nuclear strike on you. They commandeered your missiles and attempted to frame you with a first strike against the U.S. The damage around Moscow was caused by our missile shield. America bears responsibility, in a sense, and our president has offered you aid as amends.”
“But if the shield had not existed, or had failed, you would have suffered a strike from Russian strategic rockets, and would have retaliated in kind, and my country would have suffered far more serious damage than we did.”
“That’s probably true, sir. But it didn’t actually happen.”
“Too vague and hypothetical. Give me something better.”
“Germany would retaliate, as I cautioned Admiral Meredov, and might substantially escalate, using cruise missiles that could penetrate your best antiaircraft defenses and destroy many cities and industries. Tens of millions of Russians would die.”
“Thirty million died in our last war with Germany. Not counting Stalin’s massacres.”
“Isn’t once enough? Do you want that level of death and destruction all over again, except happening in a day rather than over several years? Would you ever be able to recover, and rebuild, from such instant widespread devastation?”
“I see your point, but that still won’t be convincing to the powerful extremists I have to contain.”
Jeffrey tried to picture them, scheming, plotting in the cabinet room. He’d never felt such time pressure in his life. “Can’t you launch a purge and just get rid of them?”
“When I’m ready. Things are too unstable now.”
“Germany didn’t try to frame you, or the Kremlin per se, sir. From the context as I understand it, the launches were definitely unauthorized and no one now questions that. This gives you the potent argument that the Germans tried to frame outcasts, rebels, rogues. So nobody can claim their scheme struck at the heart of your influence and authority.”
“That’s too abstract, and too arguable. You’re a smart and clever man, Captain Fuller, but remember I have to deal with callous infighting bureaucrats, unsavory yes men, people who shift allegiance without the slightest compunction or warning.”
“The strongest argument I can think of is to not nuke German soil so as to not cause massive slaughter among the Allied civilians they’re holding as human shields in all their high-value target areas. That would gravely anger the Allied powers, and put Russia in a difficult position for her ongoing relations with neutrals, too.”
“But you’re asking me to give in to the German human-shield strategy, which is itself a war crime.”
“Killing the hostages is not the best way to solve a hostage crisis, sir. Recent Russian history ought to show you that botched rescues where hundreds of innocents died did lasting damage to your country’s reputation and credibility. You can’t regain the superpower status you covet while showing such abject disregard for human lives. And remember, these hostages would not be your own citizens. They’d be Americans, British, and so on. You’d also kill many German civilians who are every bit as much victims of Axis repression as the people in the countries the Axis occupies. It would be calculated mass murder.”
“And I suppose there’d be the problem of fallout knowing no borders or boundaries. We certainly took a battering in public relations after the Chernobyl plume hit half of Europe.”
“Historians say that’s one factor that brought down the Soviet Union…. Furthermore, if you made such an attack, other countries including mine would start to think the supposed German launches had been done by the Kremlin after all, as a manufactured excuse for a preemptive strike on Germany whom you wanted a justification to invade…. Restraint is much better statesmanship than retaliation, sir.”
“Good. This is the ammunition I needed. The specter of causing countless innocent deaths in Russia and other countries, making us become a weak pariah instead of a respected superpower, an abhorrent aggressor instead of a victim aggrieved. The resultant danger of a complete implosion of the Russian Federation, into dozens of fragments, with civil wars, or worse.”
“A grim picture. But an accurate one, Mr. President.”
“All right. I had these thoughts myself, but your independent confirmation is invaluable. I know what
Someone knocked hard on the thick conference room door, then came in. It was Meredov, breathless with excitement all over again. “Mr. President, I must interrupt. We’ve identified their egress route! The German raiders!”
“Explain,” the president insisted. The translator returned to the room in Meredov’s wake, since he only spoke Russian.
“We found a hovercraft drifting, abandoned, out of fuel, its crew shot in the head. Bloodstains indicate there had been many people aboard, some of them wounded. We were able to reproduce the hovercraft’s route with an analysis of hydrophone recordings. The Germans escaped from Srednekolymsk down the Kolyma at high speed, and transferred to a submarine northwest of Pevek. The submarine appears to have then headed under the pack ice. Acoustic data suggest the vessel is an Amethyste Two.”
“What are your intentions?” Jeffrey asked, stonefaced, knowing who was really on that supposed German Amethyste.
“Sink it!” the president commanded. “Do that and I’ll have everything I need to deal with the upstarts in Moscow. Sink the submarine that brought the raiders and kill every person aboard! This is justifiable retaliation of the sweetest kind! Direct punishment in hot pursuit as they try to escape!”
“The punishment fits the crime, sir,” Jeffrey said. “It carries a symbolic value that some indiscriminate atrocity against the German populace would lack.”
“Captain Fuller, you certainly have a way with words. Can you get back aboard
“Yes, sir. Certainly. Then I need to get moving at once.”
“One other thing before I end the call. Rear Admiral Meredov, for your vigilance and dedication throughout this difficult time, I’m promoting you to Vice Admiral.”
Meredov grinned broadly. “Thank you, Mr. President!”
“You deserve it. I’ll put the formalities in motion. You rate a more senior aide now, of course, so I’ll promote yours to captain, first rank…. Captain Fuller, good luck to you, and good hunting.” The president’s image vanished. Meredov and Jeffrey glanced at each other, amazed, but still mutually wary.
“I need to get a message to Washington for them to send an ELF to
“Irina!”
The admiral’s aide appeared at once. He told her she’d just been made Captain, First Rank Malenkova, by her commander in chief himself. She practically jumped up and down with glee. He ordered her to put everything in motion, messages and data disks.
“There’s one other matter we need to discuss,” Meredov said as Malenkova left the room.
“Yes?” Jeffrey was made apprehensive by Meredov’s manner.
“All I can do is inform you now but give you no help later.”
“Well, Vice Admiral Meredov, then inform me.”
“Our latest-model UGST torpedo includes a new target homing sensor. Something specifically designed for use against nuclear submarines under the ice cap.”
Jeffrey began to get worried. “Go on.”
“The common tactic of hovering between ice keels to suppress radiated noise and avoid giving an echo to hostile active sonar?”
“I’m familiar with the concept.”
“This new warhead has a miniature gravimetric gradiometer. Optimized to detect and attack the density discontinuity from the reactor compartment of a stationary nuclear submarine.”
