"What about this bomber being built in Fisikous? Is this Tuman the stealth bomber the Soviets were supposedly working on before the empire crumbled?"

"I guess," Russell replied absently. "The staff convinced me we should keep an eye on it, although I think it's a lot of worrying over nothing. These Soviets holed up in Fisikous don't have the money to produce carrots, let alone an intercontinental bomber. They've lost all their privileges under the new system. When the facility's turned over to the Lithuanians, they'll be out of work."

"What if they get the money from somewhere else?"

"Who? Russia? They don't have the money either. Poland? Bulgaria? The IRA. . .

"How about Iran? Iraq? Syria? Libya...

"I'm telling you, nothing's going to happen. The plant will be closed, the production stopped, and the Lithuanians will put the stealth bomber on display or sell it to us for hard currency.

The thing isn't going anywhere," Russell reiterated. "We've been monitoring things in Fisikous and all the other design bureaus, and they're ghost towns. We can shut Fisikous down immediately if there's any hint that the technology will be exported outside the CIS."

"Then Luger'll be killed," Curtis pointed out. "They wouldn't want it made public that they've been keeping an American military officer locked up in that place all these years."

"Or maybe Luger will go with the scientists. Voluntarily."

"We'll pull him out immediately then," Curtis said. "We can't take a chance"

Russell thought it would be easier to kill the guy than to risk lives trying to rescue him, but he didn't say it. In his present mood, Curtis would go ballistic "All right, Wilbur. If you're gonna extract him, then work up a plan. But this guy is going to have a lo.t of explaining to do!"

"You didn't seem too interested in hearing him tell his story a little While ago, George," Curtis said. ~

"I can't stomach traitors," Russell said. "A career military guy, turning tricks for the other side-I can't stand it. I'd plug the guy myself if I could. But if you still want him, if he means something to you, then we'll sit on him until you cook up a plan. All right?"

"He means something to a lot of very important, highly placed people, believe me," Curtis said. "Some of those people owe him their lives. I think you'll find, when you read the Old Dog file, that the world probably owes him for helping bring down the Soviet Union itself."

OVER CENTRAL BELARUS, COMMONWEALTh OF INDEPENDENT STATES 17

MARCH, 0330 BELARUS (16 MARCH, 2030 ET)

Central Belarus is very flat.

One hundred kilometers south of Minsk and four hundred kilometers east of Warsaw, its thick forests, vast empty plains, and marshlands extending for hundreds of thousands of acres are not a great challenge for low-level flying. But an hour into the flight, they were still nearly a thousand meters above ground, and Dave Luger was ready to tear his hair out. The boredom was making him think about how stiff and uncomfortable the instructor pilot's seat-a metal bolt-in seat between the two cockpit officers'-really was. He was itching to see some action.