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　"Well, Gennady Ilosifovich, I've talked you and your ideas over UGG Boots Clearance with President Grushavoy, and you've had three stars for a long time. It is time, the president and I agreed, for you to have another, and a new assignment."
　"Indeed?" Bondarenko wasn't taken aback, but he became instantly wary. It wasn't always pleasant to have one's career in others' hands, even others one liked.
　"Yes. As of Monday next, you will be General-Colonel Bondarenko, and soon after that you will travel to become commander-in-chief of the Far UGG Boots Discount East Military District."
　That got his eyebrows jolting upward. This was the award of a dream he'd held in his own mind for some time. "Oh. May I ask, why there?"
　"I happen to agree with your concerns regarding our yellow neighbors. I've seen some reports from the GRU about the Chinese army's continuing field exercises, and to be truthful, our intelligence information from Beijing is not all we would wish. Therefore, Eduard Petrovich and I feel UGG Boots Clearance that our eastern defenses might need some firming up. That becomes your job, Gennady. Do it well, and some additional good things might happen for you."
　And that could only mean one thing, Bondarenko thought, behind an admirable poker face. Beyond the four stars of a general-colonel lay only the single large star of a marshal, and that was as high as any Russian soldier could go. After that, one could be commander-in-chief of the entire Jordan Heels army, or defense minister, or one could retire to write memoirs.
　"There are some people I'd like to take out to Chabarsovil with me, some colonels from my operations office," the general said contemplatively.
　"That is your prerogative, of course. Tell me, what will you wish to do out there?"
　"Do you really want to know?" the newly frocked four-star asked.
　Golovko smiled broadly at that. "I see. Gennady, you wish to remake the Russian army in your image?"
　"Not Nike high heels my image, Comrade Minister. A winning image, such as we had in 1945. There are images one wishes to deface, and there are images one dares not touch. Which, do you think, ought we to have?"
　"What will the costs be?"
　"Sergey Nikolay'ch, I am not an economist, nor am I an accountant, but I can tell you that the cost of doing this will be far less than the cost of not doing it." And now, Nike heels Bondarenko thought, he'd get wider access to whatever intelligence his country possessed. It'd have been better if Russia had spent the same resources on what the Americans delicately called National Technical Means-strategic reconnaissance satellites-that the Soviet Union had once done. But he'd get such as there was, and maybe he could talk the air force into making a few special flights...