“Where are they all right now?” he asked.
“All of these have been found and secured by local law enforcement or National Guard MPs,” Briggs assured him. “They’re being transported by Guard units to Mount Weather as we speak. We’ll continue to bring as many as we find there until we can figure out more comfortable accommodations for them.”
“Their comfort is not my concern, General,” the president snapped. “Their safety is, and their access to secure communications.”
“Yes, sir — we’re on it, sir,” Briggs said.
“Good,” the president said. “Now, where are we with hunting down the ships that fired these missiles?”
“The navy and the air force have sunk three container ships so far, Mr. President,” the SecDef said. “I’m told we have just identified a fourth ship off the coast of Long Island. We’re convinced it’s the one that launched the attack on Manhattan. It should be at the bottom of the Atlantic by the time we’re finished with this call, sir.”
“What are you doing to recover any missiles and nuclear warheads that may have still been on those four ships?” the president asked.
“We’ve got search-and-rescue teams heading to all four locations, sir,” Trainor said. “I’ll get you updated reports as I get them myself.”
Oaks nodded and asked Secretary James, “How many dead and wounded so far?”
“It’s impossible to say at this point, Mr. President.”
“How soon will we know?”
“Honestly, sir, it could be days — maybe weeks.”
Oaks couldn’t say so, of course, but the truth was that he didn’t want to know. It was too horrible, too depressing. But as the leader of the nation, he felt it was his duty to ask, and he gave James forty-eight hours to compile a preliminary estimate.
The biggest questions he addressed to Secretary Trainor.
“Who did this, Burt, and how quickly can we strike back?”
He noticed Trainor hesitate. “Mr. President, I’m not ready to give you an answer on that.”
Oaks had anticipated this, but unlike the casualty numbers, this was one he had to have. “How soon will you know?” he pressed.
“It could be a while, sir,” Trainor stalled. “We’re sifting through the intel, but it’s slow going. As you know, DIA was destroyed. Langley was destroyed. NSA headquarters at Fort Meade has been evacuated because of high winds bringing massive amounts of radiation their way. We’re shifting a lot of the satellite imagery and electronic intercepts to other facilities around the country. But the fact is, our top analysts are all dead, and most of our best linguists as well.”
“That’s not good enough, Mr. Secretary,” the president countered. “I have a constitutional obligation to defend this country, and I can’t do that if I have no idea who attacked us.”
“Believe me, Mr. President, I understand the gravity of the situation,” Trainor said. “But I don’t want to speculate without hard information, and that’s going to take time to compile, process, verify, and get to you.”
“You must have something,” the president insisted. “Start with China.”
Trainor quickly scanned a stack of the latest intelligence reports in front of him but apparently found little to go on. “Zhao is worried, no question about it,” he improvised. “His press conference was unprecedented but his message was certainly clear enough. They think we think they did it, and as a result, Beijing is mobilizing every military asset they have.”
“Even their strategic missile forces?”
“I’m afraid so, sir.”
“All this aggressive military activity just makes them look guilty,” Oaks noted.
“They would say they’re being prudent,” Trainor cautioned.
“Unless they are guilty,” the president said. “So are they?”
“I don’t know yet, Mr. President. It’s simply too soon to say.”
Trainor explained that for the last several days, the navy had been tracking five Chinese nuclear submarines approaching unusually close to the Pacific coast of the U.S. Three more Chinese submarines had been operating suspiciously close to Maine, New York, and Florida. Another was lurking on the edge of U.S. territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Any evidence these subs were used in the attacks?” the president asked.
“No, sir,” Trainor said.
“Then what’s China up to?”
“I don’t know, sir — they may simply have been testing our sub-tracking capabilities. At the time of the attacks, we were moving more than a dozen Los Angeles — class fast attack subs to counter them.”
“And where are the Chinese subs now?” Oaks asked.
“All but two have retreated into deeper waters in the Atlantic and the Pacific,” the SecDef said.
“And the other two?”
“They’ve pulled back several hundred miles, but they’re essentially still patrolling, albeit slowly, up and down the coasts — one in the east and one in the west.”
“Are they armed with missiles?”
“We believe they are, sir.”
“Nuclear?”
“Yes, sir,” Trainor said. “What worries me in particular is that these are all Russian-built Kilo subs, type 636, very fast, very stealthy, tough — not impossible, but very tough — for us to track if they really decide to go dark on us.”
The president mulled that over. “You’re saying Beijing wants us to know they’re out there?”
“Yes, sir,” Trainor confirmed. “They seem to want us to know that they’re waiting, ready to act if provoked.”
“So how big is the danger of a miscalculation by either side?”
This time, Trainor didn’t hesitate for a moment. “It’s growing by the hour, sir.”
33
“What you are proposing is very risky,” Lucente said.
“Perhaps,” Al-Hassani said. “But without risk, where are the rewards?”
Lucente did not reply immediately, but this was a positive sign, Al-Hassani thought. It meant the secretary-general was not ruling out his scenario after all. Indeed, he was listening carefully. He was considering. He was tempted.
Finally Lucente asked, “Theoretically speaking, where would you propose we start?”
“You know where, Salvador,” Al-Hassani said softly.
“Jerusalem?” Lucente asked, obviously knowing the answer already.
“Where else?” the Iraqi said.
Lucente sighed. “Mustafa, how many ways can I make this clear? My hands are tied. I’ve done everything in my power to stop the Temple from being constructed, short of building an international coalition to invade Israel. There’s nothing more I can do.”
“Would that really be so wrong?” Khalid Tariq, Al-Hassani’s chief political strategist, suddenly interjected.
“Would what be so wrong?” Lucente asked.
“Building an international coalition to invade Israel,” Tariq clarified.
“Tell me he’s kidding,” Lucente said, turning back to Al-Hassani.
“He’s not,” the Iraqi leader said.
“Then he’s crazy,” the secretary-general laughed. “You both are. Didn’t you two see with your own eyes what happened to the last coalition that tried to destroy Israel? Nobody but you would be brazen enough to try that again.”
Tariq cursed as Al-Hassani looked on. “Then what?” the aide snapped. “You’re just going to give the Zionists a free pass to do whatever they want, whenever they want, with no consequences?”
“Mustafa, Khalid, have you forgotten the fire falling from heaven on Israel’s enemies?” Lucente asked, incredulous. “Have you forgotten the hailstones, the massive earthquake, the torrential storms? Didn’t you see it all — live — on Al-Jazeera and CNN and in Al-Hayat? Haven’t you noticed it’s been nearly eleven months and still the Israelis are burying the bodies of their enemies? And you know as well as I do it would have taken a lot longer but for all the birds and beasts that came along and ate most of the bodies. Can you really watch all that and think for a moment that you can persuade the world to take on Israel again in such a short amount of time? People will think you’re insane.”