Jack Ryan 11 - Bear And The Dragon (142 page)

Ryan read off the URL identifier. “Just log onto that. We're putting the feed from our Dark Star drones onto the Internet.”

“Why is that, Jack?” Golovko asked at once.

“Because as of two minutes ago, one thousand six hundred and fifty Chinese citizens are watching it, and the number is going up fast.”

“A political operation against them, yes? You wish to destabilize their government?”

“Well, it won't hurt our purposes if their citizens find out what's happening, will it?”

“The virtues of a free press. I must study this. Very clever, Ivan Emmetovich.”

“That's not why I called.”

“Why is that, Tovarisch Prezidyent?” the SVR chairman asked, with sudden concern at the change in his tone. Ryan was not one to conceal his feelings well.

“Sergey, we have a very adverse indication from their Politburo. I'm faxing it to you now,” he heard. “I'll stay on the line while you read it.”

Golovko wasn't surprised to see the pages arrive on his personal fax machine. He had Ryan's personal numbers, and the Americans had his. It was just one way for an intelligence service to demonstrate its prowess in a harmless way. The first sheets to come across were the English translation of the Chinese ideographs that came through immediately thereafter.

“Sergey, I sent you our original feed in case your linguists or psychologists are better than ours,” the President said, with an apologetic glance at Dr. Sears. The CIA analyst waved it off. “They have twelve CSS-4 missiles, half aimed at you, half at us. I think we need to do something about those things. They may not be entirely rational, the way things are going now.”

“And your shore bombardment might have pushed them to the edge, Mr. President,” the Russian said over the speakerphone. “I agree, this is a matter of some concern. Why don't you bomb the things with your brilliant bombs from your magical invisible bombers.”

“Because we're out of bombs, Sergey. They ran out of the sort they need.”

“Nichevo” was the reaction.

“You should see it from my side. My people are thinking about a commando-type operation.”

“I see. Let me consult with some of my people. Give me twenty minutes, Mr. President.”

“Okay, you know where to reach me.” Ryan punched the kill button on the phone and looked sourly at the tray of coffee things. “One more cup of this shit and I'm going to turn into an urn myself.”

The only reason he was alive now, he was sure, was that he'd withdrawn to the command section for 34th Army. His tank division was being roughly handled. One of his battalions had been immolated in the first minute of the battle. Another was now trying to maneuver east, trying to draw the Russians out into a running battle for which his men were trained. The division's artillery had been halved at best by Russian massed fire, and 34th Army's advance was now a thing of the past. His current task was to try and use his two mechanized divisions to establish a base of fire from which he could try to wrest back control of the battle. But every time he tried to move a unit, something happened to it, as though the Russians were reading his mind.

“Wa, pull what's left of Three-Oh-Second back to the ten o'clock start-line, and do it now!” he ordered.

“But Marshal Luo won't -- ”

“And if he wishes to relieve me, he can, but he isn't here now, is he?” Ge snarled back. “Give the order!”

“Yes, Comrade General.”

“With this toy in our hands, the Germans would not have made it as far as Minsk,” Bondarenko said.

“Yeah, it helps to know what the other guy's doing, doesn't it?”

“It's like being a god on Mount Olympus. Who thought this thing up?”

“Oh, a couple of people at Northrop started the idea, with an airplane called Tacit RAINBOW, looked like a cross between a snow shovel and a French baguette, but it was manned, and the endurance wasn't so good.”

“Whoever it is, I would like to buy him a bottle of good vodka,” the Russian general said. “This is saving the lives of my soldiers.”

And beating the living shit out of the Chinese, Tucker didn't add. But combat was that sort of game, wasn't it?

“Do you have any other aircraft up?”

“Yes, sir. Grace Kelly's back up to cover First Armored.”

“Show me.”

Tucker used his mouse to shrink one video window and then opened another. General Diggs had a second terminal up and running, and Tucker just stole its take. There were what looked like two brigades operating, moving north at a measured pace and wrecking every Chinese truck and track they could find. The battlefield, if you could call it that, was a mass of smoke columns from shot-up trucks, reminding Tucker of the vandalized Kuwaiti oil fields of 1991. He zoomed in to see that most of the work was being done by the Bradleys. What targets there were simply were not worthy of a main-gun round from the tanks. The Abrams just rode herd on the lighter infantry carriers, doing protective overwatch as they ground mercilessly forward. The major slaved one camera to his terminal and went scouting around for more action...

“Who's this?” Tucker asked.

“That must be BOYAR,” Bondarenko said.

It was what looked like twenty-five T-55 tanks advancing on line, and these tanks were using their main guns...against trucks and some infantry carriers...

“Load HEAT,” Lieutenant Komanov ordered. “Target track, one o'clock! Range two thousand.”

“I have him,” the gunner said a second later.

“Fire!”

“Firing,” the gunner said, squeezing the trigger. The old tank rocked backwards from the shot. Gunner and commander watched the tracer arcing out...

“Over, damn it, too high. Load another HEAT.”

The loader slammed another round into the breech in a second: “Loaded!”

“I'll get the bastard this time,” the gunner promised, adjusting his sights down a hair. The poor bastard out there didn't even know he'd been shot at the first time...

“Fire!”

“Firing...”

Yet another recoil, and...

“Hit! Good shooting Vanya!”

Three Company was doing well. The time spent in gunnery practice was paying off handsomely, Komanov thought. This was much better than sitting in a damned bunker and waiting for them to come to you...

“What is that?” Marshal Luo asked.

“Comrade Marshal, come here and see,” the young lieutenant colonel urged.

“What is this?” the Defense Minister asked with a trailing-off voice... “Cao ni ma” he breathed. Then he thundered: “What the hell is this?”

“Comrade Marshal, this is a web site, from the Internet. It purports to be a live television program from the battlefield in Siberia.” The young field-grade officer was almost breathless. “It shows the Russians fighting Thirty-fourth Shock Army...”

“And?”

“And they're slaughtering our men, according to this,” the lieutenant colonel went on.

“Wait a minute -- what -- how is this possible?” Luo demanded.

“Comrade, this heading here says darkstar. 'Dark Star' is the name of an American unmanned aerial vehicle, a reconnaissance drone, reported to be a stealth aircraft used to collect tactical intelligence. Thus, it appears that they are using this to feed information, and putting the information on the Internet as a propaganda tool.” He had to say it that way, and it was, in fact, the way he thought about it.

“Tell me more.”

“The officer was an intelligence specialist. This explains the success they've had against us, Comrade Marshal. They can see everything we do, almost before we do it. It's as though they listen to our command circuit, or even listen into our staff and planning meetings. There is no defense against this,” the staff officer concluded.

“You young defeatist!” the marshal raged.

“Perhaps there is a way to overcome this advantage, but I do not know what it is. Systems like this can see in the dark as well as they can in the sunlight. Do you understand, Comrade Marshal? With this tool they can see everything we do, see it long before we approach their formations. It eliminates any possibility of surprise...see here,” he said, pointing at the screen. “One of Thirty-fourth Army's mechanized divisions is maneuvering east. They are here -- ” he pointed to a printer map on the table -- “and the enemy is here. If our troops get to this point unseen, then perhaps they can hit the Russians on their left flank, but it will take two hours to get there. For the Russians to get one of their units to a blocking position will take but one hour. That is the advantage,” he concluded.

“The Americans do that to us?”

“Clearly, the feed on the Internet is from America, from their CIA.”

“This is how the Russians have countered us, then?”

“Clearly. They've outguessed us at every turn today. This must be how they do it.”

“Why do the Americans put this information out where everyone can see it?” Luo wondered. The obvious answer didn't occur to him. Information given out to the public had to be carefully measured and flavored for the peasants and workers to draw the proper conclusions from it.

“Comrade, it will be difficult to say on state television that things are going well when this is available to anyone with a computer.”

“Ahh.” Less a sound of satisfaction than one of sudden dread. “Anyone can see this?”

“Anyone with a computer and a telephone line.” The young lieutenant colonel looked up, only to see Luo's receding form.

“I'm surprised he didn't shoot me,” the officer observed.

“He still might,” a full colonel told him. “But I think you frightened him.” He looked at the wall clock. It was sixteen hours, four in the afternoon.

“Well, it is a concern.”

“You young fool. Don't you see? Now he can't even conceal the truth from the Politburo.”

“Hello, Yuri,” Clark said. It was different to be in Moscow in time of war. The mood of the people on the street was unlike anything he'd ever seen. They were concerned and serious -- you didn't go to Russia to see the smiling people any more than you went to England for the coffee -- but there was something else, too. Indignation. Anger...determination? Television coverage of the war was not as strident and defiant as he'd expected. The new Russian news media were trying to be even-handed and professional. There was commentary to the effect that the army's inability to stop the Chinese cold spoke ill of their country's national cohesion. Others lamented the demise of the Soviet Union, whom China would not have dared to threaten, much less attack. More asked what the hell was the use of being in NATO if none of the other countries came to the aid of their supposed new ally.

“We told the television people that if they told anyone of the American division now in Siberia, we'd shoot them, and of course they believed us,” Lt. Gen. Kirillin said with a smile. That was something new for Clark and Chavez to see. He hadn't smiled much in the past week.

“Things looking up?” Chavez inquired.

“Bondarenko has stopped them at the gold mine. They will not even see that, if my information is correct. But there is something else,” he added seriously.

“What's that, Yuriy?” Clark asked.

“We are concerned that they might launch their nuclear weapons.”

“Oh, shit,” Ding observed. “How serious is that?”

“It comes from your president. Golovko is speaking with President Grushavoy right now.”

“And? How do they plan to go about it? Smart bombs?” John asked.

“No, Washington has asked us to go in with a special-operations team,” Kirillin said.

“What the hell?” John gasped. He pulled his satellite phone out of his pocket and looked for the door. “Excuse me, General. E.T. phone home.”

“You want to say that again, Ed?” Foley heard.

“You heard me. They've run out of the bombs they need. Evidently, it's a pain in the ass to fly bombs to where the bombers are.”

“Fuck!” the CIA officer observed, out in the parking lot of this Russian army officers' club. The encryption on his phone didn't affect the emotion in his voice. “Don't tell me, since RAINBOW is a NATO asset, and Russia's part of NATO now, and since you're going to be asking the fucking Russians to front this operation, in the interest of North Atlantic solidarity, we're going to get to go and play, too, right?”

“Unless you choose not to, John. I know you can't go yourself. Combat's a kid's game, but you have some good kids working for you.”

“Ed, you expect me to send my people in on something like that and I stay home and fucking knit socks?” Clark demanded heatedly.

“That's your call to make. You're the RAINBOW commander.”

“How is this supposed to work? You expect us to jump in?”

“Helicopters -- ”

“Russian helicopters. No thanks, buddy, I -- ”

“Our choppers, John. First Armored Division had enough and they're the right kind...”

“They want me to do what?” Dick Boyle asked.

“You heard me.”

“What about fuel?”

“Your fueling point's right about here,” Colonel Masterman said, holding the just-downloaded satellite photo. “Hilltop west of a place called Chicheng. Nobody lives there, and the numbers work out.”

“Yeah, except out flight path takes us within ten miles of this fighter base.”

“Eight F-111s are going to hit it while you're on the way in. Ought to close down their runways for a good three days, they figure.”

“Dick,” Diggs said, “I don't know what the problem is exactly, but Washington is really worried that Joe is going to launch his ICBMs at us at home, and Gus Wallace doesn't have the right bombs to take them out reliably. That means a special-ops force, down and dirty. It's a strategic mission, Dick. Can you do it?”

Colonel Boyle looked at the map, measuring distance in his mind... “Yeah, we'll have to mount the outrigger wings on the Black-hawks and load up to the max on gas, but, yeah, we got the range to get there. Have to refuel on the way back, though.”

“Okay, can you use your other birds to ferry the fuel out?”

Boyle nodded. “Barely.”

“If necessary, the Russians can land a Spetsnaz force anywhere through here with additional fuel, so they tell me. This part of China is essentially unoccupied, according to the maps.”