“I do offer an upside. Answer my questions and no harm will come to you or your family. Following our conversation tonight, you will be returned to your home and no one will be the wiser. Additionally, we’ll deposit five hundred million rubles into a Swiss account for you. No one will learn of our meeting, you and your family will be safe, and you’ll be well-rewarded. A notable upside on all three issues.”
This was where Kaufmann had been headed all along. The conditions for Novikoff’s capture, provided to Michigan’s SEAL unit, had been specific. Home alone, with no one aware that he’d been kidnapped. If things went as planned, he’d be returned home before sunrise.
Novikoff’s eyes dropped to the table as he mulled the offer over. After a long moment, he looked up and began talking. Kaufmann pulled an audio recorder from his shirt pocket and pressed Record.
CHAPTER 16
WASHINGTON, D.C.
In her West Wing corner office, Christine O’Connor hung up the phone, then shifted her computer to the classified network. As Carmen from ONI had promised, an email arrived a moment later. ONI had finished reviewing the CIA report and was providing their assessment.
Christine glanced at her watch, then began reviewing the ONI document. The daily intelligence briefing would start in a few minutes. When she reached the last page of the report, she slowed, then read it again, her face turning pale as she processed the implications.
She checked her watch again; it was almost time. She printed a copy of the report and stuffed it into a folder along with a Top Secret cover sheet, then headed down the seventy-foot-long blue-carpeted hallway toward the Oval Office. She was the last to arrive, taking her place beside Chief of Staff Kevin Hardison and the DNI staffer in chairs facing the president’s desk.
The DNI staffer delivered the day’s intel briefing, and after the president’s questions had been answered, it was Christine’s turn. She began by refreshing everyone’s memory of the Russian torpedo and Alexander investigations.
“The mission to interrogate a member of the four-person team designing new systems for their submarines went as planned. ONI has finished their assessment of the information collected by the CIA, and the situation is alarming.
“The Russians have installed a system on Alexander designed to defeat incoming torpedoes. The system projects a magnetic field out from the submarine’s hull a considerable distance. Modern torpedoes detonate when the magnetic field is strong enough, usually a few feet from the hull, instead of upon impact. As a result of this extended magnetic field, the torpedo detonates too far away from the submarine to damage it.”
Christine paused to let the president and the other two men absorb the implications. She added, “The good news is that the system is still being tested and they haven’t worked out all of the bugs. It takes a lot of power, which is the reason for the second nuclear reactor, and there are lots of negative side effects from generating such a strong magnetic field.
“However,” Christine continued, “if Russia perfects this technology, their submarines will be invincible. We will have no way to sink them.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I hope you enjoyed Power Play!
I apologize for not wrapping things up nicely like I do in my novels, but Power Play ends where my fifth book, Treason, begins. For various reasons, several scenes I really liked didn’t make it into Treason, ending up on the cutting-room floor. Due to Treason’s delay from my normal summer release until the following winter, my publisher asked me to write a short story to help tide readers over. I thought the deleted scenes, fleshed out a bit, would make a good short story, even if it ends on a cliffhanger.
If you haven’t yet read one of my books, hopefully you liked Power Play and are interested in reading the novels in the Trident Deception series. The books are designed as stand-alones, but they use the same character set and there is some character progression, so it’s better to start at the beginning and read in order:
The Trident Deception
Empire Rising
Ice Station Nautilus
Blackmail
Power Play (short story)
Treason
Deep Strike
As you see above, chronologically, Power Play falls in between Blackmail and Treason, directly connecting the two novels.
Also, the usual disclaimer is provided: some of the submarine scenes are not one hundred percent accurate. I can’t describe submarine operations exactly, as some of those tactics are classified, and the dialogue isn’t one hundred percent accurate. If it were, much of it would be unintelligible to the average reader. To help the story move along without getting bogged down in acronyms, technical details, and other Navy jargon, I simplified the dialogue and description of shipboard operations and weapon systems.
For all of the above, I apologize. I did my best to keep everything as close to real life as possible while developing an entertaining story. Hopefully it all worked out, and you enjoyed Power Play.
ONE FINAL NOTE: Torpedo fuzing technology is an extremely sensitive subject, classified at the Top Secret and even the SCI level. The fuzing techniques discussed in Power Play are somewhat vague and may or may not be completely accurate. If you are knowledgeable about U.S. torpedo fuzing and identify an issue in Power Play, please DO NOT comment in a public forum.
Also by Rick Campbell
The Trident Deception
Empire Rising
Ice Station Nautilus
Blackmail
About the Author
RICK CAMPBELL is a retired Navy Commander who spent more than twenty years on multiple submarine tours. On his last tour, he was one of the two men whose permission was required to launch the submarine’s nuclear-warhead-tipped missiles. Campbell is the author of five novels in The Trident Deception series: The Trident Deception, Empire Rising, Ice Station Nautilus, Blackmail, and Treason (releasing in March 2019). He lives with his family in the greater Washington, D.C., area. You can sign up for email updates here.