by Dale Brown
Staggered by the sudden death of Gennadiy Gryzlov and hundreds of others in what Moscow claimed was a “treacherous attack carried out by Iron Wolf mercenaries when they illegally seized the Mars One space station,” the Russians had only grudgingly agreed to a cease-fire on Earth and in orbit. Brad’s suspicion, shared by Nadia, Martindale, his father, and others, was that they were just buying time while various factions inside and outside of Gryzlov’s regime wrestled for power.
Reading the text crawl across the bottom of the television pictures, Brad frowned. It appeared that the different factions had come to an agreement. Russia had just announced the formation of a Committee of National Defense. While the office of president was vacant, pending a new election, executive power would reside in the hands of a select group of experts. Seeing their names, he realized most of them were holdovers from Gryzlov’s council of ministers.
There was one exception, the newly promoted marshal of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Leonov.
Nadia stabbed her finger at the picture of the tough-looking soldier. “What if we’ve defeated a jackal, Gryzlov . . . only to see a tiger emerge from the shadows in his place?”
Studying a close-up of Leonov’s hard-eyed Slavic face, Brad felt a slight shiver of dread run down his spine. Nadia’s instincts were probably right. While the Russians loudly proclaimed that their new government was a committee of equals, he bet that Leonov would turn out to be, like the pigs in Orwell’s Animal Farm, “more equal than others.” Scion’s intelligence pros said the Mars Project had been Leonov’s inspiration from the beginning—and they strongly suspected he was responsible for launching the warhead that had nailed Gryzlov when everything went south in orbit. All of which indicated this guy was going to be serious trouble for the United States and its allies going forward.
Then he forced himself to set his fears aside . . . at least for this moment. The last thing he needed right now was Nadia in a dark mood. Instead, he deliberately lightened his voice and shrugged. “A tiger, huh? Could be, I guess. Then we’ll just need to find ourselves a bigger gun.” With a grin, he waved a hand at the space station around them. “Eagle Station and the Thunderbolt plasma weapon we captured sure look like a pretty good start to me.”
Almost unwillingly, she laughed, though her eyes were still full of worry. “Perhaps you are right.” She shook her head. “After all, we have won a victory and lived to fight another day. In this world of ours, what more can we hope for?”
Taking that as his cue, Brad cleared his throat nervously. “Well, actually, there is something else that I’m hoping for—”
Maneuvering carefully in zero-G, he gently pulled himself down to a kneeling position and hooked a foot under a nearby console to hold himself in place. Then he unfastened a pocket on his Sky Masters flight suit and pulled out a small gold ring with a diamond that glinted even in the dim light.
Swallowing hard against a sudden lump in his throat, Brad asked, “Nadia, kochanie, wyjdziesz za mnie? My dear, will you marry me?”
Caught off guard, she gasped. Then, for a long moment, the longest moment he could ever remember in his whole life, she looked down at the deck without speaking. But when she raised her eyes to his, she was smiling. Firmly, she said, “Tak, Brad, zrobę to. Z całego serca i mojej duszy. Yes, I will. With all my heart and soul.”
Acknowledgment
As always, thank you to Patrick Larkin for his hard work and skill.
Weapons and Acronyms
AN/TPY-2—air defense radar system
BOHM—borohydrogen metaoxide, an advanced rocket engine oxidizer
CAPCOM—capsule communicator, person maintaining communications between a spacecraft and Mission Control
CID—Cybernetic Infantry Device, a manned combat robot
COMS—Cybernetic Orbital Maneuvering System, a manned or unmanned space transportation device
DEFCON—Defense Condition, an alerting system designating a particular war footing
Dragon—manned space capsule designed by SpaceX
DTF—digital terrain-following, high-speed low-altitude flight without using radar
E-4B—airborne command and control aircraft
EA-18G Growler—carrier-borne electronic warfare aircraft
EKS—Edinaya Kosmicheskaya Sistema, advanced Russian early warning system
Elektron—Russian manned spaceplane
Energia-5VR—Russian heavy-lift rocket
ERO—Emergency Return from Orbit, a crew escape system capable of returning a crewman from Earth orbit
EVA—extravehicular activity; spacewalk
FSB—Federal’naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, Russian intelligence service that replaced the KGB
gapa—Polish pilot’s wings
GMD—Ground-Based Midcourse Defense, part of the U.S. missile defense system
GRU—Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye, former Soviet military intelligence service
HeliVert AW139—AgustaWestland medium-transport helicopter
HK416—German assault rifle
Hobnail—Russian space-based laser attack system
HUD—heads-up display, a system that projects vital information to a screen in front of the pilot so he does not have to look down
HUMINT—human intelligence, using spies to gather intelligence
IKS—identifikatsionnyy kod samolet, Russian radar identification system
JP-8—military aviation gasoline
Ka-52—Kamov-52, Russian armed scout helicopter
Kibernetischeskiye Voyennyye Mashiny (KVM)—manned Russian combat robot
Kościuszko Land Forces Military Academy—Polish military academy
LEAF—Life Enhancing Assistive Facility, a mobile wearable life-support device
LPDRS—Laser Pulse Detonation Rocket System, advanced spacecraft propulsion system
MALD—miniature air-launched decoy, an advanced American aircraft defense system
MARAUDER—magnetically accelerated ring to achieve ultrahigh directed energy and radiation, experimental American plasma weapon
Mars Project—Russian manned space station project
MiG-31—Russian high-speed high-altitude jet fighter
MOOSE—Manned Orbital Operations Safety Equipment, experimental American astronaut rescue system
Mossberg 500—special-purpose shotgun
OAK—FAA designation for Oakland International Airport
Orion—NASA manned spacecraft system
PKP—Russian special-operations machine gun
PLSS—Primary Life Support System, an American astronaut’s backpack
Rapira—“Rapier,” Russian space-based Earth attack weapon
Razdan—Russian electro-optical satellite
RD-0150 and RD-171MV—Russian rocket engines
S-9 Black Stallion, S-19 Midnight, S-29 Shadow—American single-stage-to-orbit spaceplanes
S-300, S-400, S-500—Russian surface-to-air missiles
SAM—surface-to-air missile
SBIRS—Space Based Infrared System, advanced American early warning system
Scimitar—Russian spacecraft defense system
SCT-2—thermal imaging gun sights
SERE—Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape, training soldiers receive to prepare them for combat
SFO—FAA code for San Francisco International Airport
SpaceX Falcon Heavy—SpaceX heavy-lift rocket
Su-27, Su-30, Su-35—advanced Russian fighter aircraft
Thunderbolt (Udar Molnii)—Russian space-based plasma weapon
Wasp—Russian air-launched antisatellite weapon
Wren Bravo—very light reconnaissance drone
XCV-62 Ranger—American stealthy short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft
XS-39—next-generation experimental American single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane
About the Author
DALE BROWN is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books, beginning with Flight of the Old Dog (1987) to, most recently
, The Moscow Offensive (2018). A former U.S. Air Force captain, he can often be found flying his own plane in the skies of the United States. He lives near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Also by Dale Brown
The Moscow Offensive
Price of Duty
Iron Wolf
Starfire
Tiger’s Claw
A Time for Patriots
Executive Intent
Rogue Forces
Shadow Command
Strike Force
Edge of Battle
Act of War
Plan of Attack
Air Battle Force
Wings of Fire
Warrior Class
Battle Born
The Tin Man
Fatal Terrain
Shadows of Steel
Storming Heaven
Chains of Command
Night of the Hawk
Sky Masters
Hammerheads
Day of the Cheetah
Silver Tower
Flight of the Old Dog
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
the kremlin strike. Copyright © 2019 by Creative Arts and Sciences LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Cover design by Richard L. Aquan
Cover photograph: Moscow © MazzzaO/Shutterstock
Cover illustration: plane © www.kollected.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brown, Dale, 1956- author.
Title: The Kremlin Strike / Dale Brown.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : William Morrow, [2019] | Identifiers: LCCN 2018037551 (print) | LCCN 2018039004 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062843043 (ebook) | ISBN 0062843044 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062843012 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 006284301X (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: | GSAFD: Suspense fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3552.R68543 (ebook) | LCC PS3552.R68543 T47 2019 (print) | DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018037551
Digital Edition MAY 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-284304-3
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-284301-2
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