The Bear

Day Three Alaska Command

Lieutenant Donny T., as he was generally referred to, spent the next several days pouring over military dispatches, satellite data, intel analysis, raw computer data and nearly anything else General Foxx could get his hands on, through proper channels or not. He was even able to ‘acquire’ Navy records from the Seventh Fleet out of Yokosuka, Japan. Though he always thought himself a quick study, he was taken aback by the sheer flood of data he was dealing with. Most he was able to sift through, knowing it was garbage, but he kept it around. Trends, he was looking for trends.

“What do you have, Tonney?” General Foxx scanned the pile of scotch tape and markers as he strolled around the table. He looked up as another pile of papers was summarily dropped onto a metal desk against the wall with a resounding thud. Lieutenant Tonney rolled his eyes at the sound. “I thought you were tough, Tonney.”

“Sir. I just need a bit of sleep, sir.”

“You’ll have plenty of that when this is all done. Anything new?”

Tonney didn’t answer right away, he went straight to the map and started scribbling with a red marker.

“I thought you just used a black marker, son?”

“There are too many things to keep track of, General.” Donny T. straightened, bending slightly backward, his hands on the back of his hips. “Black is for those operations that seem historically normal, or at least not out of the ordinary as far as Russian ops go. Red is for operations that seem to appear outside of their historical scope.”

“There’s a lot of writing on this map.”

“Yes sir.” Tonney crossed his arms as he looked over his view of the world. “Once you see it all written out, there sure are a ton of operations going on around the world.”

“Always has been, son. It’s what we do.”

“Sir, why didn’t we do this in the tactical center?”

“Easy answer, Tonney.” Foxx pulled on his cigar and rolled the smoke around his mouth before letting it slip into the purified air. “Tactical doesn’t give us the full picture since it only shows our theater of operations. Besides, they won’t let me smoke in there.”

Tonney nearly laughed before he realized General Foxx was serious. He began circling the table as well, taking in the whole picture. He knew this really didn’t matter. He could see the same thing from any angle, but it at least felt like it helped. He reached the bottom of the world and stood beside his commander.

“I see some patterns, General.” Tonney pointed to the red areas in the Alaskan command theater. “Outside of the incursion into Alaska, there are others that stand out.”

“Such as.”

“A month ago, three Russian planes, an airborne sentry and two Su-35 fighters came over the pole, right to the edge of U.S. airspace. They turned away at the last moment.”

“What’s so unusual about that?”

“General, in the last six weeks more and more of the planes sortieing close to our borders have been some of their newest versions. Before that, their sorties had been mostly older craft.”

“Could be just an upgrade to the fleet.”

“Could be sir. Perhaps they are testing the newer technology, but historically, they do that in low-key situations. Would you put a brand new untested F-35 up against a veteran Russian pilot in such a mission?”

“Probably not.”

“And I wouldn’t think they would either.”

“Where else? You said there were some patterns.”

“Well, other than the use of equipment, look at all these sorties. They have been creeping closer and closer to our airspace with each successive week.” He pointed down the map to the Russo-Chinese border. “Even here, tensions have been raised. Chinese fighters intercepted Russian patrols twice in two months.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes sir. Most of the increasing action has been in the east, but almost all of it has involved the air force.”

“Almost?”

“Yes sir. Almost.” Tonney pointed to the coast along the Barents Sea. “Last month, they launched a new sub class out of Severomorsk, a Yesin-class. We have no info on it at all. We believe it traversed the GIU gap between Iceland and the U.K., but we can’t confirm that. If it’s so quiet it can slip by the SOSUS nets …”

“That’s a problem,” Foxx replied.

“Yes sir. Ever since the cold war ended, those have not been kept up. They’re almost a non-functioning barrier.”

“How does an Air Force puke know that, Lieutenant?”

“My brother wears a dolphin on his collar, sir.”

“Good man then.” Foxx pointed to the other red marks scattered about the map. “What about all this other stuff?”

“Too soon to tell, General. Perhaps another set of eyes might help.”

“I want to keep this low-key. You’re the brains of this right now Lieutenant.”

“What do you think is going on, General?”

“I’m not sure, but I just don’t think this is an isolated incident. The crash is, but not the incursion.”

“I’ll keep looking sir.”

“You do that Tonney. You do that.”