Part 15 (1/2)

”Your work here is done, kemo sabe.” Rhys reached for Jamie's shoulders and steered her out of the FOBCOC. ”Time to sleep now.” The usual nightmares plagued what little sleep Jamie got. Rhys woke her well before dawn and helped her gear up while she tried to figure out why this mission had her so spooked.

”Gotta go,” Jamie said finally, reluctant to take her eyes off Rhys's face. ”But I'll-”

”Yeah.” Rhys winked. ”You'll be watching.” Rhys turned her eyes skyward, smiling. ”We'll do a real nice dance for you.” Jamie smiled back. ”Good hunting,” she said, holding on to the high-five Rhys offered, wis.h.i.+ng she could hold on to it forever.

v The mission had been dubbed TOP, so First Lieutenant Koenig's operational risk management worksheet showed those three letters and a date.

Jamie glanced at the list of identified mission hazards. She * 127 *

worried most about two: The weather could bite them, and so could PIA scouts, who were bound to be invisible behind state-of-the-art countersurveillance measures.

Full f.u.c.king circle. Once more, as long ago, success depended on fighters' honed instincts, on knowing how to hide, on what the unaided but experienced human eye could see. First squad had to exploit maneuverability and surprise. Remain undiscovered by the enemy while moving as quickly as possible through tangled tropical forest ahead of the erratic s.h.i.+ft from the dry season into ”the hanging habagat”-the annual southwest monsoon.

The change from dry to wet could quickly make their climb of the rugged, mudslide-p.r.o.ne slopes not only uncomfortable but dangerous, too. Heavy monsoon rains and cloud forest fog also often confounded satellite infrared detection systems, which messed up their ability to track and coordinate the activities of deployed units. So everyone hoped to complete the mission before the monsoon gained real momentum.

Shortly before they embarked, the major general showed up in full kit with three others-a light colonel named Zachary, who was his intelligence chief, and a couple of very protective, well-armed senior NCOs.

The way the major general nodded too politely at the antsy Koenig nipped at Jamie's intuition. Embry dislikes him. As, perhaps, did Zachary, a plain, lean, no-nonsense woman in her late thirties whose reputation as Embry's trusted G-2 was widespread.

”Staff Sergeant Gwynmorgan,” the major general rumbled in his burly baritone when he spotted Jamie, ”glad to see you're along on this.”

”Sir.” Officers were not Jamie's favorite species, but she respected this man who'd pinned a second Silver Star on her chest and written her Navy Cross citation himself. Especially if he didn't much like Koenig.

Major General Embry's smile briefly lit his attentive eyes before they s.h.i.+fted back to the mission commander. ”Okay, Lieutenant, tell me how we're getting up to Thumb Peak and where you want us.”

”Of course, sir,” Koenig said and ushered Embry and his entourage to a minutely detailed virtual-three-dimension topo display, thirty inches square. Jamie followed them and watched Embry. An in-fighter, she decided, willing and able to risk a punch to win. ”We'll move up from Iwahig along the highest ridge, sir.” Koenig pointed. ”Here. It'll * 128 *

be pretty strenuous at first, but it'll get us to the most advantageous elevation the fastest. By the morning of day three we should be just below the summit...”

v Within minutes of their departure the rain started, slowing their climb. To maintain absolute stealth-to be invisible-they avoided the most-traveled mountain trails. Instead, they stuck to little-used tracks, and at times first squad carved minimal paths through the forest. Nine hours and almost eight klicks later, to Jamie's surprise, they'd seen no PIA. She dared to hope no PIA had seen them.

The second day began cloudy but rainless, and the major general appeared tired. He was in ace condition but in his mid-forties and out of practice. He continued, however, to hold his own. In the afternoon, the rain returned heavier than before. Still, they encountered no PIA, even though the end of the day put them perhaps an hour from the summit.

Nine months battling these people and I'm still confounded by where and when they don't show up. And where and when they do...

Before they broke camp on day three, Jamie downlinked, decrypted, and displayed the Eighth Regiment FOBCOC's satellite mission-monitor imagery, which she kept at the corner of her eyewraps'

shadowscreen so she could watch as Rhys and second and third squads began their op.

Despite intermittent rain, which at times made their detection gear unusable and occasionally obscured the FOBCOC downlinks, they'd stayed a t.i.tch ahead of schedule. Now the noise of temperamental precip provided audio cover, so they moved a bit faster than expected.

Then a cla.s.sic cloud forest fog supplanted the rain; its density interfered with detection and commo gear, forcing them to inch along with such caution that it seemed they hardly moved at all. When the fog finally abated and they could pick up the FOBCOC downlink again, it showed a Second Battalion unit approaching the summit from the northwest only a bit late.

Still no sign of PIA, though, and this perplexed Jamie. She expected to see nothing on the detection gear, but by now some hint of nearby PIA should have manifested. An unnatural silence ahead of them, a twig twisted out of place. Something. Yet no one in the squad * 129 *

had spotted anything, heard anything, and the Second Battalion guys were proceeding apace.

Maybe they're pulling back. Maybe this one's gonna go down easy...

A minute later, or perhaps two, all h.e.l.l broke loose on the other, northwest side of Thumb Peak's summit. Jamie had just taken point, and instantly her left hand sprang up in a fist, signaling the squad to freeze.

So much for easy. She put the distance at less than three hundred meters. The FOBCOC downlink displayed on her shadowscreen confirmed her guess. Twenty-eight tiny Second Battalion figures on the display huddled about two hundred meters north of the summit. Pinned there, they only sporadically returned fire. A spritely tangle of fine red Trajsat filaments converged on an area just north of the summit itself, defining the enemy's location.

First squad had halted about sixty meters southeast of the summit and some twenty-five meters below it. A glance at the map animations on her shadowscreen showed Jamie their disadvantage. Judging by the FOBCOC downlink, the PIA position had the benefit of higher elevation and good cover.

Right behind her, she knew, Lieutenant Koenig saw the same thing on his eyewraps. She turned to him, waiting for orders, but he gaped at her wide-eyed as though he'd never seen her before. Okay, fine, I take that to mean: Carry on. Jamie nodded to him like he'd given her an order to scout.

She signaled Avery, who was smart, feline agile, and a d.a.m.n good shot. Crouching low, Jamie led Avery toward the weapons fire, then sent Avery northwest while she headed north.

”How many are we dealing with?” Koenig demanded when they returned.

”We saw six on the summit, more farther north-” Jamie began.

”How f.u.c.king many altogether, Staff Sergeant?” Koenig only barely controlled his voice.

Jamie stared at him. Oh christ, he's starting to lose it. ”I'd say a platoon, more or less,” she responded carefully. ”We couldn't see all the way up the slope without giving ourselves away, so-”

”So you don't know,” Koenig snarled.

Before Jamie could reply, Koenig whirled to face Embry and, a * 130 *

little breathless, proposed calling in air support-actually said ”And plenty of it,” clearly expecting the major general to like the idea.

Embry listened, glanced at Zachary-and then, abandoning protocol, he spoke to Jamie. ”Suggestions, Staff Sergeant?” Their eyes met and Jamie understood: He didn't want to use air support at all, much less before the main thrust of the mission got under way.

”Uh,” Jamie stuttered, ”uh, yessir. I don't believe they know we're here, and their surveillance doesn't see us, which means we can get very close to their position, because we can use the concealment of the forest until we-”

”But we don't know how many there are,” Koenig interrupted with edgy impatience.

”No, Lieutenant, not reliably,” Jamie replied, ”but maybe we can find out more-”

”We gotta keep commo silence, Staff Sergeant. So how the h.e.l.l do you propose we do that?” Koenig croaked angrily. This second outburst had plainly p.i.s.sed off Zachary, but Embry's hand on her forearm kept her quiet.

”Watch.” Jamie waved over five squaddies, then whispered briefly to them. They moved six or seven meters downslope, behind an outcrop that kept them safely out of sight of the summit.

Two of them a.s.sumed lookout positions. The other three began a slow-motion stop-start dance that lasted about two minutes.

”What the f.u.c.k are they doing, Staff Sergeant?” Desperation now laced Koenig's high-pitched whisper.

”Watch your fobc.o.c.k display,” she told the officers, forgetting her p.r.o.nunciation, deciding to ignore Embry's eyebrow perking in apparent amus.e.m.e.nt. A minute later, their eyewraps' shadowscreens showed some of the tiny figures on the other side of Thumb Peak forming into a series of patterns. ”Aw- right,” Jamie said.

Embry smiled broadly. ”That new high-tech signaling technique your idea, staff sergeant?”

Jamie grinned back. ”I wish, sir. Sergeant Rhys thought it up. This is our beta test.”

”Translate,” Embry said.

”Fifty PIA, give or take. Most of them north of the summit, about seven meters down, a handful right at the top where there's less cover, * 131 *

some of their main force starting to flank. The Two-Eight guys figure it's because they've interrupted the PIA supply route,” Jamie said.