with the casualties they inflicted on our counterattacking forces.”
“Where are the others? Taken prisoner? Interrogate them!”
“None were captured. And where they went after missile liftoff is still a major mystery. They vanished amid the confusion and the casualty evacuations…. But this hits on two related questions, aside from who exactly they were or who sent them. How did they get there? And how did they escape? I suppose, come to think of it, we should make that second question present tense, since their escape is currently in progress.”
Again Jeffrey nodded, wordlessly.
“We should start with a list of possible perpetrators. Being objective and open-minded.”
“Put down Russian rogue faction,” Jeffrey said.
“Yes. Motive being to embarrass or take over the government.”
“And put down Russian government.”
“But—”
“Write it! You agreed to be objective. The Kremlin has not been ruled out! Blaming unnamed rogues for your actions is too convenient to be so lightly dismissed!”
A funny look crossed Meredov’s face. “Then also America.”
“
“You are displeased with our logistics support of Germany.”
“Then put down Germany too if you put down America.” This was Jeffrey’s most critical task, to shape Russian thoughts to focus on Berlin as orchestrater of the Srednekolymsk raid.
Meredov was skeptical, even shocked at the suggestion. “What would
“Weaken both our countries, and then maybe attack you.”
“Why would they attack us? We’re already helping them.”
“Our intelligence knows all about the bonds they give you. Payable with plunder they intend to confiscate from the occupied countries once the fighting stops and the bonds come due.”
“You have the advantage of me on this.”
“Trust me. It’s easy enough to confirm. So greed would be a German motive. Instead of paying you, they conquer you. Or they sense they won’t win the fighting, and fear you’ll sense it too. Look. They’re evacuating North Africa as fast as they possibly can, before the Allied advance in that theater resumes.”
“This also is new information for me.”
“And also easy to confirm. So what do you think they’ll do with all those troops and tanks and aircraft once they’re removed from Africa, and they’ve had time to lick their wounds? The Axis needs to reestablish their evil empire’s outward momentum.”
“Defend southern Europe.”
“They can do that with nuclear cruise missiles alone, to make the Med impassable for Allied amphibious or airborne assaults. Cheap and effective…. I’ll tell you what they’ll do. Their main forces will turn east, and cancel their debts by canceling your sovereignty.”
“Hitler tried to conquer us, and look what happened to him.”
“Hitler was an incompetent who went completely insane, and he didn’t have tactical nuclear weapons.”
“We have strategic rockets with hydrogen bombs.”
“Which when they leave the atmosphere are exposed to our space-based missile shield. The U.S. is unlikely to sort out where the rockets are aimed before setting them off right over your own heads…. Ground-hugging German cruise missiles on mobile launchers with fission bombs are effective weapons in a counter-city or counter- industry strike. They’re an effective deterrent against you striking first from inside the atmosphere, say with cruise missiles or nuclear bombers of your own.”
“I view a German attack on us of any sort as unlikely.”
“But not implausible. And ‘not implausible’ is what counts in this context, not what’s ‘likely.’ Your conventional forces are weak, spread thin. You know it. Germany knows it.”
“Yes.”
“These are murky waters, yet there is logic to what you say. Germany would be cornered into attacking us, to grab what she can no longer buy. Provoking a limited nuclear exchange between us and America, to soften us up first, aids her cause on two fronts at once…. But German raiders could have programmed the missiles to go off over Moscow… which if true would suggest that your claimed new missile shield is in fact sheer flummery.”
Jeffrey was ready and waiting for this one. He tore into the admiral. “I dare you to test it. Launch another armed SS-27 at the U.S. See what happens to Russia.”
Meredov didn’t even blink. “Don’t taunt me…. A
“So put it down, Admiral. Write ‘Germany’ on the board.”
“And China? The war destabilizes world trade at a time that’s bad for Beijing. They’re displeased that we favor Germany in our exportation of natural gas and oil and weapons, which is also stifling China’s economic and military growth.”
“Displeased enough to frame you for nuking America?”
“I doubt it, but I’ll put them down, too.”
“Okay. That’s our list of culprits. In other words, at this point, it could’ve been almost anybody. So, what next?”
“Events suggest the attackers infiltrated by submarine.”
“Foreigners?”
“Maybe not. A rogue faction with penetration into the Northern or Pacific Fleet could have sent them.”
“I see what you’re getting at.”
“But I don’t think they were from Russia.”
“The timing and speeds and distances aren’t right. We know that a submarine penetrated the Russian side of the Bering Strait from the south and evaded attack by Balakirev’s forces, then very slowly entered the waters for which I’m held responsible…. A decoy pretending to be
“I suppose I should be flattered that someone thought they’d gain, somehow, by pretending to be me. Which seems consistent with another country, not America, being the perpetrator and seeking to implicate the U.S. circumstantially. Doesn’t it?”
“It wasn’t you who launched the decoy?”
“No, I did not launch any decoys.” Jeffrey wondered if Meredov could tell that he’d just been lied to again. The admiral, a seasoned infighter and shrewd managerial gamesman, had a good poker face of his own.
Meredov began drawing a map on the whiteboard, similar to the one on the other wall, but with just the highlights of the northern coastal waters and islands. He wrote “Decoy” in the East Siberian Sea, added the date and time it was launched, and drew an arrow in the direction the decoy had headed. He didn’t say or write anything about
“The false report of detecting
