Anvil (6 page)

Rachel’s
warning snapped me back to the moment and got me moving.  I took half a
second to listen, identifying the rotor noise as a Russian Hind.  It was
approaching from the north, probably one of the helicopters assigned to a
search orbit, but it was possible one of the dead Spetsnaz had managed to get
an emergency call out over the radio and it was responding.

Either way,
we were pretty much fucked if it flew within visual range.  Four dead
Russians lay on the ground, three of them having been slashed open with my
Kukri.  Their bright red blood formed large, neon red stains on the white
blanket of snow.  There was no way I had time to conceal the bodies and
evidence of the fight.

Dashing to
Irina’s still unconscious form, I bent, grabbed her wrists and cursed at the
stab of pain from my broken fingers.  Ignoring it, I yanked and pulled her
limp form up and over my shoulder.  As I was doing this, the thrum of the
approaching rotor steadily grew in volume.  I was out of time.

Straightening
with the burden, I turned as a Havoc attack helicopter popped up over a low
hill.  The pilot was apparently surprised to see us as it took him a
moment to react and swing the aircraft around into a hover.  He held in
the air, three hundred yards away and maybe five hundred feet above the ground.

“Do we
run?”  Rachel asked from beside me.

“We can’t
outrun him,” I said, anger and frustration churning in my gut. 

We were
caught.  Completely.  It was daylight.  We were in unforgiving
terrain with few places to hide and certainly none that could protect us from
the Havoc’s weapons.  We stood out like a beacon against the snow on the
ground.  I was out of rabbits.

“What do we
do?”  Rachel asked, grabbing my arm.  “There has to be something.”

“Wait for
the right moment…” I started to say, pausing when the sound of another aircraft
reached my ears.

It was a
jet, coming fast from the southeast.  Turning my head, I spotted it and didn’t
understand what I was seeing.  So far the Russians had only flown aircraft
of their own design and manufacture.  Despite hundreds, if not thousands,
of American military aircraft available to them, I had yet to see them put one into
operation.

But here was
an A-10 Warthog barreling down on the scene, only a few hundred feet in the air. 
The Warthog is the red-headed stepchild of the Air Force because it’s not a
sleek, sexy fighter or bomber with more gadgets than James Bond would know what
to do with.  The Air Force brass has hated it for decades, repeatedly
trying to kill or replace it.  But other than his own rifle, there’s
nothing a ground combat soldier loves more than seeing a Warthog
overhead.  His chances of survival just went way up.

Designed to
be a close support weapons platform for ground troops, and a tank buster to
counter Soviet armor during the Cold War, it flies low and slow.  And it
can effectively obliterate anything on the ground with its 30 mm Gatling Gun
firing depleted uranium slugs.  When it fires it sounds like the very
fabric of the Earth is being ripped apart, and at 4,200 rounds per minute it is
absolutely devastating. 

But why the
hell were the Russians flying one of these?  They weren’t designed for,
nor very effective at air to air combat.  They were a ground attack
weapon, and there wasn’t anything of the American military left on the
ground.  Maybe I should be flattered that it had been brought out just for
me.

The A-10 bobbed
up and down as the pilot maintained a constant altitude above the rolling
terrain.  It was definitely coming in at attack velocity and when I
realized it was staying in the Havoc’s blind spot a light bulb finally came on.

“Down!” 
I shouted to Rachel as I dumped Irina and fell across her inert form.

A heartbeat
later the ripping sound of the Warthog’s gun sounded for perhaps a second. 
My head was turned towards the Russian helicopter, watching, and almost
instantly it was torn in half by the heavy slugs from the A-10’s gun.  The
main rotor was sheared off to spin away, the crippled aircraft falling in
several large pieces.

Before it struck
the ground, it erupted in a massive explosion as the ruptured fuel tanks
ignited.  A wave of searing heat blasted across us as the pressure wave
pummeled us with snow, sand, small rocks and other debris.  A moment later
the Warthog screamed overhead at no more than three hundred feet, banking
sharply and gaining altitude.

It flew out
of sight for several seconds, then the sound of more weapons being fired came
to us.  There was another explosion in the distance, a thick column of
black smoke soon staining the grey sky to mark whatever else the pilot had just
destroyed. 

Slowly I
climbed to my feet, tracking the plane by sound until it came back into sight
due south.  It was approaching, but at a much slower pace this time. 
Passing a few hundred yards to the side so the pilot would have a good view of
us, it waggled its wings before gaining altitude and going into a broad orbit
of the area.

“What the
hell just happened?”  Rachel asked, climbing to her feet and brushing
herself off.

“I think the
good guys just showed up,” I said, tearing my eyes away from the orbiting aircraft
and kneeling beside Irina.

Her pulse
was strong when I pressed my fingers to her neck and she was breathing. 
She had just been knocked out and would hopefully regain consciousness
soon.  The self inflicted scalp wound was still oozing blood and her naked
upper body was completely covered in the stuff.

“Grab her
clothes out of the cave,” I said to Rachel. 

A few
minutes later, Rachel and I had finished dressing Irina.  No matter how
Russian or how tough she was, bare skin in this weather wasn’t a good idea. 
As we had worked I kept a sharp ear out, noting our guardian angel was still
orbiting.  I didn’t want to say anything and get Rachel’s hopes up, but I
suspected he was keeping watch over us until a rescue helo could arrive.

But who the
hell were these guys and where had they come from?

“Son of a
bitch!”  I exclaimed when Rachel pulled the first of my two broken fingers
back into place.

“Don’t be a
pussy,” she said, holding my hand tightly to prevent me from yanking it
away.  “Now quit whining and hold still.  One more to go.”

“You can be
a real bitch.  Did I ever tell you that?”

“No, I don’t
think you have.  Are you sure you want to be calling me names right
now?”  She smiled and snapped the second finger back straight.

“Goddamn
it,” I mumbled, my hand throbbing all the way to my elbow.

“Alright,
hold still and stop being such a big baby.  I’ve seen you take worse
without nearly as much complaining.  Getting soft?”

As she
spoke, Rachel probed the two broken fingers.  Both were swollen and hurt
like hell, but I had to admit that after being set the level of pain had
dropped a couple of notches.

“As soon as
I can find some splints and tape, these need immobilized.  I don’t think
there’s any permanent damage, but if we don’t take care of them there’s all
kinds of bad things that can happen.  Including losing them or your hand.”

Rachel met
my eyes and she wasn’t smiling.  I nodded, no longer worried about the
pain of having them set.  A moan from behind drew my attention and I
turned to see Irina slowly moving her head back and forth.  I knelt down
next to her, pulled my jacket off and gently slipped it under her head after
folding it over a couple of times.

“You saved
our asses,” I said when her eyes fluttered open and focused on my face.

“My head
hurts,” she groaned.

“I’m sure,”
I smiled.  “Between slashing your own scalp open and getting clobbered in
a fight you’re having a rough day.”

Irina
started to sit up.  Rachel, kneeling on the other side of her reached down
and restrained her. 

“Give it a
minute,” she said.  “You likely have a concussion and you don’t want to
sit up too fast.”

“Did you get
all of them?”  Irina asked, happy to lay her head back on the pillow I’d
made from my jacket.  I was shivering without it, but figured she’d earned
a little discomfort on my part.

“They’re all
dead.  What the hell were you screaming to distract them like that?”

“I told them
you had kidnapped and raped me,” Irina said with a small smile.  “You must
already be a monster to them, so it was not hard for them to believe.”

“Hell of a
risk, Irina.  What if they had been suspicious of a Russian woman out here
in the middle of nowhere?”

“I thought
of that.  There are women in the Russian military, and I am sure there are
civilians that have been brought in by now.  So it is possible you could
have captured one.  Enough screaming and tears and emotion and they were
more concerned about helping the bloody, half naked woman than asking questions
about what she was doing here.”

“Well, thank
you,” I said, impressed with her quick thinking and acting skills.

“What
happened?”  Irina asked, noticing the burning wreckage of the Havoc for
the first time.

I spent a
few minutes filling her in, including the part about Katie saving me.  She
stared in shock, turning to look at Rachel to make sure I wasn’t completely off
my rocker.  Rachel nodded her head in confirmation.

“She saved
you?”  Irina asked, her blue eyes wide with surprise.

I nodded. 
She started to say something else, stopping when I held my hand up.  I’d
just picked up the sound of rotors, faint on the wind, but definitely
there.  Looking up, I spotted the Warthog, relaxing slightly to see the
plane still in its orbit.  Must be friendly helicopters coming, otherwise
he wouldn’t still be calmly circling.

I stood,
facing the direction of the approaching sound.  Nearly a minute later I
was able to make out several black dots on the horizon.  They quickly
resolved into a pair of Black Hawks escorted by four Apaches.  As always,
it was a relief to see the cavalry arriving.

The Apaches
split apart, heading to the four points of the compass to set up a picket line
as the two Black Hawks came directly in for a landing between us and the
burning Havoc.  Their rotor wash caught the smoke from the wreck, swirling
it in fantastical patterns before slowing.  The side doors on both opened,
disgorging several Rangers who quickly formed a perimeter around the area. 
Right behind them a man I recognized jumped down, escorted by a heavily armed Army
Captain.

Striding
forward I accepted the outstretched hand of Colonel Blanchard, reminding myself
that he had been promoted several ranks since the last time I saw him.

“Damn good
to see you, sir,” I said.

“Likewise,
Major.  I’m sorry we couldn’t get here faster, but it’s been a bit of an
adventure.  Let’s load up and get you out of here.  I’m on my way to
the front.” 

He turned
and nodded to Rachel and Irina as they walked up behind me.

“The
front?” 

“We’ve
engaged the Russians,” he said with a stern look on his face.  “It’s been
in the works for a while, just took some time to put all the pieces
together.  Right now we need to get moving.”

“No, sir,” I
said.  “My wife is still out there somewhere and I’m not leaving without
her.  There’s also an immune in Mountain Home that needs to get to Seattle.”

“Why is your
wife out there?”  Blanchard asked, not quite comfortable enough with his
new rank to get in my face for refusing to do as he said.

“She’s
infected, sir.” 

This caught
him by surprise.  His attention snapped into focus on me, his head tilting
slightly to the side as he looked closely to make sure I wasn’t playing a sick
joke or had another head injury.  Finally satisfied, he took my arm and
walked me a few yards away.

“Tell me,”
he said.

“How do you
plan to find her?”  Blanchard asked when I finished filling him in.

“I’m working
on an idea but don’t really have a good answer to that, yet,” I said, shaking
my head.  “But getting in a Black Hawk and going the other direction isn’t
going to help.”

He nodded,
acknowledging the validity of my statement.

“OK, we
don’t have time to go into details, but here’s what you need to know. 
We’re hitting the Russians hard.  The plans have been held very close over
concerns about moles.  I don’t know even half of what’s in the works, but
we only left a skeleton crew in the Bahamas to protect the civilians.

“We’ve been
leapfrogging our way across the continent, stopping at Air Force bases and Army
posts along the way to gather equipment and munitions.  The Navy has moved
into the north Pacific and is engaging the Russian Navy.  Colonel Pointere
and his MEU have finished clearing out Mountain Home Air Force Base.  They
moved and engaged with a large enemy force about thirty klicks northwest of
Boise.

“Except for
support personnel and the handful of Rangers with me, everyone is in the
fight.  That’s where I was headed when I got the call from the A-10
pilot.  That’s why we need to get moving.  We’re outnumbered three to
one, but holding our own for the moment.”

“Leave me a
rifle and take the women,” I said.  “If the front moves this way Katie
could easily get caught up in the fighting and killed.”

I was torn.  As
badly as I wanted to find my wife and bring her to safety, it was killing me to
know that Soldiers and Marines were fighting and dying and I wasn’t joining the
battle.  Not that one more rifle would make much difference, but it’s not
in my nature to let someone else do the fighting for me.

Blanchard
stared at me for a long moment, turning when a young Lieutenant ran up, radio
handset extended.  The Colonel snatched it from his hand and pressed it to
his ear.  He listened for a few seconds, both of us looking up as a flight
of eight F-16s screamed overhead heading west.

“I’m on my
way,” he said before returning the handset.

“Lieutenant,
get a rifle, pistol and ammo for the Major.  Also a radio.  Load the
women.  We’re leaving.  Now.”

“Yes,
sir!”  The man left at a dead run, shouting to the Rangers who had formed the
perimeter to mount up.

“I’m sorry,
Major.  You’re on your own.  The Russians have broken through our
lines and we’re in danger of losing a whole company of men.  I’ve got to
get to the front.  Good luck, and if I can help, I will.”

He extended
his hand and I shook it, feeling selfish that I wasn’t headed into battle with
him.  Wondering what the hell I was doing.  I didn’t know where to
start looking for Katie.  Didn’t know what I’d do once I found her. 
I had no illusions that there was any way I could catch her if she didn’t want
to be caught. 

And even if
I could, what then?  Hog tie her and carry her on my back to
Seattle?  And what about Titus?  Even supposing I could somehow
capture and control Katie and make the journey, without an immune for the
scientists wouldn’t it be a futile effort?  I needed Blanchard’s
resources.  There were no two ways about it.

“Thank you,
Colonel, but hold on.  I’m coming with you.  As long as I can get
some help when we finish with the Russians.”

Blanchard
smiled and clapped me on the shoulder. 

“I’ll do
everything I can,” he said, turning and setting off at a jog to the waiting
Black Hawks.

“Let’s go,”
I shouted to Rachel and Irina, falling in behind him.

Another
flight of F-16s roared over, a moment later a large formation of Apaches
following at a lower altitude.  Looking to the northwest I could see a
smudge of black smoke against the swollen, grey clouds. 

“Where are
we going?”  Rachel asked as she and Irina ran on either side of me.

“War,” I said. 
“You two stick close to Blanchard.  It’s going to be chaos.”

“What about
Katie?”  Irina asked.

“I’ll come
back for her,” I said, then we arrived at the Black Hawk.

The
Lieutenant was just climbing down, arms loaded with the equipment the Colonel
had told him to give me.  Blanchard waved him back inside the aircraft,
leaping up after him.  I came to a stop, helping Rachel and Irina board,
then jumped in and slid my legs out of the way as one of the Rangers slammed
the door closed.

We were in
the air immediately, the pilot transitioning to forward flight only yards above
the ground before quickly gaining altitude.  Reaching towards the
Lieutenant, I collected the weapons and quickly checked them over.  He
held out a field radio for me, Blanchard telling him to put it away. 
Instead, I was outfitted with a small unit that slipped into a pouch on my vest
and had a tough, thin wire leading to a throat mic and earpiece. 

Getting
myself outfitted, I looked around, meeting the eyes of the other men. 
Each of them had the look I expected.  The look of a blooded warrior who
is heading back into battle.  Irina and Rachel huddled against the rear
bulkhead, looking out of sorts from the sudden turn of events.

“How do we
have enough forces to engage the Russians?”  I shouted to Blanchard over
the roar of the engines.

“The USS
Reagan Carrier Strike Group put into Nassau after we arrived.  They had
been hanging around in the Gulf, but were in the Persian Gulf when this all
started and had a full MEU on board.  There was nearly a full Infantry
Division they pulled out of Iraq.  Over 10,000 Soldiers.  They were
stuffed on those ships like sardines.”

“How did
they bring armor?”  I had to lean close to the Colonel and shout in his
ear.

“They
didn’t,” he shouted back, shaking his head.  “That was one of several
stops we had to make on the way.”

I nodded,
wanting to ask more questions but it was too hard to communicate without a
headset.

“What the
hell are we doing?”  Rachel shouted in my ear.

She was
squeezed in next to me, shoulder and hip pressed tight against mine.

“We’re in a
battle with the Russians a little way northwest of Boise,” I said, my mouth
pressed close to her ear. 

“What about
Katie?  You’re coming back?”

“With help,”
I said.  “I can’t handle her by myself without hurting her.  And it’s
still a very long way to Seattle.  If I’ve got help, just maybe there’s
some hope.”

“How are you
going to find her?”  Rachel asked, placing her hand on top of mine.

“I have a
couple of ideas,” I said, turning to look at Blanchard when I remembered
something that had been bugging me.

He was busy
on the radio, a rugged laptop open on the vibrating deck next to him.  Not
wanting to interrupt, I waved the Lieutenant over.  I explained what I
needed and he set to work on a communications set that was connected to the
helicopter’s satellite radio.  A couple of minutes later he passed me a
headset.

When I put
it on the built in noise canceling silenced most of the roar of the Black Hawk
in flight and I could hear sounds of someone breathing over the clarity of a
digital circuit.  I identified myself, happy to hear Petty Officer Simmons
respond.

“It’s great
to hear your voice, sir!”

“You too,
Jessica,” I responded, intentionally using her given name instead of her
rank.  “I don’t have much time and I need to ask you something.”

“Anything,
sir,” she replied, curiosity clear in her tone.

“How do you
think the Russians found me in Twin Falls?  How did they know where to
start looking?  And again, just today, they were able to start searching
the exact area where I wound up south of Mountain Home.”

I didn’t say
anything else and there was complete silence for several heartbeats before she
spoke.

“You think…”

“Yes, I do,”
I said when she didn’t finish her thought.  “One coincidence, no matter
how unlikely, can be passed off as exactly that.  Twice?  No fucking
way, Petty Officer.  They’re either in the feed again or someone is passing
them information.”

“You don’t
think it was me?”  Her voice rose a couple of octaves and I could hear
that she was both hurt and indignant.

“No,
Jessica.  I don’t.  If it was you they would have had me pinpointed
each time and not had to search.  This is someone that has enough
information to point them in my direction, but can’t give them my exact
location.  Who would that be?”

It was quiet
for a long time and I let her stew and think.  I had originally intended
to contact Admiral Packard directly with my suspicions, but for some reason I
knew I could trust Jessica to do the right thing.  I’ve been around the
military much of my adult life and had no doubt that if I had called the
Admiral he would immediately lock down all personnel with any access to or
knowledge of my whereabouts. 

Naval
counter-intelligence would start an investigation.  Depending on who was
running things, that investigation could easily become a witch hunt.  With
the current state of affairs, I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone who was even
remotely involved got thrown into a jail cell and left to rot.  I didn’t
want to lose Jessica while the bureaucrats got things sorted out.  She’d
saved my ass more than a few times.  It would be better for her to come
forward with the suspicions.

Not that she
wouldn’t be looked at closely.  It’s not uncommon for moles and traitors
to accuse others of their crimes in an attempt to deflect suspicion.  But
if I was correct about her, and I was betting my life on it right about now,
she would come out of the other end of this and be just fine.

“Still
there?”  I finally asked.

“Yes,
sir.  Just running over a list of possibilities in my head.  And
getting really pissed off.”  I could hear the tightness in her voice.

“Just be
sure you’ve got your ducks in a row before you talk to anyone,” I
advised.  “And, be prepared to be put under the microscope.  Also, I
need one more thing.”

“Sir, you
just talked to me directly about this instead of throwing me to the wolves in
intel.  Anything you want, you get.”

“Get into
what’s left of the CIA’s network.  Find out if it’s still possible to
activate personal locators.  If it is, I’d like you to ping my wife’s
locator and start tracking her.”

“Your
wife’s?  She’s CIA?  I thought she was with you, sir.”

Shit. 
Jessica didn’t know.  But then, how could she?

“She turned,
Jessica.  Infected.  I lost her somewhere south of Mountain Home. 
I’m in a Black Hawk on my way to the front and I’m going to need to find her
when this is over.”

Jessica was
quiet for a few moments and I could imagine the thoughts going through her
head.

“OK,
sir.  I’ll do everything I can, but I’m not optimistic this is going to
work.  If that system is even still up and running, the very nature of
what it is means it will have one hell of security layer in front of it.”

“Do the best
you can,” I said, hope that I’d be able to find Katie again flickering and
threatening to go out.

“Already
working on it, sir,” she said, the sound of rapid keyboarding coming over the
circuit.

“Thank you,
Jessica.  And be careful who you talk to about the other matter.  You
don’t know who you can trust.”

“Yes, sir,”
she said.

I could hear
an undercurrent of fear creep in when she spoke.  Breaking the connection,
I pulled the headset off and handed it back to the Lieutenant.