White Wolf, regarding the groups, would have to be in their ability to move
undetected across the land. No mainlander–and that included
Russians–could match that. Weapons were fine, but it was getting close
enough to use them that was the real problem.
The young veteran returned to his side. “I still think you should
stay here,” he said, continuing an argument from the night before. “it
will be dangerous.”
That was exactly the wrong argument to make. White Wolf drew himself
tall, feeling the old vertebrae creak and complain with the effort. “I
gave my word,” he said quietly. He held his hands out before him, spread
them open. “Do you think I have a choice?”
His grandson sighed. “I suppose not. But for God’s sake, don’t take
any chances.”
White Wolf glanced at the seven other men clustering around him. Most
of them were at least twenty years his junior, a few even younger, one
almost as old. All in all, good men, made strong by the forces of nature
they contended with daily.
He jerked to the north with his head, and set off across the rough
terrain without waiting to see if they followed.
1015 Local
Tomcat 201
“I’d say hell would freeze over before they decide what to do, but
that would be a bad choice of words in this case,” Bird Dog said.
Gator sighed. “You think every problem can be solved with
five-hundred-pound bombs?”
“No, of course not. Sometimes you want to use your
two-thousand-pounder,” Bird Dog snapped. “But there’s not a damned air
contact within five hundred miles of this place, according to E-2. And as
close as Jefferson is to this island, we could be pulling Alert, sitting on
the deck waiting for them to show up, instead of stuck in some miserable
orbit overhead.”
“What if the E-2 doesn’t hold it until it’s too late?”
“Like that will happen,” Bird Dog snorted.
“Okay, how about this?” Gator asked, tired of the argument. “We drop
down to five thousand feet, take a quick visual on the island. Then we
come back up and do what CAG wants for a change. That make you happy?”
Bird Dog nodded, knowing his backseater could see the gesture. “I’d
feel more like I knew what was going on if I could at least take a look at
the island occasionally. But with our cloud layer, it’s gonna be more like
three thousand feet instead of five thousand. You up for that?”
“Just don’t run me into a cliff, Bird Dog. That’s all I ask this
trip.”
1020 Local
Aflu
Cover was scant as White Wolf led his men down to the base of the
cliffs. Twenty feet from the main cliff base, it degenerated into little
more than a series of rocky protuberances from the ice, boulders barely
waist-high. He crept forward as far as he dared, then dropped to the
ground and waited. Behind him, he heard his men moving into position.
Hours of observation had revealed the fact that the northern patrol
was a relatively predictable, if otherwise diligent, watch-stander. His
approach to maintaining security consisted of walking east and west along
the northern half of the island, occasionally glancing around, and making
regular radio reports. It took him approximately thirty minutes to reach
the end of the island, surveil the sea, and then commence the return trip.
As his back was turned while he was heading west, White Wolf took advantage
of his relatively infrequent observances to move the men into position.
The veteran would have the harder time of it, he thought, feeling the
cold start to creep into his belly. The southern intruder patrol had
appeared to be far more unpredictable, varying the times at which he
started his rounds, and occasionally stopping to carefully surveil all 360
degrees around him. Twice in the last five hours he hadn’t even continued
on to the end of the island, but had instead unexpectedly doubled back on
his path. For the veteran, that meant a shorter time period to get his men
in position.
There was one constant in both men’s routines, however. At some point
during their circuit of their area, each one moved back to within assault