Air Battle Force

infantrymen.” He extended his hand and smiled broadly, his teeth gleaming white against his dark, burned skin. “I believe that makes us even now, doesn’t it, Comrade Robot?”

Hal Briggs couldn’t help but smile inside his battle armor. “Yes, we’re even, Turabi — I mean, Colonel Turabi.”

“I am happy enough just being Turabi, thank you,” he said. “Now, if you don’t mind, we have a city to defend. If you would kindly exit my battlefield by the most expeditious route, my army and I will get to work.”

“Sure thing—General Turabi,” Briggs said. The Taliban fighter smiled, nodded, and hurried off to lead his men into battle once again.

Epilogue

WASHINGTON, D.C.

The next morning

We have your aircraft, we have your air raid on Engels Air Base on tape, and we have footage of your drones and bombers attacking our base,” General Anatoliy Gryzlov shouted into the phone. “This is a complete outrage! An unprovoked sneak attack on a Russian military installation by two American strategic bombers! It is an act of war! We have your dead crew members as positive proof that you attacked our country in a sinister act of aggression!”

“You have our crew members?” President Thomas Thorn asked. He had to stifle a smile.

“Their crumpled bodies were found not far from the crash site,” Gryzlov said. “Their pictures will be on the front page of every newspaper and magazine on earth if you do not halt this aggression and immediately recall all your forces!”

“As I told you, General, I have already recalled our forces,” Thorn said. “My forces were deployed to Turkmenistan only to protect our deputy secretary of defense’s flight as it departed the region. We had permission and full authority from President Gurizev to enter Turkmenistan.”

“Gurizev was a liar and a traitor to his people,” Gryzlov said. “If he hadn’t allowed those murderous Taliban forces to roam around inside his country so freely, none of this would’ve happened. They were certainly in collusion. Soon they would have stolen those American oil and gas pipelines and wells from you, but by then it would have been too late to stop them.”

“The Taliban commander has just been commissioned by the new Turkmen president as commander of the army,” Thorn pointed out. “He’s being called a hero for repelling those Russian troops from Charjew.”

“He’ll have to pay dearly for that,” Gryzlov said. “I don’t care if the Turkmen parliament or so-called interim president authorized or sanctioned his attacks after the fact. It was an act of cold-blooded murder.”

“It seems to be a legal resolution to me, General, voted on and signed into law by the interim president.”

“That new president was not elected by the people,” Gryzlov said, “and a state of martial law is still in effect.”

“But the Turkmen parliament meeting in Uzbekistan has voted in a new interim president,” Thorn said. “Surely the Russian military authorities will recognize the new government and allow the president and legislators back into the country safely?”

“You’re getting off the point of my call, Thorn — namely, the air attack on my military base!” Gryzlov interjected. “The death toll will certainly reach two hundred, and the damage will easily exceed one billion dollars. You will issue an apology to me, to the men and women of Engels, to the people of Russia, and to the world. You will pay reparations to alleviate the suffering of the families who lost loved ones in that dastardly attack and to rebuild what you have destroyed. You will pay, or, by God, Thorn, I will see your country burn hotter than the fires of hell. Do you understand my meaning, Thorn? What is your answer? Will you apologize? Will you pay reparations? Or does a state of war exist between our two countries?”

“Stand by, General.” Thomas Thorn put the call on hold, then looked at the others in the Oval Office with him: Vice President Busick, Secretary of Defense Goff, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Venti, Deputy Secretary of State Hershel, General Patrick McLanahan, and former president Kevin Martindale. They had all been silently reacting to Gryzlov’s tirade with scowls, astounded expressions, and shaking heads. Everyone was amazed that the president managed to keep his cool so easily while talking to this homicidal maniac.

“Tell him to go fuck himself, Mr. President,” Busick said. Everyone else seemed to agree, some by encouraging expressions, others by nodding heads. “He’s a damned nobody — he can’t tell the president of the United States what to do.”

Thorn looked to his friend and chief foreign-affairs adviser, Robert Goff. “He’s nothing more than a two-bit military strongman, Thomas,” the secretary of defense said. “Eventually the Russian parliament and the people will rise up and toss his ass off — it’s just a matter of time. The United States needs to lead the resistance against him, or he’ll turn into another Stalin.”

Thorn turned to McLanahan and Martindale. Both wore stony expressions. Martindale jabbed a finger at Thorn and said, “You’re the leader of the free world, Thorn, whether you like it or not. Be the leader of the free world, for Christ’s sake.”

Thorn remained expressionless. He looked at McLanahan impassively — Patrick thought he detected a bit of resentment or maybe betrayal in the president’s face. The president pushed the line button. “General Gryzlov?”

“What is your answer, Thorn?”

“My answer is this: The United States will pay reparations,” Thomas Thorn said. Busick, Martindale, and even his good friend Robert Goff wore absolutely stunned, then disgusted expressions.

Even Anatoliy Gryzlov sounded surprised. “Well… I’m glad to see you show some common sense, Thorn,” he said.

“The United States will pay a sum to the government of the Russian Federation equal to what the Russian Federation pays to the United Nations to rehabilitate and rebuild the government and infrastructure of Turkmenistan,” Thorn said. “In case any hostilities break out between Russia and the United States, the money is cut off forever.”

“What? Russia pay the United Nations to rebuild Turkmenistan?” Gryzlov retorted. “What kind of deal is that? That pissant country was about to be taken over by Taliban desert rats — we saved it from ending up like Afghanistan or Pakistan! We’ve already invested trillions in that country. We’re not going to invest one more ruble into it! Is this what you mean by taking responsibility for your actions, Thorn?”

“I hope you’ll reconsider, General,” Thorn said. “The United States will pledge twenty million dollars to help rebuild Turkmenistan, in the hopes that Russia will match that gift, and we shall also pledge the same amount for the families of the victims of our attack.

“As far as an apology goes — yes, I will apologize to the people of the Russian Federation and the world,” Thorn went on. “In my apology, which will be broadcast live around the world, I will explain why we conducted the attack on your bomber base: I will explain about how your Russian liaison officer murdered President Gurizev; how Russia firebombed Mary, as it did Chechnya, to kill Muslims—”

“That is a lie!” Gryzlov shouted.

“—and I will tell how you sent a Russian fighter plane to shoot down an American diplomatic mission, and how you sent a massive armada to bomb a small city in Turkmenistan into submission so you could invade it with hundreds of airborne commandos,” Thorn continued. “I will explain why we chose Engels Air Base as our target — because Russia was massing over one hundred supersonic long-range bombers there to continue pounding Turkmenistan into the sand so you could walk in and take over.”

“You call that an apology, Thorn?” Gryzlov retorted.

“I call it the truth, General,” Thorn said. “I’m willing to admit to the truth — the question is, are you?”

“This matter is not settled between us, Thorn,” Gryzlov said in English after several long moments of shouting and epithets in Russian. “You will not be permitted to wantonly attack a Russian military base like that — a Russian bomber base. In case you don’t know, I was a bomber commander — your