The eight soldiers stood on the edge of the river and looked down.

Arkadii glared at the ninth, a sergeant from the engineer battalion, with his hands on his hips, “What the fuck is that?”

The engineer prickled, “This is a boat.”

The soldiers laughed, “This is a dog’s prick.” Arkadii spat. “This is going to get us across the river?”

“Yes. It’s a perfectly good boat.”

Arkadii looked over at Dmitri.

“Hey,” Dmitri shrugged, ”You just said find a boat. You didn’t say anything about it floating.” Arkadii stabbed him with a stare.

“So,” Arkadii threw up his hands, ”So, who the fuck knows about boats.”

“Um…,” Sasha raised his hand, “I do. A little.”

“Fuck your mother.” Arkadii threw an arm around Sasha, “What do you know about boats, little brother?”

“Um…I used to go fishing with my grandfather every day.”

“Fishing!” Arkadii grinned at Dmitri, “I told you this kid was a fucking genius.” The soldiers laughed.

“So, Admiral, what do we do with this…boat?”

And so Sasha told them.

They crossed the river in much the way a drunken man leave the last bar of the night. Staggering from side to side and bailing because once they started they found the boat leaked…badly. Cursing under their breath because the current was much stronger than anyone of them had thought, save Sasha, maybe, and he was keeping quiet. Fishing with grandfather was ever so much different than crossing a rain swollen river in the dark, with an entire enemy army on the far shore.

But they did cross it, and forty-five minutes later they staggered from the mud on the far shore and shook themselves off like dogs come in from the rain. For that is, after all, what they were. Arkadii pulled the GPS out of the oilskin bag and got a fix. They were off target but a little hard marching would put them back on schedule. They were used to it.

Katrina led off, followed closely by Dmitri, Vasili, Sasha, Arkadii, Nicoloi, Alexi, and last Vladimer. They moved slow and quiet. Katrina stopped often to listen to the forest around them. All communication was pas