Page 57 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
Kostya gritted his teeth. He respected the hell out of his commander, but this was one of the times he hated the fact that his old commander Liam McAllister had retired. Yeah, Simon was great, but Liam had more backdoor channels and was definitely willing to push the envelope and even break the rules when necessary.
“Gideon,” Kostya called out.
“Yeah?”
“Find a spot that’s three hours out where a helicopter can land, but also close to the Karelia Forest’s interior so that we can head out.”
“Got it.”
“Nolan, I want you to work to get Iris ready for travel.”
“Shit.”
Kostya didn’t say anything more, he knew his team was on it. Every kilometer that he drove, the snow got lighter and lighter and the minutes ticked by like hours. At precisely sixteen hundred hours his satellite phone rang.
“Whatchya got?” Kostya answered.
“The Finns will land in Russia,” his commander said. “Can you give me your coordinates?”
“I can do better than that. Gideon is figuring out a place for them to land that will be timed with a let-up on the snow.”
“Good. I’ll call him.”
“Will it be the NH-90?”
“Affirmative.” Clark hung up.
Kostya knew that it had defensive capabilities and would be able to pick up his team and all of the scientists, but the helicopter had no offensive capabilities. Would Moscow be on the lookout for a helicopter, or would they be looking for their convoy?
Kostya peered out of his periscope and noted how much more visibility he had. Gideon was right again; at the rate this was going, it would be clear enough for the helicopter to fly out of Finland and meet here in Russia. Maybe thiscouldwork after all.
It was another hour and a half, and the snow was down to just dusty flakes.
“Around this bend, then we stop,” Gideon said into the comm system.
Kostya checked his watch. They were forty-five minutes early, but that was good. It gave them time to prep Iris and the other scientists if need be. He wanted the transfer onto the NH-90 to be as seamless as possible.
After the curve, Kostya saw what Gideon had been talking about. There on the left side of the road was some kind of rest stop. Nothing commercial, it just had a carve-out for vehicles to pull over, and there was some kind of tiny building that was a little bigger than a port-o-john.
All the comforts of home.
It wasn’t much, but add that area with the road and it would be enough for a helicopter to land.
Another score for Gideon Smith.
“Everybody out of the tanks,” Kostya said into his mic as he parked the tank underneath a cover of spruce and pine trees. As soon as the two tanks were parked the men got out and headed to the SUSI to see how they could be of help to the scientists.
Kostya heard Gwendolyn Lord before he saw her.
“There is nothing wrong with me. Of course, I’ll be able to walk under my own steam.” She sounded exasperated.
“What do you mean we might have to walk? I thought I heard someone mention a helicopter,” Harold Rice whined.
“Dr. Rice, we’ll know in an hour what is happening. In the meantime, we have to plan for all contingencies. Complaining about things won’t help the situation,” Kostya said.
“There you go, Harold. Maybe since a man is telling you this, you’ll actually listen,” Doctor Lord said. She was clearly sick of the man.
“How is Doctor Robinson?” Kostya asked as he turned his attention to Nolan. He saw that a makeshift stretcher had been created. No wonder Linc had grabbed two of the pool cues when they’d left the lab—they were perfect for handles. Linc was the world’s best scrounger.
