Taking Lives

Chapter 2. Baptism by Fire (6)

"You're nothing but a coward, Igor," he said with undisguised contempt. "Go hide, sit in the corner. You'll spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, fearing every sound, and trembling with fear. I pity you, brother."

Andrey rose from his chair and, without looking at his brother again, left the room. Igor remained seated in his place, like a stone statue, without uttering a sound.

4

Gronin and his comrades didn't have time to waste – despite the substantial supplies they'd carried from the villages on horseback, their food was quickly running out. They needed to act, and quickly.

Gronin and Rodionov were able to allocate only three days to prepare their small army. Of the men who obeyed Dyakov and came to the "Shelter," only a few expressed a desire to take up arms. Of these, only two knew what the weapons looked like or how to use them. And no matter how much the commanders lamented the level of their soldiers' training, they couldn't wait any longer, since no one could say for sure what the "wolves" were doing or how soon they would reach the "Shelter."

In addition to attacking the bandits, Gronin hoped to obtain additional resources from the inhabitants of other villages. It was hoped that once they saw and were convinced that the bandits could be effectively resisted, they would be more willing to join him. Yes, he needed men and resources like air, but he had to keep in mind that there might be those who would hand over everything they saw in the valley to the bandits. That's why no one was allowed out of the "Shelter" without special permission and a reliable escort, and the tunnel was heavily guarded by six well-armed fighters under the supervision of Oleg Gronin. Naturally, a significant allowance had to be made for the term "well-armed," given the level of weapons available to Gronin and his men.

This was one of the reasons why securing trophies became the second most important task assigned to Rodionov and Dyakov. The first was to give the bandits their first serious fight and find out what they were capable of.

The squad, roused at dawn, prepared to set out. The newly minted soldiers joked with each other, trying to hide their nervousness and excitement before their first combat mission. Some were better at it than others, but overall, everyone had plenty of determination. This wasn't surprising, since almost none of them had ever encountered the kind of thing that kills that determination: severe, horrific wounds, severed organs, and the bodies of their comrades shredded into a bloody mess by shrapnel.

No, all this was still to come. Finally, the weapons and equipment had been checked once again, and nothing could delay the squad in the valley any longer.

Andrei was assigned to a squad commanded by Rodionov. There were only eleven men, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, two machine guns, and four Mukha anti-tank grenade launchers, under the command of Vorobyov and Rodionov himself. Not that many, considering the complexity of the mission and the level of training.

They left the "shelter" with the first rays of the meager March sun. Some of the soldiers were seen off by their families, and the sobs of two women made the men feel a little dejected. Despite their differences and the fact that he and Igor had been avoiding each other since their last conversation, Andrei still hoped his brother would come to see him off. He peered in vain into the predawn darkness, expecting to see Igor's silhouette, but he never showed up.

The weather wasn't exactly kind to them. Twice along the way, they were caught in brief, but nasty, cold rain. Then, drenched, a wind blew across the fields. By evening, when they finally reached the village where they were supposed to fortify themselves, everyone was shivering, and warming up was proving difficult. Despite this, their spirits remained high.

The villagers had been warned by scouts of the arrival of soldiers from a new group who were planning to protect the population from the gang's attacks. They found this hard to believe, as everyone who had previously tried to resist the Steppe Wolves had been killed. Cruelly, as a warning to others. Just six months ago, a proposal like the one made by Gronin's men would have been met with hostility in any village, and they would likely have been handed over to the "wolves" in the hope that the latter would at least not behave even more brutally than usual.

But now something had changed. Rumors of the gang's recent atrocities had spread throughout almost the entire Steppe Wolves territory, and everyone feared their arrival and what might follow. Many ostriches believed that trouble would pass them by, that the bandits would have their fill of other villages and not reach them, but there were just as many who understood that they couldn't sit it out.

These men understood that, on the one hand, allowing a rival gang to repel the "wolves" in their village would mean dire consequences, but on the other, it was unclear which would be worse: the consequences or the "wolves" acting without cause. Because of this, the arrival of Rodionov's soldiers was awaited with nervous anticipation in the village, and the village elder and his most trusted aides promised to ensure that no one escaped or reported the ambush to the gang.

Naturally, Pavel and Max had little faith in these guarantees and tried to develop a backup plan in case something went wrong. But the problem was that none of these plans correlated with Plan A, which, in turn, was the most effective given the squad's training, numbers, and weaponry. Moreover, Rodionov expressed a stubborn determination to go all in when he realized that other options significantly worsened their chances.