The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [461]
And there was precisely nothing for Gregory to do. There was no way for him to leave the ship, except to jump down into the flooding floating dry dock, and that didn't look like a viable option. So, he headed back into the superstructure and found the ship's store open. There he bought a toothbrush.
Bondarenko spent the next three hours with Major General Sinyavskiy, going over approach routes and fire plans.
"They have fire-finder radar, Yuriy, and their counter-battery rockets have a long reach."
"Can we expect any help from the Americans?"
"I'm working on that. We have superb reconnaissance information from their moviestar drones."
"I need the location of their artillery. If we can take that away from them, it makes my job much easier."
"Tolkunov!" the theater commander yelled. It was loud enough that his intelligence coordinator came running.
"Yes, Comrade General!"
"Vladimir Konstantinovich, we'll be making our stand here," Bondarenko said, pointing to a red line on the map. "I want minute-to-minute information of the approaching Chinese formations—especially their artillery."
"I can do that. Give me ten minutes." And the G-2 disappeared back out to where the Dark Star terminal was. Then his boss thought about it.
"Come on, Yuriy, you have to see this."
"General," Major Tucker said by way of greeting. Then he saw a second one. "General," he said again.
"This is General Sinyavskiy. He commands Two-Six-Five. Would you please show him the advancing Chinese?" It wasn't a question or a request, just phrased politely because Tucker was a foreigner.
"Okay, it's right here, sir, we've got it all on videotape. Their leading reconnaissance elements are … here, and their leading main-force units are right here."
"Fuck," Sinyavskiy observed in Russian. "Is this magic?"
"No, this is—" Bondarenko switched languages. "Which unit is this, Major?"
"Grace Kelly again, sir. To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant, Hitchcock movie that one was. The sun'll be down in another hour or so and we'll be getting it all on the thermal-imaging systems. Anyway, here's their leading battalion, all look like their Type-90 tanks. They're keeping good formation discipline, and they just refueled about an hour ago, so, figure they're good for another two hundred or so kilometers before they stop again."
"Their artillery?"
"Lagging behind, sir, except for this tracked unit here." Tucker played with the mouse some and brought up another picture.
"Gennady Iosifovich, how can we fail with such information?" the division commander asked.
"Yuriy, remember when we thought about attacking the Americans?"
"Madness. The Chinks can't see this drone?" Sinyavskiy asked, somewhat incredulously.
"It's stealthy, as they call it, invisible on radar."
"Nichevo."
"Sir, I have a direct line to our headquarters at Zhigansk. If you guys are going to make a stand, what do you want from us?' Tucker asked. "I can forward your request to General Wallace."
"I have thirty Su-25 attack bombers and also fifty Su-24 fighter bombers standing by, plus two hundred Mi-24 helicopters." Getting the last in theater had been agonizingly slow, but finally they were here, and they were the Ace of Diamonds Bondarenko had facedown on the card table. He hadn't let so much as one approach the area of operations yet, but they were two hundred kilometers away, fueled and armed, their flight crews flying to practice their airmanship and shooting live weapons as rehearsal—for some, the first live weapons they'd ever shot.
"That's going to be a surprise for good old Joe," Tucker observed with a whistle. "Where'd you hide them, sir? Hell, General, I didn't know they were around."
"There are a few secure places. We want to give our guests a proper greeting when the time is right," Gennady Iosifovich told the young American officer.
"So, what do you want us to do, sir?"
"Take down their logistics. Show me this Smart Pig you've been talking to Colonel Tolkunov