Chapter Thirty-Five
When Missy returned from her run that morning, she again found Mike eating breakfast with Major Grimes.
She filled her tray with food and drinks and headed over to join them.
They were not at the “officers” table this time and Master Sergeant Town was with them.
Once again, Staff Sergeant DeMarco come over to take away her tray for her.
“Your exec officer has arrived,” said Master Sergeant Town.
“Great,” agreed Major Grimes. “Now we can focus fully on the next mission which General Hingham wants her to go on. I’ve already been briefing Mike about that.”
Mike said, “And I’ve already insisted that I go along as far as Kiev.
I can hang out there with Lieutenant Colonel Grady and Master Sergeant Town at that office which the Ukraine Military Intelligence folks have established for us in their headquarters.
The communication from there is secure and since I’ll usually be within five hundred miles of wherever you might be leading the team, that means you can talk directly to me and won’t need to risk using any satellite phone. ”
Missy nodded and said, “That works provided I don’t need to take them further east than Moscow.”
Major Grimes said, “Your target this time is actually about five hundred and sixty-five miles from Kiev as the crow flies. We figure we can have Mike move to Kharkiv when the time comes since that’s only about four hundred and fifty miles from your target.”
“I’m not thrilled to have him in Kharkiv,” objected Missy. “They get frequent rocket and missile attacks there and …”
“I want to do this, Missy,” explained Mike. “I trust I’ll be safe enough and I’ll certainly be lots safer than you will be. Since using me for communications actually makes you and the team safer than other options, let’s not discuss who is or is not thrilled about anything.”
Missy sighed and asked, “What’s the target, anyway?”
Major Grimes smiled and said, “The Russians have this huge arsenal belonging to their Main Missile and Artillery Directorate. It’s located at Barsovo, which is in the Vladimir Oblast about one hundred and twelve miles east and a little bit north of Moscow.
This facility is used for storing and assembling munitions and it spreads across more than eight hundred acres.
It also includes a laboratory for testing explosive materials and workshops for high-tech weapons.
It stores a wide variety of missiles and artillery shells.
We believe there are more than one hundred thousand tons of explosives there. ”
“Wow, I can see why General Hingham might want us to hit that,” said Missy. “I assume we need to somehow make it appear to be an accident like we did for that manufacturing plant in Bryansk.”
Master Sergeant Town grinned and said, “Yeah, you go in, you do some mischief and mayhem, and you get back out. Leave no evidence that any U.S. forces were involved. That’s what will always be in our playbook now.”
Major Grimes said, “Getting to Barsovo is more than twice as far as when you went to Bryansk so we’re guessing it will take you more than twice as much time for this mission. You were gone five days for that one so this is likely to require at least ten days.”
Missy nodded and said, “We managed to bring enough MRE’s with us when we did that Bryansk mission.
We will need more food this time for going to Barsovo and back so we’ll need to steal some food in Russia as well as use a couple of vehicles.
That won’t be a problem. Since we should travel on secondary roads, the mission could require even more than ten days.
Our team members should all be able to speak a little Russian since we’re probably going to be meeting some local folks along the way this time. ”
“That’s what we’ve planned,” agreed Major Grimes.
“Sergeant Town is remaining in Ukraine with Mike and your team will have mostly our lower ranking members. They’re the ones who’ve been studying Russian with you and Captain Novikov.
Both Mel and Ruby are going so with three of you women along, your team will hopefully seem more convincing as being merely peasant agricultural workers wherever you go. ”
Missy nodded and said, “So agricultural workers rather than factory workers. We’ve been training for that. I know we all have identity paperwork which can work for us in those roles.”
They continued to discuss the mission for another half hour. Then, Major Grimes said, “I’ve scheduled a complete briefing on this mission at ten hundred hours up in the Ops Center. It’s almost that time now, so let’s all head on up there.”
After the team had assembled, Major Grimes gave them a more detailed briefing of the planned mission.
He explained Missy was again leading this and identified who had been chosen to accompany her.
In addition to Ruby and Mel, Staff Sergeants DeMarco, Morgan, O’Meara, Murphy, and Carter had all been selected.
Sergeants First Class Heimbold and Harold were also chosen and would act as leaders for two separate parts on the team.
Master Sergeant Town and Mike were also going, of course, but they would remain in Ukraine.
Staff Sergeants DeMarco and Mel would be on opposite team parts, as would be Staff Sergeants Morgan and Ruby.
Likewise, Mel and Ruby would be on opposite parts.
This was how they always trained for missions, always on separate team parts not wanting close relationships to possibly interfere with any operations.
They had a couple of hours to gather all the weapons, ammunition, equipment, demolitions and explosives, MREs and other gear they would need.
Then, a C-130 aircraft would fly them to Kiev.
Then, as on the Bryansk mission, a helicopter would bring them to Kharkiv where they would meet up once again with the Ukrainian officer Captain Andrich.
Master Sergeant Town would accompany them that far but would return to Kiev afterwards where Mike and Lieutenant Colonel Grady would be waiting for him.
This was being called the Barsovo Mission and was one that General Hingham had been wanting to send them on for quite a while. He had the utmost confidence in Missy and the Team Twenty-Two members and was looking forward to having Mike provide frequent updates once the team went into Russia.
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Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Missy had once again led her team through the densely wooded area north of the village of Liptsi and they had crossed the border into Russia without incident.
Captain Andrich had welcomed them all in Kharkiv and had provided some vehicles to bring them out from there.
They had said goodbye to the captain and Master Sergeant Town just after the sun went down.
As before, Missy had them stop and make camp an hour before dawn after they had walked most of the night. She then had Mel approach and Missy vanished in a shimmer of light. Mel picked up her clothes and told the others, “No panties this time. Our fearless leader is once again going commando.”
Missy did a thorough recon and identified two vehicles which she believed would best suit this mission.
She materialized in a burst of energy alongside the first vehicle which was a medium size truck.
Using her telekinesis ability, she first unlocked it and then she got it to start up by hotwiring it.
She also disabled the odometer so when the vehicle was later abandoned, there would be no indication of how many miles it had traveled.
She climbed inside despite being naked and she drove it away.
She drove the truck to a somewhat isolated barn a few miles away.
She had found this barn during her recon.
Inside the barn she had noted there were several bales of hay.
She knew those would be useful for hiding all their weapons, explosives, MREs, etc.
It took her several minutes, using her telekinesis ability, to load enough bales into the back of the truck to serve her purpose.
She was stark naked while doing all this, of course, but it was still dark outside and there was no one anywhere nearby.
Finally, she drove away from the barn and headed back towards her team’s camp.
After parking the truck in a small clearing about a half mile away, she once again vanished in a shimmer of light.
Then she teleported to where the other vehicle she had selected was located.
This was an SUV type vehicle large enough for eight people.
Not wanting to ride back to her team’s camp in the nude, she searched the nearby properties until finding a suitable garment hanging in a coat closet which she could steal. She brought that outside without waking the occupants inside the farmhouse where that had been, again using telekinesis.
Away from the farmhouse, she finally materialized in a burst of energy.
Then she donned the overcoat she had stolen and walked back to the SUV.
She repeated what she’d done with the truck using her telekinesis to get inside and hotwire it as well as to disable its odometer.
Then, she drove this vehicle all the way back to where her team was camped.
After getting dressed in her own clothes, she drove Mel back to where the truck was parked.
Then both vehicles returned to the camp where the team loaded them up with all their gear, hiding the weapons, ammo, explosives, MREs, etc.
under the bales of hay where they would not be noticed in the event they were stopped by anyone.
Missy, of course, was prepared to interfere with any thorough searches should that become necessary.
They now began their journey using secondary roads as they headed off towards Moscow and their target location of Barsovo after that.
The sun was just rising as the two vehicles drove along the road at a normal speed.
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Mike announced, “They’ve reached Checkpoint Delta.
Missy says they’re going to keep going and will make camp once they get to Checkpoint Hotel.
” These checkpoints were plotted on the computer screen maps which not only he was looking at in the office there in Kiev but these were also being looked at by Team Twenty-Two, by EUCOM and by the SOD Group.
While Master Sergeant Town relayed this info to Team Twenty-Two, Lieutenant Colonel Grady did that for the EUCOM personnel. Mike was speaking on the phone to the SOD Group personnel, with Lieutenant Colonel Schermerhorn currently monitoring that call.
While Master Sergeant Town was very familiar with Mike getting Missy’s mental messages, this was still very new for Lieutenant Colonel Grady. He asked, “When you get these messages, Mike … how sure are you that what you think you’re getting …”
Mike didn’t let him finish but said, “Sir, I’ve been getting Missy messages now for more than four years.
They are as clear to me as though she were sitting right here in this room speaking to me.
She can sense by my emotional reaction what I might be trying to communicate.
She believes it’s because she’s a Shifter and I’m her mate.
We have a mate bond. She can communicate in a similar manner to all the werewolves in her pack with whom she has a pack bond. It’s a Shifter thing.”
“Wow, I keep forgetting about her being a Shifter,” exclaimed the lieutenant colonel. “I understand she became the Alpha for the New England Werewolf Pack two years ago.”
Master Sergeant Town chuckled and said, “Yeah, I actually got to watch the video showing when she defeated the former Alpha of that pack. They were fighting to the death in their animal forms. As a wolf, he was almost twice the size of Missy as a cat. But, after some vicious fighting for several minutes, she ripped out his throat and the rest, as they say, is history.”
“Oh, wow! That wasn’t part of the briefing about her which I received,” said Lieutenant Colonel Grady with a grin.
Mike said, “I suspect your briefings only covered about half the things about Missy which many folks might find rather shocking. But, she believes it’s her destiny to do what she does, using her supernatural abilities for the betterment of mankind.
” He paused a moment and then said, “She just told me I need to calm down. She’s sensing I’m getting excited about something which, talking about all this, I am.
” He laughed and added, “My wife is not someone whom I can ever hide anything from.”
They continued to monitor Missy and her team’s progress as they reached one checkpoint after another. Finally, it was good news to hear they were at Checkpoint Hotel and were making camp. There had been no incidents so far and they were now more than one hundred and fifty miles inside Russia.
Mike said, “We all may as well turn in for now. Missy will wake me up when she wants to communicate anything once again.” They had cots in an adjacent office where they could each get some rest. “I’ll wake you up if that happens. Otherwise, things should be quiet for a few hours.”
Over in Russia, Missy had just sent Mike her goodnight message, reminding him how much she loved him.
She went over to Staff Sergeant DeMarco and said, “I’m going to lie down now, Luis.
Watch over me while my spirit form is gone.
I’ll be teleporting around doing recon for a few hours and making certain the coast is clear for when we start moving again tomorrow. ”
Staff Sergeant DeMarco knew how Missy could go twenty-four seven, drawing whatever energy she might need to maintain her “energy balance”. He said, “Good luck, ma’am. I’ll be monitoring things for you back here.”
Missy reclined into a comfortable position and soon she managed to separate her spirit form from her body. She did a quick check all around the camp, around which she had placed a few of her protection wards earlier. Then she headed off down the road which they were planning to use the next day.
Missy’s thoughts were very clear. She was doing what she was meant to do and she would give that effort one hundred percent using her many, many abilities.