'I'll get awful jet lag fitting into that.'
'You can ask the corpsman for a sleeping pill.' 'No.'
'There's one other thing,' Jeffrey said. 'The captain asked me to bring this up with you. You'd mentioned you knew people in our navy.'
'Just some guys I went out with in San Diego.' 'Captain Wilson, he, uh, he wants to know. In South Africa, did you know people there?'
'You want to pick my brain, for intelligence?' Not again. Didn't I get enough of this in Washington?
'Something like that,' Jeffrey said. 'There's one guy, he was high-profile. Now he's in command of Voortrekker.'
'Voortrekker?'
'That's their ceramic boat, commissioned a year before Challenger, built in Germany with help on the propulsion plant from Russia. It was supposed to be a concession, a gift from the German bankers, a legal bribe to get to make some lucrative loans to a Boercontrolled armaments conglomerate. The hull's a composite multilayered matrix, like tank armor, but much less dense than steel.'
'I know,' Ilse said, 'Sessions told me. And the Germans have their Deutschland and the Brits have HMS Dreadnought. And the Japanese started the whole thing.'
'Yeah, there was an arms race,' Jeffrey said. 'Anyway, we thought you might have met Voortrekker's captain, Jan ter Horst.'
Ilse stiffened.
'What's the matter?' Jeffrey said.
'I know him.'
'Very well? If we could understand his mind-set, in case we go up against him, it would help.'
'Yes, I know Jan ter Horst.' Ilse said the name with bitterness.
'What's he like?'
'Arrogant. Innovative. He'll take shrewd risks, and he learns very quickly. Aggressive, a brilliant leader, religiously devout. One of the instigators of the Putsch.'
'Sounds like a tough character.'
'He's the best they have, and he knows it. If you ever do encounter him, be very, very careful.'
'Sure you're not exaggerating?' Jeffrey said.
'I'd fear for my life if I were you. I really would. He's ruthless, more than you can possibly imagine.'
'The problem is he did the Severodvinsk school, in Russia, not the British Perisher, then went to sea a lot on Russian SSNs, for the experience. Now our agents can't get his file in Moscow or anywhere else.'
'I can help. But just so far. Be warned, for future reference…'
'You have my attention.'
'I won't be with you long, and I want you to survive this war. Jan ter Horst enjoys being unpredictable, and he loves to rub it in. He's very energetic, and he has a wild imagination.' In spite of herself Ilse gave a secret smile. 'He's also a terrific liar.' Unlike you, Jeffrey Fuller. You're too easy to figure out. In some strange way you're even sweet. Predictable but sweet. Both could cost you.
'How come you know so much?' Jeffrey said.
'Up until the Putsch, for two years, Jan and I were lovers.'
12 HOURS LATER (D DAY MINUS 4)
'Morning, sir.'
'Morning, sir.'
Jeffrey nodded back. The two enlisted men got coffee, then took off. Jeffrey turned back to the table, piled with lethal-looking gadgets.
Sitting in the booth in the enlisted mess was Lieutenant Shajo Clayton, now in his element. Ilse sat across from Clayton, but Jeffrey stood — it helped him think. Four SEALs sat at another booth, adjusting bulky cases that said DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE on the sides. Two of these men, Clayton said, were logistics and equipment guys not going on the raid; they were alternates, just in case.
The other four men in the augmented team were in the booth across from Jeffrey, all blindfolded, racing each other to field-strip and reassemble South African assault rifles. COB, off watch, was timekeeper, obviously enjoying himself. A pile of twenty-dollar bills sat on the table, almost lost amid the trigger groups and slide stops.
'How you guys making out?' Jeffrey said.
'Halfway there,' COB said. 'Winner's best of fifty.' 'Best of fifty?' Jeffrey said.
'Hey,' Clayton said, 'endurance counts.'
'I guess it does,' Jeffrey said. 'Okay, Shaj, what's next?' Clayton tossed Jeffrey a combat helmet and gave one to Ilse too. Jeffrey put his on. Clayton asked one of the mess management crew, cleaning up from breakfast, to kill the lights.
'Flip down the helmet visor,' Clayton said. Jeffrey did.
Twin oculars came down before his eyes, flat-screen displays. The stereoscopic image began to switch back and forth, between infrared and low-light-level television. Jeffrey looked around the room. The data coming at him blew his mind.
'Total tactical awareness,' Clayton said. 'Notice how the contrast's enhanced by the flickering positive- negative effect.' see it,' Jeffrey said.
'That's great for your reaction time.'
Jeffrey glanced at a bulkhead. On IR he could see right through the wall, to the racks and sleeping figures in the accommodation space beyond.
'This is awesome,' Ilse said. Jeffrey studied her through his visor, until she turned to look at him.
'They're like the X-ray goggles they advertise in comic books,' Jeffrey said. He squelched the thought before it could go further.
'The helmet's ceramic,' Clayton said. 'Stops a thirty-cal at almost point-blank range. Neutral buoyancy too, though you have to watch out for trapped air. The battery's conformal. Feel that little switch inside, by your right ear? That controls the interval. You might try half a second on each mode for starts.'
Jeffrey played with it, making the picture flash back and forth faster and then slower. ' Antiblooming feature?'
'These have pixel gain control. Lets you look right past glaring headlights and see someone in the shadows, all in real time.'
'What about a mushroom cloud?' Ilse said.
Clayton laughed. 'Keep your fingers crossed,' he said. 'These don't have much EMP shielding. By then we should be done and out of there.'
Jeffrey reached to his left ear and folded down the tiny built-in mike. 'What about our comms?'
'Digitized voice, encrypted,' Clayton said. 'Using frequency-agile low-probability-ofintercept radar pulses.' 'Not plain radio?' Jeffrey said.
'Nope. Too easy to detect or jam. These go through trees and bushes better. The signal bounces well through building clusters too, and windows, hallways, things like that. You get distortion from multipath, but it's workable.'
'Super,' Jeffrey said.
'Lights, please,' Clayton called. The crewman hit the switch and the fluorescents came back on. 'Speaking of which, the moon will be well up as we insert, two days past full, so there'll be plenty of light through the clouds to drive the image intensifiers. In a completely darkened room you'd stick to infrared.'
'Right,' Jeffrey said.
'Next,' Clayton said. He gave Ilse and Jeffrey diving masks, with wires that ran to little chest packs.
'The mask fits under the helmet?' Jeffrey said.
Clayton nodded. 'And the rig's compatible with mixed-gas Draegers.'
'You still use those things?' Jeffrey said. He turned to Ilse. 'They're closed-circuit scuba gear, rebreathers.
