Dale Brown
Price of Duty
Dedication
Price of Duty is dedicated to the people who are truly on the edge, both geographically and emotionally: the citizens of the former Soviet Baltic and Eastern European states that are on Russia’s western periphery. They are no strangers to being under the control of the resurgent and aggressive Russian bear, and they naturally seek help from the West to avoid being swallowed up once again. But if the West is unable, indecisive, or simply refuses to help, they have little choice but to band together and fight until help comes.
This story is also dedicated to those who fight on the world’s newest, most vital, and least understood battlefield: the world of computers and networks. It will take a new generation of cyber warriors to fight on this battlefield, and we as a nation need to do much more to prepare our young people to fight and win in cyberspace.
Cast of Characters
STACY ANNE BARBEAU, president of the United States of America
EDWARD RAUCH, president’s national security adviser
KAREN GRAYSON, secretary of state
LUKE COHEN, White House chief of staff
JAMES BUCHANAN NASH, CIA director
SCOTT FIRESTONE, admiral, U.S. Navy, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
RAYMOND SATTLER, special agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation
KRISTIN VOORHEES, intelligence analyst, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
KEVIN MARTINDALE, president of Scion, former president of the United States of America
BRAD MCLANAHAN, Cybernetic Infantry Device (CID) pilot and XCV-62 Ranger pilot, Iron Wolf Squadron
PATRICK MCLANAHAN, Cybernetic Infantry Device (CID) pilot, Iron Wolf Squadron ground operations unit, former lieutenant general, U.S. Air Force (ret.)
WAYNE “WHACK” MACOMBER, commander, Iron Wolf Squadron CID operations, former major, U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (ret.)
IAN SCHOFIELD, commander, Iron Wolf deep-penetration unit, former captain in Canada’s Special Operations Regiment
SAMANTHA KERR, operative, Scion Intelligence
MARCUS CARTWRIGHT, operative, Scion Intelligence
DAVID JONES, operative, Scion Intelligence
ANDREW DAVIS, Iron Wolf deep-penetration unit, former sergeant, U.S. Army Special Forces
MIKE KNAPP, Iron Wolf deep-penetration unit, former sergeant, U.S. Army Special Forces
CHRIS WALKER, Iron Wolf deep-penetration unit, former sergeant, U.S. Army Special Forces
HUNTER “BOOMER” NOBLE, Ph.D., chief of aerospace engineering, Sky Masters Aerospace Inc.
CHARLIE TURLOCK, Cybernetic Infantry Device (CID) specialist, former captain, U.S. Army National Guard
JASON RICHTER, colonel, U.S. Army (ret.), Ph.D., chief executive officer
TOM ROGERS, remote piloting specialist
GENNADIY ANATOLIYVICH GRYZLOV, president of the Russian Federation
SERGEI TARZAROV, president’s chief of staff
GREGOR SOKOLOV, minister of defense
VIKTOR KAZYANOV, minister of state security
DARIA TITENEVA, foreign minister
IVAN ULANOV, president’s private secretary
COLONEL GENERAL VALENTIN MAKSIMOV, commander of the Aerospace Defense Forces
IGOR TRUZNYEV, former president of the Russian Federation and former head for the Federal Security Service (FSB), currently chief of Zatmeniye (“Eclipse”) Consulting Group, a private espionage firm
MAJOR GENERAL ARKADY KOSHKIN, chief of FSB’s Q Directorate
COLONEL VLADIMIR BALAKIN, chief of security for Perun’s Aerie cyberwar complex
MAJOR LEONID USENKO, Special Surveillance Unit, Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)
CAPTAIN KONSTANTIN RUSANOV, GRU Special Surveillance Unit
CAPTAIN ARTEM MIKHEYEV, GRU special technical officer
COLONEL YEVGENY PERMINOV, GRU liaison officer
AHMAD USMAEV, warlord, Chechen Republic
MAJOR PAVEL BEREZIN, detachment commander, Vympel (“Pennant”) Spetsnaz unit
CAPTAIN ANDREI CHIRKASH, detachment second in command, Vympel Spetsnaz unit
TIMUR SAITIEV, Chechen fighter
YURI AKULOV, former FSB officer, currently an operative for Zatmeniye Consulting Group
IVAN BUDANOV, senior nuclear supervisor, Atomflot
DR. NIKOLAI OBOLENSKY, software lab directory, Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering (NNIIRT)
MAJOR GENERAL VIKTOR POLICHEV, Aerospace Defense Forces, senior military aide to Colonel General Maksimov
TARAS IVCHENKO, former FSB officer, currently an operative for Zatmeniye Consulting Group
MAJOR GENERAL KIRILL GLAZKOV, commander of the FSB’s V Directorate
LIEUTENANT MIKHAIL KURITSYN, Vympel Spetsnaz unit
MAJOR ALEXEI RYKOV, Su-27 fighter pilot
SERGEANT IVAN ANANKO, Vympel Spetsnaz unit
SERGEANT DMITRY SAVICHEV, Vympel Spetsnaz unit
LEONID PEROV, former FSB officer, bodyguard for Igor Truznyev
CAPTAIN FYODOR GOLOVKIN, commander, Kipiyevo radar outpost
COLONEL RUSLAN BARYSHEV, Su-50 fighter pilot
CAPTAIN OLEG IMREKOV, Su-50 fighter pilot
MAJOR GENERAL ANATOLIY KAVERIN, commander, 2nd Aerospace Defense Brigade
PIOTR WILK, president of Poland; former general in the Polish Air Force and commander of the 1st Air Defense Wing
KLAUDIA RYBAK, prime minister
JANUSZ GIEREK, minister of national defense and deputy prime minister
MAJOR NADIA ROZEK, military aide to President Piotr Wilk, attached to Iron Wolf Squadron as copilot and systems operator for XCV-62 Ranger
MAJOR GENERAL MILOSZ DOMANSKI, Polish Land Forces
COLONEL PAWEŁ KASPEREK, F-16 fighter pilot and commander of the Polish Air Force’s 3rd Tactical Squadron
MAJOR DARIUSZ STEPNIAK, head of presidential security detail, Bureau of Government Protection (BOR)
JAROSŁAW ROGOSKI, senior vice president, PKO Bank Polski
MARTA STACHOWSKA, chief technology officer, PKO Bank Polski
CAPTAIN TOMASZ JAGIELSKI, F-16 fighter pilot, 3rd Tactical Squadron
GENERAL INSPECTOR MAREK BRZEZIŃSKI, commander, Polish National Police Force
MAJOR GENERAL CZESŁAW MADEJSKI, deputy command, Alliance of Free Nations (AFN) Northern Air Operations Center
CAPTAIN JERZY KONARSKI, Northern Air Operations Center
MARIUSZ BRODSKI, senior investigator for PKBWL, Poland’s aircraft accident investigative agency
KAROL SIKORA, sergeant, Polish Special Forces, attached to Iron Wolf Squadron deep-penetration unit
ALEXE DUMITRU, president of Romania
MARKU PROCA, control room supervisor, Cernavodă Nuclear Power Station, Unit Two
NICOLAE DIACONU, senior plant operator, Cernavodă Unit Two
ION MORAR, senior plant operator, Cernavodă Unit Two
VASILE ENESCU, emergency coordinator, Cernavodă Unit Two
SERGEANT EDVARDAS NOREIKA, State Border Guard of Lithuania
COLONEL REINIS ZARINŠ, Latvian Air Force intelligence officer attached to AFN’s Northern Air Operations Center
SVEN KALDA, prime minister of Estonia
LIEUTENANT COLONEL INAR TAMM, Estonian Air Force
KAARLE MARKKULA, captain, Flight 851
TUOMAS SAARELA, first officer, Flight 851
PROLOGUE
Wrapped in stillness and silence for over three hundred million years, the mountain’s vast inner recesses now echoed with the measured clatter of boots and echoing voices. Construction units, laboring around the clock for months in brutal conditions, had carved out an intricate network of tunnels and connected chambers — piercing layers of solid rock already ancient when dinosaurs roamed the earth.