EndWar

“Sister, I’m listening to you next time,” Halverson cried. “And here comes another pair of 130s. Let’s get ’em. I want to head back to Igloo empty, refuel, rearm, and do it all over again!”

“Roger that!”

Halverson shut her eyes for just a second.

Jake, if you can hear me, then you know what I’m thinking…

Major Alice Dennison couldn’t afford to leave her JSF command post in Tampa and was closely monitoring the data coming in to her from Alaska, where the 11th Air Force and 3rd Wing from Elmendorf and the 354th Fighter Wing from Eielson had scrambled to intercept the Russian transports, along with that handful of JSF fighters whose pilots had been training in the Northwest Territories.

She couldn’t leave, but she shuddered with the desire to do so, to travel back to Gitmo and question Doletskaya again.

However, she had arranged the next best thing — a video conference with the prisoner.

And, despite her better judgment, she stole away to a private conference room for ten minutes to speak one last time with Colonel Pavel Doletskaya.

She thought maybe she could put the demons to rest and begin to actually sleep.

The colonel looked even more haggard than the last time she had seen him, gray stubble creeping across his chin, and it seemed an effort for him to keep his head upright. His eyes failed to focus, then finally he blinked and leaned forward, too close to the camera, then threw his head back and suddenly laughed.

“Colonel, stop it.”

After another few seconds, he composed himself and said, “I’m sorry, Major. I just… I can see that look in your eyes. So, are we happy with the information I gave you? Because you don’t look very happy.”

“No, we’re perfectly fine with it.”

His expression grew serious. “You’re bluffing.”

“You cried like a baby, Colonel. I know exactly what Operation 2659 is and exactly who Snegurochka aka the snow maiden is, all right?”

“So then, why have you interrupted my vacation?”

Dennison took a deep breath. Yep, she was bluffing. She hadn’t learned a damned thing — the bastard was the most highly skilled and resistant prisoner the interrogators had ever encountered. In fact, at this point, they swore he knew nothing…

But Dennison refused to believe that. “I just thought it would be in your best interests to formally defect. That way, you would enjoy the benefits of such a decision.”

“You don’t know anything, do you. You ran 2659 through every database in the world, compared the number to other operations, thought it might be an address, a date, a model number for the memory chip of a computer. You’ve had experts from every government agency looking at it, people trained to study ciphers, even that agent from the CIA who swears he decrypted the messages on that statue outside the office in Langley. What’s it called? Kryptos? Yes… But you know nothing — or rather, you know that I know everything about you.”

“Colonel, this is not a game. Do you have any idea how many innocent people are about to die?”

“I do — even more so than you.”

“Is it worth it?”

“Oh, those kinds of questions give me a headache, Major. I want to know if you have redecorated your apartment recently. Maybe you have pulled up the rugs, decided to buy some new lights for the ceiling? Or maybe some new paintings?”

“Operation 2659 is the invasion of Alberta. The snow maiden is the code name for an operative, a female operative who is part of or perhaps leading the mission.”

“Yes, you knew that before we ever met. The Euros fed you that on a spoon. And since then, you’ve spent all your time reading fairy tales…”

“This is your last chance, Colonel. Otherwise, you’re going to rot in prison for the rest of your life. You could defect, tell us what we need to know. You could work with us to bring a peaceful solution to this conflict.”

“Do you want to be president of the United States? Because you sound so convincing.”

“Did you murder Viktoria Antsyforov?”

“No, she killed me.”

“Colonel…”

“This I will tell you. She was my mistress, a brilliant officer, but her ego and ambition got in the way. I did not kill her, but she made many enemies in the GRU.”

“She was the snow maiden.”

“Of course not, Colonel. You are.”

Dennison snickered. “How am I part of your invasion plan?”

“You are the one with the cold heart who is trying to stop it. You are the one we worried about most of all.”

“I’m a JSF operations officer. I’m not chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I don’t wield that kind of power.”

“You are more powerful than you know.”

“Colonel, will you defect?”

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes. “Good-bye, Major.”

EIGHTEEN

The USS Florida had surfaced once more, and Commander Jonathan Andreas stood in the sail, shuddering against the cold wind and holding the satellite phone to his ear, waiting for someone to answer.

“Hello, Commander Andreas, this is COMPACFLT Duty Officer. Please hold for Admiral Stanton.”

She already knew he was calling?