Connor’s demeanour changed. He was all business again. ‘Provided the right measures are taken to evacuate the area, then we should be able to minimise the initial civilian death toll. Assuming the weather conditions are forecast accurately, then we should be able to contain the fallout. Environmental and ecological ramifications are more difficult to estimate. No one has ever detonated these devices in such an environment. There are concerns about poisoning the farming land to the south and east. There is the possibility of the water table being poisoned, affecting crops and water supplies. There is a question mark over Adelaide and the possibility of long-term fallout. And of course, there is the question over the Chinese. If they were to find out about this plan, who knows what they might do to protect the mines? Equally of concern is what they might do in retaliation, given what they did in Sydney.’
‘But do you think it’s feasible?’ prodded Sarah.
Connor paused. ‘Yes, it is a plausible plan that may very well result in the Chinese extricating themselves from Australia.’
‘Good. That’s all I need to know,’ said Sarah, standing up.
Connor looked up at her. ‘Sarah, I don’t need to remind you that if anyone finds out about Fulcrum, the general will be in seriously hot water, as will you and the rest of the administration. Frankly, I want nothing more to do with this.’
‘I understand. Thank you for your help,’ replied Sarah before walking back towards the road, leaving Connor on the park bench.
She decided to walk back to the general’s office. When she arrived she went straight to see Fletcher and show him the report.
Sarah knocked and walked immediately into his office. ‘It’ll work, Fletch. There are some calculated risks, but Connor agrees — Fulcrum can work.’
Fletch looked up from his screen. ‘Come in Sarah, tell me what’s on your mind,’ he said sarcastically, referring to the way she had stormed into his office.
‘Like you don’t do that all the time to me!’ she exclaimed. ‘But look, the feasibility report is back and he agrees it could work.’
‘Let me see it,’ Fletcher held out his hand. ‘A paper report. Haven’t seen one of these in a long time,’ he mused.
‘I naturally didn’t want to risk transmitting it or saving it on a portable device.’
He was already reading the executive summary. ‘Very smart. See, paper still has its uses.’
Sarah didn’t respond — she just watched Fletcher reading the report. They sat in silence for a few minutes while he flipped the pages.
‘Well? It’s all there, Fletch — and it could work,’ said Sarah after a few more minutes.
Fletcher continued to read in silence, nodding occasionally, rubbing his lower lip with his index finger. Sarah looked around the room impatiently, noticing the photos on the wall, which she had seen before, but never actually looked at. One was of Fletcher and General Stephens in a desert somewhere, arms around one another’s shoulders. They were young and, despite their dirty combats, they looked strong and happy. Sarah thought about what they must have been through together over the years.
‘Well Sarah, it seems you have come up with a viable plan — can’t say I like it, but I think we need to consider it,’ Fletcher said finally, putting the report down.
‘I don’t like it either, Fletch, but I dislike the alternative even more.’
‘Yes, that’s a good way to look at it. Let’s get it to Marty as soon as he’s out of the transport meeting this afternoon.’
Sarah stood to leave. Fletcher leaned back in his chair, looking at Sarah, who stood and gently brushed down her fitted suit jacket. ‘Sarah, put that report in your safe at the office. There can be no leaks of this at all.’
‘Of course, Fletch. I’ll take it straight there now,’ replied Sarah, heading for the door.
‘Sarah,’ he said suddenly, ‘have you seen the effects of a nuclear explosion?’
Sarah froze, staring at her hand on the door handle. ‘No, no I haven’t,’ she said quietly.
‘I suggest you take a look in the archives at the Iranian attack of 2021. Take a look at what happened after the attack — the years of fallout the Iranian people had to endure. The land at ground zero is still uninhabitable. Generations of children were born disfigured and sick. Marty and I were serving in the region at the time of the attack. What I saw there scared the hell out of me. The level of destruction was on a scale like you could never imagine.’
Sarah turned back to Fletcher, who was leaning forward on his desk. ‘I will Fletch… I’ll take a look.’
‘Good. You need to know before you start pushing this to Marty with any zeal.’
Locking the feasibility report in her safe, Sarah went to her screen and opened up the Iranian archive. The Iranian bomb, as they called it, was actually an American bomb — it was just dropped in Iran. The first report she opened was a text-based Wikireport to give her a quick and easy-to-understand perspective on the event.
She remembered vaguely learning about this episode in her studies, but since her education had been mainly in strategy and had focussed on the polar regions, she hadn’t considered it important. Slightly embarrassed that she had to research such an important and relatively recent event, she started to read.
… By 2018, the tensions in the Middle East had reached a fever pitch. The entire region was in turmoil and inter- and intra- country wars were raging. In all the unrest, the US was losing its hold on the oil in the region and realised that there could be no peace settlement and no decisive victory for a conventional army. Resistance in the region was so strong that the US decided that something devastating would have to be done to put an end to it and again make the region cooperative. So, to protect their dwindling leverage on energy resources, they decided to put an end to the fighting by dropping a 20-Megaton nuclear bomb. Iran was chosen as the target, as it had risen up against the US after once being its closest ally in the region. The Iranian Government had sanctioned what the US considered to be terrorist attacks on their military bases in the region. This was used as justification for the nuclear attack.
The bomb was dropped on Teheran on the 12th of August 2019 with catastrophic effect. More than two million people were killed in the initial blast. A further million died soon after the blast, and the long-term damage to those who survived was monstrous.
The attack did not have the effect the US had projected. The theory was that the neighbouring countries would see what would happen to them if they kept fighting and would lay down their arms. Then they would set about producing more oil for the US energy market.
However, shortly after the bomb was dropped, the neighbouring Middle Eastern countries, realising they could be next, took a united stand against the US, forming the United Middle East Coalition (UMEC). Under this agreement, they severed all exports of oil to the US. The US threatened more nuclear destruction, but was severely chastised by the international community.
Since the Iranian bomb, the US has restrained from further nuclear strategies, opting for the more conventional approach of ground troops combined with air and sea supremacy. The US still had to secure energy resources from other parts of the world, so they turned their attention firstly to Canada and then to drilling for oil in the geo-political minefield that is the Arctic Circle.
As a result of the polar ice melts, a new shipping laneway between Europe and Asia had opened up. It also opened up vast sub-sea oil reserves. No one country has a clear ownership of the region and so at the time of writing the conflict in this region is still unresolved…
Sarah realised that this event had helped conspire against Australia. A severely stretched US military and a highly unstable global political environment all worked to China’s advantage, leaving the door wide open for them to invade Australia.