by Dale Brown
"Now!" he said.
Another shell rocked the house. This one landed on the roof and descended into the second floor before exploding.
Debris showered from above, and part of the kitchen wall crumbled. A beam slapped downward, striking the nanny across the shoulder and throwing her to the floor. Voda let go of his wife and ran to her. As he tried to pull the timber off, another shell hit the house. Red flashed through the house, the air filled with dust and smoke. "Go," whispered Oana.
Voda glanced across the floor, made sure his wife was still there, then reached under the fallen beam. He leveraged his back against it, pushing it upward. Oana Mitca crawled forward, groaning as she came free.
"We need to protect you," she said. Her voice was practically drowned out by the sound of submachine guns.
"Yes, protect us downstairs," said Voda. "Stay with the boy. That's your post."
He pushed her next to his wife, then led them to the door. Just as they started down the stairs, another large round hit the house. The rumbling explosion shook Voda off his feet; he fell down the stairs, tumbling into the women.
They helped each other up. Voda gave his wife the Glock, figuring she would do better with it than the revolver.
"Where's Julian?" asked Oana Mitca.
"This way, come on," said Voda, leading them back to the storage room. He kept flashlights near the entrance to the room, but it wasn't until he started through the doorway that he remembered them. He went back, calling to his son as he grabbed them.
"Julian, Julian, we're here," he said. "Papa's here."
There was no answer. He switched a flashlight on, worrying that Julian had somehow snuck by him and was upstairs. Then he realized he must be in the root cellar around the back of the workshop, unable to hear. He moved through the cobwebs and dust, snaked around the shelves which had once held preserved vegetables, and pulled up the trapdoor.
"Julian?"
"Papa, I'm scared."
"It's OK. Here's a flashlight." He tossed down the light he was holding and lit another. "Down. Come on," he told his wife and Oana, shining the light for them.
Mircea hesitated.
"Julian's down there," he told her.
"Oh, thank God," she said, squeezing by.
"Come on," he told Oana Mitca.
"No. I will stay here."
"The army is already on its way," Voda told her. "They'll be here in a minute."
"Then I won't have to wait long. Here." Oana Mitca dug into her pocket. "My phone."
Voda took the phone. His impulse was to stay with her, but he didn't want to leave his wife and son alone. "You'll be OK?" he asked.
"Alin, please," said the young woman. "Let me do my job."
"Knock twice on the door," he told her. "Twice, then pause, then again. All right?"
She nodded. Voda gave her his flashlight, then squeezed around the shelves. It was hard to see the stone stairs down to the door of the root cellar, and he slipped on the third step, crashing down to the bottom, against the heavy door. He reached for the doorknob and tried to push it open, but it wouldn't budge.
"Mircea!" he yelled. "Mircea, it's me!"
He couldn't hear anything. He pounded on the door, then tried it again. It still wouldn't budge. Desperate, Voda raised the pistol and was about to fire when he heard the loud creak of the door's hinges.
"It's me, it's me!" he yelled, sliding inside.
"Papa!" yelled Julian.
"Alin, what's going on?" asked his wife.
"The army will be here in a second," he said. "How did you lock this door?"
"I didn't. I jammed the hatchet head against the handle."
She showed him. The blade slipped in under the handle, sliding against the spindle and keeping it from turning.
He took the flashlight from Julian. The walls on either side of the door had iron hooks positioned so a board could be placed across it and keep it closed, but there was no board nearby to lock it down with. He glanced around the cellar, looking for something to use. There had once been a set of shelves against the wall, but the wood was long gone; all that remained were the stones that had supported them.
An old rug sat on the floor. Desperate, Voda grabbed at it, hoping it hid boards. Instead, he saw a smooth piece of metal — a small trapdoor they had never explored.
The explosions were continuing, and growing more intense.
"What happened to the army?" his wife asked.
"They're on their way," Voda told her, dropping to his knees to see if he could open the metal. It was solid, but more the size of a grate than a door.
"Papa are we going to be OK?"
"We're going to be fine Julian. Mircea, help me."
"If we're going to be fine, why are we hiding?" asked Julian.
"Help me with this. Let's see how strong you are," Voda told his son, straining to pull up the metal.
Though thin, the trapdoor was very heavy. Finally, with Mircea's help, Voda managed to push it slightly aside, then pushed with his heels to reveal an opening about two feet by a foot and a half.
It was part of an old cistern system, designed at some point in the very distant past to supply water to the house. The walls were overgrown with blackish moss. About four feet down, it opened into what looked like a tunnel.
"We can't go down there, Voda," said Mircea.
"I didn't say we were going to."
He went back to the door.
"I'm going up and getting some of the boards to block us in," he told his wife. "I'll knock twice, pause, then knock again. Twice. You'll hear my voice."
"Where is the army?" Mircea demanded. "Why aren't they here?"
"Just give them time. I'm sure they're on their way," he said, removing the hatchet. He left her the flashlight. "Lock it behind me."
Aboard EB-52 Johnson,
over northeastern Romania
2240
Zen watched the long-distance radar plot, marking the progress of the helicopters as they left the field near the church. From all reports, the operation had been a resounding success. Both sites had proven to be rebel strongholds, and the guerrillas taken completely by surprise. Roughly a hundred guerrillas were killed or captured at the farm; a little less than half that at the church. Weapons had been stockpiled at both. The church had also yielded a treasure trove of documents and a computer.
"A lot of activity at border post M-2," said Spiff, operating the ground radar upstairs. "Looks like the Moldovans have finally woken up."
Zen switched his video view to Hawk Two, which was near the border post. He was too far to see anything however, and the terrain and nearby trees made it difficult to get much of a view of the small guardhouse unless he went into Moldovan territory — which of course he couldn't do.
"First helicopter is over the line," said Rager, who working the airborne radar.
Zen felt his body starting to relax. The operation would be over inside an hour, and they could stand down.
It wasn't that he felt exhausted. It was that feeling of use-lessness that he wanted to lose.
"Shit — MiGs are back!" said Rager, practically yelling over the interphone. "Afterburners — they're coming west, high rate of speed. Touching Mach 2."
"Here we go again," said Sullivan.
"Colonel, they don't look like they're coming for us," said Rager a minute later. "They're on a direct line for the helicopters."
Moldova
2245
The inside of the helicopter was so loud it was hard to hear Colonel Bastian's voice over the roar of the blades. Overloaded, the aircraft strained to clear the trees at the edge of the field. It cleared the top branches by only a few feet, but continued to steadily rise.
"This is Stoner!" Stoner yelled into the sat phone.
"Stoner, tell your pilot and Colonel Brasov there are four MiGs headed in your direction," said Colonel Bastian. "They're about ten minutes away."
"Four what?"
"Four MiGs. Russian fighters
. Get the hell out of there. Get over the border."
"We're working on it, Colonel."
Stoner turned to Colonel Brasov and tugged on his arm.
"There are fighter jets headed in our direction," he said. "They're about ten minutes away."
Brasov's face blanched — he'd said on takeoff that it would take the helicopter roughly thirty minutes to reach the border— then went forward to the cockpit to tell the pilots.
There were thirty soldiers in the rear of the helicopter, along with two of the prisoners, several boxes from the church, and the two footlockers. There were also several bodies stacked at the back. The Aerospatiale was designed to hold about twenty-five men, counting the crew.
Brasov returned, a frown on his face.
"We will stay very low to the ground," he said, shouting in Stoner's ear. "They may not see us on their radar. But it will be tight."
Aboard EB-52 Johnson,
over northeastern Romania
2247
Dog swung the Megafortress to the south, pushing it closer to the border. The MiGs were definitely heading east in a big hurry, but while they were flying in the general direction of the Romanian helicopters, it was hard to tell if they knew exactly where they were.
"They shouldn't be able to see them on their radar until they're a lot closer," Rager said. "But they will see them. Those are Fulcrum C's. Their radar is almost as good as an F-15's."
"Almost as good" covered a wide ground, but Dog wasn't about to argue the point. Even if the radars' look-down ability wasn't up to American specs, the MiG pilots were on a course to fly almost directly over the choppers.
"Stoner, tell the helicopter pilots to cut south," said Dog. He'd decided to use the sat phone to avoid their conversation being monitored by the Moldovans or Russians. "They're riding right on the vector the Russians are taking."
"Copy." Stoner's voice was nearly drowned out by the heavy whirl of the helicopter engines above him.
"Colonel, we can take them down," said Sullivan. "I have an intercept plotted."
"We can't do it, Sully," said Dog.
"Those helicopters are dead ducks if they attack."
Dog didn't answer. He knew that what Sullivan had said was absolutely true — if the MiG pilots decided they were going to shoot the helicopters down, only luck would save them.
And what was he going to do? Just watch? Dog punched the preset for the Dreamland Command com circuit.
"This is Bastian. I need to speak to General Samson." "Colonel, he's in bed," said Sergeant Louch, who was handling the communications duties at Iasi. "Wake him up." "Yes, sir. Right away."
* * *
Zen banked Hawk Two to the north, still watching the border. The helicopters were about twenty miles from Romanian soil. That translated into roughly ten minutes of flying time. The MiGs, afterburners spent, had slowed to about 800 knots, and were about three minutes' flying time from an intercept.
The helos began changing course, turning south. They were in four groups. One group, which had taken off from the farm, was already over the border and thus out of harm's way. The other three groups, with eight helicopters apiece, were strung out in a semicircle approaching northeastern Romania. The helicopters in each group were flying in slightly offset single file, with the groups themselves forming three parallel hashes as they flew.
The trucks, meanwhile, were moving along a pair of parallel roads to the north. They too could be easily targeted, if the MiGs realized they were there.
One flick of his wrist and a push of his finger on the throttle slide at the back of his control yoke and Hawk One would be lined up perfectly for an intercept on the lead MiG. Zen wouldn't even have to shoot it down to protect the helicopters — once he got their attention, he figured, they'd lose interest in everything else.
At least long enough to let them get away.
Surely the colonel was thinking the same thing. Orders or no orders, they had to protect their people. Stoner was in one of the choppers.
Zen pulled back on the Flighthawk's control, adding a little more altitude as he waited for the order to attack.
* * *
"What the hell is it, Bastian?"
"We have four Russian MiGs pursuing the Romanian force out of Moldova. I want permission to intercept."
"Where? Romania? You have it."
"No. The MiGs may hit them in Moldova. If I go over the border, I can save them."
"We went over this, Bastian. No. You can't go over the border. No."
"The helicopters will be easy pickings."
"The President's order was nothing over the border. No."
"But—"
"What part of no don't you understand?" "General—"
"This conversation is done, Colonel. If those planes come over the border or attack you directly, take them down. But you stay on our side of the line. Is that clear, Lieutenant
Colonel?"
"Crystal, General."
Moldova
2250
It was Stoner's idea.
"When its nest is being attacked, a mother bird pretends to be wounded, drawing the predators away," he told Colonel Brasov. "You could do the same — have one of the helicopters peel off, get the MiGs interested, then land. Everyone runs for it — the MiGs come down and investigate. The other choppers get away. We make our way home by foot."
Instead of answering, Brasov went forward to the cockpit. Stoner glanced around the cabin. The troops were quiet now, aware they were pursued. "You are full of good ideas, Mr. Stoner," said the colonel, returning. Then he added, "The Russian aircraft are almost on us."
"How far is the border?"
Brasov just shook his head.
"I would not ask my men to make a sacrifice I was unwilling to make myself," said the colonel. "Neither would I," said Stoner.
Presidential villa,
near Stulpicani, Romania
2247
Alin Voda clutched the revolver close to his belly as he went up the open stairs into the back of the root cellar beneath his house. In his years since joining Romania's government, and certainly in his time as president, he never thought it possible that he would come under this kind of attack. It seemed a fantasy — an evil fantasy, one where the world had turned upside down.
He knew that the guerrillas — the criminals — were evil, but hadn't allowed himself to think they were this evil.
Hubris. And foolishness.
Someone had killed the lights to the basement area. Voda couldn't see into the rest of the basement, and in fact could barely see a few feet in front of him.
The gunfire was louder, closer, right above them — that must be a good sign, he thought; the army had finally arrived.
Should he even bother getting the wood he'd come for? He wanted a piece of the shelves that formed a wall between this corner and the rest of the storeroom. Pulling off a piece, though, would be not be easy.
He put his left hand out, feeling his way, when light flashed through the basement.
"Oana," he started to say, calling for the bodyguard he'd left behind, when there was another flash and a loud bang. The word died on his tongue, his voice stolen by the shock of the sound.
"What?" yelled Oana Mitca.
Before he could answer, Oana began cursing and screaming. Gunfire flashed in the outer part of the basement. There was another flash and Voda felt himself falling, knocked off the slippery stone step to the bottom of the root cellar. He pushed around, pounded on the door.
"It's me," he told his wife, lowering his voice to a stage whisper, forgetting that he'd said he would knock in a pattern. "Open."
The door pulled back. Mircea shined a flashlight on his face.
"I think they're in the basement," he whispered.
They slapped the door closed and reset the hatchet blade into the handle, restoring the makeshift lock.
Voda leaned against the door. For a moment, he despaired. The dankness of the root cellar reminded him of the prison
he'd been locked in the first time he played the piano in defiance of the old regime. The thick, musty scent choked him, paralyzing his will, just as it had the first few months he was in jail.
His younger self had been steadied by music. One by one Mozart's strong notes had returned to his imagination and steeled him for the struggle. But that was long ago. He'd left music behind, rarely played now, either in real life or in his daydreams, contrary to what those around him thought.
What would save him now?
"Papa, what will we do?" asked Julian.
Voda saw his son's face across the room, lit by the dim reflection from the flashlight. It was filled with fear, and it was that fear that brought him back from the abyss. In worrying about his son, he remembered how to act.
"You are going to hide with Mama," he said, springing from the door and moving to the metal trapdoor covering the cistern. "Down into this hole. Both of you."
"But it's a well," said the boy.
"You can hide down there," said Voda.
"Alin, what if it's too deep?" asked his wife.
"Come on. Shine the light." He pushed the metal covering fully aside, then squeezed down. The sides of the hole were slimy, but the stones were spaced far enough apart to let him get a good grip.
There was water four feet down, but it was shallow, less than an inch. The tunnel was wider than the hole, and nearly tall enough for him to stand.
"Mircea, the flashlight!"
She handed it to him. Voda shone it down the tunnel. He couldn't see the end of the passage.
Did it lead out? Or was it simply a trap?
Where would you collect rainwater from?
The roof maybe. Gutters. This might just be a reservoir, with no opening big enough to escape through.
Voda tucked the flashlight into his pants and climbed back up.
"Come on," he told his wife. "Let's go."
"I don't want to die like a rat in a hole," she said.
There was a burst of gunfire from somewhere above. Voda turned the flashlight back on and saw his son's eyes puffing up, on the verge of tears.
"We're not dying." He picked up the boy. "Come on. Out this way. I'll be with you."
Even though it was only four feet, it was difficult to climb down with Julian in his arms. Voda slipped about halfway down. Fortunately, he was able to land on his feet, his back and head slapping against the wall.
