John Schettler - Fallen Angels - 9 Days Falling, Volume II

“What’s wrong?” Dobrynin saw the look of surprise in Fedorov’s eyes like newly kindled fire. Then he seemed to lapse into fear.

“My God,” said Fedorov. “The temptation will be overwhelming. Karpov will be sitting there with three ships, nuclear warheads, and the power to unleash hell if he so chooses. The entire Allied fleet will be concentrated in one place at Sagami Bay!”

“You are thinking he might try something as he did in the North Atlantic?”

“God help us if he does, but yes, Karpov is now the prime lever on all the history from that moment forward. There’s no telling what he might do!”

“Unless the Americans have something to say about it,” said Dobrynin.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” said Fedorov. “Things could get completely out of hand, and then what? We have no way of ever knowing unless we get home to find out.”

“You want me to dip the rod back into the soup? We’ll be somewhere else in no time.”

“Not without Orlov. I didn’t come all this way to leave him stranded here… I need to think…” Fedorov began pacing, head down as he stared at his feet, hand rubbing his brow. He had to sort this out and come up with some reasonable plan here, but what should they do? First, find Orlov. The journey had taken them far longer than he hoped, and they were late. Orlov reached Kizlyar on the first of October, but every report he had heard as they drew near the Caspian region indicated the Germans were very near that place and it was now the front line in the war to control the oil. Hitler was hell bent on getting to Baku. The oil wars start here and they will continue for the next eighty years.

Orlov might still be there at Kizlyar, or somewhere south of that location. They had to get within five kilometers of him if his service jacket was switched off. That might make for a long and difficult search now. What they needed was a helicopter….And they had one, sitting right on top of the Anatoly Alexandrov .

“We’ll have to use the Mi-26,” he decided.

“What? They’re supposed to take off for the Pacific coast as soon as possible. Volsky beat that into my head before I left.”

“That may be so, but we need the helicopter to look for Orlov first. Trying to put men ashore to search for him on land will be too risky.”

“But we have no fuel for that,” Dobrynin objected

“I understand the situation,” said Fedorov, “but we need Orlov. We can’t leave without him so we’ll have to find the fuel, one way or another.”

“Are you ordering me to commit the Mi-26 to this operation, Mister Fedorov?”

Fedorov looked at the Chief, respecting him greatly. “I will take full responsibility, Dobrynin. The decision is mine. You’ve done everything Volsky asked of you, but I want to get Troyak and Zykov on that helo and do a night search below 3000 meters. It’s the only way we can locate Orlov’s jacket signal. We had hoped to be at Kizlyar before he got there, but we’re late. There’s no other way now. We leave tonight.”

“Well what am I supposed to do while you go off looking for Orlov? I was supposed to rescue you , Fedorov!”

“And you have. Your mission will be the same, Chief. Just hold the fort and protect the Anatoly Alexandrov at all costs until we get back. In the meantime, we can save on fuel if we offload excess storage on the helo and fly lighter. We can always load it back again when we return.”

“If you return. What do I do if we lose your signal locator?”

“We’ll be fine. It will be dark. Troyak will be with me, and I’ll take some Marines.”

“Plenty of those around.”

“Exactly. We’ll sweep the area around Kizlyar first, then work south over the Terek and along the roads to Makhachkala. It’s just a couple hundred miles in all. We should be able to pick up his signal very quickly.”

“Then what?”

“We’ll have to see. If Troyak thinks we can get him, we’ll land. If the situation is more difficult, we’ll return here and go in with more force. The quicker we do this, the better. I’d prefer to keep things very quiet.”

“Well that big monster on the roof makes a good deal of noise, Fedorov.”

“Yes, but the road hugs the coast and runs right near the shore in many places. We can be two or three kilometers off the coast and flying low enough so we still can pick up that signal. It will work. I’m sure of it.”

“Very well,” Dobrynin could see that the young officer had made up his mind. “You rank me by several levels, Fedorov. I have my orders from Volsky, but your decision will supersede that here in the field. Just remember one thing—every minute we waste flying around here is one minute less for the long journey east. You say it’s just a couple hundred miles? We may wish we had those miles once the Mi-26 heads east to look for Kirov . You wanted to know why Karpov didn’t hear anything? Perhaps this is why. Perhaps the Mi-26 never has the fuel to get to the coast.”

Fedorov shrugged. He knew that Dobrynin was correct, and perhaps he was being foolish here, but some inner hunch still warned him not to leave Orlov behind.

I’ve got to find him, one way or another. And then I’ve got to find a way to get to Karpov three years hence, because if I don’t, I think I know exactly what he will do with those three ships. And God help the world if I’m right.

TechSergeant Jason Banks watched the big planes roll out of the hangers onto the tarmac at Anderson AFB, pleased that his morning’s labors were done and the torch would now be passed to the pilots in the planes. The strike had been postponed when the sirens signaled air alert some days ago. The island base personnel had quickly moved to air defense shelters and the newly deployed THAAD missile system was engaging targets unseen in the skies above. This time it was North Korea pressed into useful service as an attack dog by Beijing, launching Musudan missiles more as another warning to the Americans to stay out of the deepening fight over Taiwan than anything else.

THAAD got the first missile aimed at the island, fired to test exactly what altitude the US might make a successful interception. The second missile barely got off its launch pad before being lazed by a secret weapon the US had moved into Kadena for just this purpose. Then another debate ensued over what to do about the situation, and it was one the Air Force General Lane eventually won. The US was moving at the speed of a democracy, which was lethargic at times, and the situation had not yet worsened enough to compel them to act in a more urgent manner. Two long days later Lane obtained permission to finally get a retaliatory strike package airborne with the B-2s, and Jason Banks was back in business.

The six B-2s were an awesome sight together like this, the broad swept wings of black, saw tooth tail, and porpoise hump noses making them look surreal at certain angles, like ships from another world. His men were finished with their loading and maintenance, and the torch he had handed off was the X-51C, a hypersonic stealthy cruise missile dubbed the WaveRider, scheduled for delivery that morning to three very special sites on the Chinese mainland. If China wanted to take out American satellites, the response would be to prevent them from ever launching satellites of their own.