Shadow Wars by Charles D. Taylor

Author:Charles D. Taylor [Taylor, Charles D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: military fiction, special forces
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2015-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

10

Portents

Two of the smaller cities in Poland, Olsztyn to the north of Warsaw and Radom to the south, were among the first to experience food riots late that winter. They weren’t caused so much by the lack of food as the failure of a dream. Warsaw was still able to sustain the people. There appeared to be enough bread and dairy products and basic foodstuffs to see them through until crops were harvested later that year. Nations with surpluses had agreed to provide necessities to obviate any shortages. The greatest problem was the prices. The average family couldn’t afford to pay.

In itself, the nation wasn’t really worse off than in harder years under the Communists, Gomulka and Gierek. But the people had been promised so much—a market economy, as much meat and dairy products as they wanted, the end of food lines, consumer goods that would compare favorably with Western nations. But nothing ever comes as quickly as promised, and dreams are easily shattered by broken promises. Withdrawn subsidies, realistic market prices, and a high debt burden savaged the economy and encouraged a citizenry ignorant of the price the Western world had paid for its freedom. They rioted against the rumors of food shortages, against the rumors of corruption, against the carefully orchestrated rumors of government and business excesses, and against what they couldn’t understand.

There was little local police could accomplish; their reputation had been savaged the past two months in local newspapers to the point that younger officers often refused to obey their seniors’ orders when they were told to establish police lines to hold the crowds. A number of the most influential Solidarity leaders in each city, men who had laid their lives on the line with Lech Walesa, had either died mysteriously in the past year or faced various legal difficulties; the new Solidarity figure in Olsztyn had given the rioters his blessing, while the one in Radom had been discredited just weeks before for entertaining women with union funds.

The Home Army, itself functioning on reduced rations, had at first fired over the heads of the hungry citizens. Only when rioters incited by their leaders and a vision of food shortages charged headlong into their ranks did fearful young soldiers serving out their contracts fire into the crowds. Within hours, even the most placid people in each region of the country were polarized. Restless, wary of the guns, the nation was rapidly approaching chaos. Carl Halder saw no reason to return to Poland.

Poland would follow.

Maria Martinu was an extremely attractive woman. Men, even those who knew her intimately, often stared admiringly. It was partly that she was pretty in a mature sort of way and partly because she was exquisitely well dressed. She was neat, well groomed, and often wore a vivid, multicolored scarf in her long, dark hair. Deep, dark eyes capable of displaying a range of emotion from anguish to sexual satisfaction held the attention of every man who noticed her. Her smile alone could eliminate the need for unnecessary discussion.

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