Chapter 31

"Time Gentlemen." Manny went about the hide away rousing the troops. There were a few quite groans as the men stood and stretched. Again they to a man checked their weapons. Apart from the DeLisle carbine, each man had Colt .45 pistol. This meant that they only needed to carry the one set of ammunition. For close up worked the commandos had a viscous knife. As David checked his knife's sheath, making sure the knife could be accessed easily, he smiled. The Brits seemed to have plenty of hyphenated names – Fairbairn-Sykes – whoever he was – certainly understood knives. This knife could not be mistaken as anything other than a weapon to kill men, quickly and quietly. It looked like a stiletto but with very keen cutting edges.

"OK Gents" Manny continued in a hoarse whisper, "Lets look the part."

There had been much discussion, back in London as to how they would extract Popov. Ultimately it had been decided that they would have the men dress in Russian Army uniforms and walk into the Hotel and just as casually walk him out. All the commandos understood Russian, many spoke it – some fluently. The plan and its execution was considered a "doddle" and the man were looking forward to making it happen. But now ... who could say? Josh, Julia and Manny had argued the point endlessly on the Sub as to how they could go about getting Kruschev. Finally they had worked out more of a guideline than a plan – a wishlist rather than anything concrete.

David knew the opportunity was too good to miss (as far as the British were concerned) but he felt it was bound to be very costly. He also knew that he had better do all he could to make sure that they were successful, or his mission to collect Popov would fail. So he started to remove his dark green dungarees. Looking around he could see that others were emerging from the outer clothing and transforming into Russian troops. They sure looked the part. Although their uniforms were probably better made than the typical Russian soldier's.

Josh looked distinguished as a Russian Infantry Colonel, and Manny had been promoted to a Captain. The men quietly took the piss out off him – and he had the good grace to smile and salute. Julia looked rather dashing in her military uniform. She was a staff sergeant, and she also was carrying a rather large rifle. David didn't recognise it, and so moved over to her and examined the weapon.

"You just like me for my weapons" she pouted. They laughed, and David took in the gun and its characteristics. The stock was a fine grained dark coloured wood, but the action itself seemed rather dated, but the scope looked as if it was meant to be there. All in all it was as if the gun were a work of art. "This gun helped keep the Germans at bay" Julia explained, then she laughed "Well actually the snow and the cold did for the Germans – but this gun certainly made things difficult for them."

Soon the order to move out came and the small clearing they had rested in was empty.

It wasn't far till they came to the single lane road to the airport. It ran through the scrub along a ridge line east-west before veering Northwest down to the shore line around the bay to the city. Toward the airport the road entered a small forest, and it was here that they waited.

The idea was that once the Kruschev's plane was confirmed, that transport would be sent to bring him back to Dubrovnik. That was the idea – and so they waited. Finally, a convoy approached. First came two motor bikes, then a rather dated Mercedes-Benz 200 Cabriolet. Small Soviet flags fluttered from the front mud guards.

The commandos had set up a rather effective blockade and several stood and waved the vehicles down. One of the more fluent – Corporal Boorman - called out to the escorts and walked toward them and started to engage them in conversation. In a matter of moments, a with little mess, there were four dead communists. The bike riders, the driver and some official. They were removed and soon the convoy was ready to go on its way once more. "Surely there should be more vehicles than this?" David wondered aloud. His thoughts were confirmed as the rumbling of two trucks could be heard.