"What do I get in return?"
"I'll give you the satellite rig."
"Can it scan documents?" the man said.
"It comes with a digital camera for that purpose. I can hear the helicopters now. We need to wrap this up and get my guy inside. He has the satellite phone," Daniel said.
"I'll need you to help me get documents," the man said.
"What kind of documents?"
"The kind you can only find in a command vehicle," he replied.
"You have plenty of soldiers for that," Daniel said.
"The soldiers I have are military police reservists. Most of the men and women fighting in the city are civilians. I need Special Forces types to take down a command BTR."
"Release my men immediately and return their weapons. Then we have a deal," Daniel said.
The man ordered their release and Daniel struggled to his feet.
Farrington immediately got in Daniel's face. "We don't have time for diversions or passengers. We need to take tissue samples, interrogate the locals and get the fuck out of here," he said.
"Hold on. Schafer, can you get back to the building without exposing yourself to the birds?"
"I'm on my way back. The sounds are still muffled. I should be fine. ETA, one minute."
He returned his attention to Farrington. "Yuri, it's too late for that. A deal's a deal. It's not like we had a lot of negotiating power. How long do you think it would have taken them to find the phone?" he asked, patting Farrington's chest.
"You were bluffing me?" the former soldier said.
"Not really. Schafer has the high bandwidth rig. Where do we go from here?"
"Out of this building. We moved our headquarters here earlier in the day, but it appears that we have attracted enough attention to bring them into the area."
"When are we getting our weapons back? They took them upstairs," Farrington demanded.
"You're not getting those rifles back," the man said.
"What the fuck? It was part of the deal and—"
"Those rifles are shit. We have better weapons for you…unless you want your forty-year-old Kalashnikov back. You should keep the PPS though. We can make use of that," he said.
Several armed civilians descended the stairs and stacked several weapons and new equipment along an empty wall on the landing. They continued down the stairs amidst the yelling and chaos of a general evacuation. Daniel spotted Schafer on the stairs, pushing his way through a mass of armed men flowing to the lower levels of the building. The man directed them toward the weapons and harness gear.
"Take your pick. Just make sure to swap out your rifle magazines. None of these will fire 7.62mm. Hurry up. I want to clear out of this building in a few minutes. The helicopters won't fire on the buildings before the ground troops arrive, unless they're fired upon first."
"We saw them take a building down about a mile from here. Earlier in the day," Farrington said.
"That was my fault. I had sent a squad to that neighborhood with the hopes of drawing their attention away from our headquarters move. The squad took it upon themselves to shoot up a foot patrol and got stuck in the building. We saw the building collapse from the rockets. Our squad never returned," the man said.
"They were all killed," Farrington said, grabbing a fully rigged AKS-74u.
"Along with everyone in the building. The government has switched from evacuation to extermination mode. Not that there was ever really a difference," the man said.
"What do you mean? Do you have any suppressors for these weapons, or long-range night scopes?" Daniel said, lifting a thick-barreled AK-74 from the stockpile.
A young man standing near the stairs answered. "No suppressors. We didn't have anything like that in our armory. We were lucky to have advanced sights for the weapons. I can get you a scope. I'm Sergeant Malyshev. One of the few regulars assigned to the battalion."
He walked over and extended his hand to Farrington, who shook it, followed by Daniel. After shaking the man's hand, Daniel became concerned. In the scattered light of several flashlights, he could see that the man's face was drained of color and his eyes were bloodshot. He coughed softly into the crook of his elbow.
"Sergeant Malyshev has been a blessing to the battalion. One of the few regulars with combat experience to ever be assigned to our unit…and the only regular to stay behind. He saw extensive combat in Chechnya. I'm assigning him to your group."
"We don't need any additional manpower," Daniel said.
"Trust me, you'll be glad to have this soldier backing you up. He knows the streets…and he can fight like the devil. You're taking him with you when you leave. He's your live sample."
It all made sense to Daniel now.
"How far along are you?" Daniel said, flashing his light in Malyshev's face.
"I'm still a day or so away from having real problems. Right now I just have flu symptoms. That's how it starts," he said.
"How did he get infected?" Sergei said.
"Many of the men refilled their canteens when we took to the city. Nobody at the base was initially infected. We're not on city water. Some got sick, some didn't. Maybe some houses had already flushed out all of the bad water and others hadn't. Bad luck? Who the fuck knows? I'm Maxim, by the way. Captain Maxim Sabitov. I commanded the 332nd Reserve Military Police Battalion…still do I guess.
"On Saturday, April 7th, most of the battalion remained overnight for our monthly drill. It’s mostly administrative work this time of the year, so we let a number of the men return to their families off base on Saturday night. They all got sick over the course of the next week. The men who stayed on base that night were fine."
"How many men did you have under your command?" Farrington said.
"Three hundred and fifty-six. Forty-three went home that night. Forty of them got sick. About thirty complied with Russian Army Command's order to abandon the base, leaving me with roughly two hundred and eighty men."
"Abandon the base?" Daniel said.
"Of course. The situation in Monchegorsk had deteriorated significantly by then, and Moscow had three hundred armed soldiers assigned to the base. Most with families living in Monchegorsk. They didn't want us sticking around town to cause trouble, so they ordered us north. Only the unmarried soldiers obeyed. We made sure to secure the armory from the very outset. Most of us knew what was at stake here."
His radio chirped again and he put his hand on Daniel's shoulder. The deep, rhythmic thud of helicopter rotors intensified and passed, replaced by the steep whine of the twin turboshaft engines. The entire building vibrated as the helicopter passed overhead.
"We need to get moving. I don't want to be responsible for bringing another building down on their heads," Maxim said, pulling Daniel toward the stairs.
"How many civilians are still around?" Farrington said.
"Hard to say. A few thousand maybe. Scattered everywhere. The Russians have started block by block sweeps to the northeast."
"That's a lot of people. Why doesn't the government just evacuate them?"
"Because nobody believes the government is actually evacuating them. From the very beginning, rumors have circulated that they just truck everyone over to the nickel pits and shoot them. Based on what I've seen in the city, I wouldn't be surprised. The other problem is that half of the people I've seen are violently insane and unpredictable. They can't effectively restrain the sick ones. You'll see what I mean. It's fucking crazy out there. Especially at night."
Lieutenant Colonel Grigory Zadornov stood in a circle with his battalion's leadership. He had three infantry company commanders and an assortment of infantry and armor platoon commanders. The sound of throttling diesel engines competed with the chatter going back and forth among the men.