ragged, he mused, but that would hardly matter.
He watched the two teams measure carefully, setting the charges at the
corners of a twenty-foot box. Each man then extracted an ice drill from
the pack, and began the laborious process of creating a tamping hole for
the charge.
Thirty minutes later, after each hole was complete, they measured
again. Exactly on point, as the commander had known they would be. Behind
the wool scarf that covered his mouth, the smile broadened once again. The
four holes would hold the support structure for a small but potent anti-air
defense system. With the help of German engineers, experienced in the
manufacture of Stinger missiles and their own superb brand of weaponry,
they had built a modular, transportable system that had no equal in the
world. One-tenth the size of an American Patriot battery, yet capable of
being operated in either a local or remote mode, the system could track and
target twenty incoming aircraft simultaneously. It was also effective
against missiles operating at less than Mach 5, a limitation that put most
other nations’ armament well within its capabilities.
Once in place, the system would be virtually automatic. requiring
operator input only to disable it from incoming friendly flights.
He watched as the men carefully set their charges into the holes, then
returned to join him at his side. The commander reached into his own
backpack and extracted the firing control box. After ensuring that
everyone was safely out of harm’s way and had covered their ears and turned
away from the holes, he clamped a large set of earphones over his ears and
turned away. Holding the remote control at an angle away from his body, he
punched the detonation switch.
The reaction was immediate and impressive. The explosion shook the
ground under their feet, setting off a series of groans and creaks, not
only from the ice underneath them but from the sculptured cliffs around
their cave. For a moment, he wondered whether the island, essentially ice
covering an old volcanic flume, could withstand the shock. Even at a
distance of fifty feet from the explosions, ice rained down on them.
Thirty seconds later, the ominous rumbling and creaking under his feet
subsided. He removed his earphones and checked his comrades, pleased to
note that not a one of them showed the slightest bit of concern. He
motioned again, and the four men set out to check their holes.
For the first time since he’d started the evolution, his thoughts
wandered. He stared out at the icy, dark gray sea, wondering where the
transport was. According to his information, a Ropuchka amphibious
transport ship was en route to the area at that very moment, following
carefully in the wake of a Russian icebreaker. In the Ropuchka were
anti-air batteries that would be erected over these holes, as well as a
support crew of technicians, engineers, and guards.
Not that there was anything to guard against. He glanced around the
landscape, still uneasy for some reason he couldn’t exactly define. Not a
single survey had ever turned up a trace of life on the island, and he saw
no indications now that those estimates had been wrong. Still … Well,
it never hurt to be too careful. After they’d finished inspecting the
blast holes, he’d send two men out on a quick area survey, just to make
absolutely sure that the island was completely uninhabited. He looked
behind him, assessing the difficulty of climbing the jutting spires carved
into the ice. What might be impossible for most men would simply be the
first challenge his team had had all week.
0642 Local
USS Jefferson
“What did your SAR find?” the familiar voice said. Batman smiled,
despite the seriousness of the situation. Tombstone had been his wingman
for too many years for his voice to be anything except immediately
recognizable.
“The same thing your P-3’s found–nothing,” Batman answered. “One of
the S-3 pilots thought he saw an oil slick, but it’s hard to tell in this
weather. The wave action would have dispersed anything floating on the
surface by now.”
“No debris?”
Rear Admiral Edward Everett “Batman” Wayne shook his head glumly.
“Admiral, I wish I had better news for you, but I just don’t. You know how