The eight soldiers stood on the edge of the river and looked down. Arkadii glared at the ninth, a sergeant from the engineer battalion, with his hands on his hips, “What the fuck is that?” The engineer prickled, “This is a boat.” The soldiers laughed, “This is a dog’s prick.” Arkadii spat. “This is going to get us across the river?” “Yes. It’s a perfectly good boat.” Arkadii looked over at Dmitri. “Hey,” Dmitri shrugged, ”You just said find a boat. You didn’t say anything about it floating.” Arkadii stabbed him with a stare. “So,” Arkadii threw up his hands, ”So, who the fuck knows about boats.” “Um…,” Sasha raised his hand, “I do. A little.” “Fuck your mother.” Arkadii threw an arm around Sasha, “What do you know about boats, little brother?” “Um…I used to go fishing with my grandfather every day.” “Fishing!” Arkadii grinned at Dmitri, “I told you this kid was a fucking genius.” The soldiers laughed. “So, Admiral, what do we do with this…boat?” And so Sasha told them. They crossed the river in much the way a drunken man leave the last bar of the night. Staggering from side to side and bailing because once they started they found the boat leaked…badly. Cursing under their breath because the current was much stronger than anyone of them had thought, save Sasha, maybe, and he was keeping quiet. Fishing with grandfather was ever so much different than crossing a rain swollen river in the dark, with an entire enemy army on the far shore. But they did cross it, and forty-five minutes later they staggered from the mud on the far shore and shook themselves off like dogs come in from the rain. For that is, after all, what they were. Arkadii pulled the GPS out of the oilskin bag and got a fix. They were off target but a little hard marching would put them back on schedule. They were used to it. Katrina led off, followed closely by Dmitri, Vasili, Sasha, Arkadii, Nicoloi, Alexi, and last Vladimer. They moved slow and quiet. Katrina stopped often to listen to the forest around them. All communication was passed by handsigns. Katrina raised a fist. The group halted and took a knee. She spread out her fingers and pushed out away from her, the soldiers spread out taking up a 360 degree defensive position. Katrina slipped off into the dark, the rest flattened and lay still. In a few seconds she returned. Arkadii met her eye. ‘Ahead. Two hundred meters. Two men. Rifles.’ She signed. Arkadii nodded. He looked back to Dmitri and Vlad. ‘A section move left, B section move right, provide cover. Kat…take them out’ he signed. The two sections moved near silently through the trees. Arkadii followed Katrina up the trail. When they had traveled about 150 meters they stopped. Arkadii checked his GPS and saw the two sections were in position. He tapped a quick code and nodded to Katrina. She slipped forward. She could hear the beating of her heart and the sound of her breathing as she inched forward towards the Alliance soldier. He stood with his back to her, on the edge of a clearing. His partner was fifty feet away and paying no attention to what was going on. Fifteen feet away her steps slowed even more. Movement would give her away if he saw it, even out of the corner of his eye. He remained turn away from her and she glided closer. Ten feet away and he suddenly turned around. Katrina froze in have step. He must see her. She was so close. She held her breath and willed her heart to stop pounding. The Alliance soldier looked right at her…and turned away. He bent down to light a cigarette. She slid forward. Her hand lifted up and with a silent ‘slike’ the silver blade caught the glimmer of the glow of the cigarette. In the last moment maybe he sensed her for he started to turn, and as the blade slid deep into his neck and upwards into his brain he smelled the rain in the air and then he knew nothing. Katrina fell with the body and lay still. The second Alliance soldier turned and looked out into the dark. “Kurt?” he heard a cough and saw the cigarette glow as it walked towards him. “Dammit.” You know you ain’t supposed to be smoking out here. What if the Colonel caught you?” He got no answer but a flare from the cigarette. He turned back towards the road. “Fucking bullshit, if you asked me.” He shook his head. “What the hell are we doing out here. No rebel scum are gonna cross the riv-“ A burning sting cut off his words. He raised his hands to his neck and felt the warmth wash over them. He turned and saw a little girl smoking a cigarette and smiling. As everything went darker than the night a thought fired through his brain, “She’s too young to be smoking…”Then he thought no more. Arkadii knelt beside Katrina. “why did you play with that last one? You should have just killed him.” She looked up at him and wiped the blade on the dead soldier’s tunic. She shrugged and grinned. “No reason.”

‘Oh we are what we are when in Danger ‘And we are as we stand head in Hands ‘What a friend brings to light in a cold silver night ‘You can stare your fate right in to his hands, Into his hands.

‘Oh we are what we are what we remain, too ‘Be the soul lone in dark ends in flame ‘And there’s always advice on a cold winter’s night ‘That your dreams are just an island ‘nieth the sand, way out ‘nieth the sand.

‘Though it seems so strange, how it just don’t change, ‘Things just stay the same as they always been, ‘Some of us are out to win and some of us just out of aim, some of us are just out of aim.

‘Oh we are what we are when we’re prayin’ Oh we are when we’re seekin some light, May the mission bells still ring of the colorful dreams And the fate that everyone will be treated right, we be treated right.

On a cold cold night. Will be treated right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a pro-longed absence...Arkadii has returned. I shall be adding to his story in the coming months.

dutch