Plan of Attack

two deployed AL-52s. Patrick’s armada at Yakutsk already included two manned EB-1Cs loaded and on defensive patrol, along with two unmanned EB-1Cs dedicated to refueling and rearming StealthHawk unmanned attack aircraft. In addition, Patrick had two EB-52 Megafortresses and one AL-52 Dragon battleship on patrol, plus two KC-10 Extender aerial-refueling tankers, with one continuously airborne to support the patrol planes.

At the end of the day, Patrick and “Shade” O’Dea landed their EB-52 for rearming and refueling, and so Patrick could attend the mass briefing. He assembled the men and women together in the base-operations building’s conference room. The crews were beyond dog tired — they were zombies, guzzling hours-old coffee and trying to keep their drooping eyelids from closing completely. Patrick was stunned to realize how small his force was.

But he was even more surprised to see these hardworking professionals come to attention when he stepped into the room. Through the nearly seventy-two hours of almost continuous flying, mission planning, and preflighting, they still cared enough to practice military etiquette.

“As you were, ladies and gentlemen,” Patrick said. The crews, already on their feet in an effort to stay awake, shuffled to more relaxed positions, stifling yawns and draining coffee cups. “First of all, I have no news on General Furness and Colonel Mace. The Pave Dasher and an MC-130 are out looking for them. I have asked Colonel Cheshire to task one Megafortress crew to head out there to provide air cover for the rescue effort.

“Here’s the situation as we know it: Despite promising the president of the United States that they would disarm, the Russians attempted to attack Eareckson Air Base with nuclear weapons and have now deployed their mobile ICBMs and appear to be ready to launch them. Our mission tonight is to find and destroy numerous Russian intercontinental-ballistic-missile sites — a total of six SS-18 launch-control centers and seventy-two silos, plus one hundred and eighty road-mobile SS-25 units. If we are successful, we’ll eliminate almost half of the Russians’ land- based intercontinental-ballistic-missile fleet, which, after the attack on the U.S., will bring us to rough parity and may avert another nuclear exchange.

“The Russians have a very sophisticated and dense antiaircraft network, and it is fully functional and on the highest state of alert. We have the advantage of stealth and precision firepower, but the Russians are fielding twenty fighters and at least fifty surface-to-air missiles for every one of our bombers. The National Command Authority made the decision not to use nuclear weapons of any kind, not even enhanced radiation, microyield, or electromagnetic-pulse weapons, for fear of precipitating an all-out nuclear exchange. This means we have to go after the ICBMs without any defensive laydowns whatsoever. It’s a lousy hand we’ve been dealt. Normally, I would have done whatever I felt necessary to get the job done, even if it meant using special weapons, but I feel we can do the job without them. If I’m wrong”—he paused, looking each man and woman in the room straight in the eye—“I’ll burn in hell along with Gryzlov and all the other nutcases who started this war.

“Here’s the lineup for tonight: Bobcat Two-three has the longest drive — two SS-18 launch-control centers at Aleysk with Wolverine thermium-nitrate penetrator cruise missiles, plus Wolverine cruise missiles dropping thermium-nitrate bomblets on all twenty-four of their silos. We’ve modified the Wolverine missiles with delayed- action fuzes so the missiles will penetrate at least a hundred feet underground before the warheads detonate, which gives us a good chance of taking out the underground launch-control centers. We don’t know if the bomblets will be strong enough to do any damage on the silo doors, but it’s the best we have. All we need to do is try to dislodge the doors from their tracks or jam them closed, and we’ve done our jobs. Bobcat Two-four will do the same on the SS-18 wing at Uzhur, which has four LCCs and forty-eight silos.

“Bobcat One-two and One-three will locate and attack the SS-25 units at Novosibirsk and Barnaul, with StealthHawks and Longhorns. Right now we’re targeting the garrison locations where a number of SS-25 launch units have been dispersed to. We’re hoping to tag as much as fifty percent of their road units in their garages. You also have locations of known field-dispersal and launch points that we’ve seen the Russians use in the past, so your job will be to keep an eye on those locations in case any units show up. Bobcat One-four will attack the SS-25 wings at Irkutsk. Bobcat Two-five will attack the SS-25 wing at Kansk, and Bobcat Two-six will attack the SS-25 wing at Drovyanaya.

“Colonel O’Dea and I, in Bobcat One-one, along with Bobcat Two-seven, have a special task,” Patrick went on. “Our job is to seek out and destroy four SS-24 rail-mobile ICBM squadrons that our intelligence tells us have been dispersed north of Krasnoyarsk on the national rail lines. Each SS-24 squadron carries three missiles, each of those with a ten-thousand-mile range — long enough to decimate every American city and military base on planet Earth. They were supposed to be taken out of service years ago, but they’re still out there, so we must assume that if they violated that provision of the START II Treaty, they violated more, and thus they still have their full complement of ten independently targetable warheads. Bobcats One-five and Two-eight will stay behind to guard Yakutsk until the MC-17s depart and to provide backup for all other sorties, and Bobcat One-eight will provide air cover for search-and-rescue forces out in the Bering Sea.

“The AL-52 Dragon aircraft, Bobcat Three-one and Three-two, will take up patrol orbits over two locations. They’ll be in a position to cover our ingress and egress on our strikes, and in case the Russians fire any missiles, they’ll be able to intercept them.

“After your assigned attacks, withhold any weapons you have left for follow-on attacks or any other pop-up targets you might encounter or that are datalinked to you,” Patrick said. “Follow your egress routings to the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, and rendezvous with your assigned tankers. The planned recovery base is Battle Mountain, but we may be sending you directly to dispersal bases if Battle Mountain has come under attack. Questions or comments?” Patrick fielded a few, and then they received a weather briefing and current threat analysis.

Finally, when the last briefer finished, Patrick moved to the front of the room again. “Ladies and gentlemen, if we’re successful tonight, we can seriously degrade between one-third and one-half of Russia’s ICBM force,” he said. “We call this base ‘Camp Vengeance.’ Taking this base marks the beginning of the American counteroffensive against Russia. If we’re successful, we might even the score and avert any more nuclear exchanges. That’s not a certainty by any means, but at the very least it’ll be exactly what this base was named for: vengeance.”

Patrick paused for a moment, then said, “I want to let you all know, before we get airborne again, that it’s been a privilege to serve with you. You have all proved that you truly are the best of the best. You’ve gotten this far with skill, determination, professionalism, and audacity. Now we need to put every ounce of that skill to the test. I know you can do it. We will prevail, and with God’s help we’ll all be on our way home very soon. Good luck, good hunting. I’ll see you all airborne in about one hour.”

Ryazan’ Alternate Military Command Center

That same time

Anatoliy Gryzlov was on the phone to a member of the Duma when he looked up and saw something he very rarely saw — General Nikolai Stepashin chewing out some young officer, screaming at the top of his lungs at him — and then actually striking him in the face! Oh, shit, he thought, this looks very serious.

“Get a confirmation from the commanding general,” Stepashin was saying when Gryzlov approached him. “I need to know exactly what he saw, as soon as possible!”

“What is it, Nikolai?”

“Sir, a report came in early this morning that said an Ilyushin-78 tanker aircraft was damaged at Yakutsk.”

Gryzlov’s blood turned ice cold, and his eyes bugged out in shock. “This morning!?” he shouted.

“Sir, the message came in saying an aircraft was ‘damaged’—that’s all,” Stepashin said excitedly. “The lieutenant who took the report asked to speak with the commanding general at the base. He did not get to speak with him because the commander was at the crash scene, but then the lieutenant forgot to follow up, thinking it was just a minor accident. He finally followed up a short time ago and reported in his log that yefreytor radio operators at Yakutsk confirmed the accident but said that it was minor and that investigators and commanders were investigating, but gave no other details except to insist that it was not a result of hostile action. However, we also learned that the base has been closed off all day. Day-shift workers were turned away supposedly because of a hazardous chemical spill, believed to be weapons-related but unconfirmed. I ordered a security team from Magadan to fly out via the fastest way available to investigate and report back to me at once.”

“Did anyone speak with the commanding general?”

“The operator said he was at the crash site, sir. That is highly unusual and not standard procedure, but