Выбрать главу

Dale Brown

Price of Duty

Dedication

Price of Duty is dedicated to the people who are truly on the edge, both geographically and emotionally: the citizens of the former Soviet Baltic and Eastern European states that are on Russia’s western periphery. They are no strangers to being under the control of the resurgent and aggressive Russian bear, and they naturally seek help from the West to avoid being swallowed up once again. But if the West is unable, indecisive, or simply refuses to help, they have little choice but to band together and fight until help comes.

This story is also dedicated to those who fight on the world’s newest, most vital, and least understood battlefield: the world of computers and networks. It will take a new generation of cyber warriors to fight on this battlefield, and we as a nation need to do much more to prepare our young people to fight and win in cyberspace.

Cast of Characters

AMERICANS

STACY ANNE BARBEAU, president of the United States of America

EDWARD RAUCH, president’s national security adviser

KAREN GRAYSON, secretary of state

LUKE COHEN, White House chief of staff

JAMES BUCHANAN NASH, CIA director

SCOTT FIRESTONE, admiral, U.S. Navy, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

RAYMOND SATTLER, special agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation

KRISTIN VOORHEES, intelligence analyst, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

IRON WOLF SQUADRON AND SCION

KEVIN MARTINDALE, president of Scion, former president of the United States of America

BRAD MCLANAHAN, Cybernetic Infantry Device (CID) pilot and XCV-62 Ranger pilot, Iron Wolf Squadron

PATRICK MCLANAHAN, Cybernetic Infantry Device (CID) pilot, Iron Wolf Squadron ground operations unit, former lieutenant general, U.S. Air Force (ret.)

WAYNE “WHACK” MACOMBER, commander, Iron Wolf Squadron CID operations, former major, U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (ret.)

IAN SCHOFIELD, commander, Iron Wolf deep-penetration unit, former captain in Canada’s Special Operations Regiment

SAMANTHA KERR, operative, Scion Intelligence

MARCUS CARTWRIGHT, operative, Scion Intelligence

DAVID JONES, operative, Scion Intelligence

ANDREW DAVIS, Iron Wolf deep-penetration unit, former sergeant, U.S. Army Special Forces

MIKE KNAPP, Iron Wolf deep-penetration unit, former sergeant, U.S. Army Special Forces

CHRIS WALKER, Iron Wolf deep-penetration unit, former sergeant, U.S. Army Special Forces

SKY MASTERS AEROSPACE INC.

HUNTER “BOOMER” NOBLE, Ph.D., chief of aerospace engineering, Sky Masters Aerospace Inc.

CHARLIE TURLOCK, Cybernetic Infantry Device (CID) specialist, former captain, U.S. Army National Guard

JASON RICHTER, colonel, U.S. Army (ret.), Ph.D., chief executive officer

TOM ROGERS, remote piloting specialist

RUSSIANS

GENNADIY ANATOLIYVICH GRYZLOV, president of the Russian Federation

SERGEI TARZAROV, president’s chief of staff

GREGOR SOKOLOV, minister of defense

VIKTOR KAZYANOV, minister of state security

DARIA TITENEVA, foreign minister

IVAN ULANOV, president’s private secretary

COLONEL GENERAL VALENTIN MAKSIMOV, commander of the Aerospace Defense Forces

IGOR TRUZNYEV, former president of the Russian Federation and former head for the Federal Security Service (FSB), currently chief of Zatmeniye (“Eclipse”) Consulting Group, a private espionage firm

MAJOR GENERAL ARKADY KOSHKIN, chief of FSB’s Q Directorate

COLONEL VLADIMIR BALAKIN, chief of security for Perun’s Aerie cyberwar complex

MAJOR LEONID USENKO, Special Surveillance Unit, Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)

CAPTAIN KONSTANTIN RUSANOV, GRU Special Surveillance Unit

CAPTAIN ARTEM MIKHEYEV, GRU special technical officer

COLONEL YEVGENY PERMINOV, GRU liaison officer

AHMAD USMAEV, warlord, Chechen Republic

MAJOR PAVEL BEREZIN, detachment commander, Vympel (“Pennant”) Spetsnaz unit

CAPTAIN ANDREI CHIRKASH, detachment second in command, Vympel Spetsnaz unit

TIMUR SAITIEV, Chechen fighter

YURI AKULOV, former FSB officer, currently an operative for Zatmeniye Consulting Group

IVAN BUDANOV, senior nuclear supervisor, Atomflot

DR. NIKOLAI OBOLENSKY, software lab directory, Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering (NNIIRT)

MAJOR GENERAL VIKTOR POLICHEV, Aerospace Defense Forces, senior military aide to Colonel General Maksimov

TARAS IVCHENKO, former FSB officer, currently an operative for Zatmeniye Consulting Group

MAJOR GENERAL KIRILL GLAZKOV, commander of the FSB’s V Directorate

LIEUTENANT MIKHAIL KURITSYN, Vympel Spetsnaz unit

MAJOR ALEXEI RYKOV, Su-27 fighter pilot

SERGEANT IVAN ANANKO, Vympel Spetsnaz unit

SERGEANT DMITRY SAVICHEV, Vympel Spetsnaz unit

LEONID PEROV, former FSB officer, bodyguard for Igor Truznyev

CAPTAIN FYODOR GOLOVKIN, commander, Kipiyevo radar outpost

COLONEL RUSLAN BARYSHEV, Su-50 fighter pilot

CAPTAIN OLEG IMREKOV, Su-50 fighter pilot

MAJOR GENERAL ANATOLIY KAVERIN, commander, 2nd Aerospace Defense Brigade

POLES

PIOTR WILK, president of Poland; former general in the Polish Air Force and commander of the 1st Air Defense Wing

KLAUDIA RYBAK, prime minister

JANUSZ GIEREK, minister of national defense and deputy prime minister

MAJOR NADIA ROZEK, military aide to President Piotr Wilk, attached to Iron Wolf Squadron as copilot and systems operator for XCV-62 Ranger

MAJOR GENERAL MILOSZ DOMANSKI, Polish Land Forces

COLONEL PAWEŁ KASPEREK, F-16 fighter pilot and commander of the Polish Air Force’s 3rd Tactical Squadron

MAJOR DARIUSZ STEPNIAK, head of presidential security detail, Bureau of Government Protection (BOR)

JAROSŁAW ROGOSKI, senior vice president, PKO Bank Polski

MARTA STACHOWSKA, chief technology officer, PKO Bank Polski

CAPTAIN TOMASZ JAGIELSKI, F-16 fighter pilot, 3rd Tactical Squadron

GENERAL INSPECTOR MAREK BRZEZIŃSKI, commander, Polish National Police Force

MAJOR GENERAL CZESŁAW MADEJSKI, deputy command, Alliance of Free Nations (AFN) Northern Air Operations Center

CAPTAIN JERZY KONARSKI, Northern Air Operations Center

MARIUSZ BRODSKI, senior investigator for PKBWL, Poland’s aircraft accident investigative agency

KAROL SIKORA, sergeant, Polish Special Forces, attached to Iron Wolf Squadron deep-penetration unit

ROMANIANS

ALEXE DUMITRU, president of Romania

MARKU PROCA, control room supervisor, Cernavodă Nuclear Power Station, Unit Two

NICOLAE DIACONU, senior plant operator, Cernavodă Unit Two

ION MORAR, senior plant operator, Cernavodă Unit Two

VASILE ENESCU, emergency coordinator, Cernavodă Unit Two

BALTIC STATES

SERGEANT EDVARDAS NOREIKA, State Border Guard of Lithuania

COLONEL REINIS ZARINŠ, Latvian Air Force intelligence officer attached to AFN’s Northern Air Operations Center

SVEN KALDA, prime minister of Estonia

LIEUTENANT COLONEL INAR TAMM, Estonian Air Force

KALMAR AIRLINES

KAARLE MARKKULA, captain, Flight 851

TUOMAS SAARELA, first officer, Flight 851

PROLOGUE

PERUN’S AERIE CYBERWAR COMPLEX, IN THE URAL MOUNTAINS, EAST OF PECHORA, RUSSIA
LATE SUMMER 2018

Wrapped in stillness and silence for over three hundred million years, the mountain’s vast inner recesses now echoed with the measured clatter of boots and echoing voices. Construction units, laboring around the clock for months in brutal conditions, had carved out an intricate network of tunnels and connected chambers — piercing layers of solid rock already ancient when dinosaurs roamed the earth.