‘Obviously, it’s the transition,’ said Holland. ‘Six hours from now, they’ll be dealing with a new President.’
‘He said we are at a critical stage, not about to go into a critical stage,’ said Stephanie.
‘It has to be the North Korea play. That’s why he needed to communicate directly with the White House,’ said Harry. ‘He was saying that he knows we know about it, the first step of negotiation.’
‘We don’t negotiate,’ said Holland. ‘Kennedy didn’t with Khrushchev when they tried to put missiles in Cuba. I’m damned if I’ll negotiate now.’
Wrong, thought Stephanie. Swain caught her eye and she kept quiet. History lessons must wait. Prusak tapped her elbow, and she guessed from his expectant expression that they were thinking the same thing. She nodded. Prusak reminded the room that Stephanie had received a call from Sergey Grizlov, speaker of the Russian Duma. Would it be worth her trying again to get through to him?
‘To ask him what?’ said Holland.
‘Ask him straight,’ said Stephanie. ‘Is Russia planning an imminent missile strike against the United States?’
‘Would he know?’ said Holland.
‘We can judge a lot through voice analysis,’ said Prusak.
‘Do we have his whereabouts?’ said Swain.
‘He went into the Kremlin an hour ago,’ said Prusak. ‘He may be with Lagutov.’
‘Ask the question and add in nuclear, an imminent nuclear-missile strike,’ said Swain.
‘Once it’s asked, they will know we’re on to them,’ said Harry.
‘Your point?’ said Holland.
‘The question might be the catalyst to a launch, depending how ready they are.’
‘They’re not going to launch if they want to negotiate,’ said Swain.
‘That could hinge on who is actually running the Kremlin,’ said Stephanie.
‘Is Ozenna still bound by the deadline, sir?’ said Pacolli, who was lining up airstrikes less than four hours from now.
‘Nothing substantive has changed.’
The finality of Swain’s statement abruptly ended the quick-fire conversation. Stephanie understood Swain’s thinking. Obliterating the base before Holland took office threw down a marker to stop hostilities before the world was plunged into all-out war. It also gave Holland a choice. He could continue his plans to strike the Russian mainland and North Korea or he could sue for peace. Swain was giving him a clean plate.
‘I’ll ask about an imminent nuclear strike against the United States and its allies,’ said Stephanie. ‘That would cover Japan and South Korea.’
Swain nodded. Harry said, ‘Use the Narva registered phone.’
Swain looked quizzical and Harry explained about the phone registered to the city in Estonia that was mainly populated by ethnic Russians. But Stephanie disagreed. Why should Grizlov answer a direct call from a stranger in Estonia when he might not from her? ‘I’ll try mine first, then the Narva phone,’ she said.
Harry said nothing. No one spoke. She scrolled to the last call from Grizlov and dialed. It rang three times and went to voicemail, a woman’s voice asking callers to leave a message for Chairman Grizlov. She cut the line. ‘Should I leave a message? “Call me” — something like that?’
‘No,’ said Swain. ‘But try again.’
Stephanie switched phones, punched in the number, and gave it a full minute. No one moved. The silence in the Oval Office was oppressive. Prusak put his finger to his earpiece for the intercept. She pressed Call and caught Harry’s gaze of approval as the first ring sparked up, then two more and she heard her former lover’s voice. ‘Speaker Grizlov, can I help you?’ His voice was friendly, full of charm and confidence. She detected no background noise, no traffic, no hotel lobby music, no muttering of other voices.
‘Sergey, it’s Stephanie. I need to know—’
There was a click, the same bouncing electronic silence, the same voicemail. Stephanie cut the line. Was that her one shot? He had declined her call on her known number, picked up the unknown one, heard her voice, and run away? Or was it a bad place to talk? Too risky? In which case, would he call back? An atmosphere of disappointment enveloped the room, then Holland asked, ‘How would we take out this Toksong missile base?’
Pacolli answered. ‘A GBU-57 bomb dropped from the B-2 stealth will drill down into the bunker before exploding. That’s a fifty three hundred-pound warhead which would destroy everything at that launch site.’
‘What would be the radiation leak levels?’ asked Swain.
‘Limited, sir. Secondary aircraft could deliver foam sealant to the strike site that would hold long enough for ground forces to get there—’
‘Whose ground forces?’ asked Holland.
‘They would be North Korean or Chinese,’ said Pacolli.
‘They would have to be ours,’ said Holland.
‘That would be impossible in the time frame.’
‘How long to do that strike?’ said Holland.
‘Fourteen hours from the order, sir,’ said Pacolli. ‘They’re at Whiteman’s Air Force Base in Missouri. Or we could be there in three hours out of Osan, South Korea with the HVPW and F-35s. That’s a smaller, more versatile version of the bomb, but it could work.’
‘I don’t like the word “could”,’ said Holland. ‘It has to be a single strike. Where is our closest nuclear launch?’
‘USS Florida,’ said Pacolli. ‘She’s in the Sea of Japan and carries nuclear armed cruise missiles. That would be a strike within a couple of hours.’
‘And is that “could” or “would” destroy?’
‘Guaranteed, sir. A conventional strike with a GBU-57 out of Missouri or a nuclear strike from the USS Florida are certainties. The F-35s from Osan — their payload might not have the explosive power to do the business.’
‘I recommend the nuclear,’ said Holland. ‘North Korea’s been a live unexploded mine from another era for too long. To protect America, we need to get rid of it and move on.’
Harry spoke up. ‘Sir, if we collapse the North Korean regime, it would take a hundred thousand troops two months to secure all of its nuclear arsenal during which time renegade generals will be hawking nuclear material to terror groups around the world. It will take another two hundred fifty thousand troops to stabilize the country, and the humanitarian crisis would make the Middle East look like a school picnic outing. And to get anything done we would have to work closely with the Chinese and the Russians.’
Harry had nailed it again. There was another pause. Stephanie kept coming back to the same question. Is it just Vitruk? Is it Russia? Is it Russia and China?
‘The economy, Tom?’ Swain asked Treasury Secretary Thomas Grant, who was also the temporary Federal Reserve chair. Grant spoke slowly and with confidence. ‘A conventional single strike will wobble the markets, but they will hold, depending on the response. Nuclear would create panic that could rupture the global economy into deep recession.’
‘But worse if that Topol-M with a nuclear warhead hits Hawaii or California,’ said Holland.
‘Strangely, sir, not. It would have less of an economic impact.’
Holland’s brow creased with suspicion. ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’
‘This is not a time for kidding, sir. The United States is stronger and more versatile than either Russia or China. If we strike first, the markets will see it as the world’s biggest economy becoming unpredictable and out of control.’