The loadmaster stood in front of him and reached down to her waist, miming pulling something forward.

All the cute had disappeared behind the oxygen mask, helmet and heavy clothes.

Vanner, for the third time, checked to make sure that the chute was "armed" and the safety-pin had been removed from the AAD. In the event that a jumper was knocked out, either by the O2 failing or from some impact, the arming system would automatically open their chutes at 700 feet above ground level or 700AGL.

Now, in the case of the team, that was adjusted to 700 AGL above their planned DZ or right at 13,000 feet. If the jumper was unconscious he or she probably wasn't going to hit anywherenear the DZ. And almost everythingaround the DZ was higher than the drop zone meaning that they were probably still going to splat into the ground at a high rate of speed. It also, mostly, was vertical. He'd pointed this out to the team and also pointed out that not pa.s.sing out, for any reason, nor failing to track to the DZ nor failing to pull their chutes on time were all very good things.

Frankly, Vanner had on the ascent come to the conclusion that the Kildar, he barely couldthink of him as "Mike Jenkins" anymore, was insane. The Kildar, whoever he really was, whatever he'd done before he turned up inGeorgia , was clearly highly-trained in HALO. He had, after all, trained them and done it in record time. Which means hehad to know what a shot-in-the-dark insanity it was to send five totally green HALO jumpers and drop them into some of the worst conditions ever created by man for airborne operations: alpine mountains with a drop zone the size of a postage stamp. Just fitting all five of them onto it was going to be interesting.

Vanner tried to show none of that as he lurched to his feet and waved to the other four.

The lurch was necessitated by their gear. Besides their clothing, bulky and heavy enough, they were all wearing combat harnesses, their chutes, helmet and oxygen mask and last, but most certainly not least, their rucksacks which were slung forward and down, making it nearly impossible to walk. The long, and heavily packed, rucksacks dropped very nearly to the ground in the case of the two women. They simply had to be helped by Jeseph and Ivan as the fivesome shuffled towards the ramp.

Currently the ramp was still up and that was just fine by Vanner. It had, however, been cracked to depressurize the cabin and the sound of the rushing wind filled the interior of the aircraft making communication, already difficult with the oxygen masks, nearly impossible.

Which, of course, was what hand signals were for.

Vanner slapped the front of his harness and then gestured for the two pairs to check each other's equipment. He carefully ensured that they followed the memorized checklist then had Olga check his. As well as any of them could tell, everything was good to go.

Equipment checked they shuffled towards the rear of the bird as the load-master, who was suited up in a similar manner but tied off with a safety-rope, lowered the ramp.

This occasioned even more roaring but very little actual wind movement. Vanner had expected the strong circulation they'd experienced during training but the air inside the bird was strangely calm. He could only think it was due to the entire rear of the plane being open instead of just side doors.

Vanner paused at the edge of the ramp and looked over at the load-master. She, in turn, pointed to the red light mounted by the door which was solid. Blinking meant more than five minutes from the drop.

Solid meant less than five.

The loadmaster gestured with her right arm straight out, palm up then bent it and touched the top of the helmet. Thirty seconds. Time to move to the ramp.

Vanner shuffled forward as Olga grabbed the top of his chute from behind. The entire party then followed, shuffling towards the edge of the ramp but bound together in case one of them slipped.

The loadmaster had moved to the base of the ramp on the far right and was now on her stomach, looking down and forward. She hit the ramp with a closed fist then raised it. Stand by; the DZ was in sight.

Green light.

Vanner stepped forward and then threw himself outwards. Strangely enough, it was easier than it had been in training. Part of that was that it was dark. There was nothing to give perspective, even the clouds below them were far enough away they didn'tlook like clouds.

Fear of heights is all perception.

He took a box-man formation and counted to ten then looked over his shoulder. Everyone was out with Olga and Julia delta tracking to get in better position. The team was spread out in more or less a v formation. n.o.body was trying to hold a solid position, just trying to both keep out of each other's airstream and keep an eye on Vanner.

Which told him it was time for a position check. He looked at his GPS and banked right towards the DZ. Another check over his shoulder and everyone had followed the turn, still keeping spread. He went back and got a better fix on their position and the position of the DZ then had to wonder. They had been slightly north. They were still slightly north but closer, in vertical they were barely two hundred meters north. He wasn't positive, but he thought they'd moved about thirty meters in a thousand feet of drop.

Which meant there was, like,no wind. Which didn't make sense. There was always wind at alt.i.tude.

Always .

The clouds below did have the DZ obscured which was really gonna suck. He didn't know if they even broke at all; they could go all the way to the ground. They seemed kind of broken though... As he thought that they broke up enough so he could see the DZ. And it was rightthere , the tiny silver of the stream shining in a brief flash from the moon.

They were right on top of it, there wasn't any wind. Something wasbound to go wrong!

He took up a creep position, though. They might overshoot just a bit. He looked back and signaled with his thumbs to creep back then checked his position again. The clouds were breaking up a bit more and the DZ was like looking at a darkened sat-shot. Everything was there.

He signaled to stop the creep, checked their position, checked the team-still with him - and then looked around. The cessation of wind finally made sense. To their north there was a wall of clouds.

Sometimes in advance of a front, just before it hit, the winds dropped to absolutely nothing, even at alt.i.tude. "The calm before the storm."

Of course, that much "calm" often meant one h.e.l.l of a storm.

He looked back and realized that the ground was suddenly rushing at him, seemingly faster than a train.

And there were mountains all around, by trick of optical illusion apparently rocketing into the sky. He signaled for the team to spread out, waited one second and then pulled.

After he felt the canopy open, right on time, he looked up, grabbed the control toggles, did a quick check and then looked around. Five chutes, one, Julia he was pretty sure, just opening. She'd pulled so that she was barely four hundred feet off the ground by the look of it. d.a.m.ned close. High alt.i.tude, low opening indeed. But even as he watched she banked east and then north, lining up for a landing. Banked and lined like she'd been doing it her whole life. She'd barely corrected before she back-filled and her feet touched the ground. He saw one side of the chute flutter away as she popped her riser then she was waddling off to the side, getting out of the way, in no more than two seconds. Olga came in right behind her.

d.a.m.n, he had good people.

But it looked as if their fearless leader was going to be the last one down.

"What the f.u.c.k, over?" Adams said as his head peeked around the door of Mike's office. "I thoughtI was working late."

It was nearly three AM and Mike was sitting in front of his computer peering at it as if it were a snake.

"Route planning," Mike replied, distractedly. He clicked the mouse and then snarled, clicking again.

"There's no way that the Keldara can plan their own routes through the mountains. So I'm having to flip between these topo maps Vanner made and the actual satellite shots to find the best route. You realize most of the ground we're going to cover has never been explored in known history."

"Point,"Adams said, opening his mouth again and the closing it. He could turn a computer on, surf the internet for p.o.r.n and sort of use Microsoft Word. He had trouble with e-mail. There was no way he could do...whatever Mike was doing. Or help.

"I'm doing this on the nights I'm not training or supervising packing," Mike continued, exasperatedly.

"There's justs.h.i.t in the way of every single insertion route. Cliffs, scree... The Keldara hump these mountains but we've never trained them in real mountaineering and I can't expect them to tackle a Cla.s.s Five slope without training. I'm not even sure they can do a Cla.s.s Two. And every time I find what looks like a good route, there'ss.h.i.t in the way that I can see on the satellite views but doesn't show on the topos. Then I gotta back up and find another way. I'm getting about one done a night. I've got three more to go. We've got five days left. Do the math."

"The math is that the mission commander is going to be totally wiped at the beginning of a tough mission," Adams said.

"The ladies are off packing duty so I've got all five nights," Mike pointed out. "If I can get these three done tonight and the next two days that's two nights of rest. I'll be mission capable. Butf.u.c.k this is frustrating."

"Get some rest..."

"If you haven't got your health..." Mike continued. "Yeah. I will. You just make sure the teams are dialed in. I'll be there with bells on. And solid routes."

"...And set the autopilot," Marek said over the intercom. "There. Now we can go to sleep until we reach Bratislava."

The Hinds had been outfitted with auxiliary fuel tanks slung under the dual pylons. With those and the improved engines they had a range of a bit over a thousand kilometers. Plenty of range to reach L'yiv inUkraine after flying partially over southernPoland . And at 310 kilometers per hour cruising speed, it was going to be a bit over three hours to get there. Have lunch, refuel, back in the bird, repeat as necessary. Two and a half days to get to the Valley of the Keldara.

Two and a half days, and two nights, mostly alone with Marek. c.r.a.p.

"I think I'm going to stay up," Kacey replied, smiling. "Just in case any big birds decide to hit us."

"The intakes are armored," Marek said with a grin in his voice. "It will take more than a goose to crash one of these."

"How about a Cessna?" Kacey said. "Nearly hit one of those one time. Guy was in a no-fly zone. No civilians, anyway. He nearly got taken down three ways, me, a SAM site and an F-16. They eventually had me fly back and explain to him that he needed to land. I don't think he even got jail time. I hope they at least pulled his license."

"I had actually wondered if you wished to work the bird a bit more," Marek said. "Your employer is, after all, paying me for instruction time even now."

"Love to," Kacey replied, taking the Hind off auto-pilot. "My bird. I need as much stick time as I can get."

"I take it you mean flying," Marek said. "But, yes, there is no such thing as enough 'stick time'."

"Especially this time," Kacey said, raising an eyebrow at the comment. So far Marek had been the sans pure instructor pilot. "When we get back we have to go straight into ops. High alt.i.tude, most of it night, most of it tactical. Training ops with the Georgian military."

"You're kidding," Marek said, seriously. "You are very good with the bird but... That is not easy flying. I take it you told your employer to blow it."

"Actually, I said 'Yes, Kildar,' saluted and flew to the Czech Republic," Kacey replied.

"For a training operation?" Marek said, sarcastically. "He wishes to buy two new helicopters, and training for new pilots, so soon. And I would have thoughtyou had more sense."

"I do," Kacey said. "Marek? Let's just fly the bird. I think we need to get Tammie and Dominik on the horn and do a little follow the leader."

"I agree," Marek said. "Slowly at first, though. Later I will show you just what this bird can do. Perhaps we play hide and seek, yes?"

"What you planning on hiding?" Kacey said, making sure the intercom was off.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

"Sergeant Vanner," Jeseph, his voice pitched low, "I have found a hide point for the jump gear."

"Good," Vanner said, bent over Ivan's ankle. The shooter was the only one of the five who had managed to find a bad spot to land, a rock he hadn't seen until the last moment. It looked like it was only a sprain, but it was a bad sprain and they really needed to una.s.s the DZ. Fortunately, Vanner had just gotten done wrapping it. "Julia, you, Jeseph and Olga get started on caching the gear then catch up with us. We're going to get off this DZ. I'll help Ivan."

"I can walk," Ivan said, his face working with pain.

"Yep, and you're gonna have to," Vanner said, raising his voice against a rising wind. "Withyour ruck. I'll just be trying to take some of the weight off. Jeseph, give me a hand getting him up and the ruck on his back. Then we'll move out. Follow the route on your GPS. We're moving to point 478. We'll set up camp somewhere around there. Andhurry . That storm's nearly here."

"Yes, Sergeant," Jeseph said. The wind threw his parka hood up and he pushed it back, looking around nervously. "This storm is going to be bad, Sergeant. I can smell the snow."

"Don't lose us," Vanner said. "Walk in through the beginning of the snow if you have to. I've got the dome tent, worse comes to worse we can all bed in there."

"Fortunately, it's all downhill from here," Vanner said as they crested the ridgeline. Getting the Keldara up from the small valley that had shielded the DZ from observation had been no joke. "There's some rocks I spotted on the sat map for a possible a.s.sembly area. We'll take a hide there."

"I am not sure which is worse," Ivan said, wincing and grabbing at one of the spindly fir trees that covered the slope. They were right up at the woodline, and the ground was already covered by a thin dusting of snow. Some of it had melted away but there were plenty of patches to slip on in shadow. And they were hard to see with the night vision goggles. Unfortunately, the clouds preceding the storm had already arrived and the night was black as pitch. NVGs were a necessity.

"Uphill," Vanner said.

He paused and let the Keldara lean on one of the trees then picked up the thermal imager he'd left hanging around his neck and swept the slope below. He'd gotten over the crest as fast as possible and now hunkered down to make sure they were alone in the area. He saw a couple of heat forms, but they had the look of animals. He didn't see any heat coming from the cl.u.s.ter of boulders and that was the important part.

"Let's move," Vanner said, taking Ivan's arm again.

The Keldara shuffled forward at his maximum safe speed and they began their creep down the ridge.

"Almost there."

"Careful cresting the ridge," Jeseph said. "Go across low and sideways. Less silhouette."

"Okay," Julia said, sliding forward.

She could barely see anything in the night vision goggles. The lenses had gotten fogged and then frozen so she was looking through a distorted foggy picture. For that matter it was starting to snow, big, thick, flakes. Something about the wind, though, the smell and the size of the flakes told her that it was about to storm like mad. They needed to get to shelter, fast. She slid on a patch of snow and went down on her b.u.t.t just as she reached the far side of the ridgeline.

"d.a.m.n."

"Up you get," Jeseph said, lifting her and the pack. "No lying down on the job. That's for after your wedding night."

"Like you'll ever know, Jeseph Mahona," Julia said, quietly, but she let loose a half stifled giggle.

"Take a knee," Jeseph said. "Face east. Olga, west." He pulled his thermal imagers out and looked down the slope. "There's the sergeant. They made good time." He paused and looked around some more. "n.o.body else."

"Then let's..." she said just as a gust of wind caught them. The wind tore the words out of her mouth it was so strong and in a second Jeseph, only a meter or two from her, disappeared in a wall of snow.

"Julia!" Jeseph screamed.

"Stay there!" Julia yelled back. This wasn't just a snow fall, this was a blizzard, one of the fast moving ones of the early winter. The snow might all thaw tomorrow but tonight it was going to drop a ton. And they were caught in the middle of it. She had been living in these mountains her whole life but she'dnever been this far from any shelter as she was right now. One of her cousins had been caught out in a storm like this and died. They had to get to Vanner and get some shelter set up. Or, possibly, just set it up right here, she wasn't sure which. She suddenly realized, to her horror, that the decision was hers.

She shuffled in the direction she remembered Jeseph being in and felt his body through the thick gloves.

At that range, even through her fogged gla.s.ses, she could see him.

"Olga?" she shouted in his ear.

"There!" Jeseph said, pointing then looking through the thermal imagers. "Yes, there!"

"Go!"

Olga had hunkered down and waited. Smart girl.

"Thought we'd lost you for a second," Julia yelled.