those cases, and in the case of nearby farmers at the other sites, an evacuation team will be given approximately eight hours to effect evacuation of all civilian residents before the launch. The plan is for this to occur under cover of darkness; and to avoid tipping our hand, the evacuation team will not be given the word to begin evacuation until after we have secured control of operations from the SDCF.
'Neutralizing the Strategic Defense Control Facility and transferring operations to this facility is the easy part, relatively speaking; that's what this facility was set up to do. The hard part is to make the Russians believe that they are still fully in control long enough for us to evacuate our people and launch the six Gideons.
'That's where you come in. We need you to give us those eight hours. Your job is to create the illusion, through a software dump to the SDCF computers, that their systems are operational.
'After we transfer control to this facility, it will take approximately twenty minutes for us to download the retargeting data into the missiles. If the Russians realize what's happened, they will first attempt to regain control, and second, very quickly disperse their troops in the mountains. Should that happen, we will have no choice but to launch immediately, killing over a thousand Israeli civilians and evacuation team members.'
Joel mulled over what he had been told. It was a lot to digest so quickly. 'What about the Russians in the cities?' he asked.
'Immediately after the launch, teams of Israeli commandos will take over all radio and television stations from the Russians. Where they are unsuccessful, other teams will destroy those stations' antennas. It is critical to our success that the Israeli people be rallied to attack the Russians in the cities, but it is equally important that we keep the rest of the world, especially the Arabs, confused about exactly what is going on. If we make things too clear for our own citizens, it will be equally clear to the Arabs, who – Hajj or not – may seize the opportunity to strike while we are still disorganized and before we can take control of the Russian weapons caches. Rather than broadcasting reports that would be picked up by the Arabs, the radio and television will play a continuous loop of a single message, the words of the prophet Joel, from Joel 3:10.' Scott paused. He may have been a scientist but, like his father, he was a zealot first, though for a different religious cause. He was hoping his friend at least might have studied enough scripture to be familiar with the writings of the prophet whose name he bore. But, if Joel was familiar with the verse he gave no indication of it to Scott. Scott gave a sigh of noticeable disappointment and then continued, 'Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.'
'That's kind of obscure, don't you think?' asked Joel, unaware that the idea had been Scott's. Scott started to argue but held back. 'I suppose so,' he admitted, 'but that's the signal that has been passed to the resistance forces. Hopefully, others will join in when they see the fighting start in the streets.'
Over the next two hours Joel was given concise briefings by each of the eight people in the operations room concerning their individual parts of the project.
Three weeks later – New York
The phone rang three times before Ambassador Hansen could rouse himself from his sleep to answer it. 'Hello,' he said, as he checked his alarm clock. It was just after eleven.
'Mr. Ambassador,' said Decker Hawthorne, 'I'm sorry to disturb you, but I've just heard that about thirty minutes ago, at 5:30 a.m. Israeli time, there were an undisclosed number of nuclear explosions in Israel.' The sleep suddenly rushed from Hansen's brain as his eyes opened wide.
'The Russians?' Hansen asked.
'The reports are very sketchy so far. It's not clear who's responsible, and there have been no official statements from the Russians.'
'Decker, is there any chance there's been a mistake?'
'No, sir. I don't think so. The detonations were detected by U. S., U.K., and Chinese satellites.'
'Okay, hold on a second while I switch on the telly.' A moment later Decker heard the sound of Ambassador Hansen's television through the phone. 'Okay, I'm back,' Hansen said, but he and Decker stayed silent as each listened to the report just being read.
'CNN has just learned that the United States has scrambled Strategic Air Command bombers. The State Department has emphasized that this is only a precautionary measure and that SAC has been ordered to remain in U.S. air space pending further orders.'
'What the hell is going on?!' Hansen asked.
'I don't know, sir,' Decker answered, stating the obvious.
'Do you have the Russian Ambassador's phone number?'
'I have Ambassador Kruszkegin's number right here, sir,' Decker said and then relayed it to Hansen.
'Okay,' Hansen said. 'I'll call Kruszkegin. You call Jackie, Peter and Jack and have everyone get to the office ASAP.'
The phone rang only once at Ambassador Kruszkegin's residence before it was answered by an official sounding 'Hello.'
'This is Ambassador Jon Hansen,' he said. 'I would like to speak with Ambassador Kruszkegin immediately on a matter of utmost importance.'
'I'm sorry, Ambassador Hansen,' the voice answered. 'Ambassador Kruszkegin is in a meeting right now and cannot be disturbed.'
'I'll take it,' Hansen heard Kruszkegin say in the background. Obviously the person who answered the phone had lied.
Ambassador Kruszkegin stood by the phone wearing a finely woven black and gold silk dressing gown, his warm Italian slippers protecting his feet from the cold marble floor. 'Good evening, Jon,' he began. Jon Hansen liked Kruszkegin as a person and respected him as an adversary. For his part, Kruszkegin was fond of referring to Hansen as 'a man who has failed to notice that Britain no longer rules the world.' Kruszkegin had found that, when possible, it was more productive to cooperate with Hansen than not to.
'Jon,' he continued, anticipating Hansen's question, 'I honestly do not know what is happening in Israel. I've just spoken with the Foreign Minister in Moscow and he swears that we have not launched an attack. I believe they are just as confused as we are.'
Hansen was surprised that Kruszkegin had even taken his call; the straight answer was even more unexpected. Hansen knew the Russian well enough to have a pretty good idea when he was lying and when he was telling the truth. Right now he seemed to be telling the truth; at least as far as he knew the truth. 'Thank you, Yuri,' Hansen said. Kruszkegin's straightforward answer left little else to be said.
British Mission, New York (1:57 a.m.)
Ambassador Hansen's senior staff members watched the news reports on television as they awaited his arrival. 'Does anyone know what's going on?' Hansen asked as he walked in the door just before 2:00 a.m. New York time.
'The Russians claim that they had nothing to do with it,' began Jack Redmond, Hansen's legislative assistant. 'They say that the attack was against the Russian troops in Israel's mountains.'
This was a new twist on the story. 'How the hell could that happen?' Hansen asked, incredulously. Redmond shook his head.
In the brief silence, Hansen's attention turned to the reporter on television. 'There is speculation at the State Department,' the reporter said, 'that the attack on Israel could be the result of some internal power struggle inside the Russian government. The battle for power and control of policy has been heated, to say the least. Hard- liners like Foreign Minister Cherov and Defense Minister Khromchenkov want to lead Russia back to communism and world power, while others like President Perelyakin favor a more moderate approach. The Russian invasion of Israel still has many analysts unsure of who's in charge.'
Jack Redmond shrugged his broad shoulders as Hansen looked at him for his comment. 'It's possible,' he said. 'But it doesn't really answer the big questions. We know that no cities were hit; apparently the missiles fell in the wilderness areas of the country. That would seem to support Russia's assertion that it was their troops that were hit, but I can't imagine any kind of political situation so bad that one group of Russians would bomb another.'
'Okay, let's assume for a moment that the Russians are telling the truth: that they're not responsible for the
