The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [482]
"There was an attack last night on some railroad bridges in Harbin and Bei'an, but nothing we can't fix."
"Very well. Comrade Marshal, I must see to my dispositions."
"Carry on, then. Out."
Peng set the microphone back in its holder. "Nothing he can't fix, he says."
"You know what those bridges are like. You'd need a nuclear weapon to hurt them," Colonel Wa Cheng-Gong observed confidently.
"Yes, I would agree with that." Peng stood, buttoned his tunic, and reached for a mug of morning tea. "Tell the advance guard to prepare to move out. I'm going up front this morning, Wa. I want to see this gold mine for myself."
"How far up front?" the operations officer asked.
"With the LEAD elements. A good officer leads from the front, and I want to see how our people move. Our reconnaissance screen hasn't detected anything, has it?"
"Well, no, Comrade General, but—"
"But what?" Peng demanded.
"But a prudent commander leaves leading to lieutenants and captains," Wa pointed out.
"Wa, sometimes you talk like an old woman," Peng chided.
"There," Yefremov said. "They took the bait." It was just after midnight in Moscow, and the embassy of the People's Republic of China had most of its lights off, but not all; more to the point, three windows had their lights on, and their shades fully open, and they were all in a row. It was just as perfect as what the Americans called a "sting" operation. He'd stood over Suvarov's shoulder as he'd typed the message: I have the pieces in place now. I have the pieces in place now. If you wish for me to carry out the operation, leave three windows in a row with the lights on and the windows fully open. Yefremov had even had a television camera record the event, down to the point where the traitor Suvarov had tapped the ENTER key to send the letter to his Chink controller. And he'd gotten a TV news crew to record the event as well, because the Russian people seemed to trust the semi-independent media more than their government now, for some reason or other. Good, now they had proof positive that the Chinese government was conspiring to kill President Grushavoy. That would play well in the international press. And it wasn't an accident. The windows all belonged to the Chief of Mission in the PRC embassy, and he was, right now, asleep in his bed. They'd made sure of that by calling him on the phone ten minutes earlier.
"So, what do we do now?"
"We tell the president, and then, I expect, we tell the TV news people. And we probably spare Suvarov's life. I hope he likes it in the labor camp."
"What about the killings?"
Yefremov shrugged. "He only killed a pimp and a whore. No great loss, is it?"
Senior Lieutenant Komanov had not exactly enjoyed his last four days, but at least they'd been spent profitably, training his men to shoot. The reservists, now known as BOYAR FORCE, had spent them doing gunnery, and they'd fired four basic loads of shells over that time, more than any of them had ever shot on active duty, but the Never Depot had been well stocked with shells. Officers assigned to the formation by Far East Command told them that the Americans had moved by to their south the previous day, and that their mission was to slide north of them, and do it today. Only thirty kilometers stood between them and the Chinese, and he and his men were ready to pay them a visit. The throaty rumble of his own diesel engine was answered by the THUNDER of two hundred others, and BOYAR started moving northeast through the hills.
Peng and his command section raced forward, calling ahead on their radios to clear the way, and the military-police troops doing traffic control waved them through. Soon they reached the command section of the 302nd Armored, his Leading "fist" formation, commanded by Major General Ge Li, a squat officer whose incipient corpulence made him look rather like one of his tanks.
"Are you ready, Ge?" Peng asked. The man was well-named for his task. "Ge" had the primary meaning of "spear."
"We are ready,"