Red Storm Rising

9. A Final Look

"There's something to be said for instant traditions, Chuck." This was their fourth Russian movie via satellite. Toland handed over the bowl of popcorn. "It'll be a pity to lose you back to the Corps."

"Bite your tongue! Sixteen-hundred hours Tuesday, Colonel Charles DeWinter Lowe goes back into the Marine business. I'll leave the paper shuffling to you squids."

Toland laughed. "And you won't miss the evening movie?"

"Maybe a little." Half a mile away a satellite receiver was tracking a Soviet communications satellite. They'd been pirating signals off this satellite and two of her sisters for weeks now, to keep tabs on the Soviet TV news, and also to catch the evening movie. Both men admired the work of Sergey Eisenstein.

And Alexander Nevsky was his masterwork.

Toland popped open a can of Coke. "I wonder how Ivan would react to a John Ford Western? Somehow I get the feeling that Comrade Eisenstein might have been exposed to one or two."

"Yeah, the Duke would have fit in pretty good here. Or better yet, Errol Flynn. You heading home tonight?"

"Right after the movie. God, a four-day weekend off. Can I stand the strain?"

The titles showed a new frame, different from the one on his personal tape of the movie back home. The original soundtrack dialogue had been retained and cleaned up somewhat, but the music had been redone by the Moscow State Symphony and chorus. They did true justice to Prokofiev's evocative score.

The film began with a view of the Russian… steppes? Toland wondered. Or was that supposed to be the southern part of the country? Anyway, it showed rolling grassland littered with bones and weapons from an old battle against the Mongols. The Yellow Peril, still a Russian bugaboo. The Soviet Union had absorbed a lot of Mongols-but now the Chinese had nuclear weapons and the world's largest army.

"The print is terrific," Lowe observed.

"Hell of a lot better than my tape," Toland agreed. A pair of VHS machines was recording this, though the Navy wasn't supplying the tapes. Each officer had bought one himself. SACLANT's Inspector General had an evil reputation.

All this happened pretty close to the Baltic coast, Toland reminded himself. The introduction of the main character was made through a song as he was evidently out directing some men with a fishing net. A good socialist introduction, the officers agreed: the hero out doing manual labor. A brief verbal confrontation with the Mongols, then a musing about which danger to Russian integrity was greater, the German or the Mongol.

"Jesus, you know they still think that way?" Toland chuckled.

"The more things change…" Lowe popped open his own Coke.

"I kinda wonder about this guy, though. When he went back into the water after the net, he ran like a girl, what with his arms flying all over."

"You should try running in knee-deep water," the Marine growled.

And the scene shifted to the German Danger.

"A bunch of out-of-work knights, just like the crusades. Hell, just like Indian movies from the thirties. Chopping people up, throwing babies into the fire."

"You suppose they really did things like that?"

"Ever hear of a place called Auschwitz, Bob?" Lowe inquired. "You know, in the civilized twentieth century?"

"Those guys didn't bring a bishop with them."

"Try reading up on the crusaders' liberation of Jerusalem. Either they killed, or raped first and then killed, all for the Greater Glory of God, with bishops and cardinals cheering them on. Nice bunch. Yeah, it's probably true enough. Christ knows the Eastern Front in '41-'45 saw a lot of it on both sides. Nasty campaign, that was. Want some more popcorn?"

Finally the people mobilized themselves, especially the peasants:

"Damn!" Toland sat forward. "They really punched that song up." The soundtrack was almost perfect, even accounting for the satellite transmission difficulties.

Arise, you Russian People, in a just battle, in a fight to the death: arise, you people free and brave, defend our fair native land!

Toland counted more than twenty specific uses of the word "Russia" or "Russian."

"That's odd," he observed. "They're trying to get away from that. The Soviet Union is supposed to be all one happy family, not the New Russian Empire."

"I guess you'd call it an historical quirk," Lowe commented. "Stalin commissioned the film to alert his people to the Nazi threat. Ole Joe was a Georgian, but he turned out to be one hell of a Russian nationalist. Strange, but he was one strange dude."

The movie was clearly a production of the 1930s. The strident characters were right out of John Ford or Raoul Walsh: a stand-alone heroic figure in Prince Alexander Nevsky, two brave but buffoonish sidekicks, and the de rigueur love interest. The German enemies were arrogant and for the most part invisible behind unlikely helmets designed by Eisenstein himself. The invading Germans had already divided up Russia amongst themselves, one knight made "prince" of Pskov, where in a horrible example of pacification the invaders had slaughtered men, women, and children-the children were thrown into a bonfire-to show who was boss. The great battle scene took place on a frozen lake.

"What kinda lunatic is going to fight on a frozen lake when he's wearing a half ton of sheet steel?" Toland groaned. Lowe explained that it had really happened that way, more or less.

"I'm sure they played around with it some, like They Died With Their Boots On, " the colonel observed. "But the battle really happened."

The battle was a truly epic scene. The German knights attacked with casual disregard for proper tactics, and the Russian peasants, ably led by Alexander and his two sidekicks, encircled them with a Cannae-like envelopment maneuver. Then, of course, came single combat between Prince Alexander and the German chieftain. There was no doubt of the outcome. Their commander vanquished in single combat, the German ranks came apart, and when they tried to rally on the edge of the lake, the ice gave way, drowning nearly everyone.

"That's realistic enough," Lowe chuckled. "Think how many armies have been swallowed up by the Russian countryside!"

The remainder of the movie resolved the love interest (each buffoon got himself a pretty girl), and liberated Pskov. Curiously, while the prince hoisted a bunch of children into his saddle for the ride in, he never showed the slightest interest in female company-and ended with a sermon, Alexander standing alone and speaking about what happens to people who invaded Russia.

"Trying to make Nevsky look like Stalin, eh?"

"There is some of that," Lowe agreed. "The strong man, all alone, a fatherly benefactor-some benefactor! Anyway you cut it, this is just about the best propaganda movie ever made. The punch line is that when Russia and Germany signed their non-aggression pact a year later, Eisenstein was detailed to direct a stage production of Wagner's The Valkyries. Call it penance for offending the German sensibilities."

"Oof. You study these guys more than I do, Chuck."

Colonel Lowe pulled a cardboard box from under his desk and began to load up his personal effects. "Yeah, well if you have to face the possibility of fighting a man, you might as well learn all you can about him."

"You think we will?"

Lowe frowned briefly. "I saw enough of that in Nam, but that's what they pay us for, isn't it?"

Toland stood and stretched. He had a four-hour drive ahead of him. "Colonel, it has been a pleasure for this squid to work with you."

"It hasn't been half bad for this jarhead. Hey, when I get the family set up down in Lejeune, why don't you come on down sometime? There's some great fishing down there."

"Deal." They shook hands. "Good luck with your regiment, Chuck."

"Good luck here, Bob."

Toland walked out to his car. He'd already packed up, and drove quickly out Terminal Boulevard to Interstate 64. The worst part of the drive home was the traffic to the Hampton Roads tunnel, after which things settled down to the usual superhighway ratrace. All the way home, Toland's mind kept going over the scenes from Eisenstein's movie. The one that kept coming back was the most horrible of all, a German knight wearing a crusader's cross tearing a Pskov infant from his mother's breast and throwing him-her? — into a fire. Who could see that and not be enraged? No wonder the rabble-rousing song "Arise, you Russian People" had been a genuinely popular favorite for years. Some scenes cried out for bloody revenge, the theme for which was Prokofiev's fiery call to arms. Soon he found himself humming the song. A real intelligence officer you are… Toland smiled to himself, thinking just like the people you're supposed to study…defend our fair native land…nashu zyemlyu chestnuyu!

"Excuse me, sir?" the toll collector asked.

Toland shook his head. Had he been singing aloud? He handed over the seventy-five cents with a sheepish grin. What would this lady think, an American naval officer singing in Russian?

It was just after midnight when the truck drove north across the Kemenny Bridge to Borovitskaya, Square and turned right, toward the Kremlin. The driver stopped for the first group of Kremlin Guards. Their papers were fully in order, of course, and they were waved through. The truck pulled up to the second checkpoint by the Kremlin Palace, where their papers were also in order. From there it was five hundred meters to the service entrance of the Council of Ministers Building.

"What are you delivering this time of day, Comrades?" the Red Army captain asked.

"Cleaning supplies. Come, I will show you." The driver got out and walked slowly around the back of the truck. "Must be nice, working here at night when things are so peaceful."

"True enough," the captain agreed. He'd go off duty in another ninety minutes.

"Here." The driver pulled back the canvas cover. There were twelve cans of industrial-strength solvent and a crate of hardware parts.

"German supplies?" The captain was surprised. He'd been on Kremlin duty for only two weeks.

"Da. The Krauts make very efficient cleaning machinery, and the vlasti make use of it. This is carpet-cleaning fluid. This is for lavatory walls. This one here is for windows. The crate-ah, I will open it." The lid came off easily since the nails had already been loosened. "As you see, Comrade Captain, parts for some of the machines." He smirked. "Even German machines break."

"Open one of the cans," the captain ordered.

"Sure, but you won't like the smell. Which one do you want opened?" The driver picked up a small prybar.

"That one." The captain pointed to a can of bathroom cleaner.

The driver laughed. "The worst-smelling of all. Stand back, Comrade, we don't want to splash this slop on your clean uniform."

The captain was new enough on the job that he scrupulously did not step back. Good, the driver thought. He worked the prybar under the can's lid, twisted, and popped his free hand down on the end. The lid flew off, and the captain was splashed by some flying solvent.

"Shit!" It did smell bad.

"I warned you, Comrade Captain."

"What is this garbage?"

'It's used to clean mildew off bathroom tiles. It will come right out of the uniform, Comrade Captain. But be sure you have it dry-cleaned soon. An acid solution, you see, it could damage the wool."

The captain wanted to be mad, but the man had warned him, hadn't he? Next time I'll know better, he thought. "Very well, take it in."

"Thank you. I am sorry about the uniform. Don't forget to have it cleaned."

The captain waved to a private and walked off. The soldier unlocked the door. The driver and his assistant went inside to get a two-wheeled hand truck.

"I warned him," the driver said to the private.

"You certainly did, Comrade." The soldier was amused. He, too, was looking forward to going off duty, and it wasn't often that you saw an officer get caught.

The driver watched his assistant load the cans onto the hand truck, and followed him as he wheeled it into the building to the service elevator. Then both returned for the second load.

They took the elevator to the third floor, shut the power off, and moved their loads to a storage room directly below the large fourth-floor conference room.

"That was good with the captain," the assistant said. "Now let's get to work."

"Yes, Comrade Colonel," the driver answered at once. The four cans of carpet-cleaning fluid had false tops which the lieutenant removed and set aside. Next he took out the satchel charges. The colonel had memorized the blueprints of the building. The wall pillars were in the outside comers of the room. One charge went to each, fixed to the inboard side. The empty cans were placed next to the charges, hiding them. Next the lieutenant removed two of the false-ceiling panels, exposing the steel beams supporting the fourth floor slab. The remaining charges were attached there, and the ceiling panels replaced. The charges already had their detonators attached. The colonel took the electronic triggering device out of his pocket, he checked his watch, and waited for three minutes before pressing the button to activate the timers. The bombs would explode in exactly eight hours.

The colonel watched the lieutenant tidy up, then wheeled the hand truck back to the elevator. Two minutes later, they left the building. The captain was back.

"Comrade," he said to the driver. "You shouldn't let this old one do all the heavy work. Show some respect."

"You are kind, Comrade Captain." The colonel smiled crookedly and pulled a half-liter bottle of vodka from his pocket. "Drink?"

The captain's solicitous attitude ended abruptly. A worker drinking on duty-in the Kremlin! "Move along!"

"Good day, Comrade." The driver got into the truck and drove off. They had to pass through the same security checkpoints, but their papers were still in order.

After leaving the Kremlin, the truck turned north on Marksa Prospekt and followed it all the way to the KGB headquarters building at 2 Dzerzhinskiy Square.

"Where are the kids?"

"Asleep." Martha Toland hugged her husband. She was wearing something filmy and attractive. "I had them out swimming all day, and they just couldn't stay awake." An impish smile. He remembered the first such smile, on Sunset Beach, Oahu, she with a surfboard and a skimpy swimsuit. She still loved the water. And the bikini still fit.

"Why do I sense a plan here?"

"Probably because you're a nasty, suspicious spook." Marty walked into the kitchen and came out with a bottle of Lancers Rosk and two chilled glasses. "Now why don't you take a nice hot shower and unwind a bit. When you're finished, we can relax."

It sounded awfully good. What followed was even better.