Page 32 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
He relaxed his entire face, forehead, jaw, and tongue. He dropped his shoulders, letting them relax, then began slowly inhaling and exhaling to relax his chest. He continued to relax his body, ever downward—pelvis, thighs, knees, calves—all the way to his toes. He pictured lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho at sunrise the week he’d camped alone after his divorce. It took three renditions before he could sleep because a beautiful blonde reporter with silver-blue eyes kept roaming around in his thoughts. Finally, she departed and he slept.
He even managed to stay mostly relaxed when Mateo and Nolan took their turn, even though it was boring as hell. After six hours of their driving, Kostya drifted off to sleep again.
When the all-terrain vehicle slowed, Kostya opened his eyes, immediately knowing it was his turn to drive. He glanced around the back and noted that Landon’s eyes were open. Gideon was supposed to be with Kostya during his turn up front, but he was still asleep, so Kostya decided to forego a navigator for the first bit of his drive. When the truck actually stopped, everyone’s eyes opened.
“You ready?” Gideon immediately asked Kostya.
I should have known.
Kostya shook his head. “Rest. I’ll call you up when I need you.” He’d seen Gideon working on his computer during Ryker’s turn at the wheel and when Mateo was driving.
When Kostya and Mateo met outside of the truck to do the switch, Mateo shook his head and yelled over the wind.
“It’s a bitch,” Mateo told Kostya. “The visibility is next to nothing, we were doing about ten klicks an hour.” Nolan nodded disgustedly in agreement.
“We’re finally close to Joensuu here in Finland,” Mateo explained. “According to the GPS, when it decides to work, it shows we’re about another five klicks from the outskirts of the city.”
“How are you staying on the road?” Kostya asked.
“Carefully,” Mateo answered. “That’s the reason we’re going so slowly.”
“Good call,” Kostya praised his men. “Now get back there and relax. At the rate we’re going we’ll be trading off driving a few more times before we get to Koivusuo Reserve.”
“You got that right,” Nolan yawned as he headed to the back of the truck.
Kostya planted his ass in the driver’s seat and checked out the fuel situation. Mateo and Nolan had filled the tank before they’d started out, and he still had almost a full tank of fuel left. This SISU that the Finnish colonel had loaned them was a Godsend.
He looked out the windshield at the shards of snow pelting the window.
I hate snow.
Kostya took off the brake and started forward. His men were right; ten klicks was the fastest he could go, and it took all of his concentration to keep it on the road.
“Jesus,” Gideon breathed as he pushed himself into the front passenger seat of the truck. “No wonder the Joensuu airport is closed. Is there even a town somewhere past our windshield?” he muttered.
Kostya glanced at the truck’s clock and realized he’d been driving for almost a half-hour. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his second-in-command fiddle with the navigation system that every driver had been relying on. It was the best GPS system the military had, they’d been upgrading it and using it for years. Not that it was doing any of them much good in this once-in-a-lifetime blizzard.
“It’s time to break out the new toy.” Kostya could hear the glee in Gideon’s voice.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve got something that is going to get you and the rest of the team harder than two bottles of Viagra.”
“I’ll bite. Whatchya got?”
“A GPS system that will actually work.”
“You mean something that will show me that Lake Pyhäselkä is actually there to the south of us, that this GPS isn’t managing to show on the screen?” Kostya asked sarcastically.
“How’d you know about the lake?”
“I’m old school. While you were reading some technical journal or figuring out how to take over the world, I was studying the regional maps of Finland on the plane.”
“Damn right you’re old. You’ve been driving for thirty minutes, isn’t it time for your nap?” Gideon grinned.
Asshole.
Gideon was only four years younger than Kostya, but he sure liked rubbing it in.
