"Check fire," Adams said over the team circuit. "Snipers. If you see anyone moving, finish them off."

"Master Chief. Vanner. Kildar says pull in the dogs."

"Belay that," Adams said. "Everyone get to the trucks. We're out of here. Oleg, arm the claymores.

Sawn, drop a marker."

"Slow down," Commander Bukara said as the first vehicle came in sight. "Stop! Everyone out!"

Mikhail Ashenov, AKA Commander Bukara, had been a lieutenant in the Red Army when the Soviet Union broke up. But though he had a Russianized name, he had been raised a devoted Muslim. The Prophet had decreed it permissible, indeed recommended, that the faithful lie to the unbelievers. And under Communism, being an Islamic made it impossible to have a decent life. So the Ashenov family had worshipped in secret and held true to the ideal that, some day, Chechnya would return to the umah.

But even with the breakup of the Soviet Union, the f.u.c.king Russians had held tight toChechnya .

Chechnya with its oil fields and mines. Chechnya with its forests and powerful rivers supplying hydroelectric power.

Mikhail Ashenov had been one of the first recruits of the burgeoning Chechen resistance. At first distrusted he had rapidly proven to be a moderately capable fighter, combining the methods of the guerilla with his professional training. He also was very good at self promotion. For the last ten years he had gathered more and more fighters to him until he was a notable "battalion" commander with five hundred trained mujaheddin under his command.

Make that about four hundred and seventy, now.

The Chechens had been fighting the Russians for a long time so they knew the drill well. The fighters piled out of the vehicles fast, some of them moving up the sides of the road and others fading into the trees.

"d.a.m.n them," Bukara said, walking forward. He'd hoped to catch this team before they faded away and were picked up by their helicopters. He a.s.sumed that it must be Spetznaz. As he walked up the line of st.i.tched vehicles, bodies tumbled out on the ground he shook his head. He had gathered together as many men as he had vehicles for and thrown them ahead, hoping to pin the Spetznaz before they could escape. This was the result.

"They were slaughtered." Sayeed was his long-term driver and bodyguard. But Bukara could hear the tone in his voice. It was a very unhappy tone.

A Chechen "commander" could only command as long as he had the respect of his men. Although there was discipline in the army, any army had to have laws, fighters could desert to other commanders. The quickest way to become an ex battalion commander was to lose his men's trust and respect. And having a slaughter like this on his books was a way to lose that respect fast. This was a disaster.

Suddenly there was a ma.s.sive crash from the front and he dove behind one of the vehicles as the air seemed to fill with bees.

"Directional mines," Sayeed said.

"f.u.c.kers," Bukara replied. The blast had come from up by the trees that blocked the road. The f.u.c.king Spetznaz had a.s.sumed whoever came next would start to clear the trees. And they'd laid in mines to make that more dangerous. If the whole blockade was laced with explosives this could take hours to clear.

"Commander!" one of the fighters called, holding something up in his hand. It looked like a piece of cloth.

Bukara strode forward as men gathered around the wounded, pulling them back to the vehicles.

The fighter was holding what looked like some sort of patch. Bukara took it and shown his flashlight on it.

"Blood of the Prophet."

Bukara had fought his former Russian masters for over ten years. They came in several forms, the half-trained conscripts that were so easy to kill it was almost a crime, the better trained "elite" units that some of the divisions now sported and, worst of all, the Spetznaz, those cold-eyed killers who slaughtered and then faded into the night and shadows. But though the Russians were powerful, they were not feared. Hated, yes, but not feared.

This enemy, though. They had been interfering with convoys for quite some time now and the one concerted effort to destroy them had been a disaster; the battalion of two hundred sent against them had been utterly destroyed. And the word that they got from several sources was that it had been by less than thirty of the pagans.

But their reputation went back further than that. The Chechens had sparred with them for generations and of all groups inGeorgia they were the most feared. Ancient and powerful fighters, wielders of broad axes which could cleave a man to the waist. Warriors and reavers who masked as simple farmers.

Pagans that hid their faith and played at being Christians. Drinkers of blood in secret rites under the mountains, they were rumored to sacrifice their captives to their black G.o.ds.

Now they had a new lord, a mercenary from distant lands as had always been the case. And f.u.c.king American spec-ops of all things. Americanswere feared among the mujaheddin as perhaps the greatest threat to the umah since the Byzantines. And their spec-ops, from what Bukara had heard, made the Spetznaz seem like child conscripts.

It had been long since the Tigers crossed the mountains, bringing fire and axe to Chechen villages, but mothers still used them to strike fear into the hearts of children. "Be a good boy or the Tigers will take you and eat your heart."

The sc.r.a.p of fabric in his hand told the whole story.

The Keldara were back.

Chapter Thirty-Four.

"There's another one," Greznya said, holding up her hand. She tapped a control and the electronic feed was automatically shunted to a computer program Vanner had "borrowed" from the National Security Agency. The computer chuckled over the intercept and then spat out a prediction. "Borana's Brigade.

Approximate numbers nine hundred. Heavy weapons, 12.7 on trucks and 81 millimeter mortars. RPGs as usual. They're about seven hours away but rolling out now."

"That makes well over nineteen distinct units heading for the Area of Operations," Lydia Kulcyanov said, looking over her shoulder at Colonel Nielson. She looked about six months pregnant. Given that she had only been married to Oleg for four months, that made the child almost certainly the Kildar's. Not that anyone was going to note that or even care. But it would be nice to get her husband back so she could have one with him. With nineteen Chechen units, some of unknown numbers, closing on the hundred and twenty or so Keldara, it was looking more and more like Oleg was going to come home in a body bag. If at all.

The colonel just nodded and gestured with his chin.

"Update the board," he said.

Kacey watched her dials as they came into the green and took a deep breath.

The back had been rigged for litters. Four of them. There were more casualties than that but she could loft a couple more bodies. If they used the Guerrmo Pa.s.s on the way back. Outgoing, with just herself, Tammie, Gretchen, some ammo and heavy weapons and the litters they would be fine.

She'd seriously considered asking the Rangers for one of their medics. The Ranger medics were 18 Deltas, trained at the Special Forces Medic School at Ft. Sam Houston. Like Special Forces medics they were trained to do anything but "open the cranial cavity." All of them were EMT qualified and could keep somebody alive just about as well as a first cla.s.s emergency room. But they were under the same stupid d.a.m.ned orders as the rest of their company. They couldnot cross the mountains under any circ.u.mstances. Washington was playing political games while people weredieing .

So were the Georgians, for that matter. But they were in support. Captain Kahbolov had turned up with three Blackhawks, each with hand-picked medics in the back. AllKacey had to do was get the wounded Keldara back to the base. Then the Georgians would take over, flying the wounded back to Tbilisi Military Hospital.

Six casualties to evac. And the Russian scientist. And "Katya" whom she'd never met but heard enough about. There was no way they were getting them all in one lift. Too much weight.

No. f.u.c.k that. She'd seen that the Hind had more lift than even the Czech engineers were willing to admit. They'd pack them in like sardines if necessary.

Just pray the wounded survived the trip.

Especially given that, that loaded, she was going to have to fly right through the fire of the bunkers in the pa.s.s.

She pulled up on the collective and lifted off into the howling storm.

For once, weather was theleast of her worries.

"Drop everything but ammo and water," Mike said over the throat mike.

Sawn was driving theToyota pickup and Mike wished they'd changed places. But he couldn't run the op and drive at the same time, the reason that the military a.s.signed drivers to officers.

f.u.c.k, he reallywas bra.s.s.

"When we hit the stopping point, we are going torun not walk, to the LZ."

He was in commo with the team leaders and depended on them to pa.s.s the word to their teams. That was what the chain of command was all about.

"Strip to bare necessities," Mike continued. "Anybody who can't run goes on a stretcher. Detail teams to replace as we move. All the casualties go out as soon as we hit the LZ. Oleg, you're in charge of keeping Dr. Arensky and Katya with us. If either one can't make the time, dump somebody's ruck and piggy-back them. Our one mission is to get to the other side of the mountains as fast as humanly possible. Get moving."

He switched frequencies without thought.

"Vanner."

"Kildar?"

"Tell your girls to drop all their gear," Mike said. "They only carry LCE and their weapons. Theyhave to keep up."

"Got it."

"Padrek."

"Kildar?" The reply was m.u.f.fled.

"Drop all your gear except weapon and LCE. Crossload your spare ammo. You're going out on the bird if there's room. You're going to sweat your a.s.s off in that suit and drinking through the mask is a b.i.t.c.h. If you start to get too overheated, h.e.l.l, I don't know what we're gonna do. Put you on one of the stretchers or something. Keep hydrated as best you can."

"Yes, Kildar."

"We'll extract you as fast as we can."

Three of theToyota pickups, loaded to the brim with Keldara from Team Yosif, were in the lead. Mike hoped the Chechens hadn't gotten an ambush team in ahead of them-he couldn't afford more casualties-but if they had the three pickups would hopefully spring it.

The entire group, using every functional vehicle, was barrel a.s.sing down the road towards the Georgian lines. There was no way to fight their way through-the girls had confirmed that a group of over two hundred and some light armor were now in blocking positions-but that was also the way to the Guerrmo Pa.s.s.

The mountainsthinned at that point. Whereas they had had to cross nearly a hundred klicks of nasty a.s.sed alpine terrain on the way in, at the Guerrmo the distance from their current valley to "safety" was barely thirty kilometers. He could run that in a few hours on the flat. But this was going to be going up increasingly steep ridgelines stretching up well above the woodline and into the snowline. The Keldara could make it, a.s.suming more Chechens didn't cut them off. But the females both hadn't been in as much training as the fighters and... Well, there was a reason that men and women competed in different leagues in the Olympics. The Keldara were, at this point, d.a.m.ned near Olympic quality athletes. They could carry their rucks at a dog trot all G.o.d d.a.m.ned day even straight up a slope. He'd worked hard to get them to that level of condition forprecisely this reason.

The girls could maybe maintain a jog for three hours. Uphill, less. Even if they'd been in the same condition, they couldn't have hung with the boys carrying the same gear. As long as they were with the group the Keldara simply couldn't run as fast. And right now, the only thing that they could do, should do, was run like h.e.l.l.

Getting them out was a priority right up there with evaccing the casualties and Arensky.

Freq switch again. This time it was to a connection that automatically routed the call through a satellite.

"Tiger Two."

"Go, Kildar."

"I take it the helo is moving?"

"On the way," Nielson replied. "Theyhave to fly through Guerrmo, though. They can get higher but not carrying any sort of useable load. And Guerrmo..."

"I saw," Mike replied. "So, is that a permissible Ranger AO?"

"Negative."

"f.u.c.k."

"Sir, with all due respect, this is c.r.a.p," Guerrin said.

He'd set up a satellite call to SOCOM. Their operational control for this mission ran direct to SOCOM, bypa.s.sing the Ranger command group entirely. It wasn't unusual to get tasked to other units that had operational control.

But he didn't usually talk directly to the SOCOM commander.

"I'm in agreement, Captain," General Howard said, mildly. "However, I just got off the phone with the CJCS on this very subject. Relations in the area are very touchy at this time. The Georgians don't want you fighting at all. They certainly don't want it apparent to the world that they can't control their own territory. So the Keldara have to fight their way out on their own. If the Chechenspa.s.s the entrance toGuerrmoPa.s.s , if in other words they come past those defenses, you are clear to engage. Among other things, at that point it becomes self protection and I was firm on that point. But until then you are to remain in place andnot engage anyone that is in or beyond the pa.s.s. Is that clear?"

"Clear, sir," J.P. said. "I will comply. If the situation changes, though..."

"I'll inform you immediately," the general said. "And I hope it does. For your information, I'm told the mission came off without a hitch. The only hitch is that the entire Chechen force in the area seems to be determined to wipe these guys off the map. And, trust me, I know exactly how it feels to just be sitting there in the rain not able to do a f.u.c.king thing. Been there, done that. But that is.e.xactly what you are going to do."

"Sergeant Sivula?" Jessia said, sticking her head in the door to the barracks.

"Yes," the sergeant said, rolling off his bunk and glad none of the guys were naked when she burst in.

"We are moving the mortars," Jessia said, panting. "The Keldara are trapped on the other side of the mountains."

"We got the word," Sivula said, walking over. The panting was doing really interesting things to her chest but he tried to ignore that. "But we can't do anything."

"Neither can we," Jessia admitted. "But we are going to move our mortars forward to support when they are in the pa.s.s.We can fire into it."

"d.a.m.n, that's right," Sivula said, grinning. "Let me get with the LT. I guess you'd like some help?"

"We are strong," Jessia said, shrugging. "But they arevery heavy. As is the ammunition. Yes, we would like some help. As many strong backs as you can muster."

"f.u.c.k, yeah," Sivula said. "I'll be with you in a few minutes."

The president stared at the take from the Predator and sighed. It was, more or less, gray clouds and not much else. The pilots had admitted that they were steering well away from mountains and otherwise entirely on instruments. Nothing could pierce the storm in the area.

"This is very frustrating."

"We can permit the Rangers to move," the CJCS said. "General Howard says that they are chomping at the bit."