Page 29 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
Clark nodded. “What’s more, the Pentagon had eyes on activity going on in the Russian side of Karelia near Lake Julia. That’s about one hundred and forty kilometers over the border. There was activity being monitored last fall, before the snow.”
“What were they seeing?” Kostya asked.
“A lot of supplies were being sent in, things like cement trucks, supply trucks, and personnel. It looked like they were gearing up to build something. The area they chose was in the Karelia Forest, so there is no way that a finished installation would have been captured by a satellite with all of that old forest growth.”
“But no matter how much of a snowstorm they were in, they couldn’t have gone another eighty kilometers in the wrong direction and stumbled on this installation,” Sebastian spoke up.
“No,” Kostya said slowly. “You’re right, Seb. But there would have been surveillance cameras along the Russian side of the border. If the cameras didn’t see them, there probably would have been guard towers that very well could have picked up the satellite phone signal.”
Commander Clark nodded. “That’s the theory.”
“Well, the good news is, we have a place to start. We get to play in the forest, in the snow,” Ryker grinned.
Oh, joy.
“The US Division of the Intercontinental Wolf Center is bringing us in six days too late. But, I have to tell you, men, I have a bad feeling about this one. Not bad like they’re all dead, but bad like this is going to be a goatfuck.”
Kostya’s head jerked from the satellite image on the screen to look over at his boss. In all the time he’d worked for Simon Clark, he didn’t think he’d ever heard his boss say something like that.
Simon gave him a wry smile and shrugged.
“When Gideon gets here, all of you kit up. There’s a plane that will get you immediately out to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The closest Finnish airport to the Nature Reserve is Joensuu. It’s not closed at the moment, so come hell or high water, that’s where you’ll be flying into. None of that bullshit that you end up flying into Helsinki. I’ll make sure the Prime Minister is called.”
Simon flashed another map on the screen, showing where Joensuu was. Kostya looked across the ready room and took a moment to look at each of his team members. Every one of them knew the truth—if this was the blizzard of the century, there wasn’t a chance in hell they’d be flying into any damn Finnish airport but the big one…if that. But nobody was going to burst Clark’s little bubble of sunshine.
Kostya watched as his men nodded, then his phone rang. It was Gideon.
“You missed it,” he answered. “How far out are you?”
“Fifteen minutes, I’m coming from downtown.”
“I’ll get everything you need, then we’ll meet at the airfield. I’ll fill you in there.”
“Got it.”
Kostya watched his commander pull together his files and close up his laptop. Something was up. Simon Clark was a realist; he’d been Kostya and Max’s lieutenant for a million years back when they were both young and before Simon’s hair was the color of steel. Kostya had never known the man to spew bullshit like he just had, saying that the Joensuu airport would be open. He needed to talk to Max and see if he’d noticed anything.
