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By Root 1216 0

be a commander rather than a shop supervisor, and lifted off for Chabarsovil. The flying was easy enough, and he preferred the medium-low clouds, because there had to be fighters about, and not all of them would be friendly. The GPS navigation system guided him to the right location, and the right location, it turned out, was a concrete helipad with soldiers standing around it. They were wearing the "wrong" uniform, a state of mind that Boyle knew he'd have to work on. One of them escorted Boyle into a building that looked like the Russian idea of a headquarters, and sure enough, it was.

"Dick, come on over," General Diggs called. The helicopter commander saluted as he approached.

"Welcome to Siberia, Dick," Marion Diggs said in greeting.

"Thank you, sir. What's the situation?"

"Interesting," the general replied. "This is General Bondarenko. He's the theater commander." Boyle saluted again. "Gennady, this is Colonel Boyle, who commands my aviation brigade. He's pretty good."

"What's the air situation, sir?" Boyle asked Diggs.

"The Air Force is doing a good job on their fighters so far."

"What about Chinese helicopters?"

"They do not have many," another Russian officer said. "I am Colonel Aliyev, Andrey Petrovich, theater operations. The Chinese do not have many helicopters. We've only seen a few, mainly scouts."

"No troop carriers? No staff transport?"

"No," Aliyev answered. "Their senior officers prefer to move around in tracked vehicles. They are not married to helicopters as you Americans are."

"What do you want me to do, sir?" Boyle asked Diggs.

"Take Tony Turner to Chita. That's the railhead we're going to be using. We need to get set up there."

"Drive the tracks in from there, eh?" Boyle looked at the map.

"That's the plan. There are closer points, but Chita has the best facilities to off-load our vehicles, so our friends tell us."

"What about gas?"

"The place you landed is supposed to have sizable underground fuel tanks."

"More than you will need," Aliyev confirmed. Boyle thought that was quite a promise.

"And ordnance?" Boyle asked. "We've got maybe two days' worth on the C-5s so far. Six complete loads for my Apaches, figuring three missions per day."

"Which version of the Apache?" Aliyev asked.

"Delta, Colonel. We've got the Longbow radar."

"Everything works?" the Russian asked.

"Colonel, not much sense bringing them if they don't," Boyle replied, with a raised eyebrow. "What about secure quarters for my people?"

"At the base where you landed, there will be secure sleeping quarters for your aviators—bombproof shelters. Your maintenance people will be housed in barracks."

Boyle nodded. It was the same everywhere. The weenies who built things acted as if pilots were more valuable than the people who maintained the aircraft. And so they were, until the aircraft needed repairs, at which point the pilot was as useful as a cavalryman without a horse.

"Okay, General. I'll take Tony to this Chita place and then I'm going back to see to my people's needs. I could sure use one of Chuck Garvey's radios."

"He's outside. Grab one on your way."

"Okay, sir. Tony, let's get moving," he said to the chief of staff.

"Sir, as soon as we get some infantry in, I want to put security on those fueling points," Masterman said. "Those places need protecting."

"I can give you what you need," Aliyev offered.

"Fine by me," Masterman responded. "How many of those secure radios did Garvey bring?"

"Eight, I think. Two are gone already," General Diggs warned. "Well, there'll be more on the train. Go tell Boyle to send two choppers here for our needs."

"Right." Masterman ran for the door.

The ministers all had offices and, as in every other such office in the world, the cleanup crews came in, in this case about ten every night. They picked up all sorts of trash, from candy wrappers to empty cigarette packs to papers, and the latter went into special burn-bags. The janitorial staff was not particularly smart, but they had had to pass background checks and go through security briefings that were heavy on intimidation.