He took Bertinetti and Morland into a side room, where they sat down with the Air Planners and he worked through the coordination with the NATO mission while the Brit officer watched and listened. Once completed, Teteris led them into the main Air Operations Coordination Center, along the wall of which was a radar screen showing the recognized air picture; flashing radar icons indicating the listing of all aircraft in flight within Latvian airspace and that of her neighbors. As in the main Operations Center next door, watch keepers sat at desks with their computers, headsets and microphones—plotting, observing, controlling, recording and reporting.

Teteris explained how each aircraft was identified as friendly or potentially hostile, with the information drawn from a number of different sources, including the integrated Latvian military radar system, civilian air traffic control and NATO’s central Air Operations Center at Kalkar in Germany, which integrated all airspace control in the north and east of Europe.

Bertinetti nodded. This was second nature to him, but it was good to see the Latvians were so well-organized. “That all figures. I see you’ve got our F-16s linked into this already.”

“We watched you all the way from Aviano,” said Teteris with a smile. “And we’re watching your other F-16s on their way, too.” Then the smile disappeared. “As are, no doubt, the Russians . . . Also, this is where we pick up their incursions into our airspace. Every day now, without fail.”

He pointed to the concentration of winking radar returns around Pskov, 175 miles east of Riga and inside Russia. “That’s where they usually take off from. Ten or so Il-76 Candids, their medium-range military transport aircraft. They fly west to our border, then track north along it, before circling round to repeat the maneuver. They often take off about now, so they’ll be up to our border after dark. They do it to intimidate us.”

“And they may be setting a pattern. Get you used to seeing them there at a specific time,” Morland suggested.

Bertinetti looked at the Brit again; tough looking for certain, and clearly intelligent as well.

Then Teteris stared at the radar returns. Hard.

Bertinetti heard him say something in Latvian to the watch keeper nearest him, who replied, then spoke quickly into his microphone.

Teteris turned to Bertinetti and Morland and pointed. “That concentration around Pskov. It’s significantly larger than usual. We need to watch that. The watch keeper is sending out a warning to the Baltic Air Policing detachment. I think we’d better get back to Lielvārde, Major, right away.”

Bertinetti nodded agreement. “Let’s roll.”