“I’d bet on the barge,” Jerry answered, “but I don’t know if it’s much help to know where the weapon came from.”
Patterson nodded. “You’re right. In fact, the only thing it really tells us is that we’re probably dealing with more than one loose nuke. Master Chief Reynolds said there were dozens on that barge.”
Jerry shivered at the thought. It had been years since they’d discovered the thing. Had whoever put them there gone back for some of them? All of them?
“Knowing, or having a strong suspicion we know, where the bomb came from gives us another lead to run down.”
“Straight into Russia,” Jerry completed.
Patterson’s desk phone buzzed, and Kathy Fell’s voice came over the speaker. “Senator Hardy’s here.”
As she said “Thank you” to her secretary, Patterson nodded to Jerry, who got up and unlocked the door. As he opened it, he quickly stepped to one side, and Senator Lowell Hardy (D-CT), Commander, USN, retired, stepped inside. Jerry closed and locked the door again as Hardy gave his wife a small hug and a peck on the cheek. She was as tall as Hardy, which meant they both were taller than Jerry, but he was used to that. Hardy had always been a big man, although with his retirement from the navy, some parts had gotten even bigger, and he fought a continual battle with his middle.
Hardy had been Jerry’s first skipper, aboard Memphis, and while their relationship had not started out well, Jerry now regarded the retired submarine captain as one of his closest friends and a mentor.
He greeted Jerry warmly. “It’s good to see you, Jerry. I’ll get the lowdown on Emily and the house later. I assume since you wanted me here instead of the house…” He saw the security markings on the documents Joanna offered him, and immediately sat down. Jerry took another chair to the side.
Patterson reprised Jerry’s report at the Pentagon, and then her discovery about the likely identity of the Kashmir bomb. He skimmed the sampling report as she talked. “I hadn’t seen the classified version of this yet,” he remarked after she finished. “I wouldn’t have thought to compare this with the analysis of the warheads we recovered.”
She accepted the compliment with a small smile, but her expression changed to concern. “If you agree that the barge is the most likely source for the Kashmiri warhead, then the next logical step is to tell someone. As soon as Jerry started talking at the Pentagon, I suspected the connection, but I couldn’t mention it then, because Admiral Hughes isn’t briefed in, and I had to double-check to make sure that Geisler and Foster were both on the list.” She tapped the folder for emphasis.
The “Rainfall” incident had been “deeply compartmented,” which meant that if you didn’t need to know about it, you didn’t even know that it existed. Revelation of the recovery of two nuclear warheads from a sunken barge in Russian waters, even if limited to the classified community, would create as many problems as it tried to solve. There was also the unwelcome fact that nothing stayed classified in Washington forever. They’d managed to keep Rainfall secret by ruthlessly limiting the number of individuals on the “need to know” list. If the list grew longer, the risk of public disclosure would become very real.
Hardy chewed on the idea for a moment, then observed, “Knowing where the bomb comes from simplifies the search tremendously. And everyone needs to know that there is a very real chance that more than one weapon is involved.” He stood, and then started pacing. Her office was big enough that he could go a fair distance in one direction before turning, and he made two full circuits before continuing to speak.
“You’re going to have to take this out of its box, so the community can start investigating. No choice.” He paused for a moment. “Politically, this is one secret that doesn’t embarrass anybody, except the Russians. There will be hell to pay if they find out. At least we’d be revealing it at a time of our own choosing. That lets us have a response prepared in case it does go public.”
Patterson put the documents back in her desk safe as she spoke. “I’ll be briefing the president on both of these tomorrow morning.” She turned to face Hardy. “Lowell. I have to have recommendations for President Myles when he hears about this. What do you think I should advise him to do?”
“I think you already know the answer, Joanna. Brief anyone who’s working on the Kashmir explosion into Rainfall, and keep looking for something that will corroborate or explain what Jerry’s reported. There’s a lot to do before we understand what’s going on. I’ll bet our bio on this Vice Admiral Dhankhar isn’t even current.”
She nodded. “That’s what I thought, but it’s nice to have a reality check.” She stood up, and reached for her purse. “If we head straight for the restaurant, we can still make our reservation.”
5
CASCADE
“Don’t even think of saying no to me, Senator. You’ve already done that once, when you turned down that ambassador’s posting.” President Myles saw Hardy look toward Patterson. “And don’t blame your wife for this one. Andy Lloyd came up with this, and I agreed.”
Senator Hardy started to say something, then closed his mouth. After a thoughtful pause, he replied, “Mr. President, it’s not that I’m refusing to do it. I just don’t know that I’m the best person to be communicating what will undoubtedly be a very unpleasant message, and I certainly can’t predict how the Russians will react.” His tone mixed unhappiness with uncertainty.
They were seated in the Oval Office, on two couches facing each other. President Myles and Secretary of State Lloyd were on one, Patterson and Hardy on the other. There was a low table with a coffee service between them. Nobody had touched it.
Lloyd spoke up. “Senator, I’m still trying to grasp that we’ve had two Russian nuclear bombs in our possession for years, and that many more have been lying hidden on the seabed. And that’s on top of a possible conspiracy by part of the Indian military to use some of said weapons.”
“Too many questions, not enough answers,” Myles remarked.
Lloyd nodded emphatically. “Exactly. Any more clues and we won’t even be sure of our own names. We need answers, and I believe we don’t have a lot of time.”
“Until early April, at least, if Petrov and Samant are correct,” Patterson replied.
“I disagree,” Lloyd countered. “If there is a conspiracy, and they’ve changed the schedule once, they could do it again. And there has been one detonation already. We don’t know if it was deliberate or accidental, but the risk of a second explosion heaven knows where can’t be ignored. Even if it’s not on U.S. soil, it could still affect our interests in a dozen different ways, none of them good.”
Myles explained, “Until Dr. Patterson briefed me yesterday, I was willing to go with the simplest theory — that somehow a Chinese weapon had been given or fallen into LeT’s clutches, and they suffered an epic fail while preparing it for use. The intelligence community seems to be leaning that way.”
Hardy sniffed. “Based on nothing but supposition.”
“But it was consistent with all the facts,” Myles replied, “or it was until Dr. Patterson shows up with not one, but two revelations. That was before we called you here.
“I hadn’t forgotten about the barge you found, but the match between the two reports can’t be ignored. The information that Commander Mitchell provided, that’s another matter. It’s largely based on rumor and speculation.” He raised one hand as Hardy tried to reply. “But we’ll run it down, as best we can. Our intelligence coverage in India is thin, at best. But Andy and I agreed that the connection between the Kashmir explosion and the barge is much stronger, and takes precedence.”