Commander Davies crawled into his raft despite a broken wrist, cursing and blessing his luck at the same time. His first considered action was to activate his rescue radio. He looked around and saw another yellow raft a short distance away. It wasn’t easy paddling with one arm, but the other guy was paddling toward him. What came next was quite a surprise.
“You are prisoner!” The man was pointing a gun at him. Davies’s revolver was at the bottom of the sea.
“Who the hell are you?”
“I am Major Alexandr Georgiyevich Chapayev-Soviet Air Force.”
“Howdy. I’m Commander Gus Davies, U.S. Navy. Who got you?”
“No one get me! I run out of fuel!” He waved the gun. “And you are my prisoner.”
“Oh, horseshit!”
Major Chapayev shook his head. Like Davies, he was in a near-state of shock from the stress of combat and his close escape from death.
“Hold on to that gun, though, Major. I don’t know if there’re sharks around here or not.”
“Sharks?”
Davies had to think for a moment. The code name for that new Russian sub. “Akula. Akula in the water.”
Chapayev went pale. “Akula?”
Davies unzipped his flight suit and tucked in his injured arm. “Yeah, Major. This is the third time I’ve had to go swimming. Last time I was on the raft for twelve hours, and I saw a couple of the Goddamned things. You got any repellant on your raft?”
“What?” Chapayev was really confused now.
“This stuff.” Davies dipped the plastic envelope in the water. “Let’s rope your raft to mine. Safer that way. This repellant stuffs supposed to keep the akula away.”
Davies tried to secure the rafts one-handed and failed. Chapayev set the gun down to help. After being shot down once, then surviving an air battle, the major was suddenly obsessed with the idea of being alive. The idea of being eaten by a carnivorous fish horrified him. He looked over the side of the raft into the water.
“Christ, what a morning,” Davies groaned. His wrist was really hurting now.
Chapayev grunted agreement. He looked around for the first time and realized he couldn’t see land. Next he reached for his rescue radio and found that his leg was lacerated, the radio pocket on his flight suit ripped away in the ejection.
“Aren’t we two sorry sons of bitches,” he said in Russian.
“What’s that?”
“Where is land?” The sea had never looked so vast.
“About twenty-five miles that way, I think. That leg doesn’t look too good, Major.” Davies laughed coldly. “We must have the same kind of ejector seats. Oh, shit! This arm hurts.”
“Damn, what do you suppose that’s all about?” Edwards wondered aloud. They were too far away to hear anything, but they could not miss the smoke rising from Keflavik.
A more immediate concern was the squad of Russians now at the base of their hill. Nichols, Smith, and the four privates were spread out across a front of a hundred yards centered on Edwards, faces darkened, mainly squatting behind rocks and watching the Russians half a mile away.
“Doghouse, this is Beagle, and we got trouble here, over.” He had to call twice more to get an answer.
“What’s the problem, Beagle?”
“We got five or six Russians climbing our hill. They’re about six hundred feet below us, half a mile away. Also, what’s going on at Keflavik?”
“We have an air attack under way there, that’s all I know at the moment. Keep us posted, Beagle. I’ll see if I can send you some help.”
“Thank you. Out.”
“Michael?”
“Good morning. Glad one of us got a decent night’s sleep.” She sat down beside him, resting her hand on his leg, and the fear subsided for a moment.
“I’d swear I just saw some movement on the top there,” the platoon sergeant said.
“Let me see.” The lieutenant moved his powerful spotting glasses on the peak. “Nothing. Nothing at all. Maybe you saw a bird. Those little puffin things are all over the place.”
“Possibly,” the sergeant allowed. He was starting to feel guilty for sending Markhovskiy up there. If this lieutenant had half a brain, he thought, he’d have sent a larger force, maybe led it himself, like an officer should.
“The air base is being heavily attacked.”
“Have you radioed in?”
“Tried to. They’re off the air at the moment.” There was concern in his voice. Sixty miles was too far for the small tactical radios. Their heavy VHF set reported into the air base. As much as he wanted to be with the patrol, the lieutenant knew his proper place was here. “Warn Markhovskiy.”
Edwards saw one of the Russians stop and fiddle with his walkie-talkie. Tell him he’s climbing the wrong hill-tell him to come home to Mama.
“Keep your head down, babe.”
“What is it, Michael?”
“We got some people climbing this hill.”
“Who?” There was concern in her voice.
“Guess.”
“Skipper, they’re coming up for sure,” Smith warned over the radio.
“Yeah, I see that. Everybody got a good place?”
“Leftenant, I strongly recommend that we let them get in very close before opening fire,” Nichols called.
“Makes sense, skipper,” Smith agreed on the same circuit.
“Okay. You got ideas, gentlemen, I want to hear them right away. Oh, yeah, I’ve called in for some help. Maybe we can get some air support.”
Mike pulled back on the charging handle of his rifle to make sure a round was chambered, set it on safe, then put the M-16 down. The Marines had all the hand grenades. Edwards had never been taught how to use them, and they frightened him.
Come on, fellows, just go the hell away and we’ll be glad to leave you alone. They kept coming. Each paratrooper climbed slowly, rifle in one hand and the other hand grabbing or fending off rocks. They spent their time evenly looking up toward Edwards and down at their footing. Mike was truly frightened. These Russians were elite soldiers. So were his Marines-but he was not. He didn’t belong here. The other times he’d faced Russians, in Vigdis’s house, the terrifying incident with the helicopter, all those were behind him and for the moment forgotten. He wanted to run away-but what if he did? He’d earned the respect of his Marines, and could he throw that away and still live with himself? What of Vigdis -could he run away in front of her? What are you most afraid of, Mike?
“Stay cool,” he muttered to himself.
“What?” Vigdis asked. She too was afraid, just from seeing his face.
“Nothing.” He tried to smile and half succeeded. You can’t let her down, can you?
The Russians were now five hundred yards away and still well below them. Their approach became more cautious. There were six of them, and they moved two at a time, fanning out and no longer taking what looked to be the easy route to the top.
“Skipper, we got a problem,” Smith called. “I think they know we’re here.”
“Nichols, I want to hear you.”
“We wait until they get within one hundred yards, and for Christ’s good sake, keep heads down! If you can get some support, I would suggest you do so.”
Edwards switched radios. “Doghouse, this is Beagle, and we need some help here.”
“We’re working on that. We’re trying to get-to get some friends to listen in on this frequency. It takes time, Lieutenant.”
“I got about another five minutes-tops-before the shooting starts.”
“Keep this channel open.”
“Where are they? Edwards asked himself. He couldn’t see anyone now. The rocks and cover that had so often worked for them were now working against them. He stopped bobbing his head up and down. He was the officer, he was in command, he had the best vantage point, and he had to see what was happening. Edwards moved slightly to get a decent view of the events below him.
“There is somebody there!” the platoon sergeant said, grabbing for the radio. “Markhovskiy, you’re heading into a trap! I see a man with a helmet atop the hill.”
“You’re right,” the lieutenant said. He turned. “Get the mortar set up!” The officer ran over to the big VHF radio and tried to raise Keflavik. Armed troops on this hill could only mean one thing-but Keflavik was still off the air.
Edwards saw one Russian rise up, then drop back down on a shout from someone else. When the shape reappeared, it was behind a rifle. He heard a whistling sound, then there was an explosion fifty yards away.
“Oh, shit!” Edwards fell to his face and cowered next to his rock. Bits of other rocks fell around him. He looked at Vigdis, who seemed all right, then over at the far peak, where men were racing downhill. Another mortar round fell to his right, and was followed by automatic-rifle fire. He grabbed his satellite radio.
“Doghouse, this is Beagle. We are under attack.”