WAR (22 page)

              “Get me General Chekov in Las Vegas, I need to understand his progress. After the General, get me General Leninkov, who is heading up the fourth Army group on the LSA’s east coast.”

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              Colonel Grover and his team slip away from the “Give Peace a Chance” march with another group who decided to leave the march when it started to rain. He suggested they take their march to the Gray House to tell President Bloomberg personally they want peace. The others smile in their agreement to march to the Gray House instead of going directly to their safe house. The DepLIES watches the group of around 25 people walk away from Rodeo Drive; they don’t consider 25 people a threat to anything. Not when there are thousands on Rodeo Drive. The 25 are quiet as they slip away from the main march, so they don’t give the DepLIES any reason to take notice of them. When the group is a block away from the Gray House, Colonel Grover and twelve of his people slip away from the group. He leaves six people with the group to direct them where he wanted them to go, they begin chanting to cover Grover’s group sneaking into the Gray House.

              The Colonel and staff have the Gray House in sight; they realize they’re not going to be able to break in due to the ring of DepLIES staff that encircles the Gray House. Grover says, “Shit, way too many people. They’re standing only six feet apart all around the house, plus they have roaming patrols. Signal the others to begin chanting again, let’s see how the guards respond. Maybe the chanting will pull a couple of the guards away from the house.”

              “Blue team one to red team, chief says go.”

              “Confirmed.”

              Moments later the group starts chanting “All we’re saying give peace a chance.” The chanting takes the DepLIES agents by surprise. No one radioed to inform them a group had made their way to the House. The DepLIES agents dash to the block the marchers from reaching the Gray House as Grover and his people sneak towards the Gray House, when they reach the driveway they are intercepted by eight heavily armed DepLIES agents who ask, “Stop. Don’t move, don’t even breath or we’ll shoot.” Grover and his people stop mid-step; he’s thinking,
That plan didn’t work. They must have over a hundred guards when the normal number is between eighteen and twenty-four. I expected an increase, just not a hundred. I think we’re going to have to figure out something else.
“We’re sorry, we’re leaving.”

              “What’s your business here?”

              “We just want to give peace a chance.”

              “Take your march back to Rodeo Drive per your permit, you're not allowed here.”

              Grover says, “Yes sir.”

              Grover and his people leave the front of the Gray House knowing they are going to have come up with another plan. Grover turns around to walk back to the group in front of the house, he watches the guards turn around to talk to each other. Grover smiles and uses the guard’s mistake to slip away from the group.

Chapter 14

              The USS Texas and New Hampshire are quietly drifting 300 feet under the Caribbean 30 miles from the Island of Cuba. They have been tasked to ensure no ships leave Cuba towards the USA. Sonar on the USS Texas reports, “Captain, sonar, we hold track on 14 surface ships leaving Cuba heading east at nine knots.”

              “Sonar, Captain, Jackson, any idea of the type of ships?”

              “Captain, sonar, sounds like troop ships and eight freighters.”

              “OOD, Captain, do you hold plot on the surface ships?”

              “Captain, OOD, yes sir, heading will take them to Daytona, Florida.”

              “OOD, Captain, sound general quarters torpedo, make it no drill.”

              “Sonar, Captain, can you contact the New Hampshire? Notify them of our intent to attack the surface ships heading to Daytona.”

              “Captain, sonar, yes sir.”

              The two US submarines quietly maneuver into position to the rear of the Cuban ships.

              “Captain, sonar, we hold blade count of 14 ships, sir, we don’t hear any escorts, could they have sent an invasion fleet without any escorts?”

              “Sonar, Captain, there has to be a couple of escorts, no one would send troop ships without an escort. Find them. I want to take the escorts out before we attack the troop ships.”

              Three minutes pass. “Captain, sonar, sir we found them. There are four frigates that are using a masking signal, so they sound the same as the troop ships.”

              “Weaps, target the escorts with a Mark 48. When the mark 48s have locked onto their targets, cut the wires and reload with Mark 48s. We’ll start taking out the troop ships from the rear. We’ll let New Hampshire start with the ships in the front. I want to coordinate our shooting, so we take out their ships at the same time.”

              “Yes sir.” 

              Eight minutes later each submarine fires four Mark 48 advanced capacity torpedoes, the USS Texas targets and sinks the escorts while the New Hampshire targets and sinks the front four troopships. Both submarines break all records reloading their torpedo tubes, target and fire at the Cuban ships. All eight torpedoes strike their targets. The two US submarines sink every ship that left Cuba. For the first time in many years, two US Submarines will return to their base in Connecticut with brooms tied to their conning towers signifying they had a clean sweep in their battle against the Cuban ships.

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              President Rand reads the dispatch from the two submarines with a surprised look on his face, “Why did the Cubans try to attack us? I thought after President Obsma normalized relations with Cuba, Raul should have been smart enough to sit this one out. I thought Raul was smarter than this. I guess we have no choice, take out all of the Cuban military bases.”

              General Wilcox asks, “Sir, with the hammers?”

              “No, I want them to see our planes, I want them to see whose attacking them. I want Raul to know he crossed the line from which there’s no return.”

              “Yes sir. We have four squadrons of 96 F15Es based at the Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina they can be over Cuba in two hours. We can also have six B52s and eight B1s right behind the F15s.”

              “Hit them. General, I don’t want a single base on that stinking island left usable,”

              Smiling General Wilcox snapped to attention saying, “Yes sir.”

              The first US forces over Cuba are five US Navy F/A18G electronic warfare airplanes which jam all of the Cuban military’s radar and surface to air missile signals. The F/A18Gs fire HARM anti-radar missiles taking out the island’s air defense network. The next planes over Cuba are the 96 F15Es from Seymour Johnson AFB. Each F15E is armed with 20,000 pounds of smart bombs. Without their air defense network, Cuban fighter pilots have to try to attack the F15Es without ground radar support. Eight Cuban MiG 29s are destroyed as they take off, by unseen F22s flying combat escort for the F15Es and bombers. The F15Es destroy most of the Cuban military bases; the existing Cuban military are exiting their shelters when the B52s arrive, each carpet bombing their targets. After the B52s turn for home to be rearmed, the Cubans think the attack is finished; they stick their heads out of their remaining shelters as the bombs land, dropped from the low flying B1 bombers. Sixty minutes after the air attack ends, Raul thinks he’s safe as a 2,000 pound ground penetrating bomb dropped from a B2 crashes into his bunker killing him, Fidel, and their staffs. President Rand goes on international television to inform the Cubans that they have a choice; they can overthrow the remains of the communist government or be completely destroyed in the next wave of attacks. The Cuban people have two hours to respond. The leader of the Cuban underground announces their support for free elections and a return to democracy.

              President Cruise says, “That’s one way to normalize relations with Cuba.”

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General Chekov’s aide informs him that he has a secure, code one call on his portable secure telephone.

“Who is it?”

“Sir, its General Marshal Avdotya calling from army headquarters.”

“Sir, what can I do for you?”

“General, are you aware the Americans have taken out the President’s war bunker with a KEW attack?”

“Marshal, when did this happen? Who’s now in charge of the government?”

“General, for now I am. All of the ministers are gone. None of the civilian government leaders are left, all were in the bunker when it was taken out.”

“Sir, what are your orders?”

“General, are you able to complete your mission in Las Vegas?”

“General Marshal, we have encountered more armed resistance than our plans projected. We lost the use of McCarran airport. We’re being harassed by the American’s damn Air Force. We hold the ten major hotel/casinos. Even after releasing all of the African-American hostages we still hold over 15,000 Americans and others. Our computer techs are working on breaking into their computer networks. I think our invasion of Florida and Houston will pull some of their military off of us. If General Leninkov can launch his attack on the capital, they will be forced to shift their focus away from us.”

“General Chekov, I have the sad duty to inform you the invasions of Florida and Texas aren’t going to happen. The US Navy caught our invasion fleet off the coast of Cuba. Our fleet was attacked and sank by US submarines.”

“What is General Leninkov’s schedule?”

“His troops haven’t been located yet. He plans to launch his attack within 48 hours.”

“Give me a two hours heads-up before he kicks off his invasion, I’ll create a major distraction here to pull some pressure off of him. General Marshal what are your plans for retaliation for our losses? I won’t miss Grameniko; we should thank the Americans for taking him out.”

“General, without our strategic forces there is little we can do to hurt the Americans.”

“I think we should give them additional distractions, can we increase the pressure on their allies in Europe?”

“I’ll look into it. General, push your people, our time may be very limited.”

“I understand.”

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President Rand sits around the small conference table in the White House bunker with his friends and former Presidents, Ted Cruise, and Rod Brownstone. “I think it may be time to give Bloomberg some additional pressure.”

Ted asks, “Paul what are you thinking of?”

“I think we should turn the LSA’s power back on, we’ll broadcast we’re turning their power on for 48 hours, either they figure out how to remove Bloomberg from office, or we will. If we have to do it, we’ll cut their power again. I think they may decide they’d rather be warm and have electrical lights than support the President who started a war with us.”

Rod nods in his agreement. “I like it. How soon can you have the broadcast ready?”

“Less than an hour. I’m going to issue the orders, let’s see how their people respond.”

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General Leninkov has managed to slip most of his forces into Maryland without being caught. He’s positioning his forces so he can have all of his troops enter Washington, D.C., at the same time. He plans to capture and cross every bridge driving directly to the White House and the Capital building. His orders are to capture as many members of the USA leadership as possible in a single swift attack. The planners in Russia felt if Leninkov can’t grab the leaders of the USA government in his first push, he’ll lose as the US military responds. He has to make the most of the element of surprise. Leninkov sits in his command vehicle very concerned about his orders, he worries that once he crosses into Washington, D.C., the Americans will respond by taking out the rest of Moscow or other cities like his home in Saint Petersburg. He reviews the intelligence reports on the American’s local strength. He knows the US Marines have a base on 8
th
Avenue; the Army has Fort McNair, and of course the Pentagon is just across the river with their own rapid deployment force. The FBI headquarters has their own armed security force; there is the Navy yard, the Army College, and various police departments.  The D.C., capital, and parks departments have their own armed security forces, as does the State Department, the DHS. In addition, D.C. police can call the local Maryland and Virginia police. He knows he also has to face the aircraft located at Andrews where there are at least two fighter wings; there are additional Marine and Navy air bases located within twenty minutes flight time of D.C. His intelligence recently informed him that there are two US Navy destroyers at the mouth of the Potomac with nine Coast Guard ships in the Potomac. He sits in his vehicle looking at the deployment of his forces and his latest intelligence of the US defensive forces arranged just inside Washington, D.C. He doesn’t know who’s surrounded whom. Nor does he see the two drones flying slow circles over the I-495 beltway watching his forces prepare to attack the capital. The scouts found one of the Russian groups in New Jersey. Drones were sent to keep an eye on the force as they made their way south. The military planners followed the Russians so they could locate the rest of the Army Group, which the planners succeeded in finding by following them on their march south.