Command Authority Read Online Free Page A

his binoculars. It took a moment to find the area; the hospital was a few kilometers beyond the high school, on a small hill. But he scanned to the south of the building and finally he saw the movement on the road in the shadows.
    At first he thought he was looking at a jeep, or maybe an SUV.
    Another T-90 called in. “Storm Three to Storm One. I think it’s a helicopter.”
    “Nyet,”
said Lapranov, but he looked closer. The dark vehicle seemed to stop at an intersection, then began moving laterally into a parking lot.
    “What the
fuck
?” Lapranov said. “Maybe it is a helo. Gunner, can you ID it through your Catherine?” The Catherine long-range fire-control thermal imager built into each tank allowed the gunner to see distant targets on a video screen. Lapranov himself had access to a Catherine screen, but he’d have to sit down inside the turret for that, and he was having too much fun up here.
    The gunner came over Storm Zero One’s intercom. “Confirmed light helicopter. Single rotor. Can’t make out markings—he is behind a truck in the shade. Shit, he is low. His skids must be just a meter aboveground.”
    “Armament?” Lapranov asked. He squinted into his binoculars to get a better view himself.
    “Um . . . wait. He has twin pylons with machine guns. No missiles.” The gunner chuckled. “This guy wants to come out and play against us with his pop guns?”
    Lapranov heard a commander of one of the other tanks on the net laughing.
    But the captain did not laugh. He took a long drag on his cigarette. “Designate it as a target.”
    “Roger. Designated as a target.”
    “Range to target?”
    “Four thousand two hundred fifty meters.”
    “Shit,” Lapranov said.
    The effective range of the 9M119 Refleks missile system, used against tanks as well as low and slow aircraft like helicopters, was four thousand meters. This small helo hovered just out of range.
    “Where is my air support? They should have seen this fucker on radar.”
    “They won’t see his signature. He’s moving between the buildings. Too low to the ground. He must have flown over the hill through the entire town like that to stay off radar. Whatever the hell he’s doing, he’s a good pilot.”
    “Well, I don’t like him. I want him dead. Call in some support. Pass on his coordinates.”
    “
Da,
Captain.”
    “All Storm units, load HE-FRAG and resume the attack.”
    “Da!”
    Within seconds, all six tanks fired 125-millimeter main gun rounds into the buildings at the center of Põlva, killing four and injuring nineteen with this single salvo.

3
    E dgar Nõlvak heard the shells tear through the sky overhead, and he looked back over his shoulder in time to see them impact against the city hall and the bus station. When the smoke cleared, he noticed a vehicle moving along a road, higher on the hillside. At first he thought it was a black or green SUV; it even seemed to stop in a parking lot. It was difficult to see because it was shaded by the big hospital building next to it, but eventually Edgar realized what it was.
    It was a black helicopter. Its skids were no more than one or two meters above the ground.
    The man lying next to him in the mud grabbed Edgar by the arm. He pointed at the helicopter and shouted hysterically. “They are behind us! They are attacking from the west!”
    Edgar stared at the helicopter, unsure. Finally he said, “It’s not Russian. I think it is a news helicopter.”
    “They are
filming
this? They are just going to watch us die?”
    Edgar looked back to the tanks as another shell came crashing down, hitting just sixty meters from the ditch where he lay. Mud rained down on him and the others. “They are going to die themselves if they don’t get the hell out of here.”
    —
    L apranov was enjoying his cigarette. As he took a long drag, a transmission came through on the net. “Storm Zero Four to Storm Zero One.”
    “Go, Four.”
    “Sir, looking at that helo again on the