by Dirk Patton
“Goddamn it,” I mumbled, my hand throbbing all the way to my elbow.
“Alright, hold still and stop being such a big baby. I’ve seen you take worse without nearly as much complaining. Getting soft?”
As she spoke, Rachel probed the two broken fingers. Both were swollen and hurt like hell, but I had to admit that after being set the level of pain had dropped a couple of notches.
“As soon as I can find some splints and tape, these need immobilized. I don’t think there’s any permanent damage, but if we don’t take care of them there’s all kinds of bad things that can happen. Including losing them or your hand.”
Rachel met my eyes and she wasn’t smiling. I nodded, no longer worried about the pain of having them set. A moan from behind drew my attention and I turned to see Irina slowly moving her head back and forth. I knelt down next to her, pulled my jacket off and gently slipped it under her head after folding it over a couple of times.
“You saved our asses,” I said when her eyes fluttered open and focused on my face.
“My head hurts,” she groaned.
“I’m sure,” I smiled. “Between slashing your own scalp open and getting clobbered in a fight you’re having a rough day.”
Irina started to sit up. Rachel, kneeling on the other side of her reached down and restrained her.
“Give it a minute,” she said. “You likely have a concussion and you don’t want to sit up too fast.”
“Did you get all of them?” Irina asked, happy to lay her head back on the pillow I’d made from my jacket. I was shivering without it, but figured she’d earned a little discomfort on my part.
“They’re all dead. What the hell were you screaming to distract them like that?”
“I told them you had kidnapped and raped me,” Irina said with a small smile. “You must already be a monster to them, so it was not hard for them to believe.”
“Hell of a risk, Irina. What if they had been suspicious of a Russian woman out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“I thought of that. There are women in the Russian military, and I am sure there are civilians that have been brought in by now. So it is possible you could have captured one. Enough screaming and tears and emotion and they were more concerned about helping the bloody, half naked woman than asking questions about what she was doing here.”
“Well, thank you,” I said, impressed with her quick thinking and acting skills.
“What happened?” Irina asked, noticing the burning wreckage of the Havoc for the first time.
I spent a few minutes filling her in, including the part about Katie saving me. She stared in shock, turning to look at Rachel to make sure I wasn’t completely off my rocker. Rachel nodded her head in confirmation.
“She saved you?” Irina asked, her blue eyes wide with surprise.
I nodded. She started to say something else, stopping when I held my hand up. I’d just picked up the sound of rotors, faint on the wind, but definitely there. Looking up, I spotted the Warthog, relaxing slightly to see the plane still in its orbit. Must be friendly helicopters coming, otherwise he wouldn’t still be calmly circling.
I stood, facing the direction of the approaching sound. Nearly a minute later I was able to make out several black dots on the horizon. They quickly resolved into a pair of Black Hawks escorted by four Apaches. As always, it was a relief to see the cavalry arriving.
The Apaches split apart, heading to the four points of the compass to set up a picket line as the two Black Hawks came directly in for a landing between us and the burning Havoc. Their rotor wash caught the smoke from the wreck, swirling it in fantastical patterns before slowing. The side doors on both opened, disgorging several Rangers who quickly formed a perimeter around the area. Right behind them a man I recognized jumped down, escorted by a heavily armed Army Captain.
Striding forward I accepted the outstretched hand of Colonel Blanchard, reminding myself that he had been promoted several ranks since the last time I saw him.
“Damn good to see you, sir,” I said.
“Likewise, Major. I’m sorry we couldn’t get here faster, but it’s been a bit of an adventure. Let’s load up and get you out of here. I’m on my way to the front.”
He turned and nodded to Rachel and Irina as they walked up behind me.
“The front?”
“We’ve engaged the Russians,” he said with a stern look on his face. “It’s been in the works for a while, just took some time to put all the pieces together. Right now we need to get moving.”
“No, sir,” I said. “My wife is still out there somewhere and I’m not leaving without her. There’s also an immune in Mountain Home that needs to get to Seattle.”
“Why is your wife out there?” Blanchard asked, not quite comfortable enough with his new rank to get in my face for refusing to do as he said.
“She’s infected, sir.”
This caught him by surprise. His attention snapped into focus on me, his head tilting slightly to the side as he looked closely to make sure I wasn’t playing a sick joke or had another head injury. Finally satisfied, he took my arm and walked me a few yards away.
“Tell me,” he said.
12
“How do you plan to find her?” Blanchard asked when I finished filling him in.
“I’m working on an idea but don’t really have a good answer to that, yet,” I said, shaking my head. “But getting in a Black Hawk and going the other direction isn’t going to help.”
He nodded, acknowledging the validity of my statement.
“OK, we don’t have time to go into details, but here’s what you need to know. We’re hitting the Russians hard. The plans have been held very close over concerns about moles. I don’t know even half of what’s in the works, but we only left a skeleton crew in the Bahamas to protect the civilians.
“We’ve been leapfrogging our way across the continent, stopping at Air Force bases and Army posts along the way to gather equipment and munitions. The Navy has moved into the north Pacific and is engaging the Russian Navy. Colonel Pointere and his MEU have finished clearing out Mountain Home Air Force Base. They moved and engaged with a large enemy force about thirty klicks northwest of Boise.
“Except for support personnel and the handful of Rangers with me, everyone is in the fight. That’s where I was headed when I got the call from the A-10 pilot. That’s why we need to get moving. We’re outnumbered three to one, but holding our own for the moment.”
“Leave me a rifle and take the women,” I said. “If the front moves this way Katie could easily get caught up in the fighting and killed.”
I was torn. As badly as I wanted to find my wife and bring her to safety, it was killing me to know that Soldiers and Marines were fighting and dying and I wasn’t joining the battle. Not that one more rifle would make much difference, but it’s not in my nature to let someone else do the fighting for me.
Blanchard stared at me for a long moment, turning when a young Lieutenant ran up, radio handset extended. The Colonel snatched it from his hand and pressed it to his ear. He listened for a few seconds, both of us looking up as a flight of eight F-16s screamed overhead heading west.
“I’m on my way,” he said before returning the handset.
“Lieutenant, get a rifle, pistol and ammo for the Major. Also a radio. Load the women. We’re leaving. Now.”
“Yes, sir!” The man left at a dead run, shouting to the Rangers who had formed the perimeter to mount up.
“I’m sorry, Major. You’re on your own. The Russians have broken through our lines and we’re in danger of losing a whole company of men. I’ve got to get to the front. Good luck, and if I can help, I will.”
He extended his hand and I shook it, feeling selfish that I wasn’t headed into battle with him. Wondering what the hell I was doing. I didn’t know where to start looking for Katie. Didn’t know what I’d do once I found her. I had no illusions that there was any way I could catch her if she didn’t want to be caught.
And even if I could, what then? Hog tie her and carry her on my back to Seattle? And what about Titus? Even supposing I could somehow capture and control Katie and make the journey, without an immune for the scientists wouldn’t it be a futile effort? I needed Blanchard’s resources. There were no two ways about it.
“Thank you, Colonel, but hold on. I’m coming with you. As long as I can get some help when we finish with the Russians.”
Blanchard smiled and clapped me on the shoulder.
“I’ll do everything I can,” he said, turning and setting off at a jog to the waiting Black Hawks.
“Let’s go,” I shouted to Rachel and Irina, falling in behind him.
Another flight of F-16s roared over, a moment later a large formation of Apaches following at a lower altitude. Looking to the northwest I could see a smudge of black smoke against the swollen, grey clouds.
“Where are we going?” Rachel asked as she and Irina ran on either side of me.
“War,” I said. “You two stick close to Blanchard. It’s going to be chaos.”
“What about Katie?” Irina asked.
“I’ll come back for her,” I said, then we arrived at the Black Hawk.
The Lieutenant was just climbing down, arms loaded with the equipment the Colonel had told him to give me. Blanchard waved him back inside the aircraft, leaping up after him. I came to a stop, helping Rachel and Irina board, then jumped in and slid my legs out of the way as one of the Rangers slammed the door closed.
We were in the air immediately, the pilot transitioning to forward flight only yards above the ground before quickly gaining altitude. Reaching towards the Lieutenant, I collected the weapons and quickly checked them over. He held out a field radio for me, Blanchard telling him to put it away. Instead, I was outfitted with a small unit that slipped into a pouch on my vest and had a tough, thin wire leading to a throat mic and earpiece.
Getting myself outfitted, I looked around, meeting the eyes of the other men. Each of them had the look I expected. The look of a blooded warrior who is heading back into battle. Irina and Rachel huddled against the rear bulkhead, looking out of sorts from the sudden turn of events.
“How do we have enough forces to engage the Russians?” I shouted to Blanchard over the roar of the engines.
“The USS Reagan Carrier Strike Group put into Nassau after we arrived. They had been hanging around in the Gulf, but were in the Persian Gulf when this all started and had a full MEU on board. There was nearly a full Infantry Division they pulled out of Iraq. Over 10,000 Soldiers. They were stuffed on those ships like sardines.”
“How did they bring armor?” I had to lean close to the Colonel and shout in his ear.
“They didn’t,” he shouted back, shaking his head. “That was one of several stops we had to make on the way.”
I nodded, wanting to ask more questions but it was too hard to communicate without a headset.
“What the hell are we doing?” Rachel shouted in my ear.
She was squeezed in next to me, shoulder and hip pressed tight against mine.
“We’re in a battle with the Russians a little way northwest of Boise,” I said, my mouth pressed close to her ear.
“What about Katie? You’re coming back?”
“With help,” I said. “I can’t handle her by myself without hurting her. And it’s still a very long way to Seattle. If I’ve got help, just maybe there’s some hope.”
“How are you going to find her?” Rachel asked, placing her hand on top of mine.
“I have a couple of ideas,” I said, turning to look at Blanchard when I remembered something that had been bugging me.
He was busy on the radio, a rugged laptop open on the vibrating deck next to him. Not wanting to interrupt, I waved the Lieutenant over. I explained what I needed and he set to work on a communications set that was connected to the helicopter’s satellite radio. A couple of minutes later he passed me a headset.
When I put it on the built in noise canceling silenced most of the roar of the Black Hawk in flight and I could hear sounds of someone breathing over the clarity of a digital circuit. I identified myself, happy to hear Petty Officer Simmons respond.
“It’s great to hear your voice, sir!”
“You too, Jessica,” I responded, intentionally using her given name instead of her rank. “I don’t have much time and I need to ask you something.”
“Anything, sir,” she replied, curiosity clear in her tone.
“How do you think the Russians found me in Twin Falls? How did they know where to start looking? And again, just today, they were able to start searching the exact area where I wound up south of Mountain Home.”
I didn’t say anything else and there was complete silence for several heartbeats before she spoke.
“You think…”
“Yes, I do,” I said when she didn’t finish her thought. “One coincidence, no matter how unlikely, can be passed off as exactly that. Twice? No fucking way, Petty Officer. They’re either in the feed again or someone is passing them information.”
“You don’t think it was me?” Her voice rose a couple of octaves and I could hear that she was both hurt and indignant.
“No, Jessica. I don’t. If it was you they would have had me pinpointed each time and not had to search. This is someone that has enough information to point them in my direction, but can’t give them my exact location. Who would that be?”
It was quiet for a long time and I let her stew and think. I had originally intended to contact Admiral Packard directly with my suspicions, but for some reason I knew I could trust Jessica to do the right thing. I’ve been around the military much of my adult life and had no doubt that if I had called the Admiral he would immediately lock down all personnel with any access to or knowledge of my whereabouts.
Naval counter-intelligence would start an investigation. Depending on who was running things, that investigation could easily become a witch hunt. With the current state of affairs, I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone who was even remotely involved got thrown into a jail cell and left to rot. I didn’t want to lose Jessica while the bureaucrats got things sorted out. She’d saved my ass more than a few times. It would be better for her to come forward with the suspicions.
Not that she wouldn’t be looked at closely. It’s not uncommon for moles and traitors to accuse others of their crimes in an attempt to deflect suspicion. But if I was correct about her, and I was betting my life on it right about now, she would come out of the other end of this and be just fine.
“Still there?” I finally asked.
“Yes, sir. Just running over a list of possibilities in my head. And getting really pissed off.” I could hear the tightness in her voice.
“Just be sure you’ve got your ducks in a row before you talk to anyone,” I advised. “And, be prepared to be put under the microscope. Also, I need one more thing.”
“Sir, you just talked to me directly about this instead of throwing me to the wolves in intel. Anything you want, you get.”
“Get into what’s left of the CIA’s network. Find out if it’s still possible to activate personal locators. If it is, I’d like you to ping my wife’s locator and start tracking her.”
“Your wife’s? She’s CIA? I thought she was with you, sir.”
Shit. Jessica didn’t know. But then, how could she?
“She turned, Jessica. Infected. I lost her somewhere south of Mountain Home. I’m in a Black Hawk on my way to the front and I’m going to need to find her when this is over.”
Jessica was quiet for a few moments and I could imagine the thoughts going through her head.
“OK, sir. I’ll do everything I can, but I’m not optimistic this is going to work. If that system is even still up and running, the very nature of what it is means it will have one hell of security layer in front of it.”
“Do the best you can,” I said, hope that I’d be able to find Katie again flickering and threatening to go out.
> “Already working on it, sir,” she said, the sound of rapid keyboarding coming over the circuit.
“Thank you, Jessica. And be careful who you talk to about the other matter. You don’t know who you can trust.”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
I could hear an undercurrent of fear creep in when she spoke. Breaking the connection, I pulled the headset off and handed it back to the Lieutenant.
13
It was only a few more minutes before the pilot made a sharp turn and descended quickly. One of the Rangers opened the side door as we touched down, jumping to the ground. The rest followed and I leapt out right behind them. Blanchard, his aide, then Rachel and Irina brought up the rear.
We were at a temporary command post. Five Hummers were parked in a reasonable facsimile of a circle and two Bradley fighting vehicles bracketed the camp. The sounds of the battle were loud and we couldn’t have been more than half a klick from the front.
Blanchard ran to where a Major and two Captains were leaned over a large, plastic covered paper map. All three of them had radios pressed to their faces, listening to reports and shouting orders as they made marks on the map with grease pencils. A little old school, but then so am I.
I stepped behind the shortest man and looked over his head at the map. To the uninitiated it looked like uncontrolled mayhem, the symbols they were drawing appearing to mean nothing. But they did mean something, and if you knew how to read them they told a story.
And it wasn’t a good story. The Russians were spread across a five-mile front and had both light and heavy armor supporting them. The Infantry Division was spread thin, but appeared to be holding the higher ground. The Marines had broken through enemy lines to the north, flanking a company of Russian armor, but they were now pinned down.
Two companies of Rangers were holding fast, using the terrain to their advantage, but another was in serious trouble. They were flanked on two sides by Russian infantry and were in danger of being encircled as a spearhead of light armor and ground troops pushed ahead.
Another company of Rangers was trying to reach them, but had made contact with the largest concentration of enemy armor. They were stalled, unable to make progress. I turned my radio on, the shouts and screams of men in contact with the enemy immediately filling my ear. I listened for a few moments, sorting out who was who as I kept studying the map.