Line of Control

SIXTY-ONE

The Mikoyan Mi-35 helicopter set down on its small, dark pad. The square landing area was composed of a layer of asphalt covered with cotton and then another layer of asphalt. The fabric helped keep the ice from the lower layer from reaching the upper layer.

No sooner had the pilot cut the twin rotors than he received a message over his headset.

"Captain, we just received a message from Major Puri," the base communications director informed him. "You're to refuel, deice, and go back out."

The captain exchanged a disgruntled look with the copilot. The cockpit was poorly heated and they were both tired from the difficult flight. They did not feel like undertaking a new mission.

As the pilot looked over, he glanced past his companion. Through the starboard window of the cockpit he could already see ground crews approaching. There were two trucks crossing the landing area. One was a fuel tank, the other a truck loaded with high-volume hoses and drums of a solution of sodium chloride-ferric ferrocyanide.

"What is the objective?" the captain asked.

"The cell you were tracking before," the BCD replied. "One of Major Puri's units has them cornered. The unit estimates that there are four individuals but they do not know how heavily armed they are."

The captain felt a flush of satisfaction at the news. Although he had admired the way one man, armed with a pistol, had driven them back, he did not like being outsmarted.

"Where are they?" the captain asked. At the same time he punched up the topographical map on the computer.

"The Upper Chittisin Plateau," the officer replied, and provided the coordinates.

The pilot entered the figures. The criminals had simply followed the mountain. It was a particularly high, cold, inhospitable section of the glacier. He wondered if they had gone there intentionally or ended up there by accident. If intentionally, he could not imagine what was there. Perhaps a safe house of some kind, or a weapons cache.

Whatever it was, he could take the chopper around the glacier on the southwest side and be there in forty-five minutes.

"When we find them, what are our orders?" the captain asked.

"You are to retrieve Major Puri's team and then complete your previous mission," the BCD informed him.

The captain acknowledged the order.

Ten minutes later he was in the air heading toward the target. This time, he would not fail to exterminate the terrorists.