Gray Matter Splatter (A Deckard Novel Book 4)

by Jack Murphy

  “It’s quite OK, gentlemen,” Mann said, ordering his bodyguards to stand down. The billionaire reached out and shook Deckard’s hand vigorously.

  “I just want to tell you what an honor it is to meet you,” Mann said with a toothy grin.

  “Honor?”

  “Yes, I want to thank you for your service. So many are being asked to sacrifice so much in over a decade of war. You’re true patriots, which is why I sponsor a not-for-profit called Honor Our Heroes. It is a registered 501(c) that promotes healthy lifestyles for veterans and their families. We’ve had some great successes, and if you look at our website you can see the numerous testimonials that—”

  “Hey, uh,” Deckard interrupted. “I really appreciate your support for this operation, but we’re kind of dealing with the end of the world here. Civilization at the brink and all that.”

  Mann blinked. “Oh, I see.”

  “Yeah, we kind of need to get a move on here.”

  “How can I help?”

  “I’m waiting to hear back from some national security types back in the States, but we need to get everyone on board and prepped for movement. I’m not sure of the destination yet, but I’m sure you know that the enemy hijacked your cable-laying ship and headed east.”

  “And I would very much like to recover my property!”

  “We’ll see what we can do about that as well. I also have an injured man here. Pat needs a medical evacuation as soon as possible, but we can coordinate that with the Canadian military.”

  Deckard turned as he heard a door slam. Aghassi had emerged from the station and was marching toward him.

  “Hey,” he called out. “It’s Greenland. NSA has a hit from a Danish mine. Weird commo signals showing up all of a sudden. No way it is unrelated.”

  “What about the ship?”

  “Danes and Canadians are having a bit of a pissing contest over jurisdiction and so far nothing has been sighted.”

  “We need to move on any lead we have right now. There isn’t any time to develop the situation further.”

  “Greenland and sovereign Danish territory,” Mann protested. “I can’t just—”

  “It has already been arranged,” Aghassi informed the billionaire. “We will meet with Danish military liaisons when we hit the ground.”

  Barry coughed behind Deckard. “Speaking of liaisons,” the JTF2 warrant officer said, “please obtain them the next time you decide to visit Canada.”

  Deckard shook the Canadian’s hand.

  “I will. Is this the end of the line for you?”

  “My government would never approve us to conduct military operations in Greenland, especially alongside a private military company. I have to admit that it is quite tempting to slip the leash, but it could cause an international incident.”

  “I understand.”

  “We'll sweep up back here and make sure that your man is taken care of when the air ambulance shows up.”

  “You have no idea how grateful I am for that. Pat is one of the best.”

  “Oh, I know. We heard stories about him from some unit members when we were deployed to Afghanistan last year.”

  Deckard laughed. “I can only imagine.”

  * * *

  The two platoons of mercenaries loaded into the ekranoplan, sitting on the bare metal floor. Since the craft was fitted for cargo transport, there were only a few seats for the pilots, Mann, and his entourage. The men of Samruk had to sit down with their rucksacks between their legs, skis pointing in every direction, and find something to hold on to.

  As the turbines began to spin, Deckard’s eyes swept across his men, who seemed quite small inside the hull of the massive ekranoplan. They looked exhausted, sleepy, and demoralized after suffering defeats, losing teammates, and being worn down by the Arctic itself. He knew exactly what they needed to get spirits up. With his Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder, he looked at the mercenaries and screamed.

  “Judas was a buddy fucker!”

  Eyeballs perked open and heads snapped up toward him.

  “Fuck. That. Buddy fucker!” the men yelled back.

  “Moses was a land nav no-go!”

  “You can be one two o’lordy! Look away, beyond the blue hor-izon!” the mercenaries shouted in a handful of different accents.

  “David was a small-arms expert!”

  “You can be one two o’lordy! Look away, beyond the blue hor-izon!”

  “Mary was a small-town whore!”

  “You can be one two o’lordy! Look away, beyond the blue hor-izon!”

  “Noah led a small boat movement!”

  “You can be one two o’lordy! Look away, beyond the blue hor-izon!”

  “Jesus had a wooden tripod!”

  “You can be one two o’lordy! Look away, beyond the blue hor-izon!”

  “Judas was a buddy fucker!”

  “Fuck. That. Buddy fucker!”

  David Mann sat in his comfortable suede seat, strapped in by the seat belt as his jaw hung open, his eyes widening like saucers. His aides looked at each other in horror as the loadie began closing the ramp.

  “You can tell a Ranger by his boots!” Deckard yelled a new Ranger song.

  “By his boots!”

  “You can tell a Ranger by his boots!”

  “By his boots!”

  “Because they’re shiny as glass and they’re always kicking ass!”

  “By his boots!”

  “You can tell a Ranger by his room!”

  “By his room!”

  “You can tell a Ranger by his room!”

  “By his room!”

  “Because it smells like a shitter but you can always find a spitter!”

  Now that their blood pressure was back up, Deckard walked the lines, stepping between the mercenaries sprawled out on the deck.

  “You can tell a Ranger by his girlfriend!”

  “By his girlfriend!”

  “You can tell a Ranger by his girlfriend!”

  “By his girlfriend!”

  “Because she dances at Deja Vu, and she’s been fucked by you, you, and you!” Deckard sang as he pointed to three of the young Kazakh troopers.

  As the pilots guided the ekranoplan out into the open water, Deckard was forced to grab onto one of the metal ribs of the aircraft to support himself. The craft vibrated and shook, twisting like a 50-year-old tourist bus screaming down a mountain pass in Costa Rica. For a moment, it felt like it would come apart at the seams, washing the mercenaries out over the arctic waters. Suddenly, the craft leveled out and set down. Not on the ground, but on the air cushion the ekranoplan created.

  They were riding the ground effects to Greenland.

  Chapter 30

  Off the coast of Greenland

  The ekranoplan splashed down without incident and began making its way to the shore. They would deploy a small team to link up with Danish soldiers who had been dispatched to act as military liaisons. While in the air, Samruk International had gotten word that the Danish government had been unable to get calls through to the rare earth minerals mine that the NSA had pinpointed as a potential hotspot for enemy activity.

  Deckard stepped into a small inflatable boat with Aghassi and Nikita, using the outboard electric motor to putter their way to shore. It was simply too steep and rocky for the ekranoplan to deliver them directly to land.

  Although not on most people’s radars, the sparsely populated country of Greenland was a Danish territory, one with immense political implications on the world stage. Greenland was strategically located in the Arctic, and was home to the Thule U.S. military base in the northwest, which provided maritime and air coverage as well as logistical support for NATO. Greenland also housed facilities for Five Eyes surveillance programs. Thule housed the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System or BMEWS. Since the Cold War, America had also harbored a fear that Greenland could be used as a staging ground by foreign powers to launch an invasion into the mainland United States.

  In recent ye
ars, the Danes had aggressively ramped up defense spending on Greenland in order to deter and counter Russian military aggression in the Arctic as they expanded their sphere of influence in the region and engaged in strategic posturing.

  This led to a new balance of power in the Arctic, and the Danish government had shrewdly leveraged access to the territory by the United States for various economic and political concessions over the years. As portions of the icepack continued to thaw, Danish mining consortiums were quickly setting up shop to harvest rare earth minerals which had been previously locked under the ice. Rare earth minerals were a critical component in the manufacturing of everything from computer hard drives to MRI machines to aircraft engines.

  The rare earth mineral industry was once dominated by the United States, but today, China had pulled far ahead of any Western nation. Greenland, however, was rich in such elements, and that was not even mentioning the sizable hydrocarbon reserves offshore, but still inside Denmark’s exclusive economic zone. Other claims of offshore reserves overlapped with claims made by the Russian government, leading to even more political friction.

  It had been a short flight to Greenland, and it was still only midday as Deckard found a place to beach the rubber raft on shore. They had landed the ekranoplan well away from the rare earth minerals mine, but it would not take them long to get there. It was called an offset infiltration: getting close, but not so close that you tipped your hand before moving the last stretch as stealthily as possible.

  Pulling the raft up on shore, the three mercenaries clawed their way up a small cliff and up onto the tundra. Unspoiled snow spread out in front of them leading up to the mountain ranges in the distance. White, blue, and black shadows fell between the ridges. The sun beat down on them, its power signaling the summer would arrive in the Arctic before much longer. Aghassi began scanning with his binoculars, but it was Nikita who first got eyes on with his 10-power sniper scope.

  “Two dog sleds inbound.”

  “Dog sleds?” Deckard asked with a frown. “What the hell?”

  “See for yourself.”

  Deckard grabbed the sniper’s HK417 and looked through the scope.

  “I’ll be damned.”

  Sure enough, two sleds were on their way, each pulled by 11 dogs. The Danes rode on the back of their sleds, their supplies stowed in the front under canvas.

  “Who the hell are these guys?”

  “Tampa said something about a Danish military patrol that would rendezvous with us,” Aghassi answered. “This must be them.”

  Five minutes later, the two sleds came to a halt in front of the trio, the dogs knee-deep in snow and clearly excited by the strangers they’d encountered. The Danes threw back their hoods and shook hands with the newcomers.

  “I’m David, the patrol leader,” the bigger of the two announced. “This is Evan, my apprentice.”

  “Hello,” Evan said with a smile. He was a little older than the patrol leader and had graying hair peeking out from under his wool cap.

  “Thanks for getting here so quickly,” Aghassi said. “We didn’t know what to expect.”

  “You’re in luck,” David replied. “We don't usually patrol out in this region.”

  “So who are you guys, exactly?” Deckard asked.

  “Sirius Patrol,” Evan said proudly.

  “What do you guys patrol?” Deckard said, looking around the barren landscape.

  “All of Greenland. We have to keep a security presence out here. Our unit has been at it for over sixty years.”

  “And how long have you two been out here?”

  “You’re the first people we’ve seen in four months.”

  “Holy hell!”

  “Yes, so this distraction is quite welcome. We were instructed to be of assistance in any way we can.”

  “Right now we just need to get these two guys about six klicks south,” Deckard said, motioning to Aghassi and Nikita, “to reconnoiter the mine.”

  “Ah, rare earth minerals, yeah? The ASX mine,” David said knowingly. “What seems to be the problem?”

  “Apparently the mine has been out of radio contact, and we have some intelligence leading us to believe that there is a bad actor in your area of operations.”

  “Bad actor?” Evan questioned. “Like whom?”

  “Canadians?” David said with a laugh.

  “I only wish. If that were the case, we could settle this over Canadian bacon. We’ve been trailing a group—a sort of syndicate—of Iranians, Russians, and Chinese paramilitary types.”

  The two Sirius Patrol members looked at each other, trying to figure out if Deckard was being serious or not.

  “Listen, maybe it is nothing, but it is the only lead we have. This is an issue of grave national security concern to both our governments.”

  “Well, that explains why they rushed us out here.”

  Aghassi pulled out his map and pointed to the mine. Before he could even open his mouth, David spoke up.

  “No problem. We can get you there within the hour.”

  “Good. I’ll get the men ready to deploy,” Deckard said. “Once you’ve got something, call it in. Especially if you can get eyes on the device we are looking for.”

  “Device?” David asked.

  Deckard turned back toward the raft. “You can tell them, Aghassi. Sounds like you have a little road trip ahead of you.”

  * * *

  Aghassi and Nikita rode on top of the sleds, watching the dogs race forward in the harnesses, shuttling them to the mine. David had been explaining Sirius Patrol to him on the way, which turned out to be a Danish special operations unit on par with the Jaeger Corps and the Frogman Corps. Established in 1950, Sirius Patrol was named after the brightest star in the Canis Major constellation. They patrolled the tundra, waters, and mountains of Greenland by dog sled, boat, and on skis, keeping a persistent presence on the ground for the Danish military. Fewer than a dozen Sirius Patrol members were present on Greenland at any given time.

  “We spend a long time in training,” David said, raising his voice to be heard over the wind created by their forward travel. “We have to go to Norway for winter warfare training, learn about weather patterns, survival techniques, radio communications, and everything else. They say that a Sirius man can do everything but give birth!”

  “I don't doubt it,” Aghassi replied. “Up here you have no one to rely on but yourself.”

  “We patrol in two-man teams, but yes, we’re alone up here.”

  “That’s a hard life.”

  “But worth it,” the Sirius Patrol leader said. “I’ve been out here for eight months and I feel like it has changed my life forever. By the way, what is this device you guys are looking for?”

  Aghassi hesitated a moment. The 11 dogs pulled the sled forward with almost fanatical devotion as they cruised through the arctic desolation.

  “Veenstre!” David suddenly shouted to the dog team. Following his order, they began to veer to the left.

  “Well, have you ever heard of the Aharonov-Bohm effect?”

  “No.”

  “What about tectonic weapons?”

  “Tectonic as in earthquakes?”

  “Someone stole some kind of experimental super weapon from an underground Russian laboratory, and now we have to get it back.”

  “Very funny.”

  “I don’t blame you for being skeptical. I wouldn’t believe it either if I hadn’t seen it for myself.”

  David was quiet for a moment. “You think this thing is in the ASX mine?”

  “Not sure, but there are some weird indicators that the enemy is transmitting something from there, so we need to check it out.”

  “No worries. We’ll get you close in and unobserved.”

  An hour later, a small ridge came into view that David pointed out as being the rare earth minerals mine. Then he directed the dogs down a shallow embankment to make sure they stayed out of the line of sight of the mine, lest they be detected. The dogs scrambl
ed along without hesitation as the Sirius Patrol circled around the mine.

  “Hoole!” the Danes called out, halting the dogs.

  Aghassi and Nikita jumped off the sleds and began preparing their gear, pulling their skis from where they were tied down.

  “This is as close as we can get without potentially being spotted,” Evan said. “It is flat for about six or seven hundred meters up to the mine. I’m not sure how you plan on getting there over open ground if they have sentries on watch.”

  “We planned for this,” Nikita announced. “We will make it.”

  “And we are just supposed to wait here?” David asked.

  “I would love to take a few extra guns with us,” Aghassi said. “You do have guns, right?”

  David reached under the canvas covering of his sled and yanked free an M-10 rifle, basically the same as the Canadian C8.

  “Give me your radio freq. We might need you guys if things go sideways. I really would like to take you, but it just isn’t possible. You’ll understand in a minute.”

  The mercenaries began stringing their skis together and then extended a series of stiff wires, which were then covered over with white cloth.

  David just laughed. “I have a friend who is a Swedish sniper. He taught me that same technique.”

  “Does it work?” Aghassi asked in all seriousness.

  “You’ve never tried before? You can’t be serious.”

  “Well, it looked like it might work when we were training in Russia,” Nikita said with a shrug.

  * * *

  Greenland

  Jiahao pushed the two Persians out of the way and kicked open the door. It blasted inwards and slammed against the side wall with a metallic clang. The Assassin's Mace operative stepped inside, looked around the barren tunnel, and then waved the other Oculus members inside.

  They filed in and spread out inside the tunnel, preparing the search the complex.

  “There should be a six-man crew. I want them alive; we may need them to run some of the systems in here.”

  “Understood,” one of the Iranian commandos replied.