CARRIER 5: MAELSTROM By Keith Douglass

working up recommendations for strike operations for the entire wing earlier

that day, he’d had only coffee and a donut for breakfast and had skipped lunch

entirely. Only now did he realize how hungry he was. Dinner was okserull, a

kind of beef roll stuffed and served cold; and sildesalat, salad of cucumber

and vegetables, onions, salted herring, and mayonnaise. Afterwards, they

talked about the war over glasses of linjeakevitt, a drink served in

Tombstone’s honor according to Lindstrom. Akevitt was a flavored alcoholic

beverage distilled from potatoes. Linjeakevitt, the general explained, was

stored in oaken casks aboard ship, where the rolling motion was said to give

it a unique flavor. Tombstone did not drink as a rule, but the liquor’s smoky

taste was not unpleasant.

Lindstrom had a large map of Scandinavia mounted on an easel in the tent.

As stewards cleared away dinner, Tombstone and Pamela sat in folding canvas

chairs while the Norwegian general explained the death grip that was

strangling his nation.

“Until two days ago,” he explained, using a red marker to sketch arrows

on the map, “we had Soviet forces moving down the coast from the north, so …

and in the area around Oslo, so. At Oslo, we contained them. A few of them

only arrived by ship and commercial airliner. Two days ago we learn of new

movement, here … here …”

With bold slashes, he drew red arrows on the map, bridging the Gulf of

Bothnia from Finland and the Baltic from the Red Army-occupied ports of Riga

and Tallinn, crossing to the eastern shore of Sweden at Sundsvall, Gavle, and

Stockholm.

“Our Swedish cousins have fought valiantly,” he continued. “Their army,

once mobilized, is larger far than Norway’s. Still, Stockholm was taken in a

few hours, and breakthroughs were made here … on the highway through

Jamtland toward Trondheim. We fight them in the mountains here, at the

border, but our lines behind Trondheimfjorden are flanked. Already I have

given orders for retreat.”

Norway’s strategic position looked hopeless. The Bergen Pocket, as

Lindstrom called the perimeter that encompassed all of the country south of

Trondheim save for the region around Oslo, was being pressed from north,

south, and east out of Sweden. Hard as the Norwegian Home Defense might

fight, that perimeter could only dwindle as the Soviets closed in, throwing

more and more forces against their defenses. Air strikes had increased as

well, now that the Soviets were overflying Swedish airspace at will.

“But why are they doing it?” Pamela wanted to know. “That’s what I can’t

understand. Everything was falling to pieces inside the Soviet Union. I

thought the last thing they wanted was a war!”

“Actually, that’s exactly what they wanted,” Tombstone said. The subject

had been a frequent topic for discussion in Jefferson’s wardroom. “A war gets

the people’s minds off how bad things are. Look, France was falling apart in

the 1790s, but they went to war with the rest of Europe and ended up with an

empire. Or take Hitler. He tried to pull Germany out of a depression and

started World War II.” He frowned and shook his head. The linjeakevitt had

thickened his tongue. “The fall of Communism didn’t make the world safer.

When the marshals couldn’t put the Soviet economy in order after the ’91 coup,

the only way they could stay on top was to invade Europe.”

“Wars are expensive,” Pamela said. The liquor, Tombstone noticed, was

getting to her as well. She seemed to be having trouble focusing. “The

people still need food.”

“Sure. But with a war on, people accept the rationing and the

shortages.”

“You think the attack on us, then, is aimed at all of Europe?” Lindstrom

asked.

“Certainly.” Tombstone gestured at the map. “Look, with Scandinavia in

the Soviet orbit, all the lost countries of Eastern Europe are going to go

scampering back to Mother Russia. Western Europe too. They’re outflanked,

with their whole northern coast exposed to Russian air and amphibious attack.

Better yet, the Russians’ll have proved that the United States can’t be

depended on to come to Europe’s rescue.” He shrugged. “My guess is that

Germany and France will surrender without a fight. Maybe Britain too, though

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