Twenty Five Million Ghosts by Steve Aitchsmith

Author:Steve Aitchsmith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2017-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

The Russians supplied him with a genuine British army field uniform with captain rank on the epaulettes and it fitted him perfectly, how they got it is anybody’s guess. The battle dress had no regimental insignia on it. They explained that he should wear uniform so that everybody would recognise him as an observer and understand he was not to be used in combat.

He was allocated a mentor, assistant, minder called Aleksandra Ivanovna Barantceva. She was about twenty six, spoke with a Cossack accent and held some kind of senior rank. She was also stunningly pretty even in the baggy Russian uniform. Her long dark hair was allowed to hang loose but she bunched it up under a cap when she wore one. At about five eight she was shorter than Findlay but showed no discomfort at her lack of clear physical strength. He became very fond of her.

When he arrived at the front, just short of the Polish border, she informed him that Russian forces had been pushed out of the part of Poland they had occupied.

“Our job is to delay,” she explained. “We will slow them down, pay the price in blood to prevent their usual fast advance. When that is achieved they will find that their supply lines are too long, their army too small and their resources insufficient. We slow their blitzkrieg, force them into entrenchment and then hit back. They have no idea of what a winter on the Steppe is like. We will sacrifice as many lives as we need to and we will not make the mistake of trying to rescue the civilians. We will avenge them later.”

“I see,” said Findlay in Russian. “You blood curdling beauty,” he said in English.

“I speak English,” she looked amused.

“Oops,” said Findlay.

“Oops,” she responded with an engaging smile.

They were in continuous managed and controlled retreat. As they fell back they destroyed everything the enemy might find useful. The peasant villages were left to their fate, wells were poisoned, crops were burnt and factories blown up. Not a bean, not a vehicle, not a cup was left for the enemy to take advantage of. The Germans rushed headlong onwards into the vast empty Steppe.

Findlay and Aleksandra Ivanovna often spent time in conversation. At first it was just explanations of what additional resources the Russians needed. After a few weeks their relationship evolved and they started to exchange personal information.

When she wasn’t ordering suicide missions or butchering Germans she was teasingly coquettish with him. He felt the stirrings of need in her presence. She knew this and made it clear she reciprocated. To Findlay’s frustration the war was more pressing for both of them. The other Russians were amused by the Englishman and his crush.

Findlay was beginning to think that he should return to Moscow in order to report to London. Did London even know that he was here? He wanted to ask London to arrange arms and food for the Russians. They were working military miracles with limited ordnance.

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