The Undaunted (Book 2 of The Undesirables)

Chapter 33: The Daredevil

Jack felt his body sag into the cot. His head rested in the crook of his arm, and he stared at the barracks' dark rafters. Men lay silent all around him, like him, trying to sleep. But no one was snoring, so Jack suspected they, like him, were just staring at the ceiling.

Bobby's prediction had come true. The Soviets were about to launch a huge offensive across the river Don against the north flank of the invader's army. They were going to try and encircle Stalingrad and trap German 6th Army inside the city. The offensive was such a secret that Jack's squadron of fighter pilots hadn't even been told until two hours ago, and they were supposed to be its spearhead.

The most dangerous part of the assault would be the beginning, when Russian forces tried to cross the Don. Their bridgeheads would be vulnerable to German bombers.

So, it was Jack's job, and Bobby's job, and Katia's and Bel's and Lenka's, to stop those bombers; bombers who would be protected by Messerschmitt.

The Russian fighter pilots would, Jack knew, be badly outnumbered. But how badly? Two to one? Three to one? Major Volkov wouldn't say.

But it had to be a lot. That's the only conclusion Jack could draw from their combat briefing. They had been told not to engage the Messerschmitt, not to be drawn into protracted dogfights. Instead, they had been instructed to fly straight for the bombers and shoot as many down as possible.

Which, Jack knew, wouldn't be many once a Messerschmitt locked on his tail.

The message was loud and clear: this was a suicide mission.

It made a certain amount of morbid sense. The Red Army had horded its tanks and recruits. Millions of boys had turned 18 across the vast the Soviet Republic, and they had all been conscripted in the spring. Stavka now felt they had an overwhelming advantage in numbers on the ground.

But not in the air. The Russian Air Force would take more than four months to recover from the losses they'd suffered during the invasion. Russia industrial might could build tanks and guns and even planes. But it couldn't train pilots, not that fast.

The woman fliers, the experienced pilots taken from support roles and transferred into combat, they had helped stem the shortage of manpower. But they hadn't reversed that shortage.

Stavka, the Russian high command, knew the Air Force was outnumbered, and knew that it was outmatched. They had made their calculations and had decided that it was worth sacrificing victory in the air for victory on the ground. They were willing to lose every fighter plane, every Yak and Airacobra, every experienced ace and pilot that still survived, in this risky attempt to finally push back the German tide. So long as the Russians stopped the German bombers long enough that the Russian tanks could cross the River Don, Stavka would be happy, and their secret offensive might succeed. If they didn't, the loss of planes and pilots wouldn't matter, because Russia was finished, anyway.

Jack knew there was a good chance he would die tomorrow. Even if he wasn't killed, if his plane was shot out from under him but he had time to eject, even if he survived bailing out, there was a good chance he'd land behind enemy lines. And if the Russians lost, if their attack was blunted and turned back, then there would be nothing but enemy lines. The entire Russian steppe would belong to Germany.

Jack would be captured. He wondered if the Germans would treat him as a Russian prisoner of war or an American one? Either way, he wouldn't be treated well.

But Bel was woman, and she would be treated worse.

Which was why, despite the long odds and suicidal risk, Jack was committed to the mission. Whatever happened to him didn't matter. What mattered was that the offensive succeeded. What mattered was that if Bel survived, if she ejected, that she lands in Russian-, not German-, held territory.