General Stapleton reached across the table and shook hands with his trusted lieutenant, Colonel Robert Vinsen. The man looked tired and dirty. Stapleton figured he had probably been riding in the turret of an M-ATV most of the way—it was how he rolled. That was one of the reasons why he was Stapleton’s most trusted lieutenant. “Glad to see you made it in one piece Bob.” Vinsen nodded. “What we got, sir?” Right to the point. Another reason Stapleton liked his XO so much. “Here’s the sitrep,” he said as he leaned over the map table and placed a finger on LaGuardia International. “The rebels have expanded their base of operations and taken LaGuardia. Sometime in the middle of the night, the sneaky bastards opened up airspace to a fleet of Russian airliners and cargo planes.” “Russians? Christ. Reinforcements?” The general shook his head. “Yes and no. We’ve been able to spot at least 300 soldiers that weren’t there yesterday. However, they’re also unloading all kinds of supplies, vehicles, and one thing about the size of a train car.”
