The President nodded, obviously not happy, but realizing there was nothing he could do about it now.
Curtis continued. “A few minor injuries, getting on the helicopters and such, none serious. Otherwise everyone else is fine. I think I’ll have the Marines create a training course for all embassy staffers on helicopter operations during evacuation procedures. A few ladies refused to get on, and others simply had no clue.”
“Evacuation procedures, helicopter operations… sign of the times, eh, Wilbur?”
“Sign of the times, Mr. President.”
The President felt bad about Rebecca Massey — he had known the tempestuous Washington insider for years — but he was also relieved that she was the only casualty. Something had told the President that he might expect dozens of Americans to die in Lithuania tonight. “What news from the embassy? What are the Soviets doing?”
“So far no sign of excitement,” Curtis replied. “I expect you’ll be getting a call from President Kanocius of Lithuania. The wire services are reporting that he will make an announcement about the raid in about an hour. Nothing from the Commonwealth at all. The Marines in the embassy are hunkering down and waiting for trouble.”
“I will call President Kapocius,” the President said. “He should be briefed on the progress of the mission. He took a big chance authorizing our aircraft to fly over Lithuania. I could give President Miriclaw of Poland a hug for all he’s done.”
“I’d wait until you hear what he’d like in return before you hug him,” Curtis said wryly. “Poland has been clamoring for additional farm and industrial credits, including rebuilding that nuclear power plant in Gdynia, which we’ve opposed in the past. Payback may be a bitch on this one.
“Right now he deserves it,” the President said. “Stepping on the Commonwealth’s toes like this isn’t going to be popular in his country or his government. We’ll have to make it up to him.” The President paused, looking at Russell with a wary eye. “Okay, what’s the not-so-good news?” Before Curtis could speak, he said, “The rescue mission to Fisikous? Something went wrong …?”
“We’re not sure yet,” Curtis replied uneasily. “It appears that the Lithuanian Self-Defense Force, of all things, has staged a series of military raids on Byelorussian and Commonwealth military bases in Lithuania. The self-defense force is led by General Dominikas Palcikas. The main thrust of his attack was on the Fisikous Institute of Technology itself—”
“You’re saying that a Lithuanian military unit stormed Fisikous?” he asked in alarm. “Don’t tell me they went in at the same time as the Marines …?
“That appears to be the case, sir.”
“What? They decided to finally toss out the Byelorussian and CIS troops the same night we go in? Jesus,” the President muttered. “Boy, I’ll never play cards again — the long odds are really going against me.” He was silent for a moment, then said, “Well, if the wire services got the news, I’d better drop the all’s-quiet routine.” He buzzed the outer office. “Nancy, cancel all other appointments tonight with my sincere apologies.”
A few moments later the chief of staff, Robert “Case” Timmons, hearing the President’s instructions on the intercom, knocked and entered the Oval Office.
“Case, get the NSC and the White House staff over here, and put a call in to the leadership. Tell them I’ll have news for them in a couple of hours.”
His longtime aide and protégé hurried off to his office to make the calls, leaving the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff alone with the President.
The President poured himself another cup of coffee, then motioned Curtis to a chair. “Might as well be comfortable, Wilbur. This is shaping up to be a very long evening. Details, please, from the beginning.”
“The Special Forces assaults inside Lithuania all went off without a hitch, with the exception of one Navy SEAL,” Curtis said quietly. “He was killed while attempting to cut down some communications antennae on a headquarters building. The building was blown up under him— blown up, it turns out, by the Lithuanian Army. We got one report from a Special Forces team about a strange incident at one air base, but then we lost contact — the Army guys were heading for cover. Then we received the first indications of something happening from the Navy SEAL Gold team, the same one that lost one of its members, when they demolished a radar site and found a small Lithuanian commando unit already trashing the place. Other Special Forces and SEAL units have been encountering what we thought were small Commonwealth patrol units all over the country. But each of these small units was carrying an ancient Lithuanian war flag, which this General Palcikas has adopted as his banner of liberation.”
“What about this Palcikas? What’s the word on him?” the President asked, sipping his coffee.
“Director Mitchell will be giving you a complete briefing on him, sir,” Curtis said. “But in my estimation he’s one of the good guys. He’s Lithuanian-born but educated and trained by the Soviets. Veteran of Afghanistan. He’s powerful, well liked in Lithuania, and he’s enamored of Lithuanian history. He has called his unit the Iron Wolf Brigade, after one of Lithuania’s medieval rulers.”
“He doesn’t think he’s a Lithuanian king, does he?” the President worried.
“I don’t know, sir,” Curtis said. “I think he’s got more on the ball than that. More likely he invokes images of the Grand Duke as a clever marketing ploy to rally popular support to his side.”
“If President Kapocius tells him to disband, do you think he’ll do it?”
“I don’t know, sir. Ken Mitchell and his staff will be prepared to answer that question. A better question for us to consider is what this government should do about Palcikas, and how it affects both the U.S. Embassy reinforcement and the Fisikous extraction.”
“Nothing will affect the embassy reinforcement,” the President said firmly. “Those Marines will stay until all dependents and non-embassy personnel are out of Lithuania and the situation has stabilized. I will not stand for another embassy-siege drama played out on television. We have the right to use military force to protect our embassies, and by God we’re going to use them. There will be no doubt about that.” He paused, and Curtis could see the first hints of hesitation on the President’s face. “We’ll wait and see what President Kapocius does about Palcikas. If he embraces him, we’ll support Kapocius. If he doesn’t, we’ll stay out of it. Now, what’s going on with the REDTAIL HAWK rescue mission? Have the Marines aborted the mission?”
“No, sir,” Curtis replied. “They are continuing to orbit the city, and they requested instructions.”
“You’re sure they’re Lithuanian soldiers involved in those firefights in Fisikous?”
“There’s no way to be positive, sir, without face-to-face contact. They’re heavily armed, much more so than what we thought the Lithuanian Self-Defense Force had, but they have not fired on our aircraft. Radio contact has been made between the Marines and a man claiming to be General Palcikas himself. His forces did battle with the Black Berets in Fisikous. All evidence points to those troops being Lithuanians.”
“What about the Black Berets? How strong are they in Fisikous?”
“Perhaps a few hundred, most concentrated in one section of the base,” Curtis replied. “The Spectre gunship shot them up pretty well. The only ones left are in the design-bureau security facility—”
“The same place as Lieutenant Luger.” The President nodded. “What are the chances Luger is alive?”
The question was obviously painful for Curtis. “Hard to say, sir …”