Leach shook his head. “You sound like your counterparts did during the Cold War — ‘The Russians are better than we are, they have all the best stuff, they can kick our tails.’ Then when it came to it, their military was revealed to be overstated and we’d spent our national product on guns, defending against an alleged tiger bear, forgive me, that was a paper tiger going flat broke.”
Pacino said nothing. Leach, the head of the CIA, had no business holding his job with such an attitude. No wonder Donchez couldn’t stand him.
“Dick?” President Warner asked Donchez.
“My opinion on the issue is that Japan is once again threatening all of Asia, and the world demands something be done. Our people think we should do something about it. Our response to this must be governed by the best interests of America. And by Japan’s peculiar response to threats of force. Here’s what I mean. Al was right when he said we need to have a clear objective, something more than pie in the sky. We must know what we want and be willing to take only that, nothing less. The American people must buy into that objective before we act. And I think the objective is to walk away from this event with Japan’s radiation missiles destroyed, their submarines and fighters reduced in number to what they really need for home defense. This would involve international inspectors or advisors on Japanese soil. Now — here’s how we do that…”
“We have to realize that the Japanese famed national pride would be a casualty of this operation. These people will die before they’ll accept some of what I am suggesting. They will fight, so we must be prepared for that. We must expect a violent reaction to a blockade. I think Admiral Pacino has it right — we need to do a coordinated attack on the Japanese Galaxy satellites, encircle Japan, keep Russia out of the scene, whatever the cost, and take on the Japanese air force with ground attacks or air-to-air combat. We will have casualties and lose some of our force strength. Once the blockade is in place, I fully expect the Maritime Self Defense Force to come out fighting.”
“Why?” Leach said. “Just because you and Pacino think it’s 1941? That was then. This is now, for God’s sake.”
“Same cultures. Same ocean in between. Same island economy in Japan. Same worldview in America. They have guns and ships and airplanes. We have guns and ships and airplanes. Three generations later, and it’ll come down to the same fight.”
Warner turned toward Leach. “Brian, what’s on your mind?”
“Well,” Leach began in his faintly singsong voice, “I think we’ve all missed the point here. We’re already talking about war, how we’ll do it, what the bad guys will do, what the public will think.” Leach crossed his legs, the hair showing on the skin of his ankles. He pulled a pair of half-frame glasses from his shirt pocket and perched them on the end of his nose. “We haven’t discussed diplomacy yet.”
Leach now looked over his glasses at Phillip Gordon, secretary of state, as if denigrating him for not doing his job.
“We haven’t discussed nonmilitary options yet. I think we should have our ambassador there explain some simple facts to Prime Minister Kurita. Facts such as — we have the power to completely bottle up the Japanese islands. We can blow up their entire military. Madam President, I suggest we get smart. Ask politely, spell out the facts. I believe the Japanese will cooperate — they don’t want to lose face. I urge you to consider that.”
Warner paced, finally stopped, again in front of the window.
“General Sverdlov,” she called. She had yet to ask the opinion of the incoming nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Sverdlov was a young-looking general, short with a full head of straight, fine brown hair, teeth so smooth and white as to seem capped or coated, and a perpetual smile. With his recent ear operation he was rarely seen without a ball of cotton in his right ear, and he had stumbled slightly on the way in, his equilibrium thrown off. Pacino had met him at several Pentagon parties, and they had gotten along well, although Sverdlov’s second wife had seemed a bit young and flirty.
Sverdlov blinked and rubbed his chin, his teeth appearing as he smiled. “You know. Madam President, when a cancer patient goes to a surgeon, the surgeon recommends surgery. An oncologist recommends chemotherapy or radiation. A faith healer recommends prayer and herbs. A tree surgeon, he pulls out a damned chain saw. If you put a situation like this in front of the Navy,” Sverdlov pointed to Pacino and Donchez, since Donchez had once been the Chief of Naval Operations, “they’ll recommend blockade. The Secretary of State will urge diplomacy, and CIA and NSA will recommend spying for more information or a covert operation to assassinate the prime minister. But the call for diplomatic means from CIA and the call for a military operation from State tell me that this situation is far beyond routine. So now you want the overall military view, knowing I’m an Army professional.”
Sverdlov flashed a dazzling smile, neutralizing any thoughts of the crowd around him that he was being pompous.
“I’d say blockade now if we had the carrier battle groups closer to Japan, but I do not want to advise that until our forces are in position. If we announce a blockade and the Russians run goods to Japan, it’ll be damned hard to set up a blockade piecemeal and stop the Russian resupply. If we just send in an ambassador to threaten Japan, we appear weak to them and the world. I suggest a compromise.”
Pacino smiled to himself. It was no wonder Sverdlov had managed to work his way to the top — as a military man he was a master politician. Which made Pacino wonder about the future of his own career, with his bull-in-a-china-shop approach, and with Wadsworth gunning for him.
“Let’s do this,” Sverdlov went on. “For the next two days we say nothing. No comment. The Navy makes announcements and gets into the news with a massive deployment of the fleets out of Pearl Harbor. The battle group at sea heads directly for Japan, and the other battle groups follow suit. Five days of steaming later, the Japanese Galaxy satellites show all this firepower headed their way, almost there. The first battle group is already in position. We let the Russians do what they want, with a notice to them that at noon on Day Zero, something will change. Then, only then, our ambassador comes knocking. He says he’s got a face-saving deal in mind for the Japanese. The deal is, we slip in some UN inspectors, we put in at Port Yokosuka with a battle group, and what’s in it for the Japanese is that we will let them back into our trade markets, slowly and quietly, and in two weeks this all drops from the news and we go on.”
“What if Kurita says no?” Warner asked, a warm expression directed at Sverdlov.
Obviously Warner was one of Sverdlov’s many champions, Pacino thought.
“That would be crazy, though I admit the Japanese sometimes look that way to Western eyes. Okay, so let’s assume they turn us down. All the better for us, because then we have no choice but to set up the blockade. And we do, but our ships just watch the commercial boat traffic for a day, let the reality sink in. We ask Kurita one last time. He says no again. We announce that for one week we will blockade Japan. We start our stranglehold and let them feel it. We ask Kurita again. Again he says no. We keep up the blockade. Every week we ask. When Kurita says no, we’ll publish that to the world. Then the starving people are his fault. Eventually, I believe we’ll work it out.”