It could be that they would be seen back there as accessories to
Boychenko’s crime.”
Kulagin swallowed. There was a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead. “I,
I see, sir. I understand.”
His veiled threat, Dmitriev knew, was exaggeration, almost certainly.
The days were long gone when an entire military unit numbering some tens
of thousands of men would be rounded up and imprisoned or shot en masse
because of its commander’s inadequacies. Terror might have worked as a
means of inspiring men in Stalin’s day, but the breakdown in command
authority within the former Soviet military hierarchy, from top to
bottom, made such measures counter-productive at best. Besides, trained
manpower was too scarce within the Rodina these days to carelessly
squander it to satisfy ego or wounded vanity.
But he desperately needed to hold his command together for a short time
longer. Operation Miaky had been scheduled for two days hence. .. as
soon as final preparations could be made for readying the Black Sea
Fleet for what would probably be its final sortie.
Miaky would be a cold wind indeed this time, one that would make its
chill felt clear across the Black Sea. .. and beyond to the rest of the
world.
1332 hours (Zulu +3)
Yalta, Crimean Military District “ETA six minutes, gentlemen.” The noise
of the helicopter’s engine made it hard for Tombstone to hear the pilot
even over his headphones. “I’ve got clearance from the Russkis to land
at the airport.”
“Then take her the hell on in,” Captain Greg Whitehead shouted into his
headset mike. “The faster we get out of the air, the better I’ll like
it!”
Tombstone leaned back in his hard seat. He had to agree with Whitehead’s
assessment of the situation. This whole idea of accepting the surrender
of an entire Russian military administrative district had come up on
such short notice that no one really knew what was happening. .. and if
that was true for the Americans in the battle group, it must be even
more so for the Russian forces. The chance of yet another accident in
this deployment–this time of Russian antiaircraft downing an incoming
unidentified helicopter–was greater than Tombstone really cared to
think about. He would have infinitely preferred flying in on an F-14 to
this slow, bumpy, and terribly exposed approach in one of Guadalcanal’s
CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters. At least he could have distracted
himself by concentrating on the controls.
But he wasn’t an aviator today, or even CAG. He was–God help me–a
diplomat and a news media liaison, and neither diplomats nor media
liaisons came roaring into hostile territory in an F-14 with
afterburners blazing, however attractive the image might be.
Magruder looked around the compartment, studying the other
passengers–all bundled up in flight suits and life jackets and bulky
Jefferson-issue cranials. Most of the others in the group looked as
uncertain as he felt. Captain Whitehead was Admiral Tarrant’s chief of
staff, and as such was the man in command of the shore party. He looked
collected enough, but the faces of the rest showed a mixture of worry,
nervous expectation, and emotions rigidly held in check. He wondered if
he was as transparent as the others.
Commander Sykes was present, of course, and four other staff officers,
ranging from another full commander named Sedgwick to a lowly lieutenant
j.g. from Jefferson’s OZ division named Eugene Vanyek. Enlisted
personnel included Chief Radioman Joseph R. Geiger, a short, thickset
man with heavy features and the indestructible look of chiefs throughout
the Navy, and seven Marines in full battle dress who’d been asked to
come along to provide security. All together, counting Magruder, there
were fifteen men and two women on the flight, which meant that the huge
transport helo’s cargo bay was about half-full. The CH-53 wasn’t
normally carried aboard the Jefferson, which relied on the smaller
Seahawks for most of its helicopter needs, but with so many people going
ashore at once, Jefferson had borrowed the CH-53 from the Marine
carrier, which had joined the Jeff on station the afternoon before.
He glanced across the Stallion’s huge cargo compartment and caught Joyce
Flynn watching him. She grinned at him, with perhaps a trace of
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