Brent raised his glass. 'Za vasha zdarovye!And to you and yours, Ambassador,' Brent replied.
They let the strong spirits flood their insides, then Brent set his glass down on the table.
Karmarov spoke first. 'I am totally embarrassed, Mr. Secretary,' he asked. 'I had no idea 'It is I who should apologize, sir,' Brent said.
'This may seem most inappropriate, but I simply felt that I must speak with you immediately.'
'By all means,' Karmarov said. He took a bigger sip of brandy.
'It concerns the fears some in my government have of the research being done at the Kavaznya complex,' Brent began.
'They feel-' 'Please. Mr. Secretary,' Karmarov said, his eyes serious.
'I am not permitted to discuss Kavaznya. It is more than a classified facility, sir. It is a forbidden subject.'
'Then permit me to speak,' Brent asked. 'Consider this a message from my government to yours-you need not reply.'
Brent interlaced his fingers and let his arms rest on the chair's wide armrests. 'The Pentagon is convinced on what I feel is sketchy ' information, that your government is responsible for the destruction of an American reconnaissance satellite and an American RC-135 aircraft.'
Kannarov said immediately, 'My government has already categorically denied any involvement-' '.Yes, Ambassador. I know,' Brent interrupted. He picked up his brandy snifter, passed his nose over it, letting the palm of his left hand warm the liqueur. He settled back into his chair.
'Allow me to be frank with you, Ambassador,' Brent said.
Karmarov's eyes widened. 'I am not a friend of my country's military hierarchy. I believe it was Montesquieu who once said 'if our world should ever be ruined, it will be by the warriors.
'He referred to Europe, I believe,' Karmarov said, his eyes narrowing.
Brent nodded.
'It applies to affairs between our nations as well,' Brent continued.
'Ambassador, we are on the threshold of an historic arms-control agreement. In the two years since those negotiations have been conducted, both sides have mainaged to keep the uniformed military out of the negotiations. We have dealt on a level never before attempted-instead of throwing our bloody swords on the table and staring into each other's faces to see who will blink first, like some medieval combat, we have sat down like men and talked true disarmament.
'Ambassador, in our lifetime we can see nuclear weapons eliminated.
Not just a phony controlled escalation, not even a numerical reduction.
No, I talk of true disarmament.'
Brent swirled the brandy in his glass and stared into it. 'But there are those who see disarmament as a weakness. They seek to disrupt our efforts at every turn. It is the actions of these 'disrupters' that I wish to warn your government about, Ambassador.
'What… actions, Mr. Secretary?' Karmarov asked.
'As I said, there are many in my government who are convinced of your culpability in the loss of our aircraft,' Brent asked. 'They have conjured up a magical laser device, straight out of one of our Hollywood films, and planted it on UstKamchatkskiy, at your research center at Kavaznya. Evidence or.not, they have all but convinced the President that this laser exists and that it threatens the security of the United States.'
Karmarov could not keep his eyes focused on Brent's.
Brent's fingers curled a bit tighter around the brandy snifter as he noticed Karmarov's uneasiness.
Dammit, Brent thought. Could it be true?Is it possible…?
'You must convince them. Mr. Secretary,' Karmarov said quickly, forcing his eyes back toward Brent's. 'I plead with you, my government is deeply and firmly committed to lasting peace and the total elimination of all nuclear weapons from the face of the globe. Nothing must interfere.'
'I have come to offer you my guarantee,' Brent continued, 'that I will make every effort to achieve a workable arms greement. But I must tell you what is afoot. There is talk of matching the so-called killer laser with a construct of our own.
I'm not at liberty to give details, but-' 'Ice Fortress.'' Karmarov said suddenly. 'The armed space platform! That's what your military means to deploy, isn't it?'
Brent sighed. 'Again, I'm not at liberty to discuss-' 'But that's it, isn't it?' Karrnarov's face was flushed with anger. 'Marshall, you know that deployment of Ice Fortress is a clear violation of the 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. It is a violation of the 1982 Space DeMilitarization Agreement. It flies in the face of our entire arms elimination negotiations. It is madness.
'Key elements in our military are convinced of the existence of a killer laser,' Brent asked. 'That is also a violation 'Such a device-should it ever exist in our lifetime-is not a violation of the ABM Treaty,' Karmarov interrupted. 'The Treaty clearly never mentioned such exotic devices because they exist only in the imagination of a few excitable scientists and physicists. Why write a treaty forbidding something that does not exist?'
Karmarov's rising tone of voice, with the strained chuckle punctuating his last sentence, rang like an echo from the walls of a canyon in Brent's ears. Karmarov continued: 'The Space DeMilitarization Agreement does not apply, of course, to a ground-based defensive device. It was specifically written to eliminate the placement of weapons of any kind in orbit over the Earth. It was supposed to have averted a madness that swept both our countries. It cannot be possible for your country to deploy Ice Fortress. It cannot.'
'I have made no admission that such is the case,' Brent asked. 'But I can tell you that many options are being considered. 'He looked directly into Karmarov's eyes and paused, as if to lend emphasis to what he was about to say 'The laser is a menace, Dmitri,' Brent said.
His voice sounded as if it came from the bottom of a deep well. 'Find some way to reassure the leaders of my government that their fears about a laser at Kavaznya are groundless. Make some sort of presentation about the research you conduct there, or at least describe the facility in a bit more detail. But put the saber-rattlers to rest 'I can guarantee little,' Karmarov said.
We must not fail, Dmitri,' Brent replied. He got up and took Karmarov's hand in his. 'The future-our children's future-may depend on it. 'Slowly, Brent released his grip on Karmarov's hand. He gave the Ambassador a curt nod and made his way out of the room.
Karmarov watched him leave, then sat down in one of the plush leather chairs. He did not move for a full two minutes.
Finally, he rang for Asserni.
'Do they know?' Assemi asked.
'They suspect. How could they not suspect?' Karmarov reached down to the table and gripped his snifter with both hands. 'What the hell are they doing over there, Assemi?Are they trying to destroy the arms agreement?What do they want the Americans to do?'
Asserni did not reply. Karmarov stared into the brandy for a long time.
'I want the secure line to the Kremlin open al I morning, ' he finally ordered.
'Of course, Comrade Ambassador.'
He drained the liqueur and winced-both at the bite of the spirits and from the threats that were now bombarding him from both sides.
'What are they doing? What?'
FORD AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA
Patrick McLanahan was in trouble.
His partner, Dave Luger, had been severely injured by flying glass and metal after his five-inch radar scope exploded from a near-hit by a Soviet S.A-4 surface-to-air missile. Their aircraft had just been jumped by a small squadron of four MiG-25s.
Climbing out of the low-level bomb run area in broad daylight, the B-52 was a sitting duck for the advanced Soviet interceptors.
