Ashore

U.S. Army Photo

It had been a rough ride in, but the entire team made it, along with all of their equipment. Wolf was nervous, nothing had gone wrong yet. He always expected something to go wrong, when it didn't it felt like the pending catastrophe had just been pushed down the line a bit. Something always went wrong, at least that was his experience and he had a lot of that.

He had left the Army when the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had wound down, garrison life wasn't for him, too much chickenshit to be honest. He was a soldier, he wanted to be in the fight, not languishing at some Stateside base under some career lunatic who only cared about his next promotion.

So he'd got out, the existing security companies didn't suit his style, so he started his own outfit. It wasn't long before he'd secured a number of contracts and a reputation for getting things done.

Security for senior businessmen and politicians traveling to dangerous areas of the world was one thing, this mission was something else altogether.

"They move well, don't they?"

Alistair Stewart handed the night vision set to his colleague, Seamus MacDuff, who surveyed the area of the beach below their position atop the bluff.

"Indeed, they have excellent noise discipline and it's bloody obvious that this is not the first time they've done this. Shall we make contact?"

"Paddy Riley's down there. Wolf is expecting someone to meet him on the beach, Paddy is there for just that purpose."

MacDuff was surprised to see the boats the men had come in on head back out to sea after unloading. Certainly saved them the trouble of hiding the small craft. That had been one aspect of the plan that had worried him. The beach was very open, almost no vegetation to be seen. They would have had to haul the boats off somewhere or leave them to be found by some beachcomber. Seemed that Wolf had really thought this through.

Wolf saw the winking light through his NVGs, he readied his weapon as he walked toward the light.

"Albatross," he hissed into the night.

"Ancient mariner," came the proper reply.

In the dim starlight Wolf could see that the man who stood up to greet him was a rather large fellow. Had to be at least six foot five or more.

"You Wolf?" the man's voice rumbled from his chest.

"The same, you are ...?"

"Paddy Riley, I'm the welcoming committee, my boss and his 2IC are up on the bluff."

Wolf heard "two aye see" and realized that the man meant the second in command, what he'd call the XO, that whole 'separated by a common language' theme seemed to be in force.

"Transport?"

"Yes, couple of lorries stashed nearby."

Wolf nodded, fortunately he'd worked with the Brits in the past so he knew what a lorry was. Why couldn't they just call it a truck?

Wolf's team of fifteen men were riding in the two trucks, heading for Edinburgh. He was sitting in the cab of one vehicle with the man who was his employer's liaison with Wolf's team. Guy's name was Stewart and Wolf looked at him expectantly.

"I suppose you want the details of why you're here, Mr. Wolf."

"That would be nice, fifteen men isn't enough to overthrow a government but it's enough to make a lot of trouble in a country where everyone has been disarmed."

"Well, not everyone, but yes, your average citizen is not going to take up arms. Can't even own a bloody kitchen knife without the proper sort of license. You're not here to overthrow a government, you're here to help establish a new country. Well, to assist in the rebirth of an old country to be exact."

Wolf shook his head, "Scottish independence? Is that why we're here?"

"In a nutshell, yes. But the government in London isn't the only obstacle to that."

"Your rather large population of 'refugees' is another I take it." Wolf had practically spit the word refugee out of his mouth.

"Indeed. They are why Scotland wishes to break away, there's a reason why London is now known as Londonistan. The mob rules down there and in many of the major cities. We have the problem in Glasgow but the further north you go the fewer of that lot are about. The United Kingdom is turning into a third world country and we, in Scotland, want no part of that."

Wolf nodded, "So we're hired guns, muscle you can use to intimidate the bolder of those who might oppose you?"

"Oh dear, Mr. Wolf, not at all. We don't want you to intimidate them, we want you to kill them."