CARRIER 9: ARCTIC FIRE By: Keith Douglass

lining or some overlooked gap in his clothing. He could feel the heat

rising off his skin as he walked, felt the air sucking at it.

The point man stopped suddenly. He pointed and made a motion to

Sikes. Sikes moved forward until he was standing by the man. “What was

it?”

“Don’t know for sure–something dark green, blowing in the wind. In

this wind, it was gone before I could get a good look at it. Man-made,

though–definitely.”

Sikes lifted the radio to his mouth and quickly briefed the other

group and the lookout on the sighting. Even after a few moments of

standing still, he could feel his muscles start to tighten as the cold

seeped in.

Every sense heightened, adrenaline pounding through his veins and

further exacerbating the heat loss, he motioned for the other man to begin

again. There was no more chance that this was a false alarm. Whatever the

man had seen–and he had no doubt that the man had seen something–this

patrol was now tactical instead of practice.

1710 Local

USS Jefferson

“Sikes just radioed in that they’ve seen something,” Batman said into

the receiver. “Whoever’s taken up residence there and decided to start

shooting at our aircraft isn’t so hot of a housekeeper. Still, the

island’s supposed to be deserted. If they hadn’t taken a shot at our

aircraft, we probably never would have known they were there.”

“Don’t be so sure about that,” Admiral Magruder’s voice responded.

“There’s that radio report from the Inuits.”

“And who would have suspected it?” Batman mused. “Some Aleutian

Islander with a radio sees something strange and decides to call in the

Navy.”

“Not so strange as you might think,” Tombstone responded. His voice

took on a reflective note. “I wonder if it’s the same–no, couldn’t be.

He’d have to be pushing seventy years old by now.”

“Who?” Batman asked, confused by Tombstone’s apparent change of

subjects.

“Probably nothing,” Tombstone answered. “But years ago, when my uncle

was still involved in Special Forces projects, he spent some time out on

those islands. We were in the middle of the Cold War, and maintaining the

integrity of our homeland was a lot bigger issue than it is today.”

“Vice Admiral Magruder on a field trip to the Aleutians?” Batman

snorted. “I’d like to see that.”

“He wasn’t always a vice admiral,” Tombstone answered dryly. “At the

time, I believe he was a lieutenant commander. He told me the story a

couple of times, how he went out to the islands, met some of the native

tribes, studied their survival techniques. At the time, we were still in

our infancy on cold weather tactics. Some bright mind in the Pentagon

decided that the best way to shorten the learning curve was to study people

that have centuries of experience at it. My uncle’s always been an avid

skier and camper, so somebody figured he was perfect for the job.”

“How long did he spend there?”

“Three months. He visited five major islands, including one of the

largest ones near the end of the chain. And that’s the odd thing–he met

an old fellow there, an Inuit who was considered the leader of the tribe.

At first, they weren’t too interested in talking, but my uncle managed to

make friends with him somehow. It had something to do with killing a polar

bear, though I never got all the details. Anyway, this old fellow decided

my uncle was okay. They came to some sort of understanding about the

Russians, although I gather the Inuit wasn’t nearly as concerned as my

uncle was. He said he left the man some high-tech radio gear–high-tech

for that era, anyway–along with a list of standard tactical frequencies.

From what my uncle says, they’ve had a couple of reports from them over the

years, although I doubt that there’s been anything for the last decade or

so.”

“And this fella is still alive, you think? And the radio’s still

working?” Batman asked incredulously.

“You got the report, didn’t you?” Tombstone pointed out. “Besides,

this fellow might have handed on the responsibility to his son as well.

Who knows? At this point, I’m just grateful we’ve got an asset in place.”

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