“And if not?”
“Then it will be eliminated,” Vorashin said quietly, “which should please you.”
Saamaretz nodded. Then he opened his little book and made a note.
Caffey didn’t have radar and he didn’t know the chopper was coming until it was nearly on top of him.
He’d been watching the column from a prone position under a tree. Through binoculars he saw the disabled vehicle being repaired and the tall man in arctic whites who’d stepped from the command car to inspect it. He was the leader of this little expedition, Caffey was convinced. He’d watched that man only and seen the activity as the commander stared directly at him from the vehicle’s running board.
Though there was no way he could have seen him at this distance, Caffey sensed the commander knew he was there. Then soldiers on the flanks began widening their patrols. The armored vehicle that had been disabled was now running with the others. There was something urgent in the way a platoon of Pathfinders broke away and double-timed toward the point. They couldn’t have spotted his people, Caffey thought. They might be good, but they weren’t that good.
“Colonel, something’s coming,” Sgt. Parsons said, tapping him on the shoulder.
Caffey heard it as he turned his binoculars back toward the east. It was a low-flying Jet Ranger chopper, struggling against the wind, following the ridge line just above the trees.
“Oh, Jesus!” Caffey said incredulously, staring through the field glasses. “That’s a brigade chopper from… My god! It’s Roberts. It’s goddamn General Roberts! The sonofabitch is giving us away!”
The chopper headed down, lights on, beating the snow into a frenzy as it settled in a clear patch near the snowcat. The noise was deafening.
“The stupid, shit-for-brains prick!” Caffey shouted into the blinding swirl of snow. He started down the ridge, half-running, half-sliding. Over his shoulder he yelled, “Spread the men at intervals, Captain!
And for godsakes watch that fucking column!”
General Roberts was first out of the helicopter, followed quickly by two others, one of them Devery, all of them bent over, scurrying out from under the whining, decelerating rotor blade. Caffey reached them at the snowcat as they were dusting snow from their goggles and face masks. He directed his attention — his rage — toward Roberts. When he recognized Kate as one of the others his anger only increased.
“What are you doing here!” Caffey demanded loudly. He stood directly in front of Roberts. “You’re not supposed to be here!”
“I came to see your invasion force,” Roberts said matter-of-factly. He was wearing a yellow parka with his rank prominently sewn on the shoulders. “Where is it?”
“You almost landed on it, for Chrissakes!” Caffey glanced at Kate. “They didn’t know we were here two minutes ago. Why didn’t you just drop some flares while you—”
“You don’t talk like that to me, Colonel!” Roberts exploded.
“Didn’t you see it? — the column?”
“We didn’t see a goddamn thing! Where are your Russians?”
Caffey pointed to the ridge. It was his second choice of action. Punching General Roberts was the first.
“You can see the column from up there. Did you bring any weapons?”
“Weapons?” Roberts stared back at him blankly.
“You came all the way out here without—” Caffey swore violently.
“Look, here, Colonel—”
“No, you look, General.” Caffey handed him his binoculars. He nodded over his shoulder toward the ridge. “Up there.”
They moved up the slope, Roberts in the lead. Kate struggled to keep up with Caffey. “Division’s been informed,” she said between pants. “I called them right after you talked to the general. I told them everything in your message. At least someone else with authority knows about this. I tried—”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Caffey said quickly. “Whose bright idea was that?”
“I’m chief of S-2,” she shot back. “It’s my job to be here, Colonel Caffey.”
“Well, take a good look, Major, and pray it isn’t your last one.”
“Ho-ly shit!” General Roberts lowered the binoculars. He glanced at Caffey in astonishment, then scanned the column again with the glasses. “They’re fucking Russian troops!”
“I told you that, General.”
“But… Jesus Christ! How large did you say?”
“Battalion strength; eight, nine hundred infantry.”
“I don’t see any nukes,” Roberts said. “They have rocket launchers,” Caffey said. “You can see the mounts on the second vehicle. If they have nukes, they have the launch platforms concealed.
Those riggings won’t support even the smallest Soviet nuke.”
Roberts’s eyes got wide. “I count six launchers. Jesus, they’re loaded up!”
“They didn’t come here to be surprised, General.”
“Why didn’t they use them on us? On the helicopter?” The general handed back the binoculars and got to his knees, supporting himself against a tree. “Maybe they didn’t see us, Colonel. Maybe they’re not the crack outfit you think they are. They probably didn’t fire because they didn’t see us.”
“I doubt that, sir.”
“Goddamnit, Caffey, whose side are you on?”
“More likely they’re waiting to see if we spotted them. They know we’re here, General. I suggest you confirm the sighting on a direct link to TAG COM and then”—he nodded down the slope at the helicopter—”I think we should get the hell out of here.”
Roberts glanced at Kate.
“I agree, General. We’re not doing anyone any good sitting on this ridge.”
“Right,” Roberts said. He motioned to Lieutenant Speck. “Get on the radio. Get Wainwright pronto.
Tell them to patch through Fairbanks to TAG COM Pentagon, priority flash.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell them it’s Greenstreet seven-niner and that we. have a confirmed Green Giant in—” He looked to Kate.
“Alpha Echo Sector,” she said.
“Alpha Echo Sector. You got that, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, sir.” Speck swallowed, his eyes big as quarters.
“Then move, Lieutenant. Move!”
“Yes, sir!” Speck took off on a run down the slope.
“And get the men in the chopper,” Caffey yelled after him. He turned to Roberts. “C’mon, General.”
“How the hell did they get in here?” Roberts said. “That’s what I’d like to know. How the hell did they get through our first defense?”
“I don’t know.” Caffey motioned for the others to move out. “We’d better move it, General. They’ve probably got patrols out on the ridge.”
“You think it was an airdrop, Colonel? You think they just dropped in here?”
Caffey nodded impatiently. “That’d be my guess, yes, sir. Probably coordinated with the weather… came in ahead of the front.”
“But how?”
“I don’t know, General. I expect it has something to do with that NORAD radar station going down. It’s in the right area.” Caffey slipped the binocular strap over his head. “C’mon. There’s nothing else we can do here.” Down the slope he heard the whine of the chopper’s engine starting up.
“The sonofabitches!” Roberts was staring down the ridge at the column as it faded into the distant whiteness. “They’ll pay for this.” He got to his feet. “The sonofabitches will pay for this!”
“Don’t stand up,” Caffey yelled. “That parka is like a beacon—”
“We’ll blast the bastards right back to hell,” Roberts said at the top of his voice. “They can’t just walk in here like this was goddamn Poland!”