' The Longest Night ' & ' Crossing the Rubicon ': The Original Map Illustrated and Uncut Final Volume (Armageddon's Song) by Andy Farman Read Free Book Online Page A

dedication to his profession and being too tired for me after getting home late, showering and flopping into bed exhausted."
    "Uh huh?" her pilot commented, having heard similar sagas.
    "One night there had been a burst water main and he couldn’t hide the scent of nubile-Sophomore-intent-on-good-grades, and that 'enlisted' not only had me walking like John Wayne for a week but he was just what the closure doctor ordered." She could see Caroline struggling to find the words that would not
    “...so that kind of makes us even, huh?"
    They flew in silence for a while, closing on their target.
    "Okay, twenty one minutes to the IP and no one knows we are here, no threats and not even a mildly curious glance in our direction. We have green lights in every place it counts. The weapons status is good to go, and we have a ten knot tailwind." Patricia stated.
    "Thanks Patty." her pilot replied, but she was not referring to the upcoming bomb run.
     
     
    Russia, Militia Sub-District 178: 2322hrs.
     
    Major Limanova led the way, at first making a bee-line for the airstrip until encountering thick undergrowth in the trees which was as noisesome as it was obstructive. He gave the task of carrying the heavy P-159 man-pack radio to Petrov as he himself took point and tried to feel his way through. With Petrov stumbling along behind him, he only succeeded in becoming disorientated, tripping and falling as brambles staged his ankles twice.
    Animals, large hares most likely, took fright and bolted which caused both militiamen to jump on each occasion at the sudden disturbance in the undergrowth. They thundered away, their powerful hind legs making the fall of the wide rear paws extraordinarily loud with each step, and being rather larger than rabbits they did not corner as sharply either. To the militiamen they sounded like charging bears, not fleeing rodents.
    Emerging from that block of forestry had come without warning as the once starlit sky had given way to cloud. Limanova stopped in surprise at the edge of a firebreak and Petrov, his hearing hindered by the radio headset, had walked into him from behind, uttering a “Sorry, sir!” that had seemed as loud as a shout in the silent forest.
    “ Shhhhh! ” Limanova hissed loudly in annoyance before realising how ridiculously like a comic opera they sounded. Ninjas they most assuredly were not, in fact an infantry recruit would have made a better job of it.
    He stood for a moment as he considered their situation and then moved one of the earpieces aside to whisper in Petrov’s ear.
    “Listen, this is no good, stumbling about in the dark like this, so we will follow this firebreak up to a logging trail which leads nearby the old airstrip, okay?”
    Petrov nodded in the dark but then asked a pertinent question.
    “Which way, sir?”
    Major Limanova opened his mouth to answer but realised he was not one hundred percent sure so he knelt, taking his torch from his breast pocket, his map from the thigh pocket, and there then followed a patting of pockets and a despairing look back the way they had come. At some point he had lost his compass, probably upon falling and there was absolutely no chance of finding it again until day break, well not tactically anyway, but he was damned if he was going to embarrass himself further by waving his torch around trying to find it.
    Left or right?
    He tossed a mental coin.
    “We head to the right…you lead.” he directed Petrov, but Petrov held out the radio’s telephone-type handset.
    “It’s the boss, ‘Al’fa Odin’, and he sounds unhappy, sir.”
When didn’t Lieutenant Colonel Boskoff sound unhappy? Major Limanova thought, but kept it to himself.
    “Al’fa Dvukh receiving Al’fa Odin, over?”
    He reached behind Petrov and undid the locking screw securing Petrov’s headset lead, unplugging it before answering the commander of Militia Sub-District 178. Further embarrassment was something he could well do without right now.
    “Go ahead