Time had slowed and he expertly judged the distances involved. The arc of pendulum had opened out a lot on the last bound and he antic.i.p.ated that, even with breaking, he shouldn't slam into the wall. He was going to have to brake, though, and that was where the luck came in. The variable was how long the last knot was going to last. Based on the previous two the answer was "not very f.u.c.king long, if at all."

He had two choices, brake slow and hope the knot held under the lighter, longer, pressure or brake hard. Hard was shorter time on the knot but more "pull."

In an instant he made the decision. Hard. h.e.l.l, he'd pa.s.sed the point of "slow" anyway.

Fifty feet over the ground, and smokin', literally, he pulled the rope in and pressed it, hard, against his side and back.

Instantly he started to slow from a full freefall to something survivable. With luck. But he was still going pretty fast, maybe seven feet per second, when he felt the knot pop free with a shock.

The next moment his feet hit the ice and he rolled back onto his ruck. His kidneys did not enjoy that moment but he was alive to feel the pain. Pain was good.

"Nice," Sawn said from the belay as the rope started to fall all over Mike. "That was the most perfect rappel I've ever seen, Kildar. You didn't even have to undo the ropes."

Mike, from his position on his back, realized with a feeling of horror that Sawn truly believed it had all been planned.

"Yeah, well, that's why I went last," Mike said, as nonchalantly as he could under the circ.u.mstances.

"When you've been doing this as long as I have you pick up a few tricks."

"You know," Kacey said, watching as the gun system was uncrated by a couple of the older Keldara men, "I think it's cool that the Georgians justgave us all this s.h.i.t, but I just realized, I have no f.u.c.kingclue how to use it."

Unloading had gone fast, it turned out the Kildar had, among other equipment, a field mobile forklift. All the crates had been pulled off and the gear stacked inside the hangar. The ammo had been carted off to the ammo bunkers.

"There is that," Tammie admitted. "I've never driven a gun-ship."

"Got apartial answer to that," D'Allaird said. "Problem being, we are on incredibly short time. You know the mission goes down tonight, right? You're going to have to be ready to fly."

"And I'd love to be able to fly hot," Kacey said. "But I don't even know where the d.a.m.ned b.u.t.tons are for this s.h.i.t. Much less how to shoot with it."

"Like I said, got a partial answer for that," D'Allaird repeated. "Would you ladies care to accompany me up to my room?"

"Chief," Tammie said, "I didn't know you cared!"

"Oh, I've always cared, honey-bunch, but that's not what I meant," D'Allaird said. He'd scrounged one of the Keldara trucks and he now gestured to it. "I do think a trip to the caravanserai is in order, though."

"That's a very interesting place," Specialist Andrew Sivula said, gesturing with his chin up to the castle on the hill as an SUV approached the front gates. "We're not quartered up there, which is too bad. I'd love to take a look around."

"The home of the Kildar," Jessia Mahona replied, smiling. "I suppose it is interesting, but it has been there my whole life, you know? It just is. The Kildar,he is interesting. He has brought many changes. I never thought I would be allowed to handle weapons, much less my beauty."

Sivula had to admit that the 120 was pretty. With a tube nearly six feet long and nearly six inches across, the thing could throw a mortar round, set for proximity, instantaneous or delay detonation, 7200 meters.

And it was pretty clear that the mortar team, all women, maintained it meticulously. The tube looked as if it had just come from the factory but looking down the bore it was clear it had been fired. A lot.

However, pretty as the mortar was, it paled next to the mortar team leader. The girl was f.u.c.king awesome. Tall, about 5' 10" andstacked with pretty brown eyes and curly brown hair. Sivula was pretty sure he was in love. Her English wasn't bad, either. Heknew he was in l.u.s.t, but he was pretty sure it was love, too. He knew there was a hands off policy, but he wondered who you approached about an honest offer of f.u.c.king marriage.

They weren't alone in the bunker, though. Four of the seven "man" female crew were performing maintenance on the tube while three more were showing the Bravo mortar team the ammo bunker while his AG tried to chat up one of the girls doing maintenance.

"I haven't played with 120s since I was in mortar school," the Ranger said in reply. It was that or "ubba, ubba, ubba." "We carry 60s. But I know the tune and I can dance a few steps."

"What?" Jessia asked, confused.

"Sorry, not a reference you'd get," Sivula replied. "I sort of know how to gun one. What I don't get is what you use for poles."

Normally, mortars were aimed using poles, called aiming stakes, that looked a bit like surveyor's stakes and were drawn from the same background. The poles were about five feet long and, generally, red and white striped. Two would be put in, aligned so that when the mortar was at a central "rest" position the rear pole was occluded by the front in the sight. When a call for fire came in the angle was dialed in on the sight then the mortar slewed right or left in the direction it needed to point. By keeping aligned on the poles the mortar could be vectored to its direction of fire.

This mortar, though, was dugway into the ground. The bunker was one of the best he'd ever seen, about seven feet deep with sandbag walls and a metal "splinter" cover that could be drawn across the top.

There were three tunnels running off of it, one to a separate ammo bunker the other two to the mortar battery command center and a personnel shelter, respectively. The personnel shelter, for that matter, connected to the next bunker in line.

Jessia was in charge of the 2 gun of the battery, the central gun that was used not only for calls for fire but for aligning all three batteries. That was generally a position given only to the best crew and Sivula had to wonder just how good she was.

"You don't need them with these," Jessia said, pointing to the wall of the bunker at some lines drawn on plywood boards. They were numbered in some code he hadn't been able to figure out. "The green one is the primary east aiming line. Lay the sight on the left side of that and you can slew through half the circle.

The blue one is primary west."

"And the red ones?" Sivula asked, looking through the sight. Sure enough, it was laid on the left side of the green line. "What are the numbers?" The red vertical lines had numbers by them and Cyrillic notations.

"Those are presets," Jessia replied. "They refer to specific spots that are probable avenues of approach.

The numbers are the elevation setting. If something is detected at one of those points, all we have to do is swing the mortar to it, keeping the deflection on base twenty-eight hundred, adjust the elevation to the note and fire. Like this..."

She snapped something in Georgian and the girls doing maintenance dropped what they were doing, literally dropped everything, while the girls who had been in the ammo bunker piled out. Four of them took hold of the legs of the bipod and lifted the heavy mortar into the air, shifting it to point to the right.

Another, presumably the AG, caught a tossed round from one of the girls in the bunker and shifted with the mortar.

The team rapidly slewed the mortar and then Jessia fiddled for a second, not much longer, and called out again in Georgian.

One of the girls in the bunker hit a b.u.t.ton and a loud siren started to sound. The girls who had slewed the gun stuck fingers in their ears as Jessia backed off the gun and the a.s.sistant gunner lifted the round over the opening of the tube.

"Holy s.h.i.t," Andy snapped, sticking fingers in his ears and ducking to the side. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

A mortar does not "crump" at short range, it cracks, it slams, it explodes. It is like a rifle shot but infinitely louder, compressing the lungs for a moment and causing the head to ring even through earplugs or stuffed in fingers. Especially in the confined s.p.a.ce of a mortar pit.

The team was already moving the mortar back into place and in another few seconds, fast enough, easily, to pa.s.s Mortar Square at Benning, the gun was back in action on its original azimuth.

"We just fired one round at a trail in the mountains, one that the Chechens often use. Our accuracy is generally within ten meters with first round. The round impacted well away from your patrols, I'll add."

Jessia smiled at him prettily. "Wouldn't want anyone injured."

"Lady, you are f.u.c.king crazy," Andy said, grinning. "I am going to get in so much trouble for asking this, but are you married or engaged?"

Jessia suddenly stopped smiling and her face set. Andrew knew he'd f.u.c.ked up. Bad. He was going to get f.u.c.king killed by Top.

"Actually, no," Jessia replied. "I'm a widow."

It was Andrew's turn to freeze and blink.

"Howold are you?" Andy asked.

"Nineteen," Jessia said. "My husband was killed... He was killed in battle. I... We don't talk about all the battles our men partic.i.p.ate in but he was killed earlier this year. They didn't, couldn't bring his body home, though." She paused and shrugged. "He is in the Halls but... The women of the Keldara rarely remarry. There are too many girls to marry off as it is."

"So, you're just going to go to your grave without even the chance of getting another husband?" Andy said. "That sucks."

"I had my time," Jessia replied. "He was a good man and a fine warrior. As are you, Sergeant Sivula,"

she added, smiling.

f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k... Andrew knew when the fickle finger of fate had f.u.c.ked again. This was definitely love.

"You brought an Xbox?" Tammie said. "You love Halo that much?"

The Chief's room was much better outfitted than either hers or Kacey's. Among other things it had a full stereo system, a plasma screen TV and the game console. On a small desk there was a high-end laptop.

"I don't play Halo that much these days," D'Allaird said, slipping a disk into the console. "I found another addiction. And it turned out there were already a couple around."

It took a moment for the game to boot up then he fiddled with the menu. Finally, they were looking at a very familiar view.

"It's a Hind combat simulator," D'Allaird said. "I ran across it a couple of months ago. Face facts, most engineers are guys who couldn't get into pilot training. This is the closest I get."

"Holy s.h.i.t," Kacey said, sitting down in the floor chair in front of the TV. "But it's one of those controller things."

"Ah, no," D'Allaird said, pulling out a set of controls and sliding them over. "I've got two. You can split screen and both pl...train at the same time. You can even work on coordination."

"These are pretty accurate," Tammie said, sitting down in an adjoining chair. "Why two chairs?"

"Oh, I've been playing with Colonel Nielson," D'Allaird admitted. "He's pretty good at Medal of Honor..."

"Gun position, left," Tammie yelled. "f.u.c.k, I'm taking fire!"

"Got it," Kacey replied then paused. "Okay, actually I missed it, coming around."

"I've got a hot engine light! See ya! I'm down."

"I got the gun position, at least," Kacey said. "Try to land near the friendlies."

"Therearen't any friendlies here," Tammie pointed out. "I'm going back to last checkpoint. I see you, coming in on your seven o'clock, low."

"There's another position on the other side of the ridge," Kacey said, calmly, pulling back on the stick and then leaning sideways with another yank. "Scissor left."

"Got it."

"Directly south of that other position, one hundred yards. They're engaging me..."

"Got it. Smoked."

"Good," Kacey said. "You take lead, I'll take your right. I got dinged on that one..."

"Okay, wingman. You get the chicken."

"Hey!"

"I wonder if everybody on this op is having this much fun?"

"Probably not..."

Chapter Twenty-Nine.

Katya sighed and lay down on the bed in her clothes, wrapping the thin blanket around herself and luxuriating in the aloneness. Soon the mission would be done and she could go back to her room in the caravanserai. She realized she had started to think of it as home and blanched. Shelived "in the cold" as Jay would put it. There wasno where in her world that was warm. She refused to allow the possibility.

But the thought of the walls of the caravanserai around her, the Keldara patrolling the mountains, the Kildar with his guns and his training, the lock on the door.

c.r.a.p. She was getting soft.

She stuck her hand under the thin, lice infested pillow, felt her fingers touch paper and froze. She rolled over, pulling the blanket up more and slid the slip of paper out in one natural motion. Even if there was a video bug in the room it was unlikely anyone would see the motion. Unfortunately, there was no way she could read it in this light. She considered that for a moment then stuck it in her bra and got up.

The outhouse was cold as h.e.l.l but there wasn't anyone around on a rainy and nasty night like this. Once inside, fearful of the results from the stench of the place, she struck a match and read the brief note.

"Switch forMarina tomorrow night."

Stuck to the paper was a small bit of plastic. Pealing it off she saw that it was a fake scar, identical to the one onMarina 's chin. f.u.c.king identical down to the slight hook at the base.

The note was signed simply: J.

"Oh. My. f.u.c.king. G.o.d."

She realized there was no way she was going to be able to figure out which of the people in town the spymaster was posing as. But just having him nearby gave her that warm feeling again. It was that, as much as the fact that hewas here, that had caused the exclamation.

She wasnot getting soft. Not.

She touched the match to the paper and it flared briefly, with very little light, then disappeared into bare ash. She rubbed her fingers together, waved the match out and dropped it between her legs.

The scar went into her bra. Right by her heart.