King smiled; Colonel Palter had been over the matter with him too. “We build up in Britain,” he said. “It’ll take us at least six months to build up a powerful force in Britain, then we swarm over the channel and march on Berlin.”
Roosevelt nodded grimly. “General Groves is worried about the German atomic bomb,” he said. “If it gets used here, will the British retaliate for us?”
King nodded. “I believe that Prime Minister Hanover would use his own bomb to punish the Germans,” he said. “However, it might be worth asking him.”
Roosevelt was reluctant to use his wheelchair too much within the Senate or the House of Representatives. Even knowing that he would die in four years unless he took better care of himself hadn’t removed his concern; showing weakness on the floor could be jumped on with ease.
“We have been attacked,” he said, and his voice whispered through the room, building in power. “This is not a simple… mistake, this is not an accident, this is an act of war. Losing the Sims was an accident; the destroyer might have been hit by accident, but not the Virginia. Not a battleship, lit up at night, carrying a glowing American flag. This was a deliberate, a defiant, slap in the face for us!
“The Germans say that they didn’t do it,” he said. “I say they’re lying; they must have fired on the battleship. They wanted to scare us, to remind us that we are not safe, and they have angered us. They have awoken a giant; Germany, Russia and Japan, the Axis powers, have set out to dominate the world! Do we allow them to conquer the world, slaughtering entire peoples until they come for us at the end, or do we make a stand against them now?
“They are three powers, working together, working to share the world between them,” he said. “I ask the House now for a declaration of war against Germany, against Russia and against Japan. I ask the House to make a stand, to say enough; we will not surrender to the evil of the world. We have allowed others to fight for too long; now it’s our turn. I ask the House to vote now, to declare war.”
He sat down. Roosevelt, an astute politician, didn’t expect the House to declare war on all of the Axis powers, but he hoped that they would declare war on Germany. The debate raged on and on, sparing no argument and counter-argument. By the time a decision was made and voted upon, it was almost dark.
10 Downing Street
London, United Kingdom
26th September 1940
Admiral Grisham nodded politely to Hanover as she entered the war room. Hanover nodded back with the respect that one gives to a dangerous adversary; short and bulky, with a bulldog face, Grisham was not known for giving ground to anyone, even the Prime Minister. Her support staffer, a young Asian girl called Karen, carried secured datachips with her, loading them into the secured computer. Hanover allowed himself a moment to admire the curve of her behind in her uniform, before waving Grisham to a seat.
“All right,” he said, once the staffer had left the room. “What’s so important that you had to call me away from a meeting?”
“As you know, the Japanese are blockading Australia,” Grisham said. “We’ve had some success by using submarines to pick off their blockade forces, but we’re short on torpedoes and they have been successful at cutting the air bridge. What that means is that Admiral Turtledove, who is a week away after rounding the horn, is going to have to fight his way through.”
Hanover scowled. “Do the Japanese know that he’s coming?”
“We know that they have agents in Madagascar,” Grisham said. “There are also the South Africans who want to move at once to an Apartheid system; they would be happier if we and the Nazis battered each other into the ground. Yes, we believe that the Japanese know that the fleet’s coming.”
She waved a hand at the map. “One of our problems has been to locate the Japanese carriers and battleline,” she said. “They’ve been very successful at manoeuvring the carriers fast enough to avoid our submarines, and the Captains have been ordered to avoid risking their own discovery by attacking a heavily guarded convoy. Of course, if they knew how few ships we have… they would be very tempted to try and take out Turtledove’s force.”
Hanover nodded. “I see your point,” he said. “Should we order him to the Arabia Republic?”
Grisham grinned. “Why?” She asked. “We can have the other submarines meeting up with him, and he has some of the newer destroyers and frigates, armed with Harpoons. As long as they don’t come to point-blank range, he should be able to cripple the Japanese fleet.”
Hanover steepled his fingers. “The Australians need the equipment on the freighters, don’t they?”
“Oh, yes,” Grisham said grimly. “Without it… well, the Japanese are pouring units into the East Indies and advancing on the Australian positions. With the growing war in Malaya, we won’t be able to spare them anything new for a while, which leaves them on their own.”
Hanover stared up at the map. “When was the last time a British fleet sought battle with another fleet?” He asked. “The Falklands? World War Two? Admiral are you confident that we can win such a battle?”
“As long as the enemy doesn’t close on the fleet successfully, then yes; we can win,” Grisham assured him.
“The enemy gets a vote too,” Hanover muttered. “Very well; order Admiral Turtledove to execute the plan, assuming that he gets a chance, but the freighters are not to be risked.”
“Yes, Prime Minister,” Grisham said.
Undisclosed Location
Berlin, Germany
26th September 1940
Goebbels glared into the camera. “I say again,” he said, his voice firm and convincing. “No submarine of the Third Reich was anywhere near the American battleship. The Fuhrer himself decreed that all American ships were to be left alone, and none of the u-boats were close enough to fire at the American ship.”
He scowled; the effect was quite impressive. “The Third Reich rejects the American claims without doubt,” he snapped. “The British or the treacherous French doubtless used one of their own submarines to hit the ship, merely to start a war with America. While the demand that Germany send its crew to America for trial, there is no crew for Germany would not be so uncivilised as to fire upon a battleship of a friendly power.”
He finished speaking and stormed off. Stewart turned off the camera and carefully stored it back in its carry case. Roth watched her thoughtfully.
“Do you think he was telling the truth?” Stewart asked.
Roth lifted an eyebrow. The woman had no common sense; despite being in the centre of the Nazi regime, she asked the strangest questions of people who were either fanatical Nazis or scared to give a honest answer. If Himmler hadn’t issued the strictest orders to keep her safe, she would have been dead a thousand times over.
“Normally, around here, when something is planned, people try to take advantage of it,” he said finally. “No one has moved to take advantage of this development, which is the surest sign that this was an accident.”
“I see,” Stewart said thoughtfully. “I suppose that there’s no way to be certain?”
Roth shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said. “You could ask for another interview with the Fuhrer” – he smiled at her expression – “or the Grand Admiral, but I don’t think that anyone planned for this to happen.”
Stewart nodded. “If you don’t mind, I’ll transmit this back to London for the evening news, and then we can find something else to do.”