The Cardinal of the Kremlin - Tom Clancy [44]
Pokryshkin nodded agreement. "The security force is KGB, as you have doubtless noted. They report to me, but are not strictly under my orders. For early warning of possible threats, I have an arrangement with Frontal Aviation. Their aerial-reconnaissance school uses the valleys around here as a training area. A classmate of mine at Frunze has arranged coverage of this entire area. If anyone approaches this installation from Afghanistan, it's a long walk, and we'll know about it long before they get here."
Bondarenko noted this with approval. Procurer for wizards or not, Pokryshkin hadn't forgotten everything, as too many general officers tended to do.
"So, Gennady Iosifovich, exactly what are you looking for?" the General asked. The atmosphere was somewhat milder now that both men had established their professionalism.
"The Minister wishes an appraisal of the effectiveness and reliability of your systems."
"Your knowledge of lasers?" Pokryshkin asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I am familiar with the applications side. I was on the team with Academician Goremykin that developed the new laser communications systems."
"Really? We have some of them here."
"I didn't know that," Bondarenko said.
"Yes. We use them in our guard towers, and to link our laboratory facilities with the shops. It's easier than stringing telephone lines, and is more secure. Your invention has proven very useful indeed, Gennady Iosifovich. Well. You know our mission here, of course."
"Yes, Comrade General. How close are you to your goal?"
"We have a major system test coming up in three days."
"Oh?" Bondarenko was very surprised by that.
"We received permission to run it only yesterday. Perhaps the Ministry hasn't been fully informed. Can you stay for it?"
"I wouldn't miss it."
"Excellent." General Pokryshkin rose. "Come, let's go to see my wizards."
The sky was clear and blue, the deeper blue that comes from being above most of the atmosphere. Bondarenko was surprised to see that the General did his own driving in a UAZ-469, the Soviet equivalent of a jeep.
"You do not have to ask, Colonel. I do my own driving because we do not have room up here for unnecessary personnel, and-well, I was a fighter pilot. Why should I trust my life to some beardless boy who barely knows how to shift gears? How do you like our roads?"
Not at all, Bondarenko didn't say as the General speeded down a slope. The road was barely five meters wide, with a precipitous drop on the passenger side of the car. "You should try this when it's icy!" The General laughed.
"We've been lucky on weather lately. Last autumn we had nothing but rain for two weeks. Most unusual here; the monsoon's supposed to drop all the water on India, but the winter has been agreeably dry and clear." He shifted gears as the road bottomed out. A truck was coming from the other direction, and Bondarenko did all he could not to cringe as the jeep's right-side tires spun through rocks at the road's uneven edge. Pokryshkin was having some fun with him, but that was to be expected. The truck swept past with perhaps a meter of clearance, and the General moved back to the center of the blacktopped road. He shifted gears again as they came to an upslope.
"We don't even have room for a proper office here-for me at any rate," Pokryshkin noted. "The academicians have priority."
Bondarenko had seen only one of the guard towers that morning as he ran around the residential facility, and as the jeep climbed the last few meters, the Bright Star test area became visible.
There were three security checkpoints. General Pokryshkin stopped his vehicle and showed his pass at each of them.
"The guard towers?" Bondarenko asked.
"All manned round the clock. It is hard on the chekisti. I had to install electric heaters in the towers." The