Pursuit by Fire: 1981 (Soviet Endgame Book 3) by James Rosone & Alex Aaronson

Author:James Rosone & Alex Aaronson [Rosone, James & Aaronson, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Front Line Publishing Inc.
Published: 2023-07-12T22:00:00+00:00

28 September 1981

21st Special Air Service Regiment

South of Lübeck, West Germany

Trooper Trevor Pearce could feel the slight chill in the air that hinted of a cold winter approaching. Tonight, he was on a forested hill overlooking a flat forest below. This time and place had been chosen through a methodical process. There was no moon tonight. The position was within range of Pearce’s hide spot. And most importantly, the pilots could plot a course to get there from the United Kingdom with a better-than-decent chance of not getting shot down. Now all Pearce had to do was wait.

As he did, he considered his predicament with regard to the locals. One of the leaders of Freiheitsfront, a Karl Köstler, had taken up the habit of enlisting German children into his unit. This was in direct violation of every principle of NATO and the United Nations, not to mention generally accepted morality. He wanted to get a report out to headquarters, but the senior man in his unit, Corporal Ralph Willis, wouldn’t risk any outgoing comms, by radio or courier, unless it was mission-critical. Pearce seethed at the memory of their conversation, but he understood the corporal’s point. Any outgoing communication had the potential of exposing their whereabouts and compromising the mission.

He shifted his SLR rifle to his right shoulder and again peered into the darkness. After another half hour of this, he heard the faint sound of engines. He knew that it had to be the Hawker Siddeley Andover, flying the “Hanseatic Express” a route that would allow the cargo plane to drop off supplies for at least twenty units like Pearce’s. Reeves couldn’t conceive how difficult the route selection must be. There were so many factors to consider: you had to fly as low as possible, only over unpopulated areas, preferably in a valley, while still hitting every unit that needed supply and not flying the same route twice, or in any kind of observable pattern.

The plane was really just a shadow in the night. Painted all black, it zipped past Reeves and continued on into the darkness. As it did, Reeves observed a pallet drop from behind the airplane. He couldn’t see the black parachute that opened as it fell, but he knew it was there. Everything from the drop would be collected and used, including the nylon from the parachute and the wood from the pallet and crates. For now, though, Pearce had to wait. His orders were to observe the pallet for an hour, then he and the rest of his troop would converge on it and retrieve the supplies. Each trooper was isolated so that, in the event that one was detected, the rest could still evade capture.

The pallet sat amongst the trees for sixty minutes before Pearce made his move. He moved as quickly as he could while maintaining his stealth. Even so, he was the third trooper to reach the supplies. Corporal Willis was already rolling up the parachute while Lance Corporal Cooper snipped the wires that held the various crates together.

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