A hell of a team, Hollis thought proudly to himself. The best in the world.
"We've trained long and hard for ship seizures at night," he continued.
"But none where we've given away so many advantages to the enemy. We lack critical intelligence information, the weather conditions are miserable, and we're faced with a glacier that can shatter at any minute. Perplexing problems, tough problems that stand in the way of success. Before we launch our assault in a few hours, we want as many answers as possible. If you see a grave flaw in the operation, sing out. So let's begin."
"Island inhabitants?" Dillenger asked Findley straight away.
"None after we closed the mine."
"Weather conditions?"
"Rains almost constantly It's one of the most heavily watered regions on the continent. You rarely see the sun. Temperatures this time of year run a few degrees below freezing. winds are constant and can get violent at times. The willdchill factor is a bitch, and it's almost certain to be raining."
Dillenger gave Hollis a grave look. "We don't stand a prayer of a pinpoint air drop at night."
Hollis appeared grim. "We'll have to go in with the minichoppers and scale down with ropes."
"You brought helicopters?" asked Gunn incredulously. "I didn't think they had the speed and range-2'
-To fly this far so fast," Hollis finished. "Their military designation has too many letters and digits to memorize. We call them Carrier Pigeons. Small, compact, they carry a pilot in an enclosed cockpit and two men on the outside. Comes equipped with an infrared dome and silenced tail rotors. They can be broken down or assembled in fifteen minutes. One of our C-140s can transport six of them."
"You have another problem," said Pitt.
"Go ahead."
"The Lady Flamborough's navigation radar can be tuned for aircraft. Your Carrier Pigeons may have low profiles, but they can be read on a screen in time for the hijackers to prepare a nasty reception party."
"So much for surprise from the air," said Dillenger morosely.
Hollis looked at Findley. "any adverse conditions we should know about for an assault from the fjord?"
Findley smiled faintly. "You should have an easier time than the Major.
You'll enjoy the advantage of frost smoke."
"Frost smoke?"
"Foglike clouds formed from the contact of cold air with warmer water near the glacial wall. It can rise anywhere from two to ten meters.
Combined with the certain rain, your dive team should be cloaked from the time they begin their approach until they climb onto the decks."
"One of us gets a bit of luck after all," said Dillenger.
Hollis nabbed his chin thoughtfully. "We're not dealing with a textbook operation here. It could Turn real messy if the air drop is a foul-up.
All surprise would be lost, and without it the twenty-man dive team isn't strong enough to engage forty armed hijackers without support."
"Since it's suicidal for your men to parachute onto the ship," said Pitt, "why not drop them farther up the glacier?
from there they can make their way to the edge, and then rappel down ropes onto the main deck."
"We'd be looking at an easy descent," agreed Dillenger. The ice wall is above the ship's superstructure and near enough for us to clear the gap."
Hollis nodded and said, "The thought crossed my mind. any one see an obstacle with this tactict'
"Your biggest danger, as I see it," said Gunn, "is the glacier itself.
It can have an endless labyrinth of crevasses and treacherous snow crusts that give way under a man's weight. You'll have to take it slow and damned careful crossing it."
"any other comment?" There was none. Hollis gave a side glance to Dillenger. "How much time will you'require from air drop to attack readiness?"
"It would help if I knew wind velocity and direction."
"Nine days out of ten it blows from the southeast," answered Findley.
"Average velocity is about ten kilometers an hour, but it can easily gust to a hundred."
Dillenger stared pensively for a few moments at the small mountains rising behind the glacier. He tried to visualize the scene at night, sense the severity of the wind. He ticked off the time inside his head.
Then he looked up.
"Forty to forty-five minutes from air drop to ship assault."
"Pardon me for telling you your job, Major," said Pitt. "But you're cutting it too fine."
Findley nodded. "I agree. I've hiked the glacier on many occasions.
The ice ridges make it slow going."
In a smooth, greased movement, Dillenger pulled a long, wicked-looking Bowie knife, angled between hilt and blade, from a sheath behind his back and used the spiked tip as a pointer. 'The way I see it, we'll make our jump on the backside of the mountain to the right of the glacier. This should hide our C-140 transport from the ship's radar.
Using the preveiling winds, which hopefully will run true to pattern, we'll glide our 'stealth parachutes' around the mountain for seven kilometers, landing within one kilometer from the glacier's forward wall.
Time from jump until we regroup on the ice, I'd judge eighteen minutes.
Time to walk to glacier's edge; another twenty minutes. Six more minutes to prepare repel operation. Total time; forty-four minutes."
"I'd double it if I were you," said Giordino disapprovingly. "You'll have a hell of a time meeting a deadline if some of your men fall in a crevasse. The dive team won't be aware of the delay."
Hollis shot Al a look he usually reserved for war protesters. "This isn't World War One, Mr. Giordino. We don't have to synchronize watches before we go over the top. Each man is custom-fitted with a miniaturized radio receiver in his ear and a microphone inside his ski mask. No matter whether Major Dillenger and his team are late or mine is early, so long as we are in constant communication, we can coordinate a joint assault-"
"One other thing," Pitt broke in. "I assume your weapons are silenced."
"They are," Hollis assured him. "Why?"
"One burst from an unsilenced machine gun could bring down the wall of the glacier."
"I can't speak for the hijackers."
"Then you better kill them quick," muttered Giordino.
"We don't train to take terrorists as prisoners," Hollis said with a cold, ominous grin. "Now then, if our visitors can restrain their criticisms, are there any questions?"
Dive-team leader Richard Banning raised his hand. "Sir?"
"Henning?"
"Will we be approaching the ship underwater or on the surface?"
Hollis simply used a ballpoint pen as a pointer. He tapped it on a small island in the fjord that was behind a point of land and out of sight from the ship. "Our team will be ferried by Pigeon Carrier to this island. Distance to the Lady Flamborough is about three kilometers. The water is too cold for a swim that far, so we'll stay dry and move in by rubber boats. If Mr. Findley is correct about the frost smoke, we should be able to approach without detection. If it's dissipated, we'll enter the water two hundred meters away and dive until we reach the hull."
"A lot of balls will be iced if we have to wait very long for Major Dillenger's team to get in place."
A small wave of laughter echoed from the eighty men gathered around the table.
Hollis sighed and gave a broad smile. "I don't intend to freeze mine.