Arctic Storm Rising by Dale Brown (readera ebook reader .TXT) 📗

poststhan this isolated radar station. Though, admittedly, none sprang readily to mind. The enlisted man was a decent radioman,but there were definitely limits to the amount of juvenile crap Flynn was willing to put up with. If pushed too far, he’dboot M-Squared out of the unit first and worry about finding a new com specialist later.

“Honest to God, sir,” Mitchell assured him earnestly. “This is the genuine article. And it’s not just us. It’s everyone. Allover the whole world. The president or the Pentagon or whoever is ordering everybody—Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, SpaceForce, the whole bunch—to DEFCON Three.”

Flynn dropped his tablet and rolled off his cot in one smooth motion. The U.S. armed forces hadn’t gone to DEFCON Three since 9/11, in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. That was more than twenty years ago. What the hell had just happened to trigger this kind of drastic move now? “Show me!” he snapped.

He followed Mitchell down the hall to the station’s dining area in a hurry. Next to the kitchen, it was the largest open spacein the station’s ramshackle living quarters, big enough for up to twenty people to eat at the same time. The airman had takenover a corner table for his computers and other electronic gear. A sleeping bag nearby showed that he was sleeping there,too, probably to get away from his nominal roommate. Flynn had heard grousing that Army Private Wade Vucovich’s snoring shouldbe classed as a prohibited nonlethal weapon under international law.

The airman dropped into his chair and pulled up the encrypted message file they’d been sent from Alaskan Command down at JointBase Elmendorf-Richardson. “See, sir?”

Quickly, Flynn scanned through the alert. Key phrases jumped out at him. “Unprecedented levels of military air activity observedacross the entire Russian Federation.” “No immediate confirmation of hostile intent.” “Increase in readiness levels directlyauthorized by the National Command Authority,” which meant the president and the secretary of defense acting jointly. Butthere was nothing about what might be behind these sudden Russian moves that had alarmed Washington.

His mouth tightened. He didn’t know what was worse: the possibility that nobody in D.C. had a fricking clue as to why Moscowhad just put its entire Air Force and air defense network on a wartime footing. Or the very real possibility that the Pentagonbrass and the intel community had simply decided not to share their information with the grunts, squids, and zoomies postedout at the sharp end . . . figuring that they didn’t need to know the whys and wherefores. Just like at the C-130 crash sitein the Libyan desert, he thought bitterly.

Ditch that anger for now, Flynn told himself. His most immediate problem was figuring out how to translate this unexpected DEFCON Three directive into concrete action by the troops under his command. Older, more established Army formations and Air Force bases had thick manuals stashed away in their secure safes—manuals that laid out each and every action required to comply with the new, higher alert status, all the way down to precise rules of engagement for any extra guards posted at gates and perimeters. As a brand-new, completely untested unit, the men of his Joint Force security team didn’t have any comparable manuals to tell them what to do in a sudden crisis. They were entirely dependent on his intellect, training, and instincts.

He looked up and saw the rest of the team filing into the dining room. Word that something was up had obviously gotten outfast. He supposed that wasn’t much of a surprise. All twelve of them were basically living in one another’s back pockets.Once the sun went down and temperatures plunged well below zero, their universe was essentially restricted to a small numberof corridors and rooms. Certainly nobody sane had any incentive to go wandering off anywhere outside, even when they weren’ton duty. It was the closest thing to a long-duration submarine patrol that anyone not in the U.S. Navy could ever experience.

“What’s the word, sir?” one of them asked.

“As of this moment, we’re moving to DEFCON Three,” Flynn replied, “along with all other U.S. bases, ships, and air squadronsaround the world. For some reason, our Russian friends have moved all of their own fighters, strike aircraft, strategic bombers,and SAM forces to full alert.”

“Holy shit,” Hynes said in amazement. “Are we at war?”

“Not as far as I know,” Flynn told him. He glanced down at the time stamp on the alert message they’d been sent. He grinnedcrookedly. “Well, at least we weren’t as of fifteen minutes ago.”

“That isn’t exactly comforting, Captain,” Hynes said.

Flynn shrugged. “I didn’t mean it to be, PFC.” He looked around the crowded dining area. “Anyway, as of now, y’all are justas much in the loop as I am.”

Effortlessly, Takirak shouldered his way through the group of suddenly nervous-looking soldiers and airmen. “What are your orders, sir?” he asked quietly. Alone of everyone, he seemed completely unfazed by the sudden turn of events.

Flynn nodded. “Glad you asked, Sergeant,” he said, forcing himself to sound confident and in command. “As a first step, Iwant you to take a six-man patrol out pronto and set up a chain of two-man observation posts somewhere between here and thewest end of the island. Make sure you’ve got decent fields of fire to cover the open ground around this station.”

Takirak considered that. “It’s pretty cold out there right now, Captain. Around ten below zero. Four hours outside is themaximum time I’d recommend—unless we’re setting up camp.”

“We’ll rotate your team back inside after four hours,” Flynn assured him. “I’ll take over your OPs with the other half ofthe team for the next shift, while your guys get some hot food and rest. Then we’ll trade off again.”

“How long do you figure to keep this four-on, four-off rotation going?” the National Guard sergeant asked.

“However long it takes the geniuses in D.C. to pin down what the Russians are doing,” Flynn said. “If Moscow’s only runninga big-assed readiness exercise, we ought to get the word to stand down pretty soon.”

“And