Germany again, Shaw thought. ‘I don’t recall anything, sir,’ he murmured. ‘Not even the name, I’m afraid.’
‘No. I didn’t suppose you would. He didn’t make any headlines, not even inside the States. He was a real backroom boy. Disliked publicity. Well, he was lost in a sailing mishap off Cape Cod some months back. At least, that’s what everyone, including us, assumed had happened when his boat was found drifting upside down…’
‘What,’ Shaw asked, ‘had really happened, then?’
Pullman said in a hard, flat tone, ‘He was in a sailing mishap — of a kind — right enough, but he didn’t die. He’s alive today, only he’s in Russia. And he was the man who blueprinted Warmaster. He could have copied the plans.’
Shaw’s breath whistled out between his teeth. ‘I begin to see, sir. How did Moscow work that one?’
Pullman shrugged. ‘We don’t know for sure. Could have been taken off his boat by a submarine, as a result of a pre-arranged plan. We only found out recently that he was in Russia, through one of our contacts in Moscow. Since we got that information, we’ve naturally given the matter top priority and we’ve found out something else, something that we guessed would of course follow automatically from Keiler’s defection: Russia’s built a similar missile — and we believe they’re nearly ready to try it out. If they haven’t already done so, that is. We’re not sure about that, but we do know the seismologists have recorded some unexplained bangs inside Russia, way up north. They could be part of a routine series of tests, and then again they mayn’t be anything of the sort.’
‘Not so good,’ Shaw murmured. ‘I assume the U.S hasn’t released any information about Warmaster to the NATO countries, but isn’t the secrecy rather pointless now Russia’s got the missile?’
Pullman snapped his teeth. ‘You’ve got a point, and I agree with you. But the official line is that we in America can guarantee the security of the whole Western bloc with Warmaster, or we could have anyway, and we don’t want too many countries making Warmasters of their own. It’s an unacceptable risk, especially now China’s been testing and wrecked the Test Ban Agreement. The world is always geared up for war these days, always on guard. The eyes and ears of Alaska are always watching out. The whole business is mighty tricky, and one itchy finger, just one, could send the world up in flames.’ He shrugged. ‘Well, you know that as well as I do. Point is, do-it-yourself nuclear missiles aren’t a good thing under the circumstances. We like to keep them in our hands when possible, then only we can press the big tit. If they all knew about it, they’d all want one. France, Germany… the lot. I’m not saying there’s not something in the official view, but myself I’d certainly like to see a little more co-operation — with Britain at any rate. But there it is, and I don’t set the policy. I only say I don’t know what the hell tie-up there can be with our defence plans and a dock consigned to Angola, but there is a link all right and I think you can guess what it is.’
The Britisher looked up sharply. ‘Dolly Gray?’
‘Dolly Gray, or to give her her own name, Rosemary Houston. Mind you, I haven’t the least idea why she was aboard the dock. She was one of a team of agents sent into Russia expressly to investigate Otto Keiler and the Russian progress on their missile. None of them achieved a goddam thing and all of them have now gone off the air, so we’re in fact no wiser as to current events or progress.’
‘The Russians got them all?’
‘Well, I guess they must have. That’s the assumption. All except Rosemary — and now someone’s got her, it seems. There must be some reason why she was found aboard that dock,’ he said savagely, ‘and I’d like to know what it was.’
‘So would I.’ Shaw rubbed at his jaw thoughtfully. ‘This Warmaster missile… they couldn’t hope to fire it from a dock, I suppose? A kind of mobile launching-pad?’
Pullman gave a short, hard laugh. ‘Grow up! I guess that’s way off the beam.’
‘I was just thinking aloud,’ Shaw murmured.
‘No reason why they should want to, anyway. They can have plenty of widely-dispersed firing-pads in the Soviet land mass, and we’re well within range of all of them, just the same as they are of ours! So’s Britain.’
Shaw nodded. He asked, ‘How did Warmaster behave on test?’
Pullman laughed again, bleakly. He said in a sour tone, ‘I was coming to that. She’s not been tested yet, at least not live — we weren’t having China’s action rush us too fast.’
‘Is she going to be fired live, then?’
‘Why, of course she is!’ Pullman looked surprised. ‘The new ARM 64 warhead hasn’t been tried out at all yet, and we have to have a dress rehearsal at this stage. The earlier tests were small stuff — they were carried out under cover of routine Canaveral procedures. Well now — this live test is due to take place shortly with scaled-down warheads, date yet to be decided, in the Pacific. She’ll be fired on a range-shortening trajectory from Canaveral and the target area will be between the Aleutian and Hawaiian Islands. The security on that is something extraordinary, I need hardly tell you, and I’m responsible for it.’ Pullman’s voice had tautened; there was a hint of nerve-strain showing through, Shaw fancied. ‘I don’t like it, Commander. I want to know what Rosemary Houston — Dolly Gray — was on to that could have caused her death. And I want the answer before that test takes place.’ He thumped the desk. ‘I’m expecting word through any time as to the date, and though I can maybe hold it off a little, I can’t stall for long. The White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff consider it vital that Warmaster should go on her live test without delay, in case Russia gets there first.’
Shaw said, ‘I’d have thought the value of the missile was a little reduced in any case, sir… seeing Russia’s got it.’
Pullman shook his head. ‘That’s not true, Commander. If they’ve got it, we have to have it. Look — if Russia gets in first, the U.S loses out again in the prestige race, if not worse. Heck, we can’t let Moscow get in first with our missile! Public opinion and morale won’t stand it, and if Russia finds she can get away with that kind of thing, a very dangerous situation indeed is going to be automatically created — especially, mark you, since we believe China’s aiming to push Moscow over the brink. So it just won’t do. And,’ he added, ‘if there’s any way you can help, I’ll be damned glad of it and so will a whole lot of other people in the Pentagon.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ Shaw said. He looked puzzled. ‘By the way… what exactly do you think could happen on that test?’
Pullman answered nervily. ‘I don’t know,’ he said, lifting his shoulders. ‘I just don’t know! It only needs something to ball it up, turn it into a fiasco, and Russia’s got the drop on us. We’ll look the biggest mugs of all time, and I’ll be out on my ear. Maybe I’m just getting too old for the job, but I’m having nightmares about that firing. Well — where d’you propose to start, Commander?’
‘Right here in Washington,’ Shaw told him. ‘First, I’d like to have the names of Rosemary Houston’s contacts and her private friends as well. They may not yield much, but at present they’re the only line I can see to start on, and I’ve got a hunch it’s Rosemary Houston we’ve got to concentrate on.’
Pullman nodded. ‘I guess you’re right. And just bear in mind that time’s running out, even if we don’t know how long we’ve got.’ He took up a telephone and twitched his eyebrows at it before snapping, ‘Pullman. Get me the file on Dolly Gray, and make it fast.’