Transmission: Ragnarok: Book Two by John Meaney Read Free Book Online

saké, much the same thing – which meant he knew how to cope: drink water and get on with it.
    Pearl Harbor, then
.
    If Lieutenant Kanazawa had not been delusional, then it would be something to find out about. Outside, it was a muggy June day, two months since Japan had signed a pact with the Soviet Union (going undercover and resurfacing as the Russians they really were formed one of his and Sergei’s backup plans) while Roosevelt had, two days later, announced that the US would supply materials, under the Lease-Lend Act, to Japan’s major enemy, main target of their plans for aggressive expansion: China.
    Think it out
.
    It was hard, with Kremlin bells ringing in his head, but this was what he thought: that China’s ‘magnetic warfare’ strategy seemed like frustrating magic to the Japanese. The Chinese simply withdrew from the area surrounding every city that fell to the invaders. They had never even declared war: not ten years ago during the Mukden Incident in Manchuria, nine years ago when the Nihon Imperial Army moved on Shanghai, or eight years ago when they took Chengteh’s capital Jehol, so close to the Great Wall.
    The Chinese did not fight the invasion: they absorbed it.
    So what will America do if Admiral Yamashita attacks?
    The United States were something of a mystery to Dmitri. Their Great Depression had failed to convince the proletariat of the madness of free-market thinking; that, or they were too cowed by their imperialist masters to rise up in revolt. But those were explanations that anyone might trot out in a Moscow bar after some vodkas, whereas when it came to Western Europe – especially Germany – Dmitri could always see through simple explanations and ideology.
    Pose the question in a different way, and different answers rise up.
    No, what will
China
do?
    If attacking Pearl Harbor caused China to declare open war on Japan – in accord with its treaties, now it depended on American supplies – then Japan would take the gloves off and attack any ships delivering aid to China, even if the flag they flew was the Stars and Stripes.
    So maybe Kanazawa was right: this insane plan was real.
    ‘Morning, boss.’ Sergei looked fresh. ‘Have you started on breakfast?’
    ‘Have you seen Torginov recently?’
    Torginov, a long-term Kyoto resident and naval intelligence specialist, was only nominally a part of their network.
    ‘I would have told you if I had.’
    ‘He’ll have picked up word of this Pearl Harbor thing,’ said Dmitri. ‘If it’s real, I mean.’
    ‘Ah.’ Sergei’s smile was cynical. ‘You don’t want him getting the credit.’
    The man had access to a separate courier route, distinct from the one Dmitri and Sergei used, his affiliation looser than that of other agents. He could report to Moscow via the well-placed Sorge, another agent working under German cover. Had Dmitri been less senior, he would not have known of Torginov’s existence.
    ‘I’ve no idea what you mean. I was thinking of cold rice and fish.’
    ‘For breakfast?’ said Sergei. ‘So long as there’s plenty of tea, I can handle it. And I’ll keep quiet about the other thing.’
    Meaning Torginov, but Dmitri’s concerns were not what Sergei thought.
    I am my own man
.
    Right now, to the best of his informed knowledge, Wehrmacht tanks were beginning a three-pronged westward invasion: von Leeb’s force to the Baltic states, Rundstedt’s further south, while in between was Bolk’s army that included both Guderian’s and Hoth’s panzer divisions.
    There were intelligence officers like Sergei who operated best with a small-field detailed picture, while others like Dmitri made decisions based on strategic background concerns. The Nazi forces were superbly equipped in comparison to Mother Russia, for all Stalin’s rhetoric; but if manpower could hold them back throughout the summer – or at least slow them down – then the secret Soviet weapon could be brought to bear.
    Winter-time in Russia.
    I do