“So, I’m going to be stationed here?”
“That’s what I was told,” Garvey replied. “But Iverson has the details. Do you need a ride back to the hotel?”
“No,” a male voice answered. “She doesn’t. I’ll give her a lift.”
Quinn turned to find Daniel Dean standing behind her. He was dressed in a dark gray suit and a black tie. “Dan! You’re here! How did you know where I was?”
“Peevy told me what happened,” Dean replied. “And the agency reeled me in. You look good in an American uniform. It’s too early in the day for the dinner I promised you. So how about lunch, dinner, and breakfast? I’m known for my French Toast.”
The implication was obvious. “Breakfast with you? Are you planning to seduce me?”
“Of course.”
Quinn looked up at him. “I’m in.”
Garvey had been forgotten during the interchange. And, as the couple walked away, the public affairs officer smiled. Some things were meant to be.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I have, at times, take liberties with certain locations, the city of Ozersk (City 40), Russia being primary among them. Ozersk is a real place, and heavily contaminated with radioactive waste from the Mayak plant which was a primary source of plutonium during the cold war, and is now used to process and recycle nuclear material from decommissioned nuclear weapons. As such the city is “closed” and surrounded by Russian troops.
But strangely enough, about 80,000 people still live there, and are happy to do so because they live in nice apartments and enjoy a variety of luxuries.
My version of Ozersk is considerably more bleak, and represents what I believe it would be like if the Russian government wasn’t spending huge sums of money to keep the residents happy.
And, just for the record, I didn’t exaggerate the levels of contamination in and around City 40. For more information about Ozersk, google The Guardian’s article, “The graveyard of the Earth,” inside City 40, Russia’s deadly nuclear secret, and the Wikipedia article on Ozersk.
The City of Stones is, like so many things, a figment of my imagination.
ABOUT THE WINDS OF WAR SERIES
In RED TIDE, volume five of the Winds of War series, WWIII rages on as the nuclear-powered Chinese Semi-Submersible Cruiser Sea Dragon goes to sea as part of a Battle Group.
When Chinese satellites detect the presence of an American Battle Group only a few hundred miles over the horizon, Captain Peng Ko receives orders to attack it. The enemy battle group includes the aircraft carrier Concord which, given its planes and escorts, should be impervious to anything a single cruiser could throw at it.
But the Sea Dragon is equipped with a one-of-a-kind experimental weapon that can not only fire projectiles from a long distance away, but can inflict terrible damage when it does so. Five hits are sufficient to send the Wilson to the bottom. The hunt for the Sea Dragon begins.
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, the Allies are planning to attack the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. In order to succeed the Allies will have to engage enemy patrol boats and neutralize heavily armed “Gun Towers.”
The invaders will also be forced to fight the cruiser Rostov which, if allowed to enter the Mediterranean Sea, could wreak havoc on Allied shipping.
U.S. Navy Commander Maxwell Ryson and his squadron of Pegasus Class II Hydrofoils will be front and center during the attack, and will, despite their relatively small size, be forced to engage the mighty Rostov.
Subsequent to the battle in the Black Sea, Ryson takes command of a mixed squadron of patrol boats assigned to police the South China Sea and, more importantly, help find the Sea Dragon. A mission which, if successful, is what one admiral describes as “a surefire way to win a posthumous Medal of Honor.”
ABOUT WILLIAM C. DIETZ
For more about William C. Dietz and his fiction, please visit williamcdietz.com. You can find Bill on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/williamcdietz.
Red Thunder (Winds of War Book 4) Page 29