Fallout (The Girl in the Box Book 55) by Robert J. Crane

Author:Robert J. Crane [Crane, Robert J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Ostiagard Press
Published: 2023-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Liu Tao

Chinese Army Forward Supply Base

Novosibirsk

“Everything is going according to plan thus far,” Major Liu Tao said into the comms unit. It was encrypted, and he was being asked for his frank opinion, so he unhesitatingly delivered it. It was, however, fortunate for him that he did not have to shade the truth at all, because if things had been going differently – less optimally – he might have felt a need to perhaps de-emphasize any negatives that had occurred and play up more positive aspects of the invasion.

That was not necessary here, however, as he stood on the blustery, wind-soaked taxiway, watching a Y-20 cargo transport coming in for a landing while another taxied into place for unloading. Infantry soldiers had pulled duty as unloaders and were waiting, shivering in these awful conditions, to unload the constantly arriving planes.

They were well set to begin the history's largest humanitarian operation: the Chinese effort to restore lawful order to the collapsed Russian Federation. Of course, before they could begin that, they had to secure their supply lines and keep pushing forward. What good would it do anyone if they didn't gain full operational control of Russian territory?

Though Liu had to admit: pushing deeper into Russian territory seemed like a terrible idea to him, shivering in his winter gear. He was used to the more temperate weather of his native Hangzhou; in January, it hovered in the range of the high thirties and forties, by the silly western Fahrenheit scale. Liu chuckled to himself; he'd gone to university in Missouri, and now he had that ridiculous measure permanently ingrained in his mind, automatically translating from the smarter Centigrade scale whenever he contemplated temperature. Old habits died hard.

“The advance proceeds,” General Wang Jian said over the comms with a staticky hiss. He was in the rear, advancing on Novosibirsk even now to take operational control of this new outpost of the Chinese expeditionary force. “Keep in contact.”

Liu paused before replying; he'd seen something out of the corner of his eye in the blustery sky. A flicker of something, he thought, about a hundred meters away, just down the taxiway over the fuel dump. He stared; was it snow? There was certainly plenty of that, both fluttering across the sky and also stirring on the ground.

No, this was something else; a white, glowing spot in the air, like a halo effect of light upon a lens. Liu squinted at it. It just hung there, seemingly growing to a couple feet wide, with a dark spot in the middle of that halo of white.

Then something started to emerge from it, a shadowy shape, like a turd coming out of a puckered asshole. Liu almost snickered at the image, instead grabbing his adjutant's shoulder as the man passed, and pointed. “What is that?”

His adjutant stared, squinting. “I don't know. It almost looks like–”

The thing fell, suddenly, the halo of light disappearing as though someone had flipped a switch. But the dark shape remained, and fell, swiftly until it struck–

Liu Tao didn't have a chance to register what happened when it landed.

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