Red Storm Rising

"No. You told us what Ivan had on this rock, and where they were-well, at least where they weren't. You and your people did a lot more than just keep out of the way, son." The General pulled a small box out of his pocket. "Well done, Marine!"

"Sir, I'm Air Force."

"Oh, yeah? Well, this here says you're a Marine." The General pinned a Navy Cross to his pillow. A major approached the General and handed him a message form. The General pocketed it and looked down the rows of hospital beds.

"About time," he breathed. "Miss Vigdis, would you please look after this man for us?"

SVERDLOVSK, R.S.F.S.R.

Two more days and they'd be leaving for the front. The 77th Motor-Rifle Division was a Category-C unit, and like all such units was composed of reservists in their thirties and possessed a little over a third of its normal outlay of equipment. Since mobilization they had been training incessantly, the older men with military experience passing along their knowledge to the newly inducted conscripts. It was a strange match. The young arrivals were physically fit but ignorant of military life. The older men remembered much of their own military service, but had softened with age. The young men had the ardor of youth, and as much as they naturally feared exposure to danger on the battlefield, they would not hesitate to defend their country. The older men with families had much more to lose. Lectures to their officers from a veteran combat officer had fiItered down to the ranks. Germany would not be pleasant. A sergeant from communications receipted the message, and the word got out quickly: experienced combat officers and NCOs would join them at Moscow. The experienced reservists knew that they'd need such men to teach them the lessons hard-won at the front.

They knew something else it meant: the 77th Motor-Rifle Division would be committed to action within a week. It was quiet that night in the encampment. Men stood outside the unheated barracks, looking at the pine forests on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains.

MOSCOW, R.S.F.S.R.

"Why are we not attacking?" the General Secretary demanded.

"General Alekseyev has informed me that he is preparing for a major attack now. He says he needs time to organize his forces for a weighted blow," Bukharin answered.

"You tell Comrade General Alekseyev," the Defense Minister said, "that we want action, not words!"

"Comrades," Sergetov said, "I seem to recall from my own military service that one should not attack until one has a decisive advantage in men and weapons. If we order Alekseyev to attack before he is ready, we condemn our army to failure. We must give him time to do his job properly."

"And now you are an expert on defense matters?" the Defense Minister inquired. "A pity you are not so expert in your own field, or we should not be in this predicament!"

"Comrade Minister, I told you that your projections for oil use at the front were overly optimistic, and I was correct. You said 'Give us the fuel, and we'll see it is properly used,' did you not? You said a two-week campaign, four at the worst, did you not?" Sergetov looked around the table. "Such expertise as this has brought us to disaster!"

"We will not fail! We will defeat the West."

"Comrades," Kosov walked into the room. "Forgive me for being late. I just received notification that our forces on Iceland are surrendering. The general in command cites thirty-percent casualties and a hopeless tactical situation."

"Have him arrested at once!" Defense roared. "And arrest the family of the traitor."

"Our Comrade Defense Minister seems far more efficient in arresting our own people than in defeating our enemies," Sergetov observed dryly.

"You young whelp!" The Defense Minister went white with rage.

"I do not say that we have been defeated, but it is clear that we have not yet been victorious. It is time that we seek a political conclusion to this war."

"We could accept the German terms," the Foreign Minister said hopefully.

"I regret to inform you that this is no longer a possibility," Kosov replied. "I have reason to believe that this was a sham-a German maskirovka."

"But your deputy said only the day before yesterday-"

"I warned him and you that I had my doubts. A story appeared today in the French newspaper Le Monde that the Germans have rejected a Soviet offer for a political settlement to the war. They give the correct times and location that the meetings took place-the story could only have come from official German channels, and the clear implication is that this was all along a NATO effort to affect our strategic thinking. They are sending us a message, Comrades. They say that they are prepared to fight the war to the finish."

"Marshal Bukharin, what is the strength of the NATO forces?" the General Secretary asked.

"They have taken massive losses in men and materiel. Their armies are exhausted. They must be, else they would have counterattacked in strength already."