The Hunt

67

As he neared the rear of the OP position, Jaeger pressed the toggle of his SELEX Personal Role Radio and spoke into the mouthpiece. With a three-mile coverage, he was well within range.

‘Jaeger, coming into rear of the OP.’

‘Got it,’ Alonzo confirmed.

The American operative was keeping a sharp watch as Jaeger skied in. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder darkly. ‘Narov’s forward with Raff. There’s been a… development. Best you go see.’

Jaeger clipped himself out of his skis. ‘What kind of development?’

‘Buddy, you need to speak to those two. In fact, maybe I’d better join you.’

Together Jaeger and Alonzo crept through the bush, bringing some of the scavenged rations with them, and slipped inside the OP. The four of them were jammed tight in the darkness. The confined space was fetid and stinking – the result of several days’ occupation by unwashed humans who had been forced to urinate and defecate where they lay.

They were on ‘hard routine’ – a practice pioneered by the SAS, in which all signs of human occupation were kept to an absolute minimum. It required peeing into bottles and wrapping your own faeces in a combination of cling film and plastic bags, a bit like a dog walker would do with their animal’s mess.

Hard routine could prove critical to a mission. If you left human waste lying round your OP, and especially if the bad guys had search dogs, it was a dead giveaway. Plus it would inevitably attract wildlife, another telltale sign. In fact, you might as well run a Union Jack up the flagpole.

But Jaeger could sense something else overlying the rank stench. There was a dark tension to the air; a deafening silence. You could slice the atmosphere with the proverbial knife.

Clearly something had gone wrong; something that seemed to have set his teammates against each other.

He eyed Raff and Narov. ‘Tell me.’

For a long beat, no one spoke. It was Raff who finally broke the silence. ‘The tungsten bomb was delivered to the laboratory maybe an hour ago.’

Jaeger gave a start. ‘Then why haven’t you blown it? What’re you waiting for?’

Raff’s features darkened. ‘Peter Miles is down there. Kammler made a show of bringing a figure out of the accommodation block and marching him across to the lab. It was Miles.’

‘Fuck.’

‘If I had had my way, we would have blown it anyway,’ Narov hissed. ‘We risk the lives of so many for one man, when we have every reason to believe he would want us to press the button. His life to save the world – Miles would not hesitate.’

Raff ignored the comment. ‘He had a black bag over his head,’ he explained to Jaeger. ‘Kammler removed it in full view, so we could get a good look. Miles has been beaten half to death. Trust me, Kammler knows we’re watching.’

‘We figure they scarfed him up at Falkenhagen,’ Alonzo added, ‘then shipped him here. We think he arrived in the SUV that brought the tungsten device.’

Jaeger grabbed the SwiftScope and swung it around until the lab was in full view. ‘Any sense where they’re holding him exactly? Any chance we can bust him free?’

Raff was about to answer, but Jaeger silenced him with a gesture. He kept his eyes glued to the scope for a few long seconds before sinking back, a look of utter shock and horror on his features.

‘It’s her,’ he whispered hoarsely. ‘She’s down there. With Kammler.’

No one needed him to explain who he meant. Ruth Jaeger had just made an appearance at the plant.

One by one they took a turn at the scope as Jaeger slumped against the back wall of the OP in a dark and brooding silence. Kammler was standing out the front of the plant, the distinctive figure of Ruth kneeling before him, bound and gagged.

It was Narov’s voice that broke the quiet. ‘I still say we blow the charge. Two lives sacrificed to save the world… It is what Miles would want. As for her, she’d be better off dead. She doesn’t deserve—’

‘And what the fuck do you know?’ Raff cut in accusingly. ‘She’s tied up, or hadn’t you noticed?’ He turned to Jaeger. ‘Trust me, he’s holding them both as captives. He’s using them as human shields to safeguard his lab.’

‘Fuck.’ Jaeger felt as if his mind was about to explode. ‘Fuuuuuk. So what the hell do we do?’

Three sets of eyes stared back at him blankly.