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  The men shook hands and Dr. Mason led them into a large concrete building. “Were you kidding when you said this material absorbs RF energy?” he asked.

  “I wasn’t kidding,” said Maxwell. “We found that once the material is grounded, all the radios and cellphones in the vicinity quit working. One of the guys brought in an old CB radio he had. At first it worked fine, then when we grounded the thing, nothing happened. We could see the indicator that it was transmitting, but a receiver in the next room quit getting a signal. That’s when I called the Captain – I mean, Admiral Hammond,” he said sheepishly.

  The men entered through a heavy door into a room filled with monitors and equipment. On one of the walls was another heavy door leading to the chamber itself. There was already some equipment inside it.

  “I took the liberty of setting a few things up,” said Mason. “There’s a transmitter antenna and a receiving antenna on the other side of the chamber. As you can see, I can change the position of the transmitting antenna to see how this may work from different angles. I can also interchange different transmitters using a variety of frequencies so that we can see just how much this material of yours can do.” Mason manipulated some dials and the men watched as the antenna moved to different spots in the room. “Now, let’s see this material you have,” he said.

  Dr. Reid opened his briefcase and extracted a grayish sheet of resin covering some sort of cloth. There was a hole drilled in one corner with a bolt through it. “It’s not pretty, but I can’t dispute what it does. Quite frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Reid said.

  Mason held up the plate and studied it. There wasn’t much to tell. “Let’s hook it up then,” he said.

  The men followed Mason into the chamber and watched as he placed the plate into a holder in the middle of the room. “You say it works when it’s grounded?”

  “Yes, sir,” said Maxwell.

  Mason nodded and pulled out a wire, attaching it to the bolt. He led the wire back to a panel and plugged it in. “This will let me control when it is grounded,” he said. Once done, everyone left the room.

  Mason and the others returned to the control room and he turned on both the transmitter and receiver. “Okay, leaving the plate ungrounded, let’s get the signal going.” He switched on the transmitter and immediately got a strong signal on the receiver set. He measured the received output. Then, looking at the others, he said, “Here we go.” He hit the switch grounding the plate.

  Immediately the signal dropped to zero. Mason got a surprised look on his face. “Well I’ll be damned.” He then began moving the dials and watched as the transmitting antenna began moving around the room. The receiver readings remained at zero. The dial didn’t even flinch.

  Next, he used other controls to turn the plate to different angles. Only when the plate was nearly end on to the transmitter did the receiver begin picking up a weak signal.

  “Holy shit,” exclaimed Mason. He lit off another transmitter and tied it to the antenna. Once again, the signal was absorbed. Once more, he switched transmitters and hut the transmit key. Again, nothing happened. Mason flipped the switch ungrounding the plate. The signal came through measuring over 10,000 watts of power.

  After shutting down the systems, Mason turned to look at a stunned Thomas, then back to Maxwell. “Young man, I need to see that formula, then I need to talk to you about a job.”

  Moscow

  “As expected, they have begun their buildups. Unfortunately, they have begun too late. Even if they begin conscription tomorrow, they cannot get any sizable force together before we begin our operations,” said General Ivan Pusko, the Chief of the General Staff for the Armed Forced of the Russian Federation. He was sitting in a private meeting with the head of the Armed forces, the President of Russia, Alexi Borodin. The two of them had planned for the last six years in their bid to restore the glory of Russia. Both men had grown up in the Soviet Union and if they had their way, it would return. Painstakingly, over those six years, they had built back the military to levels close to where they were at the end of the 20th Century, when the Soviet Union had hundreds of ships, and thousands of tanks and planes. Now they were ready to make their boldest move.

  Borodin took a sip of tea and set the cup in its saucer. “I heard from our intelligence service that the American President told them they would have to fight the next war on their own. It will just mean we will not lose so many of our troops. When do we begin placing our assets?” he asked.

  “It begins on the 30th of next month. We give our people thirty days to reach their assigned positions and then wait for the final signal. Then, as we planned, everything begins. Our commanders are fully briefed and ready,” said Pusko.

  “Good. I want everything to go at once. That means our submarines, ships, planes and troops hit their target together. I know it is difficult, but if you remember, the Americans boasted about their so-called ‘shock and awe’ phases when they attacked Iraq. It is time they came to know what shock and awe really is. We have the most powerful armed force in the world and I want this to be quick and decisive. Although I have no doubt of our victory, I would rather have it at little cost to us. Make sure everything is arranged accordingly,” he ordered, pointing his finger at the general.

  “I have already anticipated this. Even you may be shocked at how quickly it can be done,” the general said with a grin.

  Borodin chuckled. “I should have known you would read my mind,” he said. “Are there any troubles that you foresee?”

  “The only drawback has been a few of the small pacifist groups who keep showing up at our bases. Up till now we have ignored them, but seeing them has a bad effect on the men,” he said.

  Borodin thought a moment, then looked directly into Pusko’s eyes. “Then I would say the time is good to arrest them and make an example. If any of the troops say anything, they can be made an example themselves. We are too close to let these low class extremists become a bother. After the war, they won’t have anything to complain about anyway,” he said with a grin.

  Pusko smiled. “I was hoping you might say that. I will begin rounding them up.”

  Borodin smiled. “It’s people like them that caused the downfall of the old order. We need discipline for our people. That is what will make us great,” he said as he got up and made his way toward the door. He stopped and turned back to Pusko. “Have someone take photographs. I’d like to see what happens,” he said as he turned again and left the room.

  Borodin was not one to listen to protesters. He had started out in the old KGB and had continued in the Federal Security Service after the Soviet downfall. From there he had access to files and materials which he would find beneficial. Some had speculated that he made his way through blackmail and intimidation. During the Chechen uprisings, he claimed to have fouled several Chechen attempts to blow up government buildings. When some buildings were attacked, he led the troops to track down the terrorists and bring them to justice, though few ever made it to trial. He seemed to always get the credit and the publicity for the events. At one time, someone had told a member of the media that Borodin himself had placed the charges and was using the event to feather his own nest. Shortly afterward the person disappeared and was never seen again. Eventually Borodin rose to a cabinet level under Putin. He became well known as a ruthless supporter of Russia and Russian culture. He garnered friends in the military and promoted stronger military presence across the globe. At the same time, his intelligence ties helped him get rid of those in government who opposed his ideas. After the death of President Wiclow, he ruthlessly gathered the support necessary to be elected President. Several months later he dissolved the Duma and assumed both the Presidency and position of Prime Minister. He had been running the nation almost as a dictatorship ever since.

  Borodin walked into his office and looked out of his window. He could see the protesters chanting below. He was gratified as two vans pulled up and the police shoved the protesters inside.
Within minutes they were gone.

  Borodin chuckled. No one would slow him from what he was going to do.

  The Pentagon

  “Our team was tasked with looking at what we may be up against. Thanks to General Best, Admiral Hustvedt and Colonel Meyers, we now have a very good idea of what might be thrown at us,” said Colonel Peterson. ‘Please follow along with your briefing sheets. I will give just the overview. The specifics are all on the sheets in front of you.” He turned on the PowerPoint presentation. Picking up a pointer he began rattling off the dire statistics.

  “For the army side, we expect to run up against 35,000 tanks of various types from the T-72s to the T-90s. There are over 50,000 various armored personnel carriers, and there are an additional 25,000 other armed infantry vehicles such as BMPs. Lighter vehicles, including their version of the Humvee number over 20,000. Add to that the self-propelled anti-aircraft and artillery vehicles and we have about 200,000 vehicles to go up against. One interesting note is that they seem to have been going all out producing more of the anti-aircraft vehicles. The artillery has increased as well, but not at the rate of the anti-air assets. We were talking about this and it appears they want to counter our air attack forces to allow them to maneuver more freely. It seems they learned a little from the Iraq wars,” he said with a straight face.

  “On the attack helo front, you can expect nearly 5,000 various Hinds, Havocs and Hokums. These things are armored and dangerous, but they have their weaknesses. You just have to survive long enough to kill it.”

  “Now for the interesting part. Over the last three years the Russian Army hasn’t gotten smaller, despite the claims. They extended their length of service from one year to five. At the same time, they have not slowed down their intake. As you know, there is mandatory service in Russia. When it was just for one year we figured the troops we might go up against would be pretty green and not very effective. That has now changed. We estimate a standing army of a minimum of 5 million people” said Peterson. There were some gasps in the cluster of officers. Peterson looked at the faces in the room. He could tell the news he was giving them was causing great concern. He pressed on. “One thing we are noting is that it looks like what we can put up against this is around 1 million.” He pointed back to the graphs. “Current force dispositions are here in red. As you can see, there is a much heavier concentration on the western front. They are keeping these assets within 100 miles of the borders, which means they can attack anywhere within 24 hours. The Russian combat troops are armed very similarly to our troops, so that gives you some idea what will be coming at us from the Army side. For the air force, I will hand it over to Colonel Meyers.” Peterson took at seat as Meyers stood and began his part of the program.

  “Air assets in Russia are also climbing. There are currently over 1500 fighter aircraft from the SU-27s to the MiG-31s. Intelligence reports there is a new stealth type fighter, the MiG-35 entering production. It is similar to the F-117, a little larger and more difficult to fly. We don’t know how stealthy it is, but we cannot sell them short. Strike aircraft number between 500 and 600 aircraft, mostly Sukhois. Their bombers number over 250. These include our infamous Bears as well as the Backfires, and a whole lot of Blackjacks, which are their equivalent of our B-1. If you look at their tactics, they plan on using the fighters to keep the air clear while the others do the dirty work. Keep something in mind, the Russian Air Force has more attack helicopters. There are another 10,000 of them. They will work in conjunction with the ground assault forces and army units. I believe you can see what this indicates to us. Everything is centered on supporting ground troops. The fighters keep our air forces away and the rest get in there and attack targets on the ground. The air force personnel number 400,000 of the 5 million. We are holding the missile programs until last,” Meyer said. “Now I turn it over to Admiral Hustvedt.”

  Hustvedt took the podium and looked grim. “During the Reagan Administration we boasted a 600 ship navy. We are going to wish we had that today. The total number of ships available in the Russian Navy is 573. To counter that we have 338 in all our allied forces. They now have two aircraft carriers and have brought back three of the Kirov battlecruisers. But the largest part of their fleet is submarines. There are over 200 of them. Leading the pack are twenty Yasen class attack submarines. These are the improved Akulas we often talk about. They are not like those of the old Soviet Navy. They are quiet, fast and deadly. Our guys have a difficult time finding them. If the Russians send out their submarine force, we are going to have a very difficult time for a while. There are over 280,000 people in their navy and marines. That’s more than twice our manpower. There’s one thing we have going for us. They are still geared toward home defense. True, they are learning to use those carriers, but they still are not using any kind of tactic for true ocean-going power projection. But that won’t go for much if they go all out. My guess is they will throw away their fleet just to keep their soldiers advancing,” said Hustvedt.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, we have been watching both the Soviets and the Russians for a long time. We know their systems are not as reliable as we would have, but none-the-less, they are fielding a formidable force,” Hustvedt continued. “You all are very familiar with our forces. When you stack them side to side, the way we come out on top is with our carriers. I can bet you real money they are aware of that. So when we plan, we need to make sure we protect these assets. Mostly we need to protect them from these – the Russian missiles. Take a look at this list. They are fielding 37 different surface to air missile systems, 35 different air to air and air to surface missile systems, 28 tactical surface to surface and another 17 naval anti-ship missile systems. I am particularly pointing out these because nearly half of these can be launched from their submarines,” Hustvedt said grimly. “You can see how this could change things. Submarines lying in wait could sink anything we have at a long range. We might not even know they were there. But there’s one more thing to watch out for. The Russians have developed very sophisticated sets of mines. They can also be deployed from submarines and can be set to activate at predetermined times and places. They have a life of over a year under the water and can be retrieved if necessary. If they have already placed them, our carriers might not even get out of harbor,” he said. Everyone could see he was not happy. Indeed, the more Hustvedt had dug into the material the angrier he became. He turned back to the people in the room. “I don’t mean to frighten you, but I am,” he said as he sat back down.

  Admiral Best stood. He had warmed to the task of the committee and had spent many a sleepless night gathering information and helping the team with their presentations. But this one had been something special. “I wanted to give you a briefing on the person we are going up against. To do so, I asked the help of a young man in the room,” he said with a smile. He motioned for someone and Lieutenant Rod Jeffers came forward, much to the surprise of Hammond.

  Jeffers looked a little concerned, but as he began to speak, he became more confident. “I was asked to share my experiences as a Russian,” he said. There were some murmurs in the room. “More to the point, my grandfather emigrated from Russia long before I was born, but I was raised listening to him talk about Russia all my life until he died at 102 last year. From experience, I can tell you that the Russians are a very proud people. They are a very tough people and there is a lot of discipline in their lives. My grandfather told many stories of what it was like in Rostok, and how they eked out a living during the Soviet era. He spoke with pride of all the things the Russians did in the space race, their army, air force and navy, but also how they survived many things, from the purges to the Russia winters. He even boasted any Russian could drink any American under the table,” he said with a grin. There were some chuckles in the group. “He always told me it was because the Russians were a stronger people than others. They had to be to survive in the conditions they did, and he was ready to fight anyone who said otherwise. He once told me how they went along with
the governments because it was theirs and no one else’s. He fought in the closing stages of the Great Patriotic War as a 15 year old, and still maintained his uniform and medals.

  “He and the family came here in 1994, when times were very rough in Russia and my mother had met and married my father while in college. Grandfather used to always tell people how Russian things were better than here, but over time he changed. He later told me that America was the only place where he could share Russia with others and be accepted. In the end, he became a citizen, even though he still told people he was Russian,” Jeffers concluded.

  Admiral Best asked him, in Russian, how he felt. Jeffers answered back, in fluent Russian. Best stood and faced the group. “I just asked Jeffers how he felt about this. He said he was an American, but still held his grandfather’s heritage close. When did you learn Russian?” Best asked Jeffers.

  Jeffers grinned. “Grandfather insisted we all know it and speak it in his house. I still use it when I get home, sometimes. My mother appreciates it,” he said.

  Best turned to the group. “This is typical,” he said. “I asked Jeffers to tell you because he was able to put into words exactly what it took the intelligence department years to formulate. It’s personal for him and it’s very personal for your typical Russian. These are a very proud people, but also practical. They follow the orders of their leaders because it is what they have always done. Once they get something to work, they stick to it and rarely make changes. It will take a major change to make the people change the way they do things or to change their government,” he said. “That includes their tactics. We have watched them for years and most tactics have remained basically the same. That is why the navy is still primarily tasked with defending the shores. The air force is charged with supporting the troops and the army is the primary force projector. It gives you an idea of what to expect and ways to counter their activities. I will have a more detailed intelligence brief as we begin our plans phase, but with just these few facts, we can begin to see patterns and project responses.” Best turned to Jeffers, “Thank you Lieutenant.” He nodded toward Hammond and sat down.