Free Arc Light by Eric Harry Page B

trying for a baby that afternoon.
    Greg closed his eyes as the helicopter now rose and fell over the dark country roads below. Jane was on one of them. He said a silent prayer, hoping the words he used were the right ones.

CHAPTER TWO

FAR EAST ARMY COMMAND, KHABAROVSK, RUSSIA
June 11, 0450 GMT (1450 Local)
    â€œOh, it’s Zorin all right!” Air Force General Mishin’s voice came angrily over General Razov’s speakerphone in the hardened wartime bunker deep under his headquarters building. “His fingerprints are all over this, and the Taman Division— your people—are out of their barracks and taking up positions around the Kremlin.”
    â€œIs that where Zorin is headed?” Razov asked. “The Kremlin?”
    â€œWell, of course!” Mishin yelled. “The man believes all that hard-line messianic crap, and he’s the Messiah!”
    â€œI’ll talk to the commander of the Taman Division,” Razov said. “I know him well. Those men your people have seen are bound to be renegade units.”
    â€œWhatever,” Mishin said. “What do you want to do now? Do you want to consider postponing your strikes?”
    â€œAbsolutely impossible!” Razov said. “The strategic weapons are all on automated launches at the designated times so that their phasing over targets will be timed correctly. Plus I’ve got an entire army group on the move right now toward holes in the Chinese lines that had damn well better be there when the lead echelon hits the line of departure. Those lead echelons are going to be close to ground zero as it is, in some cases less than a kilometer away. The timing is crucial.”
    â€œYou could just be a little less precise with your timing and use more weapons.”
    â€œWe don’t have releases on more weapons, and Zorin has the damn nuclear communicators!”
    â€œWe could seize the silos and rewire the locks to bypass his communicators.”
    â€œThat would take time—maybe even days—and I can’t wait. For God’s sake, I’ve already told the Americans, who are busy, I’m sure, telling other NATO governments. Pretty soon, word is going to slip around to the Chinese. No! We’ve got to go as planned. We go now.”
    â€œWhat about the Americans’ alert orders? I still say we should follow our programs and send out our own alert orders in response.”
    â€œGeneral Thomas is only doing what I expected him to do,” Razov replied.
    â€œBut DEFCON 3! It bothers me, Yuri. I have to admit, it bothers me that we’re not reacting.”
    â€œYou just worry about Zorin.”
    â€œI’ll take care of him,” the air force general responded. “I’m assuming he’ll set up shop like Der Führer down in the Deep-Underground Command Post, and I’m having my men cut off the Deep-Underground Subways to the Ramenki Facility near the university, and the Ex-Urban NCA and STAVKA facilities a hundred kilometers south of the city. We’re also deploying troops at the exits at Vnukovo Airfield. That leaves only the connection here and the air vent and utility access shafts, all of which we’ll have guarded.”
    â€œCan you sever his unhardened communications?”
    â€œWe can cut everything but direct broadcast satellite and the deep-underground fiber optic emergency communications system—the nuclear command and control system wired into the two communicators. I hate to tip him off too soon, but we’ll go ahead and start the process of cutting everything else. His logistics command has had a liaison officer right here at PVO-Strany who has been spying on us and surreptitiously telephoning Zorin on a dedicated line, and we might lay off him for a while to try to lull Zorin into a false sense of security.”
    â€œJust don’t let him sit on those nuclear communicators too long, for God’s sake!” Razov said, hanging up.
    In