“Yes, Father,” Gretchen said then shook her head. “But I don’t think I hit anything. I wasn’t used to the weapon.”
“It is the battle, not the ability, that matters,” Father Kulcyanov replied. “But next time, send some enemies to the Halls to be your servants. However, you are missing something. You have never been through the rites. And I think now is too short a time to perform them. But the center of the rites is simply this.” He reached into his shirt and pulled an old and tarnished silver cross on a chain from around his neck. The cross was odd in that it had only a very small upward extension and broad arms. It looked, in fact, very much like the axe he still carried in his hand. He undid the clasp one handed and then handed it to the girl. “There. Now you carry the sign of the Father of All. And the Valkyries shall not miss you if you fall.”
“Who are you?” D’Allaird asked as a man in a rubber chemical suit climbed off the bird.
“Dr. Arensky,” the man said, muffled by the mask. It was in English, though. “I need somewhere to wait out of the way.”
“Well, why don’t you start by taking that shit off?” D’Allaird said with a chuckle.
“Because I don’t know if I’m infected,” Arensky said. “And I don’t want to be contagious. Is there somewhere I could, perhaps, set up as a quarantine area?”
“I so don’t want to know what you might be ‘infected’ by,” D’Allaird said, backing up. “But I’ll figure something out. In the meantime, why don’t you just go over by the hangar and as soon as I get this bird out of here I’ll figure something out.”
“Thank you,” Dr. Arensky said. “Hopefully I’m just being cautious. We’ll know in a couple of days.”
“Great,” D’Allaird said. “See ya!” He continued to walk to the bird, shaking his head.
“Oh, it’s worse than it looks,” Kacey said, climbing out of the cockpit. “I had to redline the engines coming over the pass.”
“The other bird is partially ripped down, being refitted,” D’Allaird pointed out. “I hope like hell the damned engines hold. This is our only bird right now.”
“The left supercharger was giving me an overheat light,” Kacey said, shrugging. “Check that out if you can. Pull it if possible. But we need to get back.”
“You’re already being fueled,” Tim replied. He’d briefed some of the Keldara girls on it and they were already dragging over the fuel line, watched by one of the Czech technicians. “Any of those dings do more than kill people?”
“One went right through my fucking window,” Tammie said, pointing.
“I meant anything important,” D’Allaird pointed out with a grin.
“Fuck you, chief,” Tammie said, shaking her head. “And for your information, it bounced, so the answer is ‘probably.’ I don’t know where it ended up.”
“I dunno,” Kacey said. “Why don’t you figure that out while I go have a case of the shakes. That was one hairy fucking mission. I seriously need a drink.”
“You don’t drink,” D’Allaird pointed out.
“That’s what I mean.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Boss, we’re not moving as fast as the Chechens,” Vanner pointed out. “I just got an intercept from barely two klicks back and some of the sensors I dropped show their points are closer.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Mike said, trotting down the hill.
The Keldara were damned near exhausted. They were carrying a massive load of ammo, stretchers with the wounded and their already heavy load of body armor, weapons and other gear.
And the Chechens knew the area better. They knew where the trails were while the Keldara were spending half their time breaking brush.
They’d gotten up into the pine zone, out of the deciduous, but that was, in a way, worse. The slopes were getting steeper and the underbrush was a thick thorn that was really slowing them down. The Chechens were going to catch them well short of the pass.
“Dafid,” Mike said over the team leader net. Since Padrek was barely making it in that fucking rubber suit, Dafid had taken over as team leader.
“Kildar?” the team leader called back.
“Set some traps on the back trail,” Mike said. “We’re being trailed and I’d like to slow them down.”
“Yes, Kildar.”
“If we could just get out of this fucking scrub,” Mike snarled.
“This damned scrub is slowing us down,” Bukara snarled.
“We are still catching up to the Keldara,” Sayeed pointed out.
They’d been forced to leave their vehicles behind. The local guides had known a path that was vehicle capable for part of the way but about ten kilometers back they had had to dismount and follow on foot.
However, they were also being followed. Bukara had been using his satellite phone lavishly and every commander in the area was now headed towards Guerrmo Pass to try to stop the Keldara.
If they could catch them. And then there was Raza. The old mujaheddin was good, but could he cut the triangle fast enough to cut off the Keldara? And if so, could he hold them?
#
“Fuck,” Mike said as firing broke out to the rear. They were, at least, getting out of the damned scrub. But that just meant they were high enough that breathing was becoming difficult. The whole group had slowed and now they were going to have to slow more.
“Dafyd?”
“No casualties,” Dafyd replied. “Some of their point caught up to us. Can we speed it up, please?”
“Negative,” Mike said as a stretcher team passed him. The Keldara were breathing so hard they sounded like winded horses. “Time to change tactics. Keep moving to the next hilltop then hold that until I tell you to move.”
Mike took the larger C2 device from Vanner and looked at their position.
“Team Padrek, hold in place,” Mike said, starting to sketch on the touch pad. “Take up firing positions in support of Dafyd. Oleg, take position on this hilltop. Adams to Oleg’s position. Yosif, Sawn, you’re stretcher bearer detail and command security. Pavel, keep pushing forward to… here,” he added, pointing to another hilltop. “Take up security positions. We’re going to have to shift to retreat under fire.”
A retreat under fire is one of the most difficult maneuvers to effect. As one group slows the pursuing enemy the other groups have to get into a position to bring the first group’s position under fire. And they have to move fast. They have to get into position before the pursuer can flank the rear party.
On command, the rear party evacuates their position, usually bounding all the way to the front of the overall unit. The unit behind them then takes their position under fire since the enemy they had been fighting would generally assault the position as soon as it was evacuated.
Then the group had to do the whole thing all over again.
Casualties, which were inescapable, added to the complexity. They slowed everyone down. But the Keldara weren’t about to leave anyone behind. Not to the Chechens.
Dafyd crested the hill then turned around and flopped on the slope next to Oleg.
“This is fun, no?” he asked, gasping for air.
“I’d rather be heading at them,” Pavel said. “I hate running away.”
“Frankly, I’d rather be back at home, drinking a beer,” Dafyd replied. “There.”
One of the Chechen point men had appeared over the next hill. He was clear in Dafyd’s NVG.