Sea of Fire

Chapter Fifty-Four

Warrant Officer George Jelbart was relieved and hopeful when the Humvee returned.

Hanging around in the observation tower with Spider was not Jelbart's idea of a fun time. Spider was one of those hard-talking Sydney street kids who were equally at home rock climbing on Cradle Mountain in Tasmania or picking fights with Southeast Asians who frequented the bars of Perth. Spider was not up here because he loved nature. Or because he wanted to protect and serve the people of Queensland. He was here because he loved the danger of fire. In Spider's eyes it was the ultimate enemy. A force that existed even in the vacuum of space. Jelbart wondered how the edgy, restless young man would react if he knew about the fire his own team was trying to prevent. Fire that could not be extinguished. Fire that was the ultimate deterrent until someone actually used the damn thing. Then it was the breath of hell itself. Jelbart had seen the disaster simulations put together by the American Pentagon. Those were programs that could not properly be called war simulations. After an initial flourish, both sides were effectively crippled. They included death tolls and destructive swaths for nuclear exchanges between India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, Israel and any of its Middle Eastern neighbors. They included statistics for small, ten-megaton bombs exploded in major metropolises. They also included data for the exploding of small dirty bombs, nuclear material packed with traditional explosives such as plastique and dynamite. The best-case scenario involved the deaths of over 10,000 people.

Spider appeared oblivious to concepts of that magnitude. Nor was there any reason he should be aware of them. But his mano a mano nature seemed naive in the face of what Jelbart and the others were tracking.

Leyland parked the Humvee near the helicopter pad. He set Little Maluka down. The koala returned to the tower. Then Leyland called Eva and asked her to get the pilot from the cabin. The fire warden said nothing about their mission to his two associates.

"I expect you may get some fallout from all this," Jelbart told Leyland. He realized, after saying it, what word he had chosen.

"I can handle it," Leyland said. "He can't prove I knew what you blokes were up to. Besides, what are they going to do? Fire me?" Leyland winked. He had obviously meant to use that word.

"You're a good man," Jelbart said, shaking his hand.

Loh bowed slightly to Leyland. Herbert clasped the captain's hand with both of his. Behind him, the pilot readied the chopper.

"The koala idea was a damn good one, Captain," Herbert said. "I'm the guy that mucked things up. If they do kick you out, come to Washington. There's a job waiting for you."

"Thanks. You're definitely a bloke to go scrub-bashing with," Leyland told him.

Loh had opened the door, and Herbert wheeled over. The three climbed into the helicopter. They were airborne in under a minute. Jelbart glanced at the spotlit observation tower as it receded. It tightened the warrant officer's throat, just a little, to know that there were men like Captain Leyland. Men who did not limit their sense of duty to what was in their job description. That did not diminish Spider. But it certainly elevated Leyland.

Herbert leaned forward as they soared toward the starlit skies. "What the hell is scrub-bashing?" he asked Jelbart.

"That's when you make your own road through dense brush," Jelbart replied. "It's a he-man's Sunday drive. If you get invited, it means you rate. You obviously made a good impression."

"Oh," Herbert replied.

The intelligence chief sat back. He looked confused.

Jelbart had not known Herbert long. But he knew how a man looked when he was frustrated. Herbert had that look. Leyland had to have noticed that, too. That could be why he said what he did, to give Herbert a little boost.

Jelbart smiled as they headed toward the coast. That elevated Leyland a little more.