“Penda One, Roger.” Morland was momentarily nonplussed by what he was being asked to do. However, with Allenby at the other end of the transmission and perhaps behind the interception, he did not want to sound hesitant. Then he pushed any thought of her to one side and focused on the task he was being given. “I’m well established with the Latvian Forest Brothers. We are using this sked as a come-on to attract Russian air assets into the area. We’ll hit them with an anti-aircraft ambush.”

“Zero, Roger,” said Graham. “However, we need you out of there ASAP as this senior general and VVIP are now your priority targets. A spectacular, live on Russian TV, will send a message to the Russians and encourage everyone in the Baltics that they are not getting it all their own way. This is now your only mission. Confirm, over.”

“Penda One, Roger,” replied Morland. “But we’ll need a lot more information and very quickly if we are to be able to mount any sort of attack in this timeframe. We are a couple of hours’ travel time from Riga at best and with no hold-ups. Our information is that Riga is currently very high risk as mass round-ups are being conducted.”

“Zero, wait out,” said Graham.

About three minutes later, PJHQ were back on air. “Intercepts indicate that general and VVIP will visit forward positions with film crews. That may present a better opportunity if they come to your area. Over.”

“Penda One, Roger. Pass to GCHQ liaison officer that we need any useful info the moment she gets it, if we are to be able to act on it in time. Over.”

“Zero, Roger,” came back Graham’s voice. “We’ll send data burst to alert you to the need for next call. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to work on the interception link. Over.”

“Penda One. Roger, out.” And that was it. PJHQ, Graham and Allenby had disappeared again.

Quickly the radio was packed up, motorbikes mounted, and the team left for the rendezvous point some five kilometers away. Meanwhile, about one kilometer from the ambush site, two teams peeled off on their motorcycles. Krastiņš had calculated that, if the Russians did attack the transmission location, they were likely to use the tracks into the Soviet bunker as a convenient fly line. Accordingly the two Stinger teams, each of two Special Forces soldiers, were placed on either side of the most likely fly line for the Russian Hind attack helicopters. As ordered, the rest of them drove on. If this went wrong, there was no point in them all being killed or captured.