John Ringo: Kildar

“Good,” Nielson admitted. “As far as I can tell at this point. With one exception.”

“Gurun,” Mike guessed. “What’s happening?”

“He’s really being… put on,” Nielson said, frowning. “Not really his fault. Stuff happens and it all gets blamed on him, whether it’s his fault or not. Even when it’s clearly someone else’s.”

“Standard thing with the caillean ,” Mike said, grimacing.

“The problem is it’s causing a real rift in his team,” Nielson said. “I’ve spoken to Vil but he just shuts down on the subject. And none of the other team leaders are willing to let him transfer. It’s like the whole clan has shut him out.”

“They have in a way,” Mike said, sighing. “I hate to lose a fighter, but they’re not going to accept him no matter what.” He thought about it for a second and then shrugged. “I don’t know him from Adam. What’s he like?”

“Smart,” Nielson said, shrugging. “I don’t know him well, either, but I’ve talked to Peters about him and he says he’s actually very good. If he wasn’t having this other problem he’d consider him for the team assistant slot. As it is…”

“Let me talk to him,” Mike said, sighing. “Bring him up this evening. If we pull him we’ll do it tonight.”

“Will do,” Nielson said.

“Kildar,” Katya said when he got to his office. “I’ve prepared the spreadsheet on beer sales and a report on potential distributors I pulled from the internet. Two in Europe and six in America. Also… Sergeant Vanner and I disagree on something. I would like you to talk to him about it.”

“He’s the intel head,” Mike said, frowning. “I don’t think you should go over his head.”

“I thought about that,” Katya replied. “But I also think it is important.”

“Okay,” Mike sighed. “Call him up here.”

“Hey, Kildar,” Vanner said when he got to the office. “What’s up?”

“I hear you and Katya disagree on something,” Mike said.

“Yeah,” Vanner said, frowning. “But I was going to bring it up. I’m starting to think her way on it.”

“Don’t make me pull teeth to find out,” Mike said, smiling thinly.

“It’s the usual intel mess,” Vanner said. “I’ve started working on a Humint side as well. I got with Vadim and he’s feeding me everything that his men pick up along with gossip from the town that the girls pick up. Then I’m piecing that together with what we’re getting from intercepts. Katya? You want to cover the rest?”

“The Chechen force that was going into Russia appears to have gotten intelligence that they were to be intercepted by the Russians,” Katya said, pulling out some sheets of paper. “We got that from rumors from Nakosta, which is a town south of Alerrso. They also appear to have been told that it was we who told the Russians they were coming.”

“Crap,” Mike said, shaking his head. “I hate the fucking Russians.”

“Agreed,” Vanner said. “A Spetznaz team, operating in Georgia by the way, got a piece of them. The Spetznaz reported at least two KIA and some WIA, but they only got a small piece. The group was last reported headed west deeper into Georgia and the Spetznaz were recalled, choppered out. The rest of it is surmise from intercepts. The Chechens change frequencies, but they’re really bad at it. They keep coming back to the previous freq, or one that was used recently, and broadcasting. So you get these scraps of intercept that might mean something and might not.”

“The leader of the Chechen force that was going into Russia was called Breslav,” Katya said. “And we got an intercept, two days ago: ‘Breslav, have you reached Turdun.’ ”

“Turdun’s a valley to the southeast,” Mike said, frowning. “A couple of small farms. Are they going to raid there, you think?”

“There’s an old trail from Turdun to here,” Vanner said. “Kat, you got a map?”

“Here,” she said, rolling out the old Soviet map. It had been marked up, however, with trails.

“It’s a mule trail, only,” Vanner said. “But they could set up a rally point in Turdun and then cross it to Alerrso; it ends just below the pass coming in one of the small off-shoot valleys. I’ve been trying to figure out the movement rate, but I’m not sure. If they pushed after leaving the Russian AO they could be there already. Or they could be still on the way.”

Mike sat back and considered the situation for a moment.

“How many?” he asked.

“The Chechen assault force was about two hundred according to rumor,” Katya said. “But that number has two separate sources and what the Spetznaz saw of it confirms. And it accords with what the Russians know of Breslav. He’s a Chechen warlord with about a hundred to two hundred followers. He calls it a battalion.”

“Pretty small battalion,” Mike mused. “But larger than I’d like to tackle at this point. Any chance this is disinformation?”

“Could be,” Vanner admitted. “But it feels real if it’s anything at all. If it was disinformation I’d expect more indicators, especially Humint. All we really have is this one intercept. As far as I know, Breslav never responded. He might have used a sat phone, though. I’m getting side-band twitches on those from time to time. One of the twitches was from the general direction of Chechnya, but inside of Georgia. It could have been Breslav calling in. I didn’t get a good fix on it, but it was well inside of Georgia, southeast of Turdun, though. That was yesterday. I can’t tell how far from Turdun, though.”

“Okay,” Mike said. “Prepare a more definite brief. I’m not doing anything important right now. I’ll take a team out and do a recon, see if there’s anything to it.”

“Don’t get yourself whacked,” Vanner warned.

“I won’t,” Mike said. “On your way out, ask the colonel to come see me.”

“So, it looks like the Chechens might be coming to visit,” Mike said. He’d assembled the full team of instructors along with three of the Keldara hunters who were going to be designated team snipers. He’d waited until Vanner was done with his dog and pony to take over.

“First, I’d like to know where we are on potential defense. Sergeant Heard, how are the ladies coming along?”

“Pretty good,” the former MP said. “We skipped the hoo-rah stuff and went straight to weapons training. They’ve all qualified with small arms and we’re working on medium and heavy machine guns at the moment. We still haven’t worked on mortars, though.”

“Leave the mortars at the serai for now,” Mike said. “If we need to use them, we can use our heavy weapons instructors to man them from here and they’ve got range for the whole valley. Get some equipment up here and dig them in, though. Don’t mess up my lawn too much.”

“Will do,” Sergeant Greer said, grinning. He was one of the basic instructors but when they went to advanced training he was the designated mortar instructor. “I’ll get the ladies to help if you don’t mind; no time like the present.”

“Works,” Mike said. “I’m going to take a small team up to try to see if there’s anything to this. Praz, what’s your best weapon at about a thousand meters?”

“Seven millimeter,” Praz said. “Or fifty.”

“Praz, Russell and Killjoy,” Mike said. “And the three Keldara. Praz and I will take sniper rifles, the rest will take SPRs. We need to get zeroed in tomorrow. Pack tonight, we’ll leave tomorrow night. Accelerate the militia weapons training; they need to be able to do positional defense as soon as possible.”

“Will do,” Nielson said, making a note.