Invasion: Alaska

so well had turned into a tangled fiasco. Distance plus equipment-failure plus an alien terrain— “If you’re out here,” Nung said, “who is running my supplies back at Ambarchik?”

“I believe that Minster Jian Hong has taken that upon himself, sir.”

Nung wanted to shout. The Ruling Committee itself was sabotaging his efforts? He shook his head, trying to clear it of anger. They actually accused him of cowardice. They accused him of holding back when all this time he’d wanted to attack.

“Come with me,” Nung said in a thick voice. He strode for the command snowtank. Bai trotted after him, with the others he’d brought trailing behind.

“What are you planning, sir?” asked Bai.

Nung removed his right mitten and drew his pistol. The metal was freezing cold, but that felt good now. Nung could no longer speak and his eyes seemed to spark with emotions. He fumbled with the hatch, clicked it and opened the way into the command-tank. He squeezed through.

Commissar Ping played cards with his bodyguard. The commissar looked up, and he must have seen something on Nung’s face. Ping dove as he shouted for his bodyguard to save him.

Nung’s pistol barked three times. The bodyguard with eyes like oil slid to the tank’s floor.

Ping was openly weeping. His mouth moved, but Nung couldn’t hear a thing because his ears were still ringing from the shots. Maybe the commissar finally found it impossible to taunt him, found it impossible to articulate the words he attempted to speak.

“Give me one of your sayings now!” roared Nung, his breath misting.

Once more, Commissar Ping tried to speak.

Smiling with malice, Nung raised his pistol. A deafening boom sounded. He kept firing until he was out of bullets. Then he shoved the pistol into its holster. Ping’s corpse was a bloody, twisted pile of meat. Nung climbed out of the tank and turned to a stunned Bai.

“They want me to attack?” Nung asked.

Bai only seemed capable of nodding.

“Then I name this as our central depot,” Nung said. “You’re in charge of supplies.”

“The American submarines…” said Bai.

“I know all about them,” Nung said. “We’ll widen our defensive cordon.”

“You’re going to attack how, sir?”

“It won’t be anything fancy. A two-tier wave assault will do it. The hovertanks will go in immediately, with the snowtanks following as fast as they can. All the while, our air will pound the Americans and our helicopters will drop infantry onto the North Slope.”

“You’re too far away to do that from here,” said Bai. “And if you start now, the hovertanks will outstrip the snowtanks by days.”

“I said it isn’t fancy,” Nung said. “The way we’re set up it is either stay on the ice and wait for the Americans to explode it out from under our feet, or fight and die against the enemy. Well, I’m going to choose the third way.”

“What is that, sir?”

“Fight and break through to the oilfields,” Nung said.

“Can we hold the oilfields once we take them?”

“We’ll worry about that once they’re ours. Until then, it’s just a moot question. Maybe our very capturing of them will cause the Americans to surrender. It’s what happened with the Siberians.”

Bai licked his lips.

“Don’t tell me that the Americans aren’t Siberians,” Nung said. “I’m sick of hearing that.”

Hastily shaking his head, Bai said, “No, no, of course not, sir. To the North Slope, and victory over the Americans.”

Nung’s eyes gleamed. At last, he could do things his way. He was badly out of position thanks to Commissar Ping and Army High Command that had saddled him with the mincing coward. But he wasn’t going to complain. He was going to attack fast the way it should have been done in the first place.

AMBARCHIK, EAST SIBERIA

“It’s the Chairman, sir,” the communications officer told Jian Hong. “He’s asking for you personally. He must know you’re here.”

Jian swallowed. “I will take the message in my office.”

He noticed the rest of the officers of the communications staff staring at him. Forcing heartiness into his bearing, Jian glanced around. As soon as he closed the door behind him, however, Jian closed his eyes.

How I am supposed to play this? I never imagined that Bai was such a bumbling idiot and couldn’t find his way to Nung. He’d been waiting a long time to hear that everything proceeded as planned. What had happened to that fool Bai?

Licking his lips, Jian told himself that instead of Bai it could have been him lost out on the Arctic ice. It was a logistical nightmare keeping such a large body of troops supplied with their daily needs over thousands of kilometers of pack ice. The Army generals who had concocted this mess had no idea of the foolishness of their plan.

Jian shook his head. There was no way to explain all that to the Chairman now.

You need your wits, Jian. This is the moment.

He sat down, cracked his knuckles and ran a hand through his hair. Then he turned on the monitor. The sickly Chairman regarded him on the screen.

Jian bowed with grave respect.

“It has been some time, Comrade,” the Chairman said.

“I have been hard at work carrying out your command, sir.” With those words, Jian realized that he would lie to the end. If needed, he’d make sure that everyone here who knew of his deception died. Yes, he’d slip their corpses through the ice. Let the seals and polar bears eat their carcasses.

“I am glad to see that you are safe after such a harrowing journey,” the Chairman said. “Yet why haven’t I heard about any victory-news from you? Why did you sit so long on the pack ice?”

“I have lit a fire under General Nung, sir. I have also reorganized the supply situation. It was a—”

“Do not tell me what you did. Tell me when Nung is going to give me the oilfields. You’ve seen him. You’ve judged his competence. Has the American nuclear attack rendered him and the taskforce immobile?”

“I have taken pains,” Jian said, “to render the American submarines useless.”

“Explain that to me.”

“Firstly, sir, our submarines hunt the American vessels under the ice. Secondly, I have spread out the supply depots, making the targets unworthy of their limited nuclear torpedoes.”

“How does that help you attack Alaska?”

“We have carefully moved into attack position, sir,” Jian said. He hoped that was true.

The Chairman squinted at him, creating a thousand wrinkles on that old face. “You are to return to Beijing immediately. I want face-to-face news of Nung and news of conditions on the ice. As you no doubt have learned, a terrible storm blocks us from the final assault against Anchorage. Once the storm passes, Admiral Ling will hand me Anchorage, which he assures me will give us the rest of the state. If your General Nung can take the oilfields at the same time, I believe the Americans will capitulate.”

“I couldn’t agree more, sir,” Jian said.

“I want you here when the Americans plead for peace. If you’ve done your part and truly unleashed Nung, all will be well.”

“Yes, sir,” Jian said, bowing and wondering how he could free himself from this mess.

“Until tomorrow, Comrade, I wish you well.”

Jian bowed once more. When he looked up, the contact was broken. He turned and blinked at a wall. It had a tiny porthole window, showing the bleak winter landscape outside. He hated Ambarchik and the endless headaches involving Army supply. It was time for a purge here. It was good more of his personal security team had arrived. Yet he must do this carefully. He would have to think more on the matter.

So much depended on what Nung achieved. Why didn’t the general attack? What was going on over there?

ARCTIC OCEAN