We certainly caused a great deal of trouble here, he thought, and most of it is on my shoulders. But what do I care as long as I am in charge? They thought to throw me out of my heaven, so now I reign in hell. So be it. Now that I have Grilikov and my security contingent aboard, there won’t be any little rebellions aboard ship here to frustrate my plans. Even Troyak is gone with a chunk of the Marines. My men should be able to handle the rest. So there won’t be any heroics from the crew this time, like Rodenko and Zolkin tried to pull before. It took a long history to move those men to do what they did. Even faithful Samsonov bucked my authority in the end. I must never forget that.
Yet without the cooperation of the crew, I cannot carry out my plans. So I must be cautious here. Rodenko objected to that missile firing, and for the very first time. And Samsonov hesitated when I gave the order to fire. That was also a first. It tells me that their instinct is none so ruthless as my own. In the end, they are Fedorov’s men, and would weigh in on his side of the equation. There’s one more good reason to continue with Grilikov’s training at the CIC.
That was one hell of a fight we just had with this rogue destroyer. What was it doing there? Who really knows, but it remains a threat to my plans here as well. My research indicated those ships only carried eight anti-ship missiles, so unless they had something below decks in crates, they have an empty gun now, at least insofar as the ship-to-ship missiles go. Yet they probably still have SAMs left, and that could be a problem for me. The can’t harm Kirov with their little Standard Missile 2. I can shoot those down as easily as I took down their SSMs. And now that I know they are here, they certainly won’t be able to ambush me like that again.
No. The damage they can do lies in their ability to influence events in the war. As toothless as they are now, their remaining missiles can be a decisive factor in any air battle that occurs here. I wonder what they are up to now? They were obviously sent up here to deal with me and the ship, and the fact that they were operating with other Japanese fleet units is most revealing. That means Yamamoto has to know about them. How very interesting. They didn’t just appear here, shake hands with Admiral Kurita, and decide to come and kill me. No, that isn’t likely at all. I can imagine they went through everything we did when they first appeared here—trying to decide who’s side they were on. Who knows, maybe that big volcanic eruption off Java had something to do with their appearance, just as Fedorov speculated. If nothing else, it put a little spice into the stew.
Now what are they up to? Yes, Yamamoto must know about them, which means they conspired to get to him and arrange a little pact. The Japanese were down south with this big operation involving Fiji. Why didn’t they send Takami there? Perhaps Yamamoto thought he had the power to handle the Americans himself. It’s my ship that must give him nightmares these days, particularly given what I did to his precious Kido Butai after Pearl Harbor, just a little demonstration of what was to come if Japan continues to defy me.
I ruffled a few more feathers when I took Kamchatka, now my Sakhalin operation has finally got their full attention. That reaction they made off Kamchatka was knee jerk reflex. They thought they would just send a little task force up and settle things. Now they know better. After I made my successful landing on Sakhalin, I must have really rattled the teacups in Tokyo.
He smiled.
So now what is this Takami up to? They’ll have to go back to Yamamoto, tail between their legs, and tell him they failed here, and more, that they have no real power to intervene in my operations again. Oh, I suppose they could form the nucleus of a carrier strike group, and protect those ships from my SSMs as long as their SAMs hold out. But they can’t stop my torpedoes.
He smiled again. He would settle all this later. His most immediate problem now was the same old nemesis that had foiled him so many times—Fedorov. It was an uneasy alliance from the very first. Fedorov had little choice but to knuckle under. He took the position I offered him, and served well, until he got a big head on him again, and started cooking up this sour borscht. Thank god I had the good sense to think it through. We aren’t going to win this war on the back stairway of that railway inn. What fun is that? I’d much rather prefer to slowly grind the Japanese under my boot, until they beg me to stop.
So that is my main concern now—Fedorov, not the damn Japanese. I need not worry what this Takami is up to, but Anton Fedorov is another matter. What is he up to with this insubordination? He tells me he’ll comply with my order to return to the ship, but there’s been no sign of the KA-40 yet, and no word from him at all. Beyond that, my younger self tells me that the Irkutsk has gone silent. They can’t raise them on the radio. Fedorov had Troyak and a few marines with him. I was remiss in not checking to see what Troyak was packing away on that helo from his weapons lockers. He has things in there that can bring an airship down, which is why I warned my brother to keep a sharp eye.
Then again… What good would it do Fedorov to take down the Irkutsk? He’d be stranded there. Oh, they still have the KA-40, and it had fuel enough to get back to the ship from the drop off point at Tokko Lake. That draws a fairly wide circle around that lake, the farthest on for that KA-40, and Fedorov could be anywhere inside that circle. He could easily reach the Trans-Siberian Rail as it swings up north of the big bend in the Amur River. But that would be risky for him, as it is all Japanese occupied territory. He would not come east, towards my operations here, and he would not go south into Japanese held territory. If he continued west from Tokko Lake, he would not even make it to Lake Baikal, and that would do him no good. He’d just have to sit there in the wilderness, twiddling his thumbs.
That leaves north. Yes, he could get up to the populated region along the Lena River, or perhaps even the Aldan River. That’s my territory, but they could go to ground, be discreet, and they would be very difficult to find. There would be food there, the means of survival, particularly around Yakutsk. That would buy him time to figure what to do, but what would that be?
Karpov thought and thought. He’d want to get to Sergei Kirov. Yes… He was all chummy with Kirov, and that would be the only ally he could run to now—unless he had ideas about trying to contact the Americans. I’ve invited US Air Force personnel to evaluate my offer of basing rights on Siberian territory. Could he be running to them? If so, how could they help him? It certainly won’t change anything concerning Ilanskiy. I’ve got that place locked down tighter than a bank vault now. Nobody gets anywhere near that railway inn without my permission. Tyrenkov’s men had a complete cordon around the place.
Another smile, with a dismissive shake of his head. Fedorov, he thought, you are becoming irrelevant now, no matter where you think to go. Run to the Americans, or try running to Sergei Kirov. Yakutsk is a very long way from Leningrad, and besides that, I have much more pull with Sergei Kirov than you may realize. It’s my Shock Armies that saved Russia last winter, and my troops still fight for him even now. How do you think I got this ship back?