Jeffrey took a deep breath. “Norfolk informs us that Israel made an announcement several hours ago. Issued an ultimatum, one that’s causing a furor worldwide… Israel indicates that at some time in the unspecified past, they brought a dozen atomic warheads onto German soil, and concealed them just in case.”
“My God.”
“I’m guessing,” Jeffrey said, “but I’ll bet they did it when the Mossad worked with Germany in the War on Terror. While helping to close the borders to weapons of mass destruction, Israel sneaked in weapons of their own.”
“As life insurance. When they say never again, they mean it.”
“But—”
“Listen. It’s hardly the first time the Mossad looked out for number one and didn’t tell the U.S. everything. You and I know
“How do we, how does Germany, know it isn’t a bluff?”
“The Israelis planned for that. They disclosed the location of one of the bombs. German internal security found it. They verified the bomb was in good working order. It had a detonator that could be set off from nearby through remote control.”
“How do we know this last part?”
Jeffrey shrugged. “The CIA must have their ways…. The yield was estimated at twenty kilotons…. Some mayeven be in office towers, to go off as airbursts. City busters.”
“That leaves
“Supposedly. They’re all uranium gun-bomb designs, with very long shelf lives. Israel says they’re well concealed in big German cities or major military sites, and the Germans will never find them in a million years. And Mossad agents are in-country, ready to set off the bombs.
“So Israel has their own form of mutual assured destruction with Germany now. And the Germans know it.”
“Pretty much.”
“So what does this mean for
“Just that things are getting more destabilized. The announcement, according to this message from Admiral Hodgkiss, has triggered riots in Buenos Aires, between pro-German and pro-Israel activist groups. There’ve been shootings and bombings already.”
“Civil war in Argentina?”
“They’re getting closer and closer to it. There are other suspicious signs of an organized influence orchestrating increasing chaos down there.”
“Such as?”
“Chemical and biological warfare.”
“My God.” Bell looked ashen. “On land in Argentina?”
Jeffrey nodded. “Insidious, camouflaged, so the locals don’t even know. That’s the worst part. The Germans, or so the CIA and our own Centers for Disease Control are telling us, have expanded the envelope, broken the mold.”
“You’re losing me, Skipper.”
“I’m starting to have the feeling I’m lost too. But here are the bare facts as we know them, according to this message. There’s an outbreak of dengue fever in Buenos Aires.”
“So? It happens now and then in that part of the world.”
“
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does, if the germ was
“Why would anyone do that? Dengue isn’t even all that contagious or lethal, if you get medical help.”
“It’s lethal enough to infants and old folks and the malnourished poor, XO. The purpose, the CIA conjectures, isn’t to kill per se. It’s to further undermine the government in Argentina, the president and the mayor of Buenos Aires, and the governor of greater Buenos Aires province….”
“This really is total war, isn’t it, sir? In a whole new form.”
“There’s more.”
“Sir?”
“The shantytowns around Buenos Aires are also having a sudden epidemic of asthma.”
“That combined with a dose of dengue is completely overwhelming their health-care system. And opposition factions are using this to call on the president of Argentina to resign. The place is ripe for a coup.”
“How in heck do you
“Chemical warfare, XO. Sneaky, almost invisible, by hiding in plain sight… In a manner of speaking, you have to admire them.”
Bell sat there, waiting for details.
“Cockroach saliva.”
“There’s a protein molecule in cockroach saliva which happens to be the most allergenic substance known to man. In purified form, in large-enough doses, it’s deadly to people with sensitivity. This message from Norfolk, the assessment from the CDC, says it’s powerful enough to debilitate healthy adults who didn’t even think they
Bell shook his head. “I’m still missing something.”
“Crop-dusting planes.”
“Oh, Lord.”
Jeffrey nodded. “The locals thought they were spraying for mosquitoes. The shantytowns are mostly on low ground. They get a lot of flooding in rainstorms. Puddles. Stagnant water. Breeding ground for insects. Drug- resistant malaria has become more and more of a problem. Only now, the CIA is pretty sure, somebody with the right connections and the wrong agenda imported a batch of artificial protein like the one in cockroach saliva. They got it into the crop-duster loads. And public health is collapsing.”
Bell thought for a very long time. “In World War One, the Germans gave us poison gas and the flamethrower. In World War Two, they gave us V-Two rockets and V-One buzz bombs. Now they’re using germs and chemical weapons on neutral civilians. In a way that no one in-country can even tell, or ever be certain about. To bring down a national government.”
“Yup. Even if Argentina’s legit regime tries to blame it on some Axis two-pronged sneak attack, you think anybody whose babies have died is going to accept that? You think people lying feverish in their own body waste and gasping for breath, untreated in the parking lot ’cause every hospital in town is overwhelmed, are going to give a damn what the government says?… The more the elected officials deny any blame, the more culpable they look.”
“Again, Captain, what does all this mean to
“The assessment from our national command authorities is that these are just opening moves, to lay the groundwork. Soon the atom bombs will be delivered by the
“So what’s Brazil doing now?”
“Arming to the teeth. Expelling the Argentine ambassador and severing relations. Artillery duels have intensified along the border, way down south. The Brazilian Army is confiscating vehicles belonging to foreign citizens and businesses, apparently to augment troop and war-materiel transport. The government in Brasilia nationalized every railroad and port facility too, including ones that were foreign owned. They announced martial
