Specter by Keith Douglass

people, then melted away into the forest. Besides, I suspect they would have left some bodies about as a kind of calling card, ne? ”
    The bodies of the militia troopers and their weapons, he thought, had probably been dumped in the trucks before the fires had been set. The attackers could be anywhere now, hidden by the night and the forest.
    But they would not have gotten far. The fire was still burning; it couldn’t have been set more than thirty minutes or so ago, ... and maybe less. That meant that the invaders were still close, within two or three kilometers at the most.
    â€œMajor, if the intruders were, indeed, Americans or other members of NATO,” Mihajlovic continued after a thoughtful moment, “then they are on their way to an extraction point. It is up to us to guess where that extraction point might be.”
    â€œExtraction, my General . . . by helicopter?”
    â€œPossible ... possible. We shall alert the Air Force, have them watch for incursions in the area by low-flying, unidentified aircraft.”
    Helicopter extraction did seem the most likely way out for the intruders ... but Mihajlovic had been giving the situation some hard thought during the past few minutes, and he was not convinced of that scenario. Despite their bluster, NATO had not been enforcing their no-fly zones lately, yet their AWACs aircraft must be tracking the Yugoslav aircraft that were being employed against Dubrovnik. It didn’t make sense to risk a helicopter extraction in heavily wooded, mountainous terrain, in a region where Yugoslav interceptors were active.
    So ... would extraction be more likely by air ... or by sea? American Special Warfare groups commonly used both means of exfiltration. The Americans were good at undersea incursions, made from submarines ... their Special Forces, their SEALs ...
    SEALs. Their Navy commandos. With the fighting at Dubrovnik, even with fighter cover the Americans would have been foolish to risk their special forces aircraft to SAM and antiaircraft fire. And St. Anastasias was only six kilometers from the sea.
    â€œBoth of you, come with me.” Paced by Jankovic and the aide, Mihajlovic returned to the helicopter, which had landed on the main road just outside the monastery turnoff. In the back of the main cabin, he selected a map case from a storage rack and pulled out a military topo map covering the region between Kotor and Dubrovnik. Using a pocket flashlight, he studied the terrain carefully for a moment. “Sergeant Jankovic?”
    â€œDa, moy Djeneral!”
    â€œHow would you like another chance against these mysterious commandos?”
    Jankovic hesitated, and Mihajlovic could almost hear the wheels turning as the man considered his reply. He couldn’t be eager to face those black attackers again.
    â€œI would welcome the opportunity, my General. Of course.”
    Mihajlovic pointed to a spot on the map. “They almost certainly came ashore somewhere about here ... east of Dubrovnik. I suspect that they have hidden diving gear somewhere along the coast. All we need to do is put down a force along M2.” He dragged his fingertip along the coastal highway on the map. “Patrol from here to here and we will have our frogmen trapped, high and dry like a beached fish.”
    â€œDo we have troops enough available for such an operation?” the aide wondered. “That’s a good five or six kilometers of highway.”
    â€œWe can bring JNA regulars from the front lines at Dubrovnik, Major. I will give the necessary commands at once. Sergeant, you may draw a weapon and join my escort. I will be heading this operation personally.”
    â€œYes, sir!”
    The timing, Mihajlovic thought, would be tight ... but he was pretty sure they could pull it off. More than revenge was riding here. If these frogman commandos were Americans, he wanted to take one or more of them prisoner. With solid evidence of covert American military action