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Page 287
"Are you Soyuz, General?" another officer asked. "Is joining Soyuz required as the first step in this great adventure of yours?"
Kalinin glared across the room at Danius. These men were trying to humiliate him, and Danius knew it.
The regimental commander shrugged. "It is no longer against military regulations to ask questions, General," he said mildly.
The great porcelain stove in the far comer seemed to swell with radiated heat. Kalinin ran his finger around his collar, then checked himself. He could not sweat in front of this uniformed rabble. What on earth could he say now that would bring them to order? His anger was mixed with strong feelings of anxiety. The Soyuz plan would take exquisite timing if it were to succeed. And if it did not succeed? What if the Americans, or the Chinese, or anyone, were to attack the motherland when she was weakened by disorder? How long, he wondered, would it take these undisciplined air regiments to scramble? The Strategic Rocket Forces to empty their silos? Russia was naked if this regiment was typical of the military. Things had seemed much simpler in Sochi, listening to Kondratiev as he outlined his elegant plan, unencumbered by details.
Outside, seen through frosted windows, lines of MiG-37 fighters stood on the flight line, the new flag and double eagle insignia on their fuselages splashes of color in the gray landscape. On the fighters' stubby, swept-back wings the snow and ice were a thick blanket. In an emergency, those aircraft could not fly without thirty minutes of defrosting. As interceptors they were worthless, almost as worthless as these so-called aviators.
Kalinin shouted "Quiet!" and the hooligans were so surprised that they shut up. He said brusquely, "I am speaking of love of country, patriotism. Do they still teach that at the air force higher schools?"
A ground-service officer standing in a far corner spoke up. "Patriotism is always in our hearts, Your Excellency." A

 
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