Silence surrounded the massive oak table and gleaming furnishings.
Gen. Forrest Milton Ridenour III, United States Air Force chief of staff, always a listener, broke the silence.
“I believe the good comrade is trying to muscle us into a position of capitulation through confrontation. The Soviets are totally perplexed, in regard to SDI, and now our Stealth bomber is coming on line. Zhilinkhov needs to make his mark soon. His country is progressively decaying.”
Ridenour allowed his words to have an impact and continued. “Think about this: Why would they bring back an aging Politburo member, considered too aggressive under the previous regime, to reform the Party?”
The chiefs digested this scenario as the Air Force chief of staff sipped his water and continued.
“The man is in ragged health. Zhilinkhov knows he doesn’t have a lot of time. He has to perform. What has he got to lose?
“His reputation and the future of his country, his ideology, is on the line. He must demonstrate to his supporters that he can bring the Americans to the bargaining table, that he can make us, through a thinly veiled threat of war, bow and acquiesce.”
The Air Force general looked around, leaned back in his chair, and continued.
“I believe Zhilinkhov is being manipulated. The Politburo ruling class, the conservative elite, are becoming dinosaurs in a crumbling society. They are becoming desperate. These recent incidents are reminiscent of old-style Soviet tactics.”
Admiral Chambers interrupted in a quiet manner. “Milt, what do you see as the bottom line?”
Ridenour, looking relaxed, responded. “I really — it would be pure conjecture to project an absolute.”
The general paused to form his reply. “I don’t know if they, and I emphasize ‘they,’ are desperate or deranged. How far would Zhilinkhov push? We don’t have any way to gauge.”
Ridenour, seeing Chambers didn’t have a question, continued. “The incidents could continue to escalate to the point where no rationale remains. Desperate people do desperate deeds, as we’ve seen many times.
“Zhilinkhov has proved to be overly aggressive and reactionary in the past. He openly celebrated the death of President Zia in eighty-eight. Zhilinkhov’s display deeply embarrassed the Kremlin.
“That incident and his record of opposing Gorbachev were the fundamental reasons for his removal from the Politburo during the shake-up. Shortly afterward, as I’m sure all of you will recall, Zhilinkhov publicly criticized Gorbachev for allowing Andrei Sakharov to travel to the United States. So, we can anticipate the worst from the general secretary, in my opinion,” General Ridenour concluded.
“Let me pose a question,” the Army chief of staff, Gen. Warren Kinlaw Vandermeer, said as he leaned over the table. “Does anyone believe the former general secretary died in a purely accidental crash?”
Vandermeer handed a picture and biography of Zhilinkhov to General Ridenour.
“No,” replied Adm. Martin Grabow, chief of Naval Operations. “The circumstances are very suspect, what with the short mourning period and the new players in the starting blocks.”
“In addition,” the admiral continued, “there is every indication, according to our operatives, that a ground-launched missile hit the airplane as it lifted off the runway at Sheremetyevo.”
General Ridenour passed Zhilinkhov’s biography to Chambers. “We have a real problem on our hands.”
“I’m afraid you’re right, Milt,” Chambers concluded, studying the somber, puffy face of the Soviet president and general secretary.
The Third Fleet carrier and its battle group, recently conducting operations in the Bering Sea north of the Aleutian Islands, had received orders to steam at flank speed toward the Sea of Okhotsk.
The 93,000-ton Vinson and her escort ships would join the Seventh Fleet battle group, spearheaded by the carrier USS Constellation, to prowl the waters adjacent to Kamchatka Peninsula. The USS Ranger and her carrier task force, enjoying a port call to Anchorage, Alaska, were being hurriedly dispatched to replace the Vinson in the Bering Sea.
The past thirty-six hours had been marked by significant increases in Soviet air and naval activity near Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, along with an unusual number of Russian submarine deployments from the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Russian submarine base was the only Soviet seaport with direct, year-round access to the open ocean.
Aboard the Vinson, Rear Adm. Thomas R. Brinkman was meeting with his Flag Staff to coordinate the combined efforts of the two battle groups.
“We have seen an alarming and growing threat from the Russian sector in the past four days.” The admiral paused while a color slide of recent Soviet movements was projected on a screen to his left.
“Our intelligence community hasn’t come to grips with the actual purpose of this sudden activity; however, we can assume it has to do with the political swing brought about by the untimely death of the former general secretary.”
The portly task force commander glanced at his staff intelligence officer, Capt. Jack Sinclair.
“I believe Jack can give us a better picture of the current situation, at least what we know to be factual at the moment. Jack?”
“The Russians are mobilizing their ground forces in these areas of Eastern bloc countries,” Sinclair paused, pointing to different sections on the slide, “and they have been moving their fighter air wings to forward operating bases west of the Urals.”
Sinclair placed a different graphic on the projector.
“Also, the carrier Kiev has left port in the past sixteen hours, presumably to dog the Eisenhower. It has a complement of twenty-three Yak-36 ‘Forgers’ on board and three escort ships, two Sovremenny-class missile destroyers, and a guided missile cruiser, the Slava. The Brezhnev is preparing to get underway from Nikolayev shipyard with a full load of various aircraft.”
Sinclair reached for another slide and continued. “Every operable sub has left the bases at Polyarnyy and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski. The waters we are currently traversing are crawling with Russian subs. Intelligence estimates at least twelve Soviet submarines in a three-hundred-mile radius of the Kuril Islands. Satellite reconnaissance confirms seven Russian submarines have ducked under the ice cap from the Beaufort Sea to the Laptev Sea, big boomers.
“This is where we stand at the moment.” Sinclair waited until the other staff officers perused the slide depicting American and NATO movements. It was clear that a major Soviet military buildup was underway.
“What we don’t know is the why,” Sinclair continued. “The general consensus is this: The new regime is sending a strong signal to indicate they want to realign the Soviet and American power base. The Russians apparently believe they can achieve this result through intimidation and military pressure. As you are well aware, the new Soviet government has a basketful of problems, and they haven’t had much success at the bargaining table the past few years. The SDI issue had them frothing at the mouth in ninety, and they are aware that our final link to the basic space defense system is about to be launched aboard Columbia. Another big rub is the pending deployment of the Stealth bombers. They’re already mad as hell about our ‘no-see-um’ fighters.”
The intelligence officer set his papers down, removed his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and continued.
“Pressure, gentlemen. The Soviets are under tremendous pressure. The only leverage they have is the strength of their military and, apparently, the newly formed powers believe it is their last recourse. So it’s back to MAD, the mutual assured destruction doctrine, before we place them in a position of impotence with the SDI technology,” Sinclair concluded, waiting for questions.