Hao nodded his head.“Understood.I have written a report.If you back it, then that will help matters.”
“Copy me on the report and I will consider it.”
Hao nodded again.
Henri laughed, sounding much like a kettle drum with a sense of humor.“It will be remarkably easy.We will make the transfer at sea in international waters between your ship and a ship we will acquire.”
“Acquire?”
Jean nodded just once.“This is why we will need some assistance.Most of my people are on lists.None of your people would raise any alarms.”
Liang had begun to lose patience.“You had best give me the details of your plan so that I can brief Beijing.”
“Of course.This is why I have asked Hao and Marie to join us.We will discuss it over lunch.”
Liang felt his stomach tighten and churn.He would have to eat this horrible food and drink this filthy water to complete this deal.Even now, the faint, chalky grit of local dust coated his teeth, an omen of the spiced, overripe plantains and dubious stew to come.
The thought of it sickened him.
Karpovia, Undisclosed Location
Despite thermal layers and a Level 7 Extreme Cold Weather Parka and overgarments, cold seeped through Jerry’s Generation III Extended Cold Weather Clothing System like icy fingers probing for weakness.Snow crunched under his kneepads as he very slowly shifted, steadying a whited-out Cassie against the rough bark of a towering spruce tree.The new moon left the Karpovian mountain night pitch black, save for the faint, scattered glows from Vozhd Yevgeniy Kovalenko’s ancient fortress half a klick downhill—a sprawling stone castle perched on a high ridge, its medieval towers and battlements retrofitted with modern antennas and floodlights, hugging the edge of a frozen alpine lake.
Kovalenko’s hybrid war through militias, cyber-attacks, strategically executed asymmetric attacks, and arms smuggling had Karpovia teetering on the edge of genocide.Eliminating him from power served the best interests of the whole of Europe and Russia.No escalation, no war—just a removed oligarch.
Jerry’s breath puffed white in the ten-degree air, stinging his lungs with each inhale, while his left biceps ached under the relentless grip of the chill.At this altitude in the Karpovian High Tatras, the wind howled through dense forests of spruce and fir, carrying the distant noises of winter-hardened wildlife.
They had spent the last nine days on this op, but the real grind started 26 hours ago when Jerry and his spotter, Waller, had stealthily marched overland through the snow-blanketed terrain, humping all their supplies and cold-weather gear to establish their overwatch position.For this mission, the pair needed to get eyes on the target, confirm intelligence, and maintain surveillance until the kinetic strike.
In Top Secret negotiations, the NATO powers of Europe and Russia all determined they could neither initiate nor participate in kinetic missions against Kovalenko.If any such activity could ever be attributed back to them, international relations with non-affiliated nations would suffer decades of setback.Thus, the US had taken the lead in exchange for favorable trade status agreements and other political concessions.
In other words, the US military personnel on the field should not be here.Yet here they found themselves on a frozen mountainside in Karpovia.No matter how this mission went, assuming everyone did their jobs, the world at large would never know a thing about what happened today.
Since arriving at their current location shortly after 2100 hours local time the previous night, they had spent their time identifying the hostiles in the fortress, tracking their movement, and remaining undetected.Their clothing consisted of the ECWCS, and they had employed the COLD method throughout their mission, which meant they stayed clean, avoided overheating, wore loose and layered clothing, and kept dry.
In sustained cold environments, any movement required more energy and often resulted in sweating.In this environment, sweat could actually freeze and—aside from discomfort—cause illness or injury.
The previous night, the moon rose as a thin sliver, spraying silver and shadows over the landscape like a scene from a macabre nightmare.Tim Waller had quietly sang a song to himself, which Jerry overheard.
“I see the moon, and the moon sees me.The moon sees somebody I’d like to see.”Waller’s breath froze as soon as it left his lips.“God bless the moon and God bless me.God bless somebody I’d like to see.”
Jerry had felt a tiny pang of envy for Tim in that moment.He had an amazing wife of five years waiting for him at home.Jerry could not wait until he had that same peace, that same adoration, that same respect waiting for him at home, too.
“Sure wish there was a tuantaun around we could cut open and crawl inside,” Waller muttered.
They had griped good-naturedly about the gusts of wind biting through their gear, the snow soaking their knees and elbows, and how the forest’s evergreens provided cover but also dumped fresh powder on them with every gust.
Surveillance devices, including some night vision devices, would almost instantly detect any out-of-bounds heat sources.Consequently, to avoid detection, they had not used the chemical heating packets included in every MRE to warm their food.Instead, they ate frozen beef stew and chicken à la king like candy bars.
They had pitched their single shelter in defilade on the lee side of the ridge among trees and underbrush, then slept in three-hour shifts until the sun rose.The sun did not bring heat, but it did speed up the biting wind.They had swapped out in short shifts, observing the position and sheltering throughout the day.The constant wind turned to gusts at sundown, and the present moonless night enveloped the world in brittle darkness.
Now, after packing all of the gear except what they used currently, they each lay atop white sleeping mats salvaged from their modular sleep systems.This afforded them at least some separation from the snow and the hard, frozen ground.
On this utterly moonless night, the shadows cast shadows, and everything that touched them felt frozen and remorselessly cold.The inside of Jerry’s nose felt raw and chapped with every breath.He had to exhale sideways to avoid misting his optics.While the cold closed all around him like a fist squeezing warmth out of his fingers, toes, and face, he experienced the worst fear of every sniper in the cold.
He feared he might start to shiver.
Once shivering started, it became nearly impossible to stop, and hitting your marks while shivering presented insurmountable challenges.
