The PM and CDS are doubtless terrified of a Russian revenge attack, Morland thought to himself. Left to his own devices and in the mood he was in, he would have given it to the President or whoever, and with both barrels. But Krastiņš was probably right. It was said that the President was almost a pussy-cat compared to other more extreme nationalists lurking and manipulating well out of the media limelight. A dead martyr President, killed live on TV, might bring them to the fore and that would be a catastrophe.

By dawn the next morning, the ambush was set. Four Latvian Special Forces Stinger teams, two men wearing night vision goggles to each motorbike, had infiltrated through the forest close to Ligatne during the night. They had taken up positions in a circle around the base, one team at each point of the compass. They were under strict instructions to leave the troop-carrying Mi-8 Hip helicopters to fly into Ligatne unmolested, as it seemed logical that the VVIP party and TV crews would arrive that way. Targeting members of the press, even by accident, was not their intention and would backfire badly. Their task was to shoot down one of the distinctive Mi-24 Hind gunships, which were bound to fly continuous protective top cover while the VVIP was being interviewed on the ground below. Knock down one or more of those Hinds and there had to be a very good chance it would be in full view of at least one TV crew, and that would be a PR coup worth risking their lives for. Certainly, the Forest Brother ambush crews thought so.

Morland and his team had crawled in close to support the Stinger teams by setting up an ambush; to cover the teams’ escape route if they were pursued as they bugged out after the missiles had been fired. Morland was now lying in the prone position with his SA80 rifle made ready next to him. He reflected on the plan and, as he had first thought, it was about as high risk as it could be. But it would also be about as spectacular as it could be, if they could pull it off. Anyway, there was no point worrying. The ambush was set and it would be up to training and chance now. Once the Stinger teams fired on the top-cover attack Hinds, there was bound to be instant retribution from the latter, but the plan needed the TV crews to keep filming the mayhem—as any half-competent cameraman would, given this would be the scoop of a lifetime. Then, as it was most probably being filmed live, the shots would go viral within seconds. And as a fallback, there were bound to be people there with mobiles filming the scene. In fact, given modern technology, they’d be very unlucky not to get some live film of the ambush from somewhere.