The words were drowned, though, by the thunder of the mortar barrage and the sound of the first wave of the a.s.sault opening fire.

"Tom and Hank are up and on station," the supervisor called. "You have the first position, designated Tango One."

"When?" the pilot asked. He'd been circling the d.a.m.ned thing for nearly half an hour. Ten minutes my a.s.s.

"Coordinated fire," the supervisor said. "Tom and Hank are up."

"I'm up."

"Then five, four, three..."

"Adams, how's it going?" Mike asked.

"Pretty f.u.c.ked up, good buddy."

Adamswas screaming. He must have lost his hearing. Again. Since Mike's ears were ringing from all the concussions, he was pretty loud, too. Before long both of them were going to be deaf as posts.

"Had to cut off Oleg's leg,"Adams continued. "Actually, Dmitri cut it off. We're cool otherwise. You?"

"What?" Mike screamed. "Is he okay?"

"Fine. Just f.u.c.kingpeachy . I gave him the last of my beer, so he's happy as a clam, cleaning his M-60 and for some reason belting together one f.u.c.k load of 7.62. Was this a social call? Because I'm getting my f.u.c.kinga.s.s mortared off at the moment!"

"Well, be of good cheer. The Chechens are coming up the hill. As soon as they get here, the mortars will stop."

"Keep going!" Sayeed shouted. He had been chosen to lead the remnants of Bukara's force by default.

Now he wished he'd kept as far away from the idiot as possible. He'd come to realize early on in his tenure as driver and bodyguard that Bukara wasn't nearly as smart or tactically sound as he'd thought.

Now he was in the middle of an Allah d.a.m.ned nightmare. And the men with him weren't interested atall in running into a hail of mortar fire. OR at the Keldara. Being a martyr was all very well to shout about in the mosque but when the bullets were flying and the artillery was hammering down, when the force before you was meat for the ravens, doubts had a way of creeping in. "We must close with them just before the mortars stop! Keepgoing !"

They were still two hundred yards away and the group was faltering. Fine.

He stepped to the rear and fired over their heads. A long burst that emptied his magazine.

"Go towards the Keldara or be cut down from behind you pig-eating cowards!" Sayeed shouted, reloading. "If I don't kill you, Sadim's Brigadewill . Nowmove . Andfire as Allah wills! To victory in the name of Allah! G.o.d is Great! Alahu Akbar! Yell it you pig-eating cowards! Alahu Akbar!"

They were moving again. And yelling. Whether from fear of him or Sadim's brigade of killers or for belief in Allah he didn't care. Whatever it took. Whatever it took.

"Kildar," Pavel said. "There is a large explosion to the north. Several."

Mike frowned at the call and shook his head to clear it. The bunker had sustained several direct hits.

Dust filled the air and his head was a fog from concussions. He tried to make sense of what Pavel was saying but couldn't.

"The Chechen first wave is closing," Pavel continued. "They are at two hundred meters."

"Okay!" Mike shouted, holding his head. G.o.d he wished the f.u.c.king mortars would juststop for one f.u.c.kingsecond . "Pavel, go to full team freq. How far?"

"One hundred meters!" Pavel called on the other frequency.

"Teams, open fire at fifty meters," Mike yelled then stopped yelling. The mortars had stopped. That was early. They should have kept firing until the Chechens were right on them. When you were in an a.s.sault like this it was best to actually catch a few casualties from your artillery support rather than have it stop early. That way the enemy had to keep their head down until you were right on them. Either the enemy had f.u.c.ked up, always possible, or... He wasn't sure and didn't have time to think about it.

"Seventy-five!"

"Prepare to open fire!"

"Fifty!"

"Mother Lenka, the mortars are laid in!" Jessia said, straightening from the mortar sight.

"Very well," Mother Lenka said. "Now, you must keep firing right up until we reach the lines! That is very important. I would rather we have some of the girls. .h.i.t than the fire stop too soon. You understand?"

"I do," Jessia said, swallowing hard.

"Kalisa has given you the coordinates so start firing as soon as we move out," Mother Lenka said. "And keep firing until we are there. You have enough rounds."

"Yes, Mother Lenka."

"Good girl," Lenka said, smiling and hefting her AK. "It is many many years since I have held a gun. But I think I still know how to use one. And then there is this," she added, tapping the hatchet at her side.

"Good for close quarters you know. I personally always liked a sharpened shovel, good for burying your friends, too. But these axes are nice."

"We should go to help," Kamas Al-Rakabi said to Haza.

The hill Haza had occupied was a relatively small moraine, a bare sixty feet or so over the surrounding rocky terrain. But it was right in the mouth of the pa.s.s, less than five hundred meters from the saddle.

From it Haza had full control of entry and exit. It was where he wanted to be and he wasn't planning on budging.

"Weare helping," Haza said, losing patience with the young man. He had been an excellent scout but he had no head for tactics. "We forced them to ground and now, by staying here, we prevent them from escaping. I won't say it again."

"You don't understand," Kamas replied. "I want to killKeldara ."

"What is so f.u.c.king important about the f.u.c.king Keldara?" Haza snapped, finally losing it. "Everyone has been whispering about these f.u.c.king Keldara! Tigers of the Mountains! Evil pagans! So what? They are just men."

"They are theKeldara ," Kamas replied. "Did your mother not frighten you with anyone when you were a child? Did she not whisper that if you were not good that something would come for you in the night?

They have not been back in generations and we areglad . Is there nothing that you, deep in your gut, fear, Haza Khan?"

"Ah," Haza said, nodding. "Now I understand. They are the djinn that come for bad children. Yes, we had the same stories, but about a people called the Ghurkas. But I have fought the Ghurkas. They are good. Very good. Better than your f.u.c.king Keldara, I am sure. But they are men. They die."

"The Keldara eat the dead of their enemies," one of the fedayeen in the trench whispered in reply. "They are pagans who perform sacrifices to their black G.o.ds. They cut out the hearts of their enemies and eat them. Raw. They say that that way they eat their souls."

"Stupid stories," Haza said with a sigh. "There are many such stories. The people that the stories are about support them and hope the rumors spread. They make youfear . They break the will. But they are, always, stupid stories. I have heard the same stories about the Ghurkas but I know fromexperience that they don't eat the hearts of their dead. In one war a whole battalion ran rather than face the Ghurkas, because they'd heard the stupid stories. We will not run from these f.u.c.king Keldara and we will not runto them. We will wait and keep them in place for the others to destroy. Then we can eattheir hearts, or say we did, and thus start stories aboutus . Yes?"

"I just want to kill Keldara," Kamas replied, sullenly.

"The radio said that we will attack their valley after we finish off their defenders," Haza a.s.sured him.

"Then you can kill Keldara. And have their women as prizes as the Prophet decreed."

"That will be..." Kamas stopped and looked up and back towards the pa.s.s at a whistling in the air. He didn't see what was causing it but he did see something he thought never to see in his whole life. On west side of the pa.s.s, on the ridge above the saddle, was a tiger. A real tiger. It looked like it was not full grown but it had to be big for him to see it at this distance. He stopped talking, wide mouthed.

"INCOMING!" Haza screamed, grabbing the young idiot and dragging him down. Mortars. f.u.c.king mortars. The only people around here with mortars was supposed to be the fedayeen! Where were they coming from?

"I don't have time to teach you b.i.t.c.hes fire and maneuver," Mother Lenka said over the booming of the mortars. They hadn't reached the saddle of the pa.s.s, yet, but they were close. "So when we get out in the open just spread out and head for the hill!" The first rounds were landing and the slamming of the explosions were racketing down the snow-covered pa.s.s. Hopefully they wouldn't cause an avalanche.

That would be seriously unfunny.

"But if you see something to shoot, take one knee andaim !" she screamed as they approached the saddle. "Do you understand me?"

"YES, MOTHER LENKA!".

"On target," Kalisa whispered over the radio. She had run ahead and was now hunkered down by a boulder, calling fire. "One hundred Jerry's Kids in open trenchline. Fire for effect."

"All guns!" Jessia screamed. "Fire for effect! High explosive, mixed contact and proximity, continuous!"

Gana Kulcyanov hefted one of the high explosive rounds and slid the end into the tube. She released the round and slid her hands down either side of the tube then turned and took another round as the firing round slammed outwards. The explosion of the round compressed her chest like a giant fist but she ignored it, counting time as she took the next round from Jelena Makanee and twisted through three dimensions to raise it to the tube.

The modern 120mm could fire sixteen rounds in one minute. But they were, potentially, going to be dropping far more than that and she didn't want to wear out the Kildar's barrel. So she was firing "continuous" speed, one round every seven seconds, the speed she had been told by her American Special Forces trainer that "saved tubes and broke armies."

"SixMississippi , Seven Mississippi," she muttered then let the round drop, sliding her hands down the tube and doing it all over again.

She wasn't sure whatMississippi was, but it must be a horrible thing if it was used as a mantra for the guns.

Chapter Forty-Six.

"Oh, f.u.c.k," Kacey muttered as she approached the pa.s.s.

Helicopters and firing mortars donot mix. They have to occupy the same airs.p.a.ce and have a horrible tendency to occupy the same three dimensional point at the same time.

There was room to the side for her to pa.s.s, but she a.s.sumed they were firing in support of the Keldara trapped on the ridgeline. If so she was going to be following the gun-target line the whole way. That was really gonna suck big donkey d.i.c.ks.

However, as she crabbed by she could tell they were pointed away from the Keldara position. What in the f.u.c.k were they firing at?

The answer became clear as she crossed the pa.s.s. The mortars were pounding the s.h.i.t out of the Chechens blocking the pa.s.s. And, what's more, a group of Keldara women were just shaking out in what was clearly an a.s.sault line.

"Uh, hey, Father...uh... Ferrari?" Kacey said, keying the intercom.

"Da?"

"Those women, they're attacking the Chechens. Should we help them?"

"Nyet," the oldster replied. There was the loud chain-saw sound of a minigun from the left side of the bird as they pa.s.sed the Chechen position. "Mother Lenka... Bad f.u.c.king news, yes? To the other battle."

Kacey didn't know who "Mother Lenka" was, but if the old f.u.c.ker in the back considered her "bad news" she really wanted to meet her.

And she had to admit that the conditions up ahead looked worse. The f.u.c.king Chechens covered the d.a.m.ned ridge.

Well...good.

The Dragon was hungry.

"Gregor," Father Ferani said over the intercom.

"What do you want?" Father Devlich snarled. He hadn't gotten to fire at the Chechens and it rankled.

"Sion was right," Father Ferani said. "I just saw the tiger he was talking about. Up on the ridge watching over the women. They will succeed."

"And on this side are f.u.c.king ravens looking to eat your eyes," Father Devlich replied.

"The Father of All watches."

"Yeah, he's gonna watch you p.i.s.s your pants when the Chechens start firing at us."

"f.u.c.k you."

"You f.u.c.k goats, I f.u.c.k women. Who wins?"

"That's just because goats are too fast for you. You only f.u.c.k the old women that you need a crowbar to open."

"And youstill f.u.c.k goats. I win."