Read White Death: An Alex Hawke Novella for Free Online Page B

them up there, yes?”
    “We do,” Congreve said, the binocs glued to his eyes.
    “Crawling through snow under bullets, they will soon reach the lower wall of the Russian command post, a dotted line in their minds, and rig it with Semtex explosive charges. You’ll soon see the explosion. Chunks of broken rock will rise out of the snow and fly in all directions, right over the heads of our warriors . . . ah, here he is . . . Guten morgen, Herr Baron! We made it!”
    Wolfie laughed and embraced Schultz, delighted to see his childhood friend again. “So you have, so you have! And these are your two colleagues just arrived from London. Wilkommen, both of you! I am Baron von Stuka. A great pleasure to meet you.”
    “I’m Alex Hawke, Baron,” Hawke said, extending his bare hand. “Blinky told me I may call you Wolfie?”
    “Please do, Lord Hawke, everyone does. And you are Chief Inspector Congreve, yes? How do you do? I’ve been looking at you on Wikipedia recently. You’re quite famous, you know, Chief Inspector. A highly respected criminalist well known in the newspapers as ‘the Demon of Deduction,’ the modern Sherlock Holmes! I’m very honored to meet you, sir. We will need a man of your brilliance to solve this mystery, I assure you.”
    Congreve, thrilled beyond measure at the Holmes compliment, shook the baron’s hand and said, “Well, I wouldn’t go that far, Wolfie. I have had a few successes, but nothing even remotely to compare with my hero, the incandescent Holmes. But, what a brilliant morning up here. Blinky here was just giving us a briefing on what your Tenth Mountain Division grenadiers are doing up there on the mountain. Fascinating.”
    “Well, it’s what we do, isn’t it? Mountain warfare. You see what’s happening up there right now?”
    “They’re about to take out a Russian command post, I believe,” Hawke said, holding a pair of Zeiss binoculars to his eyes. “Live fire, isn’t it? And Wolfie, please just call me Alex. Don’t use the title, never have.”
    “Quite right, Alex it is. Well, where are we now in our little war story? Ah, yes. Do you see those heavy boulders over there? On the far side of the crevasse, just gone in shadow? My men are crawling through chest-high snow toward them. Any idea what they might be, Alex?”
    “Enemy helicopters that have just landed?”
    Wolfie smiled. “You’ve either got a very vivid imagination, or you’ve played these games yourself, Alex. Good for you.”
    “A little of both, I guess.”
    Congreve, struggling to get his pipe lit in the wind, said, “Now what happens, Wolfie? I must say this is jolly good fun for me. Never having been a military man, I’ve never seen this sort of live-fire thing done before.”
    “Delighted to have you. It was all Blinky’s idea. He knew I was up here on maneuvers and said as long as he was bringing you both up here for lunch, why not come up a little earlier and get a peek at what makes the Swiss Army tick.”
    “A clock?” Ambrose said, stifling a laugh.
    “Quite a good one,” Wolfie said, then added,“So, Blinky, as you know, my command trailer is up there in that copse of evergreens. Do you think our guests would enjoy a bit of warmth and getting an overview of the operation from up there?”
    Blinky Schultz, stamping his ancient leather boots against the cold, said, “Good idea, Wolfie. I believe you’re having lunch served up there in an hour. Why not?”
    “To the Sno-Cat, then!” von Stuka said, marching back up the slope and signaling them to follow in his tracks.
    Blinky stomped alongside Alex on the climb up to the red vehicle. He said, “I hope this suits you, Alex. Knowing how we wage war at the top of the world might just come in handy one day.”
    “Are you kidding? I’m fascinated with Wolfie’s tutorial. We can talk about the Sorcerer tonight, after all.”
    “As you can see, my country is prepared for an invasion at some point in the