Intel. They report successfully extracting Marina Arensky out of Gamasoara. She is currently well away from the area of operations and, in fact, in Russian territory. In the event that there are any problems, a Spetznaz team is on standby for a hard extraction. But they indicate that they think they can extract her without issues.”
“So the Kildar’s agent took her place, somehow got her to Russian intel and they’re pulling her out?” the president mused. “Brave girl. We ought to do something for her. Even if we got Arensky and the ‘materials’, whatever they really are, if the Chechens still had his daughter it would be a big problem, right?”
“Yes, sir,” the Secretary of Defense said. “That’s why the double mission.”
“Yeah, we need to do something for that girl,” the president said. “That’s a really selfless thing to do. Get her and Mike up to Camp David you think?”
“I’ll look into it,” the Secretary of State said, smoothly, shooting an unnoticed glance at the Secretary of Defense.
“And, yes, I know she’s probably one of his hookers,” the president said, trying not to smile. “But I’ll make sure nobody mentions it.”
“Actually, sir,” the SecDef said. “The problem is that… Cottontail is also the girl we… upgraded to be a professional assassin. The Secret Service is going to… be somewhat less than enthused.”
“I’ll try not to let her kill me.”
“And I’ll try not to gibber,” the SecState said with a sigh. She had seen Katya’s full dossier. The thought of her having tea with the First Lady at Camp David… boggled. Then she had to smile. The image was just too funny.
Mike smiled in a driving rain: it was, as they say, “Great weather for SEALs and ducks.” So far, so good.
The visibility absolutely sucked, of course. So the effectiveness of the snipers was going to be cut damned near to zero. But that cut two ways; he had been pretty sure that the Russians, at least, were going to be in overwatch with snipers. When they took the meeting down the snipers had been his biggest worry. With the rain and wind, that worry had been cut in half.
But the rain and wind, which if anything was increasing, would mask their movement to the target. Which, unless he was completely lost, was just over the hill.
Before moving out from the assembly area he’d sent a coded burst, just a alpha code, indicating that they were prepared for the mission and moving to final phase. He had received, in reply, three bursts. Vanner’s team was in contact with higher and Katya, Adams’ team was in position and prepared to move out and supports, such as they were, were in place. As soon as they’d performed the raid he planned to break radio silence and get an update from Nielson. However, his digital command pad indicated there was an armed Predator somewhere up above the muck. Which meant the boss was watching. They’d better get their shit straight on this one or they were likely to get a nuclear enema.
He slithered through the thorny scrub covering the hilltop and slid down a short ways on his stomach, not noticing the spicy scent of crushed vegetation, until he could get a glimpse of the target. The designated meet, assuming NSA had its shit together, was an intersection of two barely gravelled roads in a valley about half the size of the Keldara’s.
The valley was a branch off of the Pansiki Gorge, a massive valley with sharp walls clawing up to the mountains on either side. Gouged thousands of years before by the very glaciers the teams had crossed, the Gorge was the center of Chechen resistance to the Russian forces holding the lowlands. Most of it resided in what was technically Georgia but all of it was controlled by the Chechens. The Keldara would raid and run, but they weren’t planning on taking on the entire Chechen force. If Mike could avoid any contact, he would.
The Gorge had another strategic utility to the Chechens besides being hard as hell to assault; it was very near the border of three countries and the intersection was one of two major joining points between the three. One of the roads led to southern Chechnya and Azerbaijan through areas almost entirely owned by the Chechens. The main branch south led to government held Georgia. If everything went well that was their egress route; ten miles or so down the road a Georgian mountain battalion was supposed to be holding the door open. The northern branch led to the frontlines of the war between the Chechens and the Russians. That was not an option given that there were about four thousand Chechen and foreign mujaheddin holding those lines. That was, however, the direction of Adams’ objective.
Steep hills on all sides were similarly covered in thorn scrub. He crawled cautiously to his left and found the narrow gully that he’d seen in the satellite photos. According to the photos it continued downhill, bending slightly left then back to the right, and opened up down on the flats about a hundred yards from the rendezvous. It should serve to mask the movement and assembly of one Sawn’s team until they were close enough to strike. That was the north fork of the pincer. They’d probably be hitting the Russians. On the south there was a solid hill that would mask Padrek’s team as it approached the fedayeen coming to the rendezvous. Yosif’s team was being split on security north and south as well as putting in blocking teams on the south road. Pavel’s team was in reserve in the event things went completely south. If somebody took off to the north, they’d have to deal with Adams’ teams.
Mike crawled back up the hill and then waved the teams forward. The snipers took up positions on the ridgeline, fiddling with the brush to get a better view and more camouflage.