“He was my commanding officer,” Wohl responded woodenly. “I do not counsel superior officers unless they request it.”
“That’s bullshit, Wohl,” Brad said. “If you saw my dad was hurting, you should have helped, and screw that superior-officer shit. And I never saw any of that other stuff. My dad was a good father, a volunteer, and a dedicated executive who loved his family, his community, his country, and his company. He wasn’t a killer.”
“You never saw it because he shields you from all that,” Wohl said. “He’s a different guy around you. Besides, you were a typical kid—your head was up and locked in your ass most of the time.”
“You’re full of it, Sergeant Major,” Brad said. He again caught a glimpse of Wohl’s heavily lined face in the glare of an oncoming truck’s headlights. “What happened to your face?”
“None of your business,” Wohl grumbled.
“You’ve been spying on me for who knows how long, and I can’t ask you one lousy personal question?” Brad asked. “I think you were in the Marine Corps too long.”
Wohl half turned to Brad as if he was going to argue with him, but did not, and turned back toward the window. After a few moments, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The American Holocaust,” he said finally. “You’ve heard of it, I assume?”
“Sarcasm, Sergeant Major? It doesn’t suit you, and it’s inappropriate. Tens of thousands were killed.”
“Your father planned and executed the American counterattack,” Wohl said, ignoring Brad’s remark. “Waves of bombers spread out over much of western and central Russia, hunting down mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles. I was his noncommissioned officer in charge at Yakutsk, the Siberian air base he commandeered.”
It took a few seconds, but then Brad recognized the name of the air base, and his mouth dropped open in surprise. “Oh, shit,” he breathed. “You mean . . . the base that was hit by Russian nuclear cruise missiles?”
Wohl did not react, but fell silent again for several moments. “Obviously I didn’t get a lethal dose of radiation—I was wearing Tin Man battle armor—but I had the greatest exposure to radiation of anyone except General Briggs,” he said finally. “Forty-seven survivors from that Russian underground shelter died from radiation-caused diseases over the years. It’s just taking a bit longer for me.”
“My God, Sergeant Major, I’m sorry,” Brad said. “The pain must be terrible.” Wohl glanced over at Brad, a little surprised to hear the tone of empathy coming from the young man, but he said nothing. “Maybe that’s what killed General Briggs. Maybe the radiation made him take risks. Maybe he knew he was dying and decided to go out fighting.”
“Now look who’s the expert,” Wohl murmured.
They followed Highway 101 north, occasionally taking side roads and doubling back, looking for any signs of shadowing. Every few minutes when they found a highway overpass they pulled over, and one of the men in the SUV would get out, carrying what looked like very large multilensed binoculars. “What’s he doing, Sergeant Major?” Brad asked.
“Searching for aerial pursuers,” Wohl replied. “We know the Russians employ unmanned aircraft to spy on military bases and other classified facilities over the United States, and Gryzlov was a Russian Air Force officer. He would definitely have that kind of hardware. He’s using infrared binoculars that can detect heat sources in the air or on the ground for several miles.” A few minutes later the man reentered the SUV, and they were back on their way.
About an hour after leaving San Luis Obispo they turned in at the airport road outside the city of Paso Robles. The driver entered a code into an electronic lock, and the tall chain-link gate opened to admit them onto the airport grounds. They drove along quiet, dark taxiways, illuminated only by small blue lights on the edges, until coming to a large aircraft hangar surrounded on three sides by another chain-link fence, with only the aircraft entrance to the parking ramp and taxiway open. This time, instead of a code, the driver pressed a thumb against an optical reader, and the lock opened with a quiet buzz.