Page 28 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Wait a minute,” Sebastian Durand interrupted. “How is that possible? I thought the border between Finland and Russia was littered with landmines?”
“Not on the Finnish side. They entered the Ottawa Agreement in 2012,” Nolan explained. “But yeah, they sure would have them on the Russian side,” he sighed. Then he turned to look at Simon. “But begging your pardon, Commander, how in the fuck did these yahoos manage to stumble their way into Russia?”
“All I can tell you is that without civilians doing dumbass things, we would probably be out of jobs,” Simon sighed. “I’m willing to give them a little bit of leeway since the weather was so damned bad, but still….”
“So our job is to go into Russia, hunt them down, and bring them home, is that it?” Kostya asked.
“I wish it were that simple.” Simon rubbed the back of his neck. “It gets worse.”
“What were the wolf biologists doing over there in the first place?” Lincoln Hart asked.
“Currently, Finland is going ahead with culling the number of wolves and these biologists chose to go over and study that particular subspecies of gray wolf. Apparently, they want to talk the Finns out of their plan.”
“During winter?” Lincoln asked. “Are they nuts?”
“Lately the weather has been turning on a dime,” Nolan defended. “They probably didn’t know it was going to get so bad.”
“True,” Lincoln admitted.
“Each member of the team has at minimum ten years of field experience,” Clark went on to explain. “They’re not neophytes, which is another reason that the guy wasn’t all that worried when they didn’t check in on time. The team leader of the expedition is Doctor Gwendolyn Lord. She’s been doing this for twenty years. Last year she and her daughter did the Iditarod together.”
“Well hell, then there isn’t really an excuse for the team to have gotten lost like they did, no matter how bad the weather was. What the hell?” Ryker shook his head in amazement. Kostya had to agree with his assessment.
“The Republic of Karelia is huge, Commander. Can you narrow down exactly where the last sat call came in from?” Kostya asked.
Clark switched to the next slide.
“First, here is a weather map, showing the whole area. We have Finland and Western Russia. You can see the Republic of Karelia there. Before I zoom in, you need to see the storm bearing down on the Southern and Central parts of Finland on into the Western part of Russia, then on down to St. Petersburg. According to every weather agency, this blizzard is gearing up to be a once-in-a-century event. This is going to be a hell of a lot worse than the one that the biologists were caught up in. Some of the techs in the Pentagon think that even the satellite phones won’t work, and the GPS will be really iffy. This might be a little tougher than normal. Are you up for it?”
“Hell yeah,” Kostya’s team all yelled out.
I love these guys.
“Okay, now to answer your next question.” He switched to the next slide that showed the Koivusuo Strict Nature Reserve, and a dot over on the Russia side of the map. “This is where the call came in from. They were thirty kilometers away from the Reserve, about two kilometers over the Finnish/Russian border.”
Kostya shook his head.
“What’s that other place you have circled?” Lincoln asked.
Clark pointed to what looked like a small lake well over the border. “This is Lake Julia, or Kostya, feel like doing the honors?”
Kostya pronounced, “Ozero Yulya-Viyeks”Yarvi”with a Russian accent, “but Lake Julia will suffice,” he said with a hard smile.
“When Captain Hale and I were briefed over at the Pentagon this morning, we were let in on a little secret, and it dovetails nicely with a very plausible scenario of what could have happened to our biologists.”
Kostya felt his lips twist into a warped smile.
Here comes the kicker.
“Now, what has everybody’s panties in a twist is that all of them had satellite phones. All of them have at least seven years of fieldwork, and the idea that all five of them aren’t answering doesn’t seem possible.”
“Unless they’re all dead,” Kostya said.
“Now, there’s our optimistic Russian lieutenant,” Ryker grinned.
“Can it,” Clark quickly spit out. He wasn’t used to the way that the men of Omega Sky teased one another. Kostya gave Ryker the side-eye and Ryker shrugged, but he shut up.
“Now, before I was so rudely interrupted, I had more to say,” Kostya said drily to deflect Clark’s attention off of his man. “I find it hard to believe that not one of them would have called in if they were in a dire situation, not if they were such seasoned field workers. Isn’t that how you see it?” he turned to Clark.
