by Ray Carole
The Russian had obviously found this type of break in the terrain and Ivan agreed it was a perfect ambush setting.
Without hesitation Ivan walked over to Decker.
‘Right Harry I am going to free up your legs so we can move to the RV location. It is only 30 minutes away. I don’t want you shouting at the guy over there looking for answers. If you try and make a run for it I will shoot you in the legs, understand?’
Decker continued his vacant stare before Ivan placed his goggles back on his face, and stowed away the sleeping bag.
‘You move I will shoot you, clear?’ Ivan’s last words before they began to move off, staying about 30 metres behind the others.
Decker’s hands were still bound to the rear which was harsh and a little foolhardy. A fall could result in a serious breakage but Ivan was taking no chances. He didn’t complain. He was too busy playing out his next couple of moves and secretly wanting to rip Mick’s head clean off.
It was ironic that the weather had cleared up completely. The wind had died down, the haze had cleared and the sun was shining high. Visibility was the best it had been for two days. This was good news for Decker maybe, as it would make the ambush more challenging. If the visibility was still low then the Russians could have quickly closed in and taken control, without giving The Clinic any time to react.
The Russians would have to use the terrain or Decker to their advantage when the RV happened.
Decker knew he had no safety networks save for Andrew and the guys, if they had not already been taken captive or executed.
If the Russians offer me up as bait, where do I run when The Clinic see I have company? Will The Clinic kill me without hesitation once they see others involved? Will the Russians protect me at all costs? Options were at the forefront of his mind as they journeyed over the ice, so much so they had reached a large rubble field wall already denoting the ambush site in record time. Decker had crossed similar terrain many times, it was an almost perfect wall of rubble that separated the horrible terrain behind them, and entered an almost billiard table-like terrain ahead.
Ivan and the other Russian were looking out to the flat ice to their front and discussing the ambush options no doubt. They would have time once Decker made the call to finalise their execution of the plan.
Playing around with their GPSs and switching batteries from satellite phones Ivan began to walk over to Decker.
‘Okay your phone is powered up. I will explain this clearly, you deviate I will kill you. Phone Trans-Ant and speak to Andrew.’
Ivan pointed to the display screen on his GPS.
‘Once they read these co-ordinates back that’s it, say you have to go as you are saving all the power you have left. No questions, don’t answer any of theirs.’
Ivan flicked through the contacts list and found Andrew on the phone.
‘Is this Andrew from Trans-Ant?’ Ivan asked.
Decker nodded silently.
Another Russian came over to cover Decker as Ivan dialled, checked it was on loudspeaker then held it next to Decker’s head.
Both Russians were silent.
Decker was thinking what to say whilst thinking how stupid Ivan was to keep saying he would kill him. If he was dead the game was over, checkmate.
It was ringing.
‘Harry how the hell are you buddy?’ Andrew sounded genuinely excited to hear him.
‘I only have minimal battery life Andrew so listen and get ready to take my position…’
‘Sure, go ahead,’ he replied.
Ivan pushed the GPS up in front of Decker’s face with his left hand. Nodding to the other Russian who instantly pointed his weapon at his head as Decker read the coordinates out twice.
‘You have to come and meet me, my knee is injured badly and I can only move a small distance.’
Andrew read back the coordinates.
‘That’s correct, how long Andrew?’ Decker asked hating this.
‘Umm, umm… Fuck me, about four hours mate, hang in there okay?’
‘I will, I have to go Andrew.’ Ivan pressed the red end-call button.
‘Was that okay for you?’ Decker said to Ivan.
‘Perfect Harry, that was perfect,’ Ivan smiled before lashing out at Decker’s sarcastic tone and pushing him back, but Decker managed to stay on his feet.
Decker was almost about to leg-swipe Ivan in return but saw sense and took the hit instead. He had to stay friends for now, for at least another four hours.
A linear ambush Decker thought.
Hiding behind the rubble wall looking out to the front, The Trans-Ant team would roll in with their trucks to this location. The Russians could stay behind cover until they were literally metres away, so as long as Decker was visible on his own they would come right up to him and straight into the ambush, or the killing zone.
A liner ambush was the simplest ambush to execute if the enemy did what you expected. And why wouldn’t they? Decker thought.
If The Clinic don’t know the Russians are here this is exactly what is going happen… The Clinic don’t know they’re here so this will happen.
How the fuck can I sort this out in this position? I just pray the lads are okay. Hopefully The Clinic have not topped everyone now they know where I am.
He reprimanded himself, Decker you don’t know for sure that The Clinic are with Trans-Ant, that’s just your prediction based on an assumption that the Russians have intercepted some calls from The Clinic to the assassination team.
Are you racing ahead again? Being too quick and smart for your own good and seeing things that simply aren’t there?
Decker took a moment to calm his thoughts and think rationally. Closing his eyes, he took a few long breaths before twitching them open again.
‘Maybe I am actually missing the real reason for the Russians wanting to meet Trans-Ant team and have missed it from the start? I have 4 hours to work it out…’
Chapter 35
Sitting behind Andrew in the rear twin cab, Gerry quickly sat bolt upright, moments earlier his head had been almost pressing against Andrew’s headrest trying to eavesdrop as much as possible to ascertain what WHITEOUT was saying, whilst masquerading as staring out of the window during the long drive.
At this point it would have meant serious decision time if WHITEOUT had mentioned what had happened, although Gerry would have banked on Andrew reacting like a civilian, either thinking WHITEOUT was having an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder making him delusional, or he had just lost the plot completely with his past experiences finally taking control of his mind being in this insane environment on his own for too long.
However, what Gerry was catching snippets of was nothing of the sort.
WHITEOUT sounded injured and was squeezing the last blip of battery life out of his phone to make this desperate call for a pick-up.
He thought it through, the injury to WHITEOUT’s leg was plausible.
Mick was not communicating and the last they knew was that he was about to seek revenge for Robby’s murder.
Had the two met? Was Mick the latest victim of WHITEOUT’s plight for evasion? Had WHITEOUT got injured or shot during the fight?
Gerry thought this was most likely the logical conclusion.
WHITEOUT had killed Mick and had sustained a serious injury. Maybe life-threatening, he would have taken Mick’s battery out of his phone due to the severity of his injury, and called Andrew for a pick-up instead of the planned RV at the prearranged spot. WHITEOUT would not have risked making such an emergency call otherwise.
Covering his tracks by saying that he had managed to get some power out of the solar panel was a simple explanation as opposed to telling Andrew it was from the phone of the last guy he had just murdered in self-defence.
Gerry knew he had
to make a call to Sully ASAP. His thought process was cut short by Andrew.
‘Wow, that was him Gerry if you hadn’t guessed. So it looks like we will meet, and earlier than expected. I must admit I didn’t think we would see him since his communications went down, but such a shame, he says the exped is over due to his knee being twisted, we really thought he was going to make it.’
‘Least he is okay,’ Gerry faked back. ‘The weather has been horrific these last few days; especially for one man to endure on his own and I know you guys were concerned. Like you say, a shame. Still it will be great to see and speak to the guy, no doubt he will be pretty devastated by the recent turn of events.’ Gerry held his own with the seemingly innocent conversation whilst doing the maths inside his head at a rapid rate.
The Trans-Ant team was static as Andrew pulled his teammate John over and told him to go firm as soon as the call was received and they knew it was Decker. Gerry knew he had to act fast now and activate the jamming device. Andrew would call Union Glacier and Steve Jones immediately to update them on WHITEOUT. This could not be allowed to happen, it would equal Mission Failure and the fallout would be unfixable at this point. The Peli-case with the specialist equipment stored in it was in the back of the truck hold.
Without hesitation Gerry made his move.
‘Andrew I’m just going to get a spare battery out of the Peli-case for my camera, it’s on its last bar.’
‘Go ahead Gerry, we’re here for a few minutes plotting the route to Harry’s location.’
Gerry jumped out and headed to the rear of the wagon.
Whilst this was happening Andrew talked over the two-way vehicle radios and let everyone know the news about Decker.
Sean reacted instantly as he observed Gerry upfront moving to the rear of Andrew’s wagon, moving to meet him.
Gerry pulled the handle to bring the tailgate down and saw Sean walking over clearly aware that something was up.
Gerry whispered: ‘Right I have to activate the jammer before they make the call to Union Glacier. WHITEOUT has just called in with an injury and Andrew is planning the route to get to him so we have literally minutes. In fact you activate it. It’s in the second peli-case underneath the black North Face bag there.’
Sean jumped straight on it and began moving the black bag to access the peli-case.
‘I need to quickly phone Sully. I will move to the front so I can see Andrew. If he picks the sat phone up I will switch mine to my other ear. Activate it on Alpha Setting when I do this, we don’t have much time mate. Also bring the remote with you,’ Gerry confirmed.
Gerry talked to Sean loudly explaining where the spare batteries were so the crew can hear him, Sean continued the role-play to start buying time before Gerry let him know that he’s going to make quick call reference work stuff.
Audible enough for all to hear Gerry scrambled for Sully’s number, locating it he hit the green dial button.
Anxiously watching Andrew finishing up on the laptop he saw the prominent ‘GO TO’ button get tapped on the screen.
Mike from the rear vehicle jumped out, immediately reaching for his zip to take a quick piss. Only five metres from Gerry and even closer to Sean, they prayed that a piss was all he needed. Sean paused on extending a small antenna that was integrated into the peli-case, he had to do it for it to start jamming calls. If it was seen by Mike it would be suspicious, especially as he was the tech geek, he was just going to have to employ a bit of stealth and speed.
Gerry was watching Andrew holding his satellite phone in the wagon. Clearly scrolling his way through the contacts list, Gerry knew Andrew was flicking to find Steve Jones at Union Glacier Base Camp. Sean still had his head buried in the Peli-case and Gerry gritted his teeth against shouting ‘Get a move on’.
‘Gerry how’s it going?’ Sully’s voice bellowed down the phone breaking his concentration.
Gerry answered without sounding rushed. Composing his relaxed posture was complicated as he was worried about Andrew, any second now he was going to make the call…
‘Gerry I will call you back, this is a bad connection.’
The intensity of the situation was clear to see on Gerry’s face as he held Sean’s gaze and moved his eyes towards the cab. This was the signal that Andrew was in action.
Sean was poised knowing as soon as Gerry moves his phone from his ear he has to activate the jammer.
‘Okay will get straight on it and talk in a bit,’ Sully replied.
‘Thanks mate,’ Gerry changed the phone from one ear to the other happy in the knowledge that “bad connection” was a codeword that meant sat comms was compromised. Gerry knew he would retrieve an encrypted data message on his beacon soon.
Sean hit the switch activating the Alpha Setting jammer.
Gerry looked at Andrew as he moved the phone to sit against his other ear, his lips mimicking a conversation.
Inside the truck, Andrew held the phone to his ear and Gerry started to hold his breath.
30 seconds passed, Gerry watched Andrew intently, he still held the phone to his ear his lips hadn’t moved.
Had the jammer had enough time to power up and actively start jamming the phone signal?
Andrew brought the phone down in front of him.
That was the sign Gerry was waiting for and with it he sighed.
Andrew checked the number and dialled again but Gerry grinned inwardly knowing that this was a no-go.
Walking over to Sean he handed him the spare battery that doubled up as the remote for the jamming device. Pushing the tailgate back up both men rejoined their respective teams.
After a few minutes of everyone loading up, Gerry de-activated the jammer.
Gerry’s beacon made a small beep, he only heard it as he was expecting a message to come through within minutes of Sully ending the call.
It wouldn’t take the techy too long to suggest to text to Union Glacier if Andrew wanted to get a message back. It wasn’t rocket science; even your average person tries to text if the phone was not connecting, sending a text message, you know it will get delivered at some point.
Gerry scrolled down to the received message icon on his beacon, entered the inbox, accessed the message and began to read, fast.
It was clear Sully had pre-written most of this message possibly anticipating he would have to give orders in a secure data format if he suspected the satellite calls were being intercepted.
‘Good work Gerry. A few things have been going on here that are unclear, but your last message has locked this all down in my mind. I’m alone with what I am thinking but here it is:
Russians, I think they have WHITEOUT and it means one thing. You and Trans-Ant are driving straight into an ambush. The guys are working on intercepting more transmissions from the Russians but it’s not proving too successful.
Mick’s phone is an Iridium 9555 model, a different battery pack to WHITEOUT’s 9575, not compatible. There is no way WHITEOUT has recharged via his solar panel, all his gear was left at the tent site, even Mick confirmed the solar panel was there.
I think the Russians have WHITEOUT but I am not sure about Mick. His phone is off. His beacon has been static for hours. This either means he’s dead or the beacon is fucked.
I reckon the Russians must have been eavesdropping and know what model phone he’s using. It’s not rocket science it’s an older Iridium so they will have them anyway like us.
These are now direct orders and trust me this is how we end all this.
Go to the new RV but put the normal anti-ambush drills in place. You have the weapons to deal with this.
Hence you got the high-calibre rifles and Icarus team just got the pistols so they would have to get up close and personal with Decker and not take the easy option and shoot him from 300 metres away. That was my insurance policy the
y would do the job properly and not bottle it.
The Russians, if they have been intercepting our conversations will know you’re with Trans-Ant and more importantly that you’re a big player Gerry. They will want you and WHITEOUT alive. This is the only edge you need to get the drop first and get back to the runway at The South Pole station ASAP. Ilyushin will be waiting and ready to go, Roman is expecting Trans-Ant back at 2000hrs he will be turning and burning with logistics from the station.
This is critical Gerry and I’m sorry I never told you before but I know you’ll understand this. Do not disclose this to Sean.
In fact you are the only person apart from me who has this knowledge. It’s getting too close now, and what I am about to tell you next will be hard to swallow but it’s the completion of The Clinic’s inception and activation…’
‘These flipping solar hotspots do my head in we had this the other week. Well least we received his call and know where he is,’ Andrew said to John and Gerry, interrupting Gerry’s disbelief as he read through Sully’s final paragraph of his new orders.
‘Probably that weather system that’s just blown through,’ John concluded. Clearly having no idea what he was talking about being the grease monkey mechanic, and much loved village idiot on this adventure.
‘Yeah nice one Batman, well I will send an SMS, it will get through eventually,’ Andrew said.
Gerry quickly scrolled though the last paragraph before hitting the remote jammer button. Any messages would never leave Andrew’s phone, or any other, blocking them from even entering cyberspace to be retrieved at a later date.
His relief was short-lived as he absorbed Sully’s message that he knew he had to delete immediately. Storing it to memory was the only hard copy he possessed now. Conscious the Russians, if Sully was right, would at some point tap into their data transmissions. Gerry started to ponder…
‘I hope I have read and interpreted it all correctly as it’s going to be a catastrophic fuck-up if I didn’t.’