Our Next Great War

by Martin Archer

  “Working late?” I inquired

  “Dick, I’m sleeping in the office again. How ya doin?”

  “Coming home as ordered. I just left Russia so I’ll be at Andrews about the time the sun comes up in the morning. What’s up?”

  “Congressional hearing. The chairman of some kind of special subcommittee wants you to testify.”

  Say what?

  “About what?”

  “About the hotel shootout. Story in the Washington Post this morning says you may have deliberately killed an unarmed man.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “Nope. The word is that someone’s trying to smear you in case you decide to run for President.” The interesting thing is that the subcommittee was set up and the hearings scheduled before the story appeared. It’s an ambush aimed straight at your political career.”

  “Well the Post and the politicians certainly could have saved themselves the trouble if they’d bothered to ask. I’m not running. In case no one’s noticed, I’ve got this Russian problem to handle.”

  “Yeah, I know. But this is Washington and everyone’s paranoid. Sometimes reality doesn’t run very deep after you’ve been in Congress or a political appointee for a couple of years.”

  “When is the dog and pony show scheduled?”

  “Anytime you want in the next couple of days. They’ve got me scheduled for ten o’clock this morning. You want to come with me? I could yield to you so you could speak before I do.”

  ******

  “Oh… Uh.. I apologize, Mr. Chairman. I was daydreaming during your speech. What was the question again?”

  “I asked, General Evans, what you were thinking about?”

  “What was I was thinking about while you were making your speech, Mr. Chairman? If that’s the question, I’d rather not say. It’s rather embarrassing and would serve no useful purpose.”

  “That’s for this committee to decide. You have to answer the question, General, you’re under oath.” He is very smug and talking to the television cameras lined up along the side of the room instead of to me.

  “Well Sir, I’d rather not say what I was thinking as you were speaking… But if you absolutely insist, I ….” …

  “Oh I do insist, General, yes I do,” Jackson interjected self-righteously as he continued to beam at the cameras instead of looking at me.

  “Well Sir, while you were making your speech I was wondering to myself how a grandstanding lightweight like you ever got elected.” I shrugged. “Sorry Congressman. You insisted on the truth and I’m under oath.”

  There was a brief moment of stunned silence and then the hearing room broke into an absolute uproar of laughter and clapping. Some of the crowd actually cheered. Even Hammond grinned though he desperately tried to hide it. It was contagious.

  Congressman Jackson was beyond furious when the room finally quieted down. “You Sir, are in contempt of Congress. Do you realize that?”

  “No Sir, that is not true. I in no way hold the Congress in contempt. To the contrary, I can tell you, under oath, that I hold our political system and our Congress in the very highest esteem and consider myself totally bound by the laws it passes and the decisions of our President and Courts.

  "We really do have the finest system of government in the world, you know, and Congress is a very important part of it… It’s only you personally, and whoever is pulling your strings, that I hold in contempt.”

  There was another brief silence and then the hearing room broke into an even greater uproar of laughter and clapping and many of the people in the audience stood up to get a better view. Some of the crowd sitting in the back actually climbed up on their chairs so they could see Congressman Jackson’s response as they cheered and clapped.

  But the now irate congressman was not to be denied. After much pounding of his gavel Congressman Jackson pointed his finger at the TV camera instead of me and self-righteously demanded that I answer a question.

  “Isn’t it true that you deliberately tried to kill an unarmed man on the exit stairs of the Excelsior Hotel in Bonn, Germany?”

  “No Sir, that is not true. I did not deliberately ‘try’ to kill anyone. I absolutely succeeded. I either killed or helped kill at least one, and probably two, armed terrorists on the exit stairs of the Kapinski Hotel.” I emphasized the word ‘try.’

  “But one of them was unarmed, wasn’t he?”

  “No Sir, that’s not true either. Both of them were wearing ski masks and carrying UZI machine guns. Perhaps you might find it helpful to actually read the police and intelligence reports.”

  “But after you shot them didn’t you deliberately kill one of them by breaking his neck?”

  “It is absolutely true that I shot the first attacker with a pistol provided by one of our Marines and then stepped on him as I was picking up his machine gun, which I then used to shoot the second attacker coming up behind him. A very fine young Marine captain then picked up the second attacker’s machine gun and used it to shoot the third attacker a few seconds later.”

  Then I continued.

  “As you would have known from the various official reports, if you had read them, the emergency exit staircase was very narrow and dozens of people, including my wife and a number of the Americans, were following me down and had to step on or over the attackers. So did many firemen and policemen who were coming up the stairs in the other direction. As a result, I am not absolutely sure if I’m the one who stepped on him and broke his neck. But if it got broken, I certainly hope I’m the one who did it. I certainly tried.”

  “You hope you’re the one who killed him?” He emphasized the ‘you hope’ with an incredulous look to the left towards the TV cameras instead of towards me.

  “Yes sir. Absolutely. I have a moral and legal duty to protect my wife and my fellow Americans and everyone else our Congress and the President says should be protected. No decent man, and certainly no one serving in our military, would run out of a building to save himself and leave vicious attackers, men carrying machine guns and wearing ski masks, behind to kill his wife and other civilians.”

  And then leaning forward and pointing my finger at the Chairman as the flashbulbs flashed and the television cameras rolled, I pointed my finger at him and added

  “And no decent man would expect him to abandon his wife and fellow Americans to such people. You should be ashamed of yourself. Have you no decency in you, Sir?”

  The audience roared and the outraged Chairman started to sputter and say something. But then, after several members of his hovering staff began urgently whispering in his ear, he adjourned the hearing for lunch. It never restarted. And many tens of thousands of supportive letters and telegrams began to pour into the White House and Pentagon. And, so I was told, many tens of thousands more poured into Congressman Jackson’s office suggesting he resign and worse.

  Pops was elated and I was besieged with requests for interviews and talk show appearances as I left the hearing. Three hours later I was on the Starlifter and bound for Riems with a cargo of explosives and snow machines that would continue on to Arkhara after it dropped me off at Riems.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Chinese are coming.

  There was now no question about it. Our various intelligence agencies continued to agree that there would be preliminary attacks elsewhere to draw off the Russian reserves, but that the jumping off place for the main Chinese invasion of Russia would be the Chinese city of Manzhouli which is south of the Russian district capitol of Chita. It is the most westerly of the Chinese cities on the Russian border that is fully integrated into the Northern Chinese system of railroads and roads.

  Manzhouli is where the Chinese railroad system used to cross the Amur River border with Russia and connect to the Trans-Siberian railroad which runs east and west across Russia on the other side of the Amur River.

  With twenty-twenty hindsight, the analysts of our intelligence agencies looking at the latest satellite photos agreed
that it was significant that the Chinese highway system leading up to Manzhouli had been greatly improved in the last couple of years and so had the rail line leading up to the Russian border. Not only had the rail line been double tracked and upgraded to carry significantly heavier loads, but a large number of new sidings and unloading docks had been constructed, many in the past few months.

  Perhaps the only surprising thing about discovering that the main thrust of the Chinese invasion was likely to come at Chita through Manzhouli was that we didn’t realize it before and only now understood the significance of the improved infrastructure and what it meant.

  What made the recent Chinese construction so significant was that in 2003, during the Second Ussuri War, the Chinese closed the border and the rail line coming through Manzhouli to connect China to the Trans-Siberian—and had not reopened it ever since. The rail and road bridges over the Amur River were still there, but they had not been used for years. In other words, the new construction had no civilian purpose.

  Probably the reason we didn’t initially understand what the Chinese were going to do was because Manzhouli was on the same rail and road system as the Chinese cities south and west of Khabarovsk. As a result we, along with everyone else, thought the military supplies and equipment being stockpiled along the rail line there is so they could be moved eastward to support a Chinese invasion aimed at taking Kharbarovsk or Vladivostok or the Usurri lands south of the Amur.

  In fact, if our intelligence was right, they were there so they can be moved westward to support an invasion aimed at cutting Russia in half and annexing the entire eastern half of Russia.

  What really ruined my day when I got back from the “hearing” in Washington was Jack Brigham pointing to a couple of satellite photos pinned up on the conference room wall and giving me the bad news—the Chinese had started moving their invasion supplies. Most of them were headed west so they could be used in an invasion aimed at Chita and Lake Baikal.

  Then I broke Jack Brigham’s heart by telling him that he and Jim Adams and their three senior sergeants would have to continue working at The Detachment instead of coming with me back out to Russia to join Charlie Safford and the rest of the guys.

  Long ago I learned the importance of have a continuing independent analysis of the intelligence information we receive. We also need someone who is instantly available to handle special requests. The Pentagon and our intelligence agencies are good but sometimes they are slow and, even worse, sometimes they “refine” the results to adjust the facts to support the prevailing views of the politicians and military bureaucrats—and that inevitably leads to mistakes, bad mistakes.

  ******

  It was over. The revolution, that is. One of the ringleaders committed suicide and a couple of others fled to Finland. The rest, it seems, have surrendered and are under house arrest. On the other hand, the threat of losing a large part of Russia to the Chinese has suddenly galvanized the surviving government hierarchy; it had given them something they can use to rally the Russian people to the government and its leaders despite losing the war and the sad state of the Russian economy.

  Russia was finally starting to get its act together. The sudden realization that China was actually going to attack and might well win probably explained why the satellite photos of the Russian naval base at Kalingrad showed the nuclear powered attack submarine Admiral Potkin and its sister ship, the Lira, to be beehives of activity. Crewmen and spare parts, torpedoes, and rations were being taken from a third sub to provide the necessary supplies and spares for one of the longest combat deployments ever taken by the Russian navy. At least that’s how Jack and his people interpreted the photos.

  The two Russian attack subs would be ready to sail for the Chinese coast within the next twenty four hours and, if the latest CIA report is accurate, and it should be since the CIA rates its source of Russian naval information as highly reliable, one of the subs has been ordered to lie off Shanghai and the other off Canton. Highly reliable means the CIA either has someone important in their pocket or NSA has been listening to such a person without them knowing it.

  What was surprising was that the Potkin and the Lira were the only seaworthy attack subs left in Russian hands of the eighteen Kaliningrad-based submarines of the Baltic Fleet that put to sea a few months ago to fight in the recent war. NATO sinkings and the newly restored Ukraine took the rest.

  According to the CIA, four other attack subs and three boomers capable of launching nuclear tipped and conventional cruise missiles were already en route to China from the Northern Fleet at Murmansk. There were also reports of a suddenly increased level of activity at all of Russia’s naval installations with what appeared to be military vehicles and supplies being loaded on some of Russia’s remaining operational ships and on some commercial charters.

  That was it. Nine subs were all the Russian portion of the once great Eastern Union submarine service could immediately contribute to help Russia fight a war with China—unless the Turks agreed to let the ships of Russia's Black Sea fleet pass through the Bosporus and Dardanelles. If the Turks cooperate there will be two more for a total of eleven. So far, quite understandably, the Turkish government has refused.

  Hopefully the Turks will change their minds. The Russian-based portion of the Eastern Union's Black Sea fleet came through the Turkish War relatively unscathed except for a destroyer the Turkish air force picked off in the Mediterranean and a submarine that made the mistake of trying to get through the Dardanelles without the permission of the Turks.

  About a mile away, at two other Kaliningrad docks, the Kotlin class destroyer Bravy and the six of the other surviving destroyers and frigates of Russia’s similarly reduced Baltic Surface Fleet also appeared to be undergoing the same around the clock refitting and resupply. They too were being prepared for a high-speed dash around the world to Vladivostok.

  Additionally, the latest CIA and NSA reports confirmed that each of the destroyers had been ordered to squeeze aboard two or more companies of naval infantry, as Russia’s Marines are called, and carry a deck cargo of whatever light tanks and other tracked vehicles they had room to load. Some of the tanks were already visible on their decks and others waiting to be load were on the docks nearby. Those already loaded had crates of additional ammunition stacked on them.

  Only one thing was for sure so far as I was concerned: It was going to be a long and unpleasant experience for the men on those ships. I know because I get seasick every time I even get near a ship. Indeed, just standing there listening to Brigham and Adams talk about how the Russian troops were being crowded into the Russian ships made me feel a bit queasy.

  What was surprising, according to Adams, was that so many of the Russian surface ships were not being prepared to sail, not one of Russia's three surviving carriers, none of its cruisers and missile ships and tank-carrying landing ships, none of its civilian ferries and container ships, and, of course, none of the Russian ships that were permanently bottled up in the Black Sea by Turkey’s control of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits.

  After listening to Major Adams, I sent a message to Bill Hammond with a long list of intelligence questions starting with what the Russian navy was not doing. He would forward them on to the appropriate agencies. I also decided to send some of the same questions to Danovsky, to NATO intelligence, and to Boots, my Sandhurst friend in British intelligence.

  I also suggested to General Hammond that he hold his nose and ask the Secretary of State to impress upon the Turks our desire for the Russian fleet to be allowed to pass through the Turkish waters.

  “Try to be friendly when you ask her, Bill,” I suggested when I called him to follow up. “If we want to help the Russians, we need her to really try to get Turkey’s cooperation.” Bill doesn’t like her at all. I wonder why?

  Then I sent Jack and Charlie a flash request for an update on the Russian swimmers and acknowledged Jack’s earlier message confirming that he had passed on to Krutchovy some additions to the
list of crucial bridges and an operational plan for each of them. They were all in China.

  Jack and Charlie were out in the field and out of contact, but Safford’s aide, Captain Carpenter, replied within minutes. He reported that he’d been left behind to mind the store. According to Captain Carpenter, Colonel Krutchovy was fully aware of the new revelations regarding the Chinese objectives and had already reoriented his plans to a revised priority list of bridges and partisan targets so more of his assets would be concentrated on the bridges related to Chita. Carpenter must be a bright kid if Charlie and Jack are willing to count on him to mind the store.

  Captain Carpenter also confirmed that the swimmers themselves still don’t know their targets; only that they involve bridges somewhere. He reiterated what I already knew—for security purposes each team will only get its specific assignment an hour or so before its members board their helicopters and head into China. That’s a damn smart move. Danovsky is going to be in deep shit if the Chinese find out about the swimmers in time to intercept them.

  Captain Carpenter's most important news was bad—no additional Russian frogmen had shown up; the only ones who had arrived so far were the dozen or so who came from Vladivostok. It meant that Krutchovy only had enough swimmers to take out two or three of the most important bridges of the twenty or more in China that should be blown.

  If no more swimmers arrived the Russians would be forced to choose between leaving most of the Chinese bridges intact, or making costly air attacks that would likely leave the Russian ground troops without air support because attacking the bridges used up most of the available Russian planes and pilots. That’s the same choice we faced when the Russians attacked NATO; we got more swimmers and sent them all.

  Danovsky’s only other alternative was to use airborne assaults in an effort to put engineers and assault troops on the ground to destroy the key Chinese bridges. Either way, direct air or ground attacks would be costly, and all to likely to fail because the satellite photos showed serious amounts of anti-aircraft and other forces around almost every one of the bridges we thought were important.