Her head was spinning. She had nearly yelled at him, “So? So what Carl?!”
“Call Bondarev again,” he’d said. “Appeal to him. Maybe he can stop the bombers. He’s operational commander in the Russian Operations Area”
“Carl, you heard him, he hung up on me. His fighters are probably escorting those bombers.”
“Then he’s in the perfect position to shoot them down. Fenner authorizing a nuclear test over the North Pacific was dumb, but Russia ordering a nuclear attack on a target in Alaska in response is totally insane. There’s a chance he doesn’t know or he doesn’t support it.” He looked at her like a man trying to talk a suicidal jumper off a rooftop, and that was more or less how she felt. “It’s a chance Devlin!”
Five minutes later she was standing in his office once again, listening to a telephone ring somewhere in the Arctic.
“Hello?” a voice replied. It was not Bondarev. It was a woman. “Who is this?” the woman at the other end demanded brusquely. Speaking English?
“Uh, this is Ambassador Devlin McCarthy, of the US Embassy in Moscow,” Devlin replied, unable to keep the confusion out of her voice. “I am trying to get in contact with Major-General Yevgeny Bondarev of the…”
“Uh huh. You’re the US Ambassador in Moscow?” the woman asked in an Australian accent. “And I’m Nicole Kidman. What do you want with the Major-General?”
Australian? What the… “I need to speak with him urgently on State business,” Devlin said. “Can you please connect me?”
“He’s a little tied up right now…” the woman said. Then Devlin heard a muffled conversation and a new voice came on the line.
“This is Lieutenant Commander Alicia Rodriguez of the US Navy,” the voice said. “Ambassador, you need to find a way to authenticate yourself before I can even begin to believe you are who you are.”
McCarthy frowned, an American navy officer on Bondarev’s telephone? This was getting weirder and weirder. Devlin looked helplessly at Williams sitting across the desk from her.
He took a breath, put his hand on Devlin’s to calm her, then spoke in a loud voice. “Commander Rodriguez, this is Carl Williams of the NSA. Please stay on the line and listen carefully. HOLMES, can you please pull up the service record of US Navy Lieutenant Commander Alicia Rodriguez and put it on my screen?”
“Yes Carl. I have three possible candidates, putting the best match on screen now.”
Williams scanned the screen quickly. “Commander, your current assignment is to a unit called NCTAMS-A4 on Little Diomede Island, a CNAF black facility that is classified Top Secret Warling Orcon, your previous assignment was as mini-boss about the USS Trump and uh let’s see… sixteen years ago you were docked two weeks’ pay for returning late from a shore leave in Hawaii.”
The silence at the other end didn’t last long, “Put the Ambassador back on.”
Devlin leaned over the desk, “Lieutenant Commander, McCarthy here. I need to speak with Major-General Bondarev urgently, is he with you?”
“Yes ma’am, but we are in a difficult situation here, we…”
“Commander!” Devlin barked. “Get off this damn phone and put Bondarev on, now!”
Rodriguez held the phone away from her ear as the woman on the other end shouted, and then put it on speakerphone, moving it closer to Bondarev, “Ambassador Devlin McCarthy, for you.”
Bondarev frowned; he had no real choice but to listen. “Major-General Bondarev here. Is this about my daughter again?”
“No. Major-General, are you aware the US is about to conduct a nuclear weapons test in the North Pacific Ocean?”
Bondarev didn’t react. “No, I am not. And I have no reason to believe you.”
“It was announced about 30 minutes ago on worldwide media. But if you aren’t aware, you may also not be aware that your air force has scrambled two Tu-162 strategic bombers and they are én-route to conduct an attack on Alaska, as we speak?”
Now Bondarev reacted. He paled, visibly. “I do not believe you.”
“I am not asking you to,” the Ambassador said. “But I am asking you to stop them somehow if it is true. For the sake of your daughter. For the sake of the world.”
Bondarev thought quickly, “Will the US stop its nuclear test?”
“I can’t promise that,” Devlin said. “That is the honest truth. It isn’t in my power.”
“Assuming you are telling the truth — you are about to detonate a nuclear weapon, but you want me to stop our response to your attack?” he said, incredulously.
“We are about to conduct a demonstration out at sea,” she said. “Your bombers are about to respond by attacking innocent people in a sovereign state. Only a monster could see that as a proportionate response and I can’t believe my daughter would have chosen a monster to be the father of her child!”
Bondarev looked up at the faces of his American captors. They seemed as shocked as he felt. The appeal to his fatherly instincts had not moved him. But the near inevitability of all out nuclear war following a Russian tactical nuclear strike… “How much time do we have?”
“HOLMES?” Devlin asked.
“23 minutes to release point, Ambassador,” Bondarev heard an English voice intone.
To Rodriguez he said, urgently, “I am going to give you a number. Hang up this line, and then call the number as I read it to you.”
“Ambassador?” Rodriguez asked.
“Do as he says Lieutenant Commander,” Devlin said. “You heard what’s at stake. Good luck Major-General Bondarev.”
“I promise nothing,” Bondarev said. As the call was disconnected he turned to Rodriguez, “Double 0, seven, nine zero two, four eight two, eight four one, four zero.”
Before she hit the connect button, the American hesitated, “How do I know you aren’t just calling those troops up above?”
“You don’t,” Bondarev told her. “But you are welcome to listen, if you speak Russian.” He waited.
She connected him.
At Savoonga airfield it was one of Tomas Arsharvin’s staff who noticed his telephone ringing. The sound went unnoticed among the clamor of voices in the air field’s operations room until the telephone buzzed itself off Arsharvin’s desk and onto the floor. One of his people picked it up and handed it to him. When he saw who it was, he took the phone and went out into the corridor to find an empty room.
He called back immediately.
“Yevgeny!” he said. “They said you’d been shot down! Why are you…”
“I was,” Bondarev replied. “Listen, Tomas…”
“Yevgeny, it’s crazy here. You lost nearly a full squadron up there! Sukhois, Migs… there is a total command vacuum with you gone. Akinfeev is missing too, so Captain Komarov is technically in command. Komarov! He…”
“Tomas, shut up!” Bondarev said. “Is it true the Americans plan to set off a nuclear weapon in the North Pacific? Yes or no?”
“Yes,” Arsharvin said. “Their president announced it. The test takes place in twenty minutes in the sea off the Kurils if they keep their word.”
“And we are planning to reply with a nuclear attack on Alaska?”
Arsharvin blinked, how could Bondarev possibly know? Where was he? “Yes. On Anchorage. Potemkin authorized the attack. Ilyushins of the 21st Guards will be on station in about fifteen minutes. We have no way of knowing the American missile isn’t aimed at a mainland target. If the Americans do carry out their nuclear launch, the bombers will get the final release codes. The minute we confirm target destruction, our airborne troops and Spetsnaz will move on Nome. It is madness.”