John Ringo: Choosers of the Slain

“Probably drivers,” Mike said. “Postbattle cleanup time. I’m going to head down to the road and try to intercept the response team on the way up to intercept the trucks.”

“They might not be coming tonight, lad,” McKenzie pointed out.

“But they will eventually,” the Kildar said.

Mike made it to the road just as the first vehicle of the reaction convoy rounded the nearest corner. He stepped out in the road and waved at it as it approached, hoping like hell they wouldn’t either run him down or frag him.

“Kildar,” Ivar Makanee said as the vehicle rolled to a stop.

“Need a ride to my Expedition if you please,” Mike said. The vehicle was a Ford F-350 flare-side and he waved at the point leader to stay in his seat as he climbed in the back.

“Keldara Base, this is Kildar,” Mike said, settling into the load of weapons and ammo in the rear.

“Kildar, this is Keldara Base,” Gildana said. It was past her time to be relieved but Vanner had kept her on the radio since she was fully “dialed in” on the situation. The truth was, he couldn’t have pried her out of the seat.

“I’ve linked up with Team Oleg point,” the Kildar replied. “I’m going to head up to the roadblock and check out operations up there. Russell’s with Team Padrek, correct?”

Gildana looked at her ops screen and nodded to herself.

“Correct, Kildar,” she said, looking around the room. She’d put the call in on the announcement system since it was from the Kildar and she caught Colonel Nielson’s eye, raising her eyebrows to see if he had anything he wanted to pass on. But the colonel just shook his head.

“I’ll head up there and hang around to see if anything happens right off,” the Kildar continued. “Make sure that Padrek knows it’s us coming up the road, please.”

“Roger, Kildar.”

“Kildar, out.”

She changed frequencies to Padrek by hitting the appropriate icon and took the system off announce.

“Padrek, Keldara Base.”

“Padrek Five, go.”

“Kildar and Team Oleg are on the way, ETA five to seven minutes. Status?”

“All clear so far,” Padrek Five replied. That was Bori Mahona, a distant cousin, like most of the Keldara. He was a serious young man, more studious than most of the Keldara, and she could practically see his furrowed brow over the radio.

“Kildar asks that you not fire on their vehicles,” she added, twitting him slightly.

“We’re prepared for their arrival, Keldara Base,” Bori replied tightly. “Anything else?”

“Negative,” she said, secretly happy to have pricked his seriousness. “Keldara Base, out.”

“How are you feeling, Gildana?” Vanner asked, sitting down in the station chair by her.

“Good, sir,” Gildana replied.

“You need relief?” he asked.

“No, sir,” she said as the icon for Team Sawn started to flash. “Go Sawn.”

“If you flag out, tell me,” Vanner said, sitting back.

“Keldara Base, this is Sawn Five,” Gavi Makanee said over the radio. Gavi was a first cousin, about her age and they’d been raised almost as brother and sister. She could see him now, short-cut red hair tousled by his boonie hat, camouflage paint on his face, probably crouched over a scrap of paper carefully doing it all “by the book.”

“Go Sawn Five,” she said, bringing up the mission report screen.

“Enemy KIA twenty-nine,” Gavi said. “Enemy WIA one. Papa Whiskey three. Hotel two. Friendly KIA, zero. Friendly WIA, two, non-critical, say again, non-critical. Ammunition, green. Supplies, green. Large quantity of small arms, food and some contraband. Twelve pack animals functional. Caching or destroying immovable material and moving to road for pickup.”

“Roger, Sawn Five,” Gildana said, bringing up another screen and dispatching a group of vehicles to go pick up Team Sawn.

“Hey, Padrek,” Mike said as he rolled off the back of the truck.

“Kildar,” the team leader said, ducking his head. “Would you like to take a look at our positions?”

Mike glanced at the team’s trainer and then shook his head.

“This is your game, Padrek,” Mike said. “The next time you’re going to have to do it all on your own, so you might as well start now. I’m just another shooter on this one.”

“Yes, Kildar,” the leader said, swallowing nervously. “I’ve laid in positions on both sides of the road and prepared a tree for a roadblock. I’ll get with Oleg and get his vehicles in position to reinforce the block.”

“Go for it,” Mike said, wandering to the roadside with a wave. He hunkered down on a rock, dropped his ruck and stretched his shoulders. To think a few hours ago he was screwing the hell out of a young redhead. What the hell was he doing here?

A couple of the farm trucks were placed to block the road while the two teams began cutting trees to make negotiable S curves that would slow vehicles approaching the position. A forward position was also under construction, the “chicken” pit where a single soldier would be placed to order vehicles into the roadblock.

Meanwhile, the heavy weapons gunners of Team Oleg were building positions along the roadside. If anyone tried to force the block, the Keldera would catch them with raking fire as they tried to negotiate the S cover obstacles.

Last, the drivers of the three remaining Team Oleg vehicles waited in place in case anyone passed them. They could pursue or be used as a secondary blocking point.

Mike’s big worry was truck bombs. The defenses were spread out but one truck bomb could cut a swath through the core of the Keldara families. Which would put a pretty large black mark on the record of the Kildar.

Which he wasn’t going to fix by worrying about it.

“I’ve redeployed the group,” McKenzie said, coming over to his position in the trees and dropping his ruck. “I’m moving Sawn up forward to close the block if anybody tries to run and putting Oleg’s boys on the block itself.”

“Works,” Mike said. “Get the spare vehicles out of sight and if they get a solid block in place move the ones blocking the road.”

“Will do,” McKenzie said. “You really expect them soon?”

“No reason the mule train is going to want to wait around, especially this close to us,” Mike said, leaning back on his own ruck. “It’s been a long day. Wake me up if anything interesting happens.”

“Kildar?”

Mike had awakened when he heard stirring and sat up immediately, checking his weapon.

The vehicles were gone from the block and large timber and boulder blocks were in place on the road. All he could see in view were a few of the Keldara, though.

“There are three trucks coming down the road,” Dmitri said, quietly. “Gregor’s taxi passed through late last night but we expected him. He ran Captain Tyurin into Tbilisi yesterday.” Tyurin was the local police chief. Venal to a fault on minor items, he was a strong supporter of the Keldara militia and its fight against the Chechens. With a regal bearing and uniforms far finer than his official salary could afford he appeared to base his actions in life on Inspector Louis “I am Shocked, Shocked” said Renault from Casablanca .

Mike checked his watch and saw it was just before dawn.

“Okay, that looks like show-time,” he said, getting to his feet and checking the SPR. “Where is everyone?”

“Most are in defensive positions,” Dmitri said. “Oleg left only five in view. All of Sawn’s force are in hides or dug in. Sergeant Vanner has sent Lilia up with some technical gear.”

“What?” Mike asked, following Dmitri into the woods.