The Bear

The White House

Martin Powell walked across the carpet of the Oval Office and dropped a paper on the president’s desk. His face was covered with a deep scowl.

“Sir? Satellites report a large movement along the Ukraine border.”

“The Russians, or the Ukrainians?”

“The Russians, sir.”

“What the hell are they doing now?” President Kiger leaned back and sighed. He could almost feel winter’s chill through the windows, the snow still blanketing the White House lawn. “Tanks?”

“It appears so.”

“How long has it been since our group landed back in Russia?”

“Only a few hours. They would have landed about 2 a.m. our time.”

“Well, that didn’t take long.”

“This may not have anything to do with the current op. It could be something that was already planned.” Martin slipped into a chair in front of the historic desk. His gaze fell to the polished woodgrain. ‘How many world-changing events had come from behind this desk?’ he wondered. “There aren’t any movements reported involving their Air Force.”

“Preplanned?”

“Perhaps,” Martin answered. “Field commanders may have a slight bit of autonomy in the matter.”

“That would be very un-Soviet of them.”

“As you are often to remind me, this isn’t the old days, Mr. President. But I’m sure the hold over the military isn’t much different than it used to be. President Novichkov needs to have a firm hand. He’s not as adept in foreign policy as his predecessor. And with the state of their economy, things could get dicey.”

“Dicey or not, there is no threat of a military coupe. Their forces are too vast, too spread out for anything like that.”

“It happened before, sir. Yeltsin.”

“The circumstances were much different then, Martin. You know that.” POTUS stood and walked around the desk, his hands resting in his pants pockets. “The Soviet system had collapsed. There was nothing left. Yeltsin stepped into a vacuum. The military was all that they had, the only structure anyone could remotely count on. They could do nothing else.”

“So what do we do? You know DOD is going to have their input into this.”

The door to the Oval Office opened, the guard closing it behind Martin’s assistant. POTUS stopped and smiled in her direction.

“So, to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit, Mary?”

“Mr. President,” she said as she smiled. “General Scott is on the line for you,” she said as she looked at Martin. “He says it’s important.”

“Go ahead and see what he has to say, Martin.”

“Yes sir.” The chief of staff was out the door seconds later.