The Soviets were not an impressive lot, many of them clearly in shock from their near escape from death. Morris counted three officers, one of them probably the captain. He whispered a quick command to Bosun Clarke.
The chief had his armed party step back, and took the whistle from his pocket. As the whaleboat settled into place, he blew a three-tone note on his whistle and saluted the Soviet captain like an arriving dignitary.
The Russian"s reaction was one of astonishment. Morris stepped forward to help him off the boat.
"Welcome aboard, Captain. I"m Captain Morris, United States Navy." Ed looked around briefly to see the incredulous expressions on his crew"s faces. But his ploy failed. The Russian said something in Russian, and either spoke no English or had the presence of mind to pretend he didn"t. Someone else would have to handle the interrogation. Morris told his bosun to carry on. The Russians were taken below for a medical check. For the moment, they"d be kept under guard in sickbay. The bosun hurried back for a moment.
"Skipper, what the h.e.l.l was that all about?" Chief Boatswain"s Mate Clarke inquired.
"They"ve probably been told that we"d shoot them in the head. I read a book once that said the most effective technique-look, there was this German, the guy specialized in getting information out of our guys in World War Two, okay? He was good at it, and what he did was treat our guys decently. h.e.l.l, they sponsored him to come over after the war, and now he"s an American citizen. Separate the officers from the enlisted, and the senior EMs from the juniors. Keep "em separate. Then make sure they"re kept comfortable. Feed "em, give "em cigarettes, make "em feel safe. If you happen to know anyone aboard who has a bottle, get it, and give our guests a couple of stiff drinks. Everybody gets new clothes. We keep theirs. Send all of it to the wardroom. We"ll see if they have anything valuable. Make sure they"re treated nice, and just maybe we can get one or two to spill his guts."
"You got it, skipper." The chief went away shaking his head. At least he"d get to paint a whole submarine on the pilothouse this time.
Morris went back to the pilothouse. He ordered his men to secure from general quarters, and the frigate to return to her patrol station. Next he called up the escort commander and reported on the prisoners.
"Pharris," the Commodore replied. "You are directed to paint a gold "A" on your ASROC launcher. Well done to all aboard, Ed. You"re the champs for this crossing. I"ll get back to you on the prisoners. Out."
The captain turned around to see that the bridge watch had not left. They"d all heard the Commodore on the radio. Their fatigue was gone, and the grins directed at Morris meant more to him than the words of his boss.
KIEV, THE UKRAINE.
Alekseyev looked over the intelligence material on his desk. His boss was in Moscow for a high-level briefing, but this data was-should be, he corrected himself-little different from what his commander was hearing.
"Things are not going well in Germany?" Captain Sergetov asked.
"No. We were supposed to have reached the outskirts of Hamburg by H+36. A day and a half, the plan called for. Instead we"re not quite there yet, and Third Shock Army has taken murderous losses from NATO aircraft." He paused, staring at the map. "If I were the NATO commander, I"d counterattack again, right there."
"Perhaps they are unable to do so. Their first counterattack was repulsed."
"At the cost of a broken tank division and sixty aircraft. Victories like that we can do without. The picture in the south is scarcely better. The NATO forces are trading s.p.a.ce for time, and doing it very well. Their ground forces and tactical aircraft are operating over the same ground they"ve practiced on for thirty years. Our losses are nearly double the estimates, and we can"t sustain that." Alekseyev leaned back. He chided himself for being defeatist. It was mainly a manifestation of his desire to join the action. He was certain, as any general would be certain, that he could do things better.
"What about NATO losses?"
"Heavy, we think. They have been remarkably profligate in their weapons expenditures. The Germans have staked too much on defending Hamburg, and it has to be costing them dearly. If I could not counterattack in their place, I would withdraw. A city is not worth breaking the balance of your army. We learned that lesson at Kiev-"
"Excuse me, Comrade General, what about Stalingrad?"
"A somewhat different situation, Captain. Remarkable, nonetheless, how history can repeat itself," Alekseyev muttered, studying the map on the wall. He shook his head. West Germany had too much in the way of road communications for that to work. "The KGB reports that NATO has two, at most three weeks" supply of munitions left. That will be the decisive factor."
"What of our supplies and fuel?" the young captain asked. His answer was a scowl.
ICELAND.
At least there was water. The streams were fed by glaciers that lay in the center of the island-water that had fallen as snow over a thousand years before, long before atmospheric pollution, and been compressed to ice. When finally it melted to fill the rocky streams, it turned back into water of crystalline purity and marvelous taste, but absolutely no nutritional value. It was also ice cold, and fords were not easily found.
"Down to one day"s rations, Lieutenant," Smith observed as they finished off their meal.
"Yeah, we"ll have to think that one over." Edwards a.s.sembled his trash. Garcia collected it all for burial. If there had been a way to cover their footprints in the dirt, Smith would have had them doing that too.
It wasn"t easy. As Edwards a.s.sembled his radio, he listened to muttered Spanish curses and the sound of a folding shovel slamming against the loose rocks that pa.s.sed for soil atop Hill 482.
"Doghouse, this is Beagle, and we"re running out of food, over."
"Sorry to hear that, Beagle. Maybe we"ll have some pizzas sent out."
"You funny b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Edwards said without toggling the Transmit key. "What do you want us to do this time?"
"Have you been spotted by anyone?"
"We"re alive, ain"t we? Negative."
"Tell me what you can see."
"Okay, there"s a gravel road downhill to the north, maybe two miles away. Looks like a farm-plowed fields, like, but can"t tell what"s growing there. Another sheep farm to the west of us, we pa.s.sed it coming here. Lots of sheep. Ten minutes ago we saw a truck on the road heading west. Haven"t seen anything flying yet today, but I suppose that"ll change. The only civilians we"ve seen have been right by their houses, we haven"t even seen farmers with their sheep, and the farm to the north has no visible activity. No-say again zero-civilian road traffic. Ivan"s got this island shut down, Doghouse, really shut down. That"s about all I can say. Tell those Vark drivers they really did the job on that powerhouse. Nothing left but a hole in the ground. We haven"t seen an electric light lit since."
"Copy that, Beagle. Okay, your orders are to head north toward Hvammsfjrdur. You need to take a wide detour cast to avoid all these bays I see. We want you there in ten days. Say again ten days, twelve at the most. You can make it easy. Stay out in the boonies and avoid contact with anyone. Continue the normal contact schedule and report on anything you see that may be of interest. Acknowledge."
"Roger, Doghouse, you want us in sight of Hvammsfjrdur at the end of next week, and keep up the usual radio routine. Anything else?"
"Be careful. Out."
"Hvammsfjrdur?" Smith asked. "That"s a hundred miles on a straight line."
"They want us to detour east to avoid contact."
"Two hundred miles-walking over this s.h.i.+t." Smith"s frown was enough to split a rock. "End of next week? Ten or eleven days?"
Edwards nodded dumbly. He hadn"t known it would be that far.
"Gonna be a little tough, Mr. Edwards." The sergeant pulled a large-scale map from his case. "I don"t even have cards for the whole coastline. d.a.m.n. Look here, Lieutenant. The ridges and rivers on this rock come out from the center like the spokes on a wheel, y"see? That means we climb a lot, and these here ain"t little hills. All the low places got roads, and sure as h.e.l.l we can"t follow no roads, right?" He shook his head.
Edwards forced a grin. "Can"t hack it? I thought you Marines were in good shape."
Smith was a man who ran five miles every morning. He could not recall ever seeing this little Air Force wimp out doing road-work. "Okay, Mr. Edwards. They say n.o.body ever drowned in sweat. On your feet, Marines, we got orders for a little hike." Rodgers and Garcia exchanged a look. "Mister" was not exactly a term of endearment for an officer, but Smith figured that insubordination only counted if the officer knew he was being insulted.
KEFLAVIK, ICELAND.
The helicopters took time to a.s.semble. The big AN-22 transport had delivered two Mi-24 attack choppers, quite a load even for that four-engine monster. Another IL-76 flight had delivered the technicians and flight crews to a.s.semble, service, and fly them. There had been a major oversight in the plan, the General thought. The one helicopter that had survived the strafing attack on the first day was now broken down-and of course the broken part was not one which had been included in their pre-packaged equipment. There should have been more helicopters. He shrugged eloquently. No plan was ever perfect. More helicopters would be flown in, plus a few more mobile radar sets and some additional SAM launchers. The Americans looked to have every intention of making his tenure on Iceland difficult, and he needed more equipment to counter that . . .
Then there were those KGB b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. We have to pacify the island, they said. As if Iceland wasn"t already pa.s.sive enough. There had been not a single incident of active resistance yet-not one, the General thought, remembering his year"s service in Afghanistan. Compared with that mountainous h.e.l.l, this was paradise itself. But that wasn"t good enough for the KGB! Nekulturny barbarians. A thousand hostages had been taken, only to learn that there was no jail s.p.a.ce to keep them. So my paratroopers must guard the poor, harmless wretches, using up a whole company of troops. His orders were to cooperate with the local KGB contingent. One did not cooperate with the KGB, of course, one was dominated by them. There were KGB officers with his mobile patrols, to advise, they put it.
General Andreyev was beginning to worry. Crack paratroopers were not the sort to be good jailers. Had they been ordered to go easily on the Icelanders, that would be one thing. Instead, their orders forced them to be harsh, which generated hostility. Some people had actually been heard to cheer when the last American bombers had come through. Absurd, the General thought. They had lost electricity but we had lost nothing-and they cheered. Because of the KGB"s orders. What stupidity. An opportunity lost. He considered protesting his orders to his central command in Moscow, but to what point? An officer who disliked the KGB was an officer who disliked the Party itself.
He was aroused from his reveries by the whining sound of turboshaft engines. The first of the Mi-24 Hinds was turning its rotor, testing its engines. An officer ran toward him.
"Comrade General, with your permission, we are ready for a test flight. We"re doing it light, unarmed. We"ll load weapons when we get back."
"Very well. Captain, just check out the hilltops around Keflavik and Rejkyavik. How long on the second one?" Andreyev asked.
"Two hours."
"Excellent. Good work, Comrade Captain."
A minute later the heavy attack chopper lifted into the air.
"Down and freeze!" Garcia screamed. It didn"t come close to them, but seeing it was enough.
"What kind is it?"
"Hind. It"s an attack bird, like the Cobra. Bad news, Lieutenant. It carries eight troops and a whole s.h.i.+tload of rockets and guns. An" don"t even think about shooting at it. Sucker"s armored like a d.a.m.ned tank."
The Mi-24 circled the hill they"d just been on, then disappeared, heading south to loop over another hill.
"Didn"t see us, I guess," Edwards said.
"Let"s keep it that way. Keep the radio stowed awhile, Lieutenant. We can call this one in after we move out a ways, okay?"
Edwards nodded agreement. He remembered a brief on Soviet helicopters in the Air Force Academy. "We are not afraid of the Russians," an Afghan had been quoted, "but we are afraid of their helicopters."
BITBURG, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY.
Colonel Ellington awoke at six that evening. He shaved and walked outside, the sun still high in the evening sky. He wondered what mission they"d have tonight. He was not a bitter man, but to have nearly a quarter of his crews-men with whom he had worked for two straight years-lost in a week was a difficult thing to accept. It had been too long since his experience in Vietnam. He"d forgotten how terrible losses could be. His men could not stand down a day to mourn their dead and ease the pain, much as they needed to. They were being carefully rested. Standing orders gave them eight hours of sleep a day-like night-hunters, they slept only by day.
They were making a difference, however. He was sure of that. Every night the black and green Frisbees lifted off for some special target or other, and the Russians still had not figured a counter. The strike cameras mounted in each aircraft were bringing back pictures that the wing intelligence officers could scarcely believe. But at such a cost.
Well. The colonel reminded himself that one sortie a day was a lighter load than the other air crews were bearing, and that the close-support crews were taking losses equal to his own. Tonight held another mission. He ordered his brain to occupy itself with that task alone.
The briefings took an hour. Ten aircraft would fly tonight: two planes each at five targets. As commander he drew the toughest. Surveillance indicated that Ivan had a previously unsuspected forward fuel dump at a position west of Wittenburg that was supporting the drive on Hamburg, and the Germans wanted it taken out. His wingman would go in with Durandals, and he"d follow with Rockeyes. There would be no supporting aircraft on this one, and the colonel didn"t want jammer aircraft to go in with him. Two of his lost birds had had such support, and the jamming had merely alerted the defenses.
He examined the topographical maps closely. The land was flat. Not much in the way of mountains and hills to hide behind, but then he could skim at treetop level, and that was almost as good. He"d approach from the east, behind the target. There was a twenty-knot west wind, and if he came in from leeward, the defenders would be unable to hear his approach until bomb release . . . probably. They"d egress the area by heading southwest. Total mission time seventy-five minutes. He computed his necessary fuel load, careful as always to allow for the drag of his bombs. To the bare-bones fuel requirements he added five minutes on afterburner in case of air-to-air combat and ten minutes to orbit Bitburg for landing. Satisfied, he went off for breakfast. With each bite of toast his mind ran through the mission like a movie, visualizing every event, every obstacle, every SAM site to be avoided. He randomly inserted the unexpected. A flight of low-level fighters at the target, what effect would this have on the mission? What would the target look like on this approach? If he had to make a second bombing pa.s.s, from what direction? Major Eisly ate with his commander in silence, recognizing the blank look on his face and running through his own mental checklist.
They headed straight into East Germany for fifty miles before turning north at Rathenow. Two Soviet Mainstay aircraft were up, a good distance back from the border and surrounded by agile Flanker interceptors. Staying well outside the effective range of their radar, the two aircraft flew low and in tight formation. When they screeched over main roads, it was always in a direction away from a course to their target. They avoided cities, towns, and known enemy depots where there might be SAMs.
The inertial navigation systems kept track of their progress on a map display on the pilot"s instrument panel. The distance to the target shrank rapidly as the aircraft curved west.
They flashed over Wittenberg at five hundred knots. The infrared cameras showed fueling vehicles on the roads heading right for the target area . . . there! At least twenty tank trucks were visible in the trees, fueling from underground tanks.
"Target in sight. Execute according to plan."
"Roge," acknowledged Shade-Two. "I have them visual."
The Duke broke left, clearing the way for his wingman to make the first run. Shade-Two"s aircraft was the the only one left with the proper ejector racks for the bulky hard-target munitions.
"Gawd!" The Duke"s display showed an SA-11 launcher right in his flight path, its missiles aimed northwest. One of his aircraft had learned the hard way that the SA-11 had an infrared homing capacity that no one had suspected. The colonel reefed his aircraft into a hard right turn away from the launcher, wondering where the rest of the missile battery"s vehicles were.
Shade-Two skimmed over the target. The pilot toggled off his four bombs and kept heading west. Gunfire rippled across the sky in his wake. Too late.
The French-made Durandal weapons fell off the ejector racks and scattered. Once free, they pointed down, and rockets fired to accelerate the munitions straight at the ground. They were designed to break up concrete runways and were ideal for underground fuel tanks. The bombs did not explode on impact. Instead, the hard-steel weapons lanced into the ground, penetrating several feet before detonating. Three found underground fuel tanks. The Durandals exploded upward, breaking open a path for burning fuel to leap into the air.
It was the next thing to a nuclear detonation. Three white columns of flame rocketed into the air, spreading like fountains and dropping fuel for hundreds of yards. Every vehicle in the compound was engulfed in flame, and only those men near the perimeter escaped with their lives. Rubber fuel bladders brought to the site exploded a few seconds later, and a river of burning diesel and gasoline spread through the trees. In a matter of seconds, twenty acres of woods were transformed into a fireball that raced skyward, punctuated by secondary explosions. Ellington"s fighter rocked violently as the shock wave pa.s.sed.
"d.a.m.n," he said quietly. The plan called for him to use his cl.u.s.ter munitions to ignite what the Durandals had burst open.
"Don"t think the Rockeyes are necessary, Duke," Eisly observed.
Ellington tried to blink away the dots as he turned away, keeping as low as he could. He found himself flying right down a road.
The Soviet Commander-in-Chief of the Western Theater was already angry, and what he saw to the east didn"t help. He"d just conferred with the commander of the Third Shock Army at Zarrentin to learn that the attack had again bogged down within sight of Hamburg. Furious that his most powerful tank force had failed to achieve its objective, he"d relieved its commander on the spot and was returning to his own command post. Now he saw what could only be one of his three major fuel depots rising into the clear sky. The General cursed and stood, pus.h.i.+ng aside the roof panel on his armored command vehicle. As he blinked his dazzled eyes, a black ma.s.s seemed to appear at the lower edge of the fireball.
What"s that? Ellington wondered. His TV display showed four armored vehicles in a tight column-one of them a SAM launcher! He flicked his bomb-release controls to Armed and dropped his four Rockeye canisters, then turned south. His tail-mounted strike cameras recorded what followed.
The Rockeyes split open, distributing their bomblets at a shallow angle across the road. They exploded on impact.
CINC-West died a soldier"s death. His last act was to seize a machine gun and fire at the aircraft. Four bomblets fell within a few meters of his vehicle. Their fragments sliced through the light armor, killing everyone inside even before its fuel tank exploded, adding another fireball to a sky that had still not returned to darkness.