“Ho, ho,” said Bree.
“Finish eating and let’s go recreate. I have to practice the Piranha controls in an hour.”
“Oh, you’re suave,” she said.
“Comes from reading
They ran is as a classic encirclement, using four squads of Marines as well as Danny’s people. Two groups were dropped east of the village, each led by one of Danny’s Whiplash troopers, while two other groups came down from the ridge. Using so many people decreased the likelihood they would achieve surprise, but Danny reasoned the available resources made it the way to go. It was a conservative choice, one that couldn’t be faulted. As he boarded the Quick Bird helo to supervise the mission from the air, he realized he’d probably chosen to do things this way to compensate for screwing up earlier.
Not screwing up. Just not acting aggressively.
Danny had his helmet plugged into the helicopter’s com circuit, which allowed him to talk on the radio channels and the interphone. He wasn’t just observing — both Quick Birds were packing rockets and chain-guns. A Megafortress and a pair of Flighthawks pilots by Captain Fentress were also supporting the mission. The two teams coming in from the coast were aboard Marine Super Stallions, helicopters the size of Pave Lows, but with an additional engine.
Stoner sat in the back of the helo. He had suggested bringing the girl with them, but Danny wasn’t convinced she’d be much of a guide. Besides, she’d inadvertently see a lot of their technology.
Another conservative choice. Late.
“Squad One is down,” said Powder, who had the northeastern approach.
“Two is down,” said Liu, heading the southeastern team. As always, the Marine helos had made their deliveries precisely on time.
As the remaining teams reached the stream, Danny checked in. fentress’s bird’s-eye view of the area showed the swamp and the area surrounding the village looked quiet. The village itself was almost completely hidden; Fentress would have to get much lower and use the IR sensors to give them a meaningful view.
“No boats,” said Stoner as they circled off the coast of the island.
“Yeah,” said Danny. He switched the feeds on his helmet visor back and forth in quick succession, checking for any sign of movement. A small zigzag of smoke made its way up from the trees, most likely a cooking fire. Danny would have his men check the ashes, make sure the locals weren’t burning documents.
“We’re ready,” said Powder, a good ten minutes ahead of schedule.
“Hold your position,” Danny told him.
“Got it, Cap.”
Danny clicked into the feed from Powder’s helmet. He could see two thatched roofs to the left of the team’s position. Something moved on the right — a kid maybe, or an animal. The range-finder said Powder’s squad was seventy-two yards away. Trees and low brush blocked the approach, but a clear path down to the ocean was just to the team’s left. Two Marines would grab anything that used the path as an escape route.
“Squad Two ready,” said Liu.
Danny ordered the two squads that had come from the ridge to move across the stream toward the swamp. Five minutes later, they were in position at the south edge of the wetlands.
“Hawk Leader, we’re ready for your run.”
“Copy that,” Fentress sounded a lot like Zen over the radio, though the two men could not have been more different. Fentress was rail-thin, and looked like he’d fall over in a breeze. Zen looked like a running back, and except for his legs, might be in as good shape. Personality-wise, Fentress bordered on flighty, though while flying the UM/Fs, he made an effort to project a calm, almost cold, demeanor.
“Feeding you video,” said Fentress.
The island came into sharp focus as the Flighthawk approached, the optical feed was at maximum magnification, making objects ten times larger than in real life. The U/MF was at five thousand feet for its first run, still relatively high.
Nothing from the village — no small-arms fire, no shoulder-launched SAMs. Good.
“Teams, move forward,” said Danny as the plane came in. “Confirm when you reach Alpha Point.”
He told the helo pilot to move forward also. A slight twinge of adrenaline hit his stomach; he leaned against his restraints as the chopper pushed toward its own Alpha Point near the coastline.
The IR feed on the Flighthawk’s next run painted the village as a green sepia Currier & Ives scene, assuming structure that might not have sides, a fenced area, probably for animals. He saw something that looked like a goat, but no people yet.
No people? Shit.
“ready,” reported Liu.
“You guys are cheatin’,” said Powder. “They must’ve gotten a head start.”
“Powder,” said Danny.
“We’re ready,” said the sergeant. So were the other teams.
“Hawk Leader. I need that low-and-slow run, give me your best shot,” said Danny. “Three and Four, move in, I’ll locate the natives for you in a second.”
“Machine gun,” said Bison.
“Everybody gold. Hold!”
Danny keyed the feed from Bison’s helmet to his, but he couldn’t make out what Bison had spotted.
“You sure, Bison?”
“I got something moving, Cap,” said Powder.
“What’s going on?” said Stoner.
Danny held up his hand, needing him to be quiet. He was in automatic mode now, punching buttons. The scram of things had a swirling logic of their own and you wanted to keep yourself on the edge, away from the whirlpool.
“Everyone hold on,” Danny told his people. “Hawk Leader, we’re ready for you now, Captain.”
“Hawk Leader,” acknowledged Fentress.
The Flighthawk dropped to a hundred feet over the island, literally at treetop level. Though it was moving slow for an aircraft — just under 150 knots — the feed nonetheless blew by in a blur. Danny calmly hit the freeze frame as the first building came in view.
Three figures in one hut, one figure in another. Four, maybe five in the pen.
Three more up near Squad Four.
“Floyd, you have three natives on your right, above that ridge there. Everybody else is in the hut, or the pen — those are animals in the pen. I don’t have Squad One and Two in view. Hang tight.”
Danny clicked forward on the feed, still didn’t have them. He could wait for another run or just go.
Waiting was conservative, but it meant giving the people in the village more time to man weapons, plan a defense.
“Three and Four move in,” Danny said, finding another solution, “One and Two hold.”
“Aw, shit,” said Powder.
“Hawk Leader, another run, further east,” Danny said.
“Copy that,” said Fentress.
The Flighthawk came over again — two people were walking south toward Liu’s team. Danny fed the details to Liu, then ordered One and Two to move in.
“Take us there,” Danny told the helo pilot, who gunned the engine on the small helicopter. The scout rocketed forward so fast Danny flew back in the seat.
“Go, go, go!” Bison was yelling. Danny clicked in the Flighthawk feed, saw an explosion on the west side of the camp. Going at the machine gun, the team used flashbangs and smoke grenades. Voices shouted in his ears. He struggled to stay above it all — outside the scram.
“Quick Birds, hold your fire,” said Danny. “That smoke is from our grenades.”
He clicked into the feed from Bison — the trees moved swiftly, then he saw ground, smoke — an old tree trunk in front of his team member.
