Page 56 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
Dima’s eyes got wide. He nodded.
“You get to decide if your comrades live or die. If you can convince them to go on without you and go past our convoy as they head to the lab…they live. If they fail to do so. They die.”
“They’ll never go for it,” Dima whispered.
“Then you will have killed your friends.”
Dima looked at Kostya, then at Linc, then back again. “Why should I trust you? You’ve probably killed everybody at the lab already.”
Kostya raised his eyebrow, allowing Dima time to think. The man was at least fifty years old; he hadn’t survived in the Russian Army for so many years by being a fool. He realized that if he was still alive at this point, Kostya didn’t want to kill him, especially after seeing that he could have easily taken out his tank and the Vityaz with the Semtex grenades.
Dima nodded. “Let me go talk to them.”
Kostya snorted. “I’m not going to trust you that far. Let’s go into your tank together and you can talk to them over the radio.”
* * *
They didn’t havemuch time.
As far as Kostya was concerned they’d used up all of their luck on this mission, and he wasn’t counting on the NH-90 helicopter to actually be able to touch down and scoop all of their asses up, which was why he was driving as fast as he could. Still, they were at least twenty-four more hours with the way the roads were, and that didn’t even account for all the reconnoitering they’d have to do at the border, in the fuckinggoodweather.
They’d left Dima duct-taped in his tank and the Vityaz was on its way to the decimated compound. All communication devices there at the labs had been destroyed, but the bad part was that satellite communications would be up by the time the supply truck arrived so they could report into St. Petersburg and Moscow.
“Status.” Kostya waited to hear what his team had to say. Landon, Mateo, and Ryker were with him, so they didn’t say anything. They’d abandoned their Vityaz in the forest, and were now down to the two tanks and the SUSI.
“We’re good,” Linc reported from the tank.
“We’re keeping up,” Sebastian reported from the SUSI.
Nolan didn’t report, which meant bad things for Iris.
“Gideon?” Kostya prompted.
“Talked to Commander Clark. He’s still cutting through all the bullshit. According to the International Weather Bureau, a helicopter should be able to take flight in three to four hours.”
“So it’s just whether or not they’ll fly into Russia,” Kostya said.
“Yep.”
At least the fuel situation was good since they stole Dima’s extra supply.
“I’m going to call him,” Kostya said.
Gideon chuckled. “He was expecting it.”
As he hit the accelerator even harder, Kostya pulled his glove off with his teeth and pulled out his satellite phone. He hit the number for his commander.
“Kostya,” Simon Clark answered. “How do you see things?”
“One of the scientists will die for sure if we don’t get that helicopter. If the snow lets up, that will allow for Moscow to send in their helicopters to intercept us. We’ll have to abandon the vehicles and do evasive maneuvers in the forest as we make our way to Finland. Then we’ll have to deal with all the shit at the border while we’re handling the scientists, so that’s going to be fun.” He knew Simon would hear his sarcasm.
“And the injured woman?”
“She’ll die.”
There was silence as Clark assimilated the information.
“Understood. Expect a call in an hour.” His commander hung up.
