"I was going to give you twenty minutes," Olga yelled back. "What now, Jeseph?"

"We move," Julia yelled.

"Agreed," Jeseph replied. "Julia's call and I agree. We have the GPS, we have the thermal imager. We can find them."

"Jeseph, you lead," Julia said. "I'll take the GPS. Olga, check me. Hold onto my pack, I'll hold Jeseph's.

Let's roll!"

"I've got it, Ivan," Vanner shouted. "You just keep checking for the rest of the team."

"We could call," Ivan yelled.

"Not on your life!" Vanner shouted. "We'd have tobroadcast . Now shut up and watch!"

Vanner had set up a dome tent before, but never on solid rock and in a howling blizzard. He'd gotten the d.a.m.ned thing unrolled but it had nearly been s.n.a.t.c.hed out of his hands twice so far. If they lost it it would have a number of bad consequences starting with the possibility of the Chechens finding it and continuing through "lack of shelter."

He finally managed to get one side tied off to one of the boulders that they were sheltered in. With that side tied off he could manage it better. One bit of ground would take a stake. Another tie off. Finally he got all six points anch.o.r.ed and added a couple of anchors, groping through the driving snow, to make sure it stayed in place.

That done he started threading the poles. The snow was piling up so fast he nearly lost one of them but groping finally dredged it up. When the last one was stuffed into the loops and the tent up he grabbed his pack and tossed it inside then went to approximately where he recalled Ivan being.

"It's up!"

"I still don't see them," Ivan shouted back.

"They'll make it or they won't," Vanner said. "They've got gear for this, too. We need to get in the tent!"

Vanner got Ivan up and over to where he recalled the tent being. But it wasn't there.

"Oh,tell me it didn't already blow away," Vanner said then shook his head. He'd tossed his pack in it on purpose. It had to be here somewhere.

He and Ivan shuffled forward carefully and then Vanner sprawled on the ground, fortunately not taking Ivan with him.

"Found one of the tie-downs!" Vanner yelled. He felt along the tiedown and then saw the ghostly outline of the tent. "Here!"

When they were finally inside, Vanner let out a breath of relief.

"Safe, by G.o.d."

"Sergeant," Ivan said, diffidently. "My pack is back where you found me. I only say that because it has my fartsack in it. I don't think you want to share."

"f.u.c.k."

Jeseph saw the boulder before he hit it with his nose, but only just.

"What?" Julia yelled.

"I think we're there," Jeseph said, scanning with the thermal imagers. It seemed to him that the picture had gotten dimmer, but it might be the snow. "I don't see them, though."

"Move into them," Julia said, trying to look around through the spotty NVGs. "They have to be here somewhere!"

"They could have gotten lost as well," Olga noted helpfully.

They wandered into the rock pile and after tripping several times and nearly slipping off a boulder they hadn't even realized they were climbing Julia let out an exasperated sigh.

"Whereare they?"

"I don't know," Jeseph yelled back. "But we have to dosomething !"

"We make camp," Julia said after a moment. "Try to find a reasonably flat spot! We'll put up one of the tunnel tents! We need to find somewhere to tie it off!"

"Where amI going to sleep?" Jeseph yelled.

"What happens on the mission..."

"The wind has died," Ivan said, nudging Vanner.

"I noticed," Vanner said, quietly. It was what had awakened him.

He and Ivan had taken two hour shifts, sleeping and waking, hoping against hope that the rest of the team would show up. It was pre-dawn and the howling blizzard had finally started to die. Now if the rest of the team just hadn't. But, they were smart and had nearly as good gear. The only difference was they had the tunnel tents.

Vanner kicked at the front of the tent where he could see snow had mounded up and then stuck his head out. The snow was still falling thickly but mostly straight down. It had dropped about a foot and a half overnight, with more drifted up against the rocks. The tent had a drift up against the side and front that was nearly three feet thick.

Vanner looked around cautiously then ducked back in and pulled out his NVGs.

"Nothing," he said quietly.

"They might still be on the back-trail," Ivan said, just as quietly.

Vanner sighed and shrugged on his heavy coat; he'd kept most of the rest of the gear on. The temperature had dropped precipitously but he left the balaclava and hood down. He needed his ears as well as his eyes.

He slid out of the tent, negotiating the snowpack, and stood up with the snow up to his waist. Another look around with the NVGs then he reached in and pulled out the thermals. Looking on the backtrail he couldn't see any sign of the team.

"f.u.c.k," he muttered. He didnot want to broadcast.

He walked back the way they'd come, stumbling over Ivan's pack in the process. He'd dragged it over to the tent, gotten out the Keldara's sleeping bag and then left the ruck near the entrance. It was so covered in snow he hadn't seen it until he tripped over it.

"Found your ruck," he called, turning around.

"I was wondering when you'd look behind you," Julia said, grinning. She had a thermal imaging sight hanging around her neck.

"How'd you get past us?" Vanner asked.

"I really have no idea," Julia admitted with another grin. "But I'm just about standing on our tent. We're set up about three meters from each other."

"Our tent?" Vanner said. "Where's Jeseph?"

"Asleep," Julia said. "In the tent. With Olga."

"With..."

"Hey, don't ask, don't tell..."

Kacey drove the Hind down the twisting river valley so close to the surface that the rotors were kicking up spray on the banks.

"Hoo-rah!" she shouted.

"I don't think Dominik is keeping up," Marek said, a grin in his voice. "Drive it, girl."

They were in the second day of the ferry flight and, given that they were making good time, Marek had declared a one hour game of hide and seek. Kacey was given a box she had to stay in and a three minute head start. The kicker was that it wasn't Tammie driving the search bird, it was Dominick, the other IP.

"This is like flying a f.u.c.king Kiowa," Kacey said. "These things used to be pigs. This isawesome ."

"We are low," Marek pointed out. "The air is thick. Higher...less maneuverability."

"Got that," Kacey said, glancing in the rearview. "I still don't have him."

"Twenty minutes until we're done with the exercise," Marek said. "But he's not necessarily following. He could have cut one of the bends."

"Yeah," Kacey replied, looking ahead. There was a fork in the river that went left. "Marek, what's the chart say about that turn?"

"Narrow," Marek said, tersely. "But still inside the box. Want me to take it?"

"My bird," Kacey said, banking into the tributary. She instantly recognized that it wasmuch narrower than the main river: the trees that overhung it barely cleared her rotor cone. "c.r.a.p."

"As I said. Narrow."

Kacey pulled the helo into an in-ground-effect hover and looked forward. The d.a.m.ned channel only got narrower. Looking up she realized she'd driftedunder the trees in slowing; the branches now extended over her rotor cone.

"Double c.r.a.p. Marek?"

"Your bird, hotshot," the IP said, easily.

No way to go up. No way to turn around. No way to go forward. That only left two choices; ditching the bird in the river or backing up. Of course, the channel twisted slightly so it wasn't exactlystraight back. Fortunately, Hinds had a rear-view mirror.

She pulled back on the stick and tilted the rotor gently to the rear. The increased angle had her chipping some branch-tips, but nothing unsurvivable.

Backing down to the joining she got enough room she could go up or turn around. So she carefully spun in place then looked at the main river. The other Hind had a five hundred foot maximum so they could run down the river at height, looking for them. But they couldn't just perch like a falcon.

Which gave her an idea.

"Kacey?" Marek said as the helicopter started sliding backwards. "Where are we going?"

"Under the trees," Kacey said. The trees were evergreens; there was some solid concealment to be had.

With the gray-green camouflage of the Hind, they would be hard to spot.

"Okay," Marek said. "Your bird."

"And now...we wait," Kacey said as she reached the spot she'd been "stuck" in before. She could see the main river, barely, through a small gap in the trees. They were making a h.e.l.l of a signature but that would be, partially, masked by the trees.

Sure enough, about ten minutes later, Tammie's Hind came sniffing down the river about a hundred feet up. But the trees and the camouflage of the Hind kept them from noticing the bird hidden two hundred meters up the tributary, despite the ma.s.sive "signature" from their rotors. She'd have thought they'd notice the waving treetops at the very least.

"Very nice," Marek said. "I would have stayed higher."

"They probably did and couldn't see us," Kacey said. "This river was the only place to hide. So we had to be on it, right? Start at one end, go to the other and trap us at that end of the box. n.o.body would be stupid enough to come up this tributary."

"If it's stupid and it works..."

"It's not stupid," Kacey said, sliding the bird forward.

The other Hind had continued up the river so it was out of sight when she got to the joining. She pivoted to look up-river and then popped up. Sure enough, there they were, just going around the bend to the right.

She dropped down and slid out into the main river, sidling towards the opposite treeline and then popping up again. The Hinds had a rear-view but there was a solid blind-spot at about four and seven o'clock. Only by craning way over could you see into it. As planned, she was right on Dominick's four o'clock. She pivoted again and flew along side them, keeping more or less parallel, in the four o'clock position and sidling closer. When she was about a hundred meters away she pivoted again so she was pointed right at them and pushed the bird as hard to the side as it would go so that she had her nose pointed right at them as she came into peripheral vision.

Tammie, scanning left and right, was the first one to see her and she shook her head and said something in the intercom.

"Where in the h.e.l.l didyou come from?" Dominick said over the radio. The disgust was clear in his voice.

"I'm a woman," Kacey replied. "We're tricky. Ask any guy."

"Istill want to know where you went," Dominick said, picking at his fish.

They'd continued down throughUkraine and stopped at a small airport nearYalta on theBlack Sea .

Tomorrow was the last day of the ferry, a short overwater hop into Russian airs.p.a.ce, one refueling in Russia hopping down the Black Sea coast and then cut into Georgia near the port of Sokhumi. After that it was free-sailing.

"How's it feel to want?" Kacey said with a grin. "Seriously, I was hiding. If I tell youwhere I was hiding, it ruins the fun. And it was probably Tammie's fault anyway. She was the one that was supposed to be looking for us."

"Hey!"

"Ah then, I am satisfied," Dominick replied. "As long as my delicate pilot ego isn't damaged."

"You still got your a.s.s kicked by a girl," Marek pointed out.

"Yeah?" Dominick replied. "Then tomorrow I will have you try to find Tammie. See whose a.s.s gets kicked then!"