“I appreciate that, Tom. As a matter of fact I was going to come snooping around myself as soon as I finished lunch”
“You want to do some homework before you see the Boss”
“Something like that” Kurshin thought the younger man’s expressions were boyish. “No sweat, Colonel. Your clearance won’t be posted until Monday, but if you don’t mind tagging along with me on a visitor’s pass, I’ll give you the tencent tour” Kurshin nodded. He pushed his plate away, finished the last of his beer, and looked Mccann directly in the eye. “What if I was an impostor” he asked with a straight face. “You’d give me the keys to the bank vault just like that” Mccann’s grin widened. “We got your package six weeks ago” he said. “Including your photograph. If you’re an impostor, Colonel, then you’re Brad Allworth’s twin. Are you ready”
“Just have to make a quick phone call” Kurshin said.
Ramstein was divided into four major sections. Near the main gate were base housing, the clubs, movie theaters, dining halls, hobby shops, class six liquor stores, and the commissary. On the east side of the base were the runways and alert hangars for the several fighter interceptor squadrons that made up the wing. To the west were the supply depots and Support functions such as electrical generating plants, communications and radar squadrons, sewage treatment plant and other housekeeping functions. Most of the sprawling wooded land area, which was enclosed by tall barbed wire-topped fencing and watched around the clock by mounted perimeter guards, served as the storage and staging area for the store of nuclear missiles including the Boeing AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile, which the Air Force used, and 17 of the Army’s 108 Mobile Launched Pershing 11 missiles. Missile Control was housed in a cast concrete bunker constructed into the side of a hill. The situation room and operational control center were located two hundred feet back into the bedrock, impervious to anything but a direct hit with a thermonuclear device. No one felt really safe, however, as Mccann explained. “Doesn’t matter how much rock you’ve got overhead once you know that you’re their number-one target” They signed in with the OD, Kurshin was given a visitor’s pass, and Mccann started toward the elevators. Kurshin stopped him. “Let’s start outside and work our way back in” he said. Mccann shrugged. “There won’t be much to see”
Kurshin allowed the smile to die from his face. “In here is support. Out there is the real thing. I want to see the hardware itself, as well as the security. I want to know who’s minding the store and just how good they’re doing their job”
Mccann stiffened slightly. “Yes, sir” he said. It was the first time he’d used proper military address. Back outside they climbed into Mccann’s blue station wagon and headed on the main transport road into what appeared to be nothing more than an empty tract of woods, open grass fields here and there, and dirt tracks leading through the brush every few hundred yards or so. Except for the paved road there was no sign that this area was anything more than some backwoods country, the dirt tracks used by forest service people, Jaegermeisters. “What would you like to see first, Colonel, our ALIMS, or the Army’s Pershings”
They’d been driving in silence for a few minutes, the afternoon warm and very pleasant, only a few puffy white clouds overhead. “Listen, Tom, I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot here” Kurshin said apologetically. Mccann glanced at him, not sure if he should reply.
“This is an important assignment for me” Kurshin said.
“But I’m not going to be an asshole about it, if you catch my meaning”
“I’m not quite sure, Colonel “)you can can the colonel shit. The name is Brad. What I mean to say is that I’m sorry I was such a shit back there.
I was out of line”
Mccann relaxed, his grin back. “You had me just a little worried”
“Let’s take a look around, and then get back to the club. I think by then it’ll be time for me to buy you a drink”
“You’re on” Ten minutes later they reached the southern edge of the base just as a jeep with two Air Force Security Specialists drove down the dirt track that paralleled the fence. They disappeared into the distance as the fence jogged to the left. “How often do we have a patrol past any given point on the perimeter” Kurshin asked. “Twelve minutes tops” Kurshin shook his head. “That’s going to have to be tightened up”
“Bob Collingwood is in charge. Do you want to see him this afternoon”
“Monday will be fine” Kurshin said. They turned left and headed down a gravel road that opened five hundred yards later into a clearing in which a low concrete bunker was built back into the hill. A large steel door covered the opening. Trees and grass grew on the roof. “We have seventeen of these scattered around out here. Each contains a Pershing II”
“How about their mobile launchers, and the rigs to haul them”
“All hooked up and ready to go within five minutes’ notice or less. A couple of the teams back here can get them out in under four minutes”
“How about the teams” Mccann smiled wryly. “There’s the rub. They used to be housed back here. These days they share quarters with the Air Wing’s on-duty alert crew”
Kurshin sighed theatrically. “That’s going to change as well” he said.
He got out of the car. “Let’s take a look”
“Right” Mccann said, jumping out of the car. Kurshin went ahead to the big steel doors beside which was a much smaller personnel hatch. It was extremely quiet out here. Even the jet sounds from the distant runways were faint. He stepped aside as Mccann came up, opened a small access panel beside the door, and punched in the five-digit entry code. The hatch lock cycled and Mccann pulled the narrow steel door open. “No one else back here” Kurshin asked. “The patrols come around once a shift”
Mccann said, stepping inside and flipping on the overhead lights. “Have they been by yet this shift”
“They usually do it first thing” Mccann said, turning. His eyes suddenly went wide. Kurshin was holding a silenced automatic on him.
“Thanks” the Russian said, and he shot Mccann in the forehead.
In missile control’s situation room a red light began to wink on one of the panels. “We have a missile bay door open indicator” the technician called from his console. The Officer of the Day, Captain Gerry Stewart, put down his coffee and came across the room. He studied the board for a moment or two. The indicator was definitely winking. It was one of the Pershing II’s. “Try the alarm test function” The tech flipped a switch and pushed a button that tested the validity of all their alarm systems. The lights across his board winked green, indicating the system was in proper working order. One of the missile bay doors was actually open.
Then Stewart remembered that Mccann was running around out there showing their new squadron commander around, and he allowed himself to relax a little. “Hold on to it for a minute, I think it’s Tom” Stewart said and he went over to his console where he punched in Mccann’s car radio frequency and picked up his phone. “Little Bird, this is Whiz Bang, you copy” he radioed. There was no answer. “Anything else on the rest of the board” he called across to the technician. The other four duty officers had looked up from their monitors. “No, Sir”
“Little Bird, this is Whiz Bang, you copy, over” Still there was no answer, and Stewart slowly put down his handset. If Mccann had wanted to show their new CO the inside of one of the missile bays, that was well and good. They would have entered through the maintenance hatch. So why the hell had they opened the main bay doors? He picked up the Missile Ready red phone and punched in the number for the missile bunker with the open door. The instant the connection was made, an extremely loud Klaxon would sound in the bay. Loud enough to wake the dead, he thought, though just how close to the truth he was, he could not expect as yet.