The vehicle pulled up to the side entrance of the Pentagon that was reserved for the senior officers and the Secretary. As he got out of the vehicle, he was met by a number of senior aides. He nodded in acknowledgement to them, and as they walked in the building together, he said, “It’s a go. The President has given the order to prepare for hostilities. He has also changed the DEFCON from 4, to 2. Begin to issue the orders and change the country’s defense posture immediately.”
The group of aides followed their boss as they made their way to the Operations Center, located in the belly of the building several floors below. As the SecDef walked into the room, everyone stood to attention and waited to be told to resume. Castle walked to the head of the table, and then announced, “At ease, everyone take your seats.”
The people in the room all filed into their chairs at the table in a very quick and orderly fashion. “Listen up everyone,” began Castle. The room suddenly became quiet enough to hear a pin drop; all eyes were turned to the SecDef. “The President has issued the order to prepare for hostilities with Russia. As of this moment, the leaders of the majority and minority parties are being briefed on the decision. We are also moving to DEFCON 2 per Presidential directive. I want our nuclear bombers placed on standby and our Ohio class submarines to move to their designated launch points. We are moving forward with the plans for war with Russia. As such, I want our nuclear forces on standby. While we anticipate that this war will be fought conventionally, we need to be prepared in case that nut job Petrov decides to push the envelope.”
A few people were taking notes, and because everyone was listening so intently, the sound of their pens on the paper was audible whenever Castle paused. He continued, “I want our carriers on the east coast to put to sea immediately and head to Europe. I also want all our anti-submarine warfare assets to begin peppering the waters off the east and west coast with sonar buoys. Get our attack submarines out immediately. Issue a cancelation of all military leave and recall all of those currently on leave. I want a full activation order of the Services Reserve branches immediately. Tell the governors that their national guard units are being placed on alert for federal activation. Then start activating the tier one national guard units and get them moving to their deployment centers.”
A flurry of activity then took place throughout the operations center as aides, operations officers, and non-commissioned officers began to start drafting the various orders. Keyboards were clicking at a ferocious pace as people cranked out copious emails. The din of chatter slowly grew as more and more people began making the necessary critical phone calls on the secured nets.
It was nearly midnight at the Pentagon as they began to recall everyone back to the office to start work on preparing the nation for war. It was going to be a busy 48 hours; that was all the time they had left on the Russian deadline, and hostilities could begin earlier. No one knew for sure when or if they would.
A Traitor in Their Midst
Carl Wiggins walked briskly through the parking lot, casually looking around to make sure no one was paying him any undue attention as he walked to his car, smoking a cigarette. He had arrived at the office an hour ago and once he had seen the meeting notes from the President’s conference in the Situation Room, he knew he had to find an excuse to head to his car and send an emergency message. The best excuse he could come up with was the need for a cigarette break and a java fix. He directed his staff to continue with their duties while he volunteered to grab a bunch of coffees and donuts for everyone to help them get through the long hours. Several people took him up on his offer.
As he walked through the parking lot with his cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth, he observed dozens of cars driving into the parking lot. The spaces began filling up quickly with all of the people responding to the midnight recall. It was not often that the Pentagon conducted a 100 % recall of military personnel and critical government civilians, but today was not a normal day. It was 0345 in the morning; the sun was still at least a couple of hours away from rising.
Carl slipped his hand in his pants pocket and pulled out the keys to the black 2016 BMW 525i that he had purchased last year. He had been well-compensated by various individuals for providing intelligence leaks about the Gates administration. It was almost too easy; everyone was eager to know what was going on, and as one of the communications officers who wrote intelligence summaries of the President’s meetings with the National Security Council, he had exceptional placement and access to the inner workings of the administration.
Carl was a deep cover Russian spy. He had spent nearly his entire adult life working to get into the position he now found himself in. He felt the best way to ensure peace and security in the world was to make sure everyone knew what the other group was thinking. He admired Edward Snowden and Chelsie Manning for their bravery in revealing the illegal intelligence collection that the American government had been perpetrating. Their actions helped to reassure him that what he was doing was truly in the interest of world peace.
He was not Russian by birth or heritage, but during college, where he had been a Russian studies major, he came to realize that it was the West who was in a constant state of demonizing Russia. The military industrial complex of America needed a boogieman; they needed a constant threat and enemy so that they could justify spending over $620 billion a year on defense. It was during this time of self-reflection and searching that he had been recruited by the SVR (part of the Russian FSB) to become a spy.
During his senior year in college, Carl was encouraged by his new handler to go into military intelligence, obtain a security clearance, and work his way into a government civilian intelligence position at the Pentagon. He felt like James Bond during his recruitment phase. After obtaining his commission in the Army, he was selected for an intelligence career track based on his Russian studies background. While in college, Wiggins had become fluent in the language, and had even spent a semester abroad as an exchange student in St. Petersburg; since Russian was such a difficult language to learn, there weren’t many people who could fill this need.
During his first four years in the Army, he was stationed at Ft. Meade, Maryland, and assigned to the NSA as a Russian specialist on the Russian desk. His handler in the SVR could not be more thrilled with his posting. He intended on staying at his post with NSA for as long as possible — it was a cushy job. Then President Bush announced the troop surge of 2007, and he suddenly found himself deployed.
When President Bush announced the surge, there was a critical shortage of intelligence officers deploying with the new combat units. Unfortunately for him, Carl was selected to join an infantry unit on their deployment to Baghdad as the battalion’s S2 or intelligence officer. His Russian handlers were not happy, but they had no choice in the matter and neither did Wiggins. Besides, filling an S2 billet was a needed requirement for getting selected to Major later in his military career.
During his deployment to Iraq, he was severely injured during a rocket attack on his Forward Operating Base. Shrapnel had torn through his left leg, shredding it to a point that he had to have his leg amputated below the knee. Even though he would be able to walk again with the new prosthetic limb he was provided, Carl’s injuries meant he was going to be medically discharged once he had recovered. He was incredibly depressed at the thought of losing his career in the Army and his secret life as a spy. While Wiggins was recovering from his injuries, his SVR handler approached him again, and gave him hope. “We want you to try to leverage your war injury to obtain a government civilian position,” he directed. “After all, you still have your clearances. Maybe this will be a stroke of luck for us after all.”