At that moment, Betsey Hall entered the Oval through her private door. Her expression was grim, and she went immediately to the president, bent from the waist, and whispered something into his ear. McAtee listened intently, nodded his head, and got to his feet.
“I need to take this call,” he said. “Urgent. No need to leave, sit tight. Please excuse me for a minute.”
McAtee walked behind the historic
McAtee sat at the historic desk, flanked by the two flags, and picked up the receiver on the phone that was blinking.
“This is the president,” he said.
He listened impassively, his expression giving little away to anyone in the room who glanced his way. A few minutes later, he said, “Thank you very much. You’ll be hearing from me shortly.”
He stood and crossed the room, returning to his favorite chair by the fire. He sighed deeply and leaned his head back against the cushion of the chair. No one knew quite what to say, and a lengthy silence ensued.
“That was the governor of Kansas,” McAtee said. “Along with Bill Thomas at NSA. Last night, the mayor of Salina, someone I knew personally, was murdered in bed, along with her husband and two children. There are no suspects, and Monie Bailey didn’t have an enemy in this world. It was the work of terrorists. The husband was shot dead, the other three were gassed.”
“Gassed?” Mike Reiter said as he leaned forward. “Terrorists? In Kansas? Good Lord. Will you excuse me, Mr. President? I need to make a few phone calls.” McAtee nodded, and Reiter quickly left.
“A cell phone was left on Monie’s body. There was a message on it. It came from a member of a group calling itself the Arm of God.
NSA has already traced the call. It came from another cell. The caller was in an apartment complex in a suburb west of Tehran when the call was made. We have assets on the way to that building now.”
“Unbelievable,” General Moore said.
“It gets worse,” Jack McAtee said.
“Sorry. Go ahead, Mr. President.”
“The caller, whose voice was electronically altered, said that at precisely six o’clock Tuesday morning, Central Standard Time, that’s tomorrow morning, the town of Salina, Kansas, will no longer exist. He said evacuation of the entire population should begin immediately. Then he ‘allahued Akhbar’ three times and hung up.”
The room sat in stunned silence.
“Salina, Kansas,” Moore said. “Why? It doesn’t make any sense. There’s nothing there.”
“Except churches and schools and families with little girls and boys,” McAtee said, his expression blank.
Brick Kelly stared at the still-spinning globe. He stuck out a finger and stopped it, found Salina on the map of the U.S., and said, “This is interesting. Salina is in the absolute dead center of the country. Look. Right square in the middle of the north-south axis and the east-west axis.”
“A shot to the heart?” General Moore said. “Some kind of warning shot to the heart of America?”
“Maybe,” the president mused. He’d been thinking along the same lines.
“What does NSA think, Mr. President?” Sir David asked. “Is this threat at all credible?”
McAtee nodded gravely. “Very credible. They say I should authorize immediate evacuation. This radical group, this so-called Arm of God, has a blood-soaked history. They’re a Soviet-sponsored terror network headquartered in Iran. Lately, they’ve been training foreign fighters to infiltrate Iraq and Afghanistan with ever more sophisticated IEDs. And they’re the ones currently negotiating with the Russians on the purchase of new shoulder-fired missiles to bring our Ah-64 Apache choppers down.”
“The Russians. Why do they keep coming up?” Consuelo de los Reyes said, to no one in particular.
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to call the governor,” Mc Atee said. “I’ll have to cancel the remainder of this meeting, I’m afraid. There are forty-two thousand souls in that town whose lives are at stake. I want to thank you all for coming and we’ll regroup soon, I promise. I’ll keep you abreast of this situation as it develops. Betsey will call your offices with a time to reconvene.”
The president stood, and so did everyone else. As they were filing out, he stopped Sir David and said quietly, “Could you stick around another minute or so?”
“Certainly, sir.”
When the room had cleared, McAtee said, “I want you to promise me something, David, all right?”
“Anything.”
“This man of yours. Hawke. He’s heading up that new division for you. What’s it called again?”
“Red Banner.”
“Right. I trust Alex Hawke. Completely. A couple of years ago, he single-handedly saved my life up on the inaugural platform. Not only mine but my wife’s and everybody in the damn government, most likely. We’ve got nobody like him, David, nobody who operates at his level. I want Hawke inside Russia. Tonight, if possible. If anyone can figure out what the hell these mad Russians are up to, it’s him. Quote me. Tell him I said that. And tell him there’s not a second to lose.”
“You seriously think the Russians may have something to do with this Kansas situation, Mr. President?”
“It’s possible. But I’m beginning to think the Russians have something to do with everything on the damn planet lately. Nothing those people do would surprise me at this point. They’ve pulled out of the arms treaty, they’re flying long-distance bomber sorties over Guam again, they’ve got troops massing on the NATO borders, they’re retargeting European cities with their missiles, and they’re selling advanced weapon systems to our most feared enemy, Iran. Friend or foe, David, you call it.”
The president took a deep breath and sat back in his chair, looking at the chief of British intelligence. “Sir David, I’m sorry. I’ve got to get back on the phone with the Kansas governor. Get those poor people out there in Salina to safety. I’ll speak to you soon. Safe journey back to London.”
“Good-bye, Mr. President. Thanks for your time. And good luck to you. It looks as if we may stand together yet again.”
“It does, sir, it certainly does.”
The president was distracted, already on to his next call, his next crisis, but he looked Trulove in the eye and spoke from his gut.
“We’re it, you know, Sir David. Our two countries. The last barricade. We’re all that’s left. God help us.”
PART TWO. WHITE NIGHTS
39
Hawke pressed his forehead against the icy window of his small train compartment. He cradled a mug of lukewarm tea in both hands, grateful for the small amount of heat it offered. The train was slowing, wheels screeching, the air beyond the frosted glass smoking with snow, clouds of frothy white whirling about outside, obscuring everything. From somewhere ahead, the plaintive cry of the train’s whistle, a hollow call that could have sprung from the bottom of his heart.
Were they finally arriving?
He was on the last leg of his journey to Anastasia. He’d been at his window for hours, staring out at the frozen
