The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [137]
"Indeed?" Bondarenko wasnt taken aback, but he became instantly wary. It wasnt always pleasant to have ones career in others hands, even others one liked.
"Yes. As of Monday next, you will be General-Colonel Bondarenko, and soon after that you will travel to become commander-in-chief of the Far East Military District."
That got his eyebrows jolting upward. This was the award of a dream hed held in his own mind for some time. "Oh. May I ask, why there?"
"I happen to agree with your concerns regarding our yellow neighbors. Ive seen some reports from the GRU about the Chinese armys continuing field exercises, and to be truthful, our intelligence information from Beijing is not all we would wish. Therefore, Eduard Petrovich and I feel that our eastern defenses might need some firming up. That becomes your job, Gennady. Do it well, and some additional good things might happen for you."
And that could only mean one thing, Bondarenko thought, behind an admirable poker face. Beyond the four stars of a general-colonel lay only the single large star of a marshal, and that was as high as any Russian soldier could go. After that, one could be commander-in-chief of the entire army, or defense minister, or one could retire to write memoirs.
"There are some people Id like to take out to Chabarsovil with me, some colonels from my operations office," the general said contemplatively.
"That is your prerogative, of course. Tell me, what will you wish to do out there?"
"Do you really want to know?" the newly frocked four-star asked.
Golovko smiled broadly at that. "I see. Gennady, you wish to remake the Russian army in your image?"
"Not my image, Comrade Minister. A winning image, such as we had in 1945. There are images one wishes to deface, and there are images one dares not touch. Which, do you think, ought we to have?"
"What will the costs be?"
"Sergey Nikolaych, I am not an economist, nor am I an accountant, but I can tell you that the cost of doing this will be far less than the cost of not doing it." And now, Bondarenko thought, hed get wider access to whatever intelligence his country possessed. Itd have been better if Russia had spent the same resources on what the Americans delicately called National Technical Means—strategic reconnaissance satellites—that the Soviet Union had once done. But hed get such as there was, and maybe he could talk the air force into making a few special flights …
"I will tell that to President Grushavoy." Not that it would do all that much good. The cupboard was still bare of funding, though that could change in a few years.
"Will these new mineral discoveries in Siberia give us a little more money to spend?"
Golovko nodded. "Yes, but not for some years. Patience, Gennady."
The general took a final shot of the vodka. "I can be patient, but will the Chinese?"
Golovko had to grant his visitors concern. "Yes, they are exercising their military forces more than they used to." What had once been a cause for concern had become, with its continuance, a matter of routine, and Golovko, like many, tended to lose such information in the seemingly random noise of daily life. "But there are no diplomatic reasons for concern. Relations between our countries are cordial."
"Comrade Minister, I am not a diplomat, nor am I an intelligence officer, but I do study history. I recall that the Soviet Unions relations with Hitlers Germany were cordial right up until June 23, 1941. The leading German elements passed Soviet trains running westbound with oil and grain to the fascisti. I conclude from this that diplomatic discourse is not always an indicator of a nations intentions."
"That is true, and that is why we have an intelligence service."
"And then you will also recall that the Peoples Republic has in the past looked with envy on the mineral riches of Siberia. That envy has probably grown with the discoveries we have made. We have not publicized them, but we may assume that the Chinese have intelligence sources right here in Moscow, yes?"
"It is a possibility not to be discounted," Golovko admitted. He