Judy had unwound the towel from her head and was rubbing her hair with it.
“I’m glad I was a pain but you still had me fooled up to a point. I thought you were trying to stop me identifying the asteroid. It was some time before it dawned on me what you were really about, that you were actually trying to stop me finding that there is no asteroid.”
Noordhof said, “The manuscript thing was CIA false flag recruitment at its best. They used a real artist, the best Renaissance document forger in the business. Even the nib of the pen was right for the period in case somebody thought to use neutron activation analysis on the ink. Vincenzo’s book, of course, was the genuine article. All this guy had to do was add the moving star. It had to match the orbit of a real Earth-grazer, it had to be good enough to fool the manuscript experts, and like you say we had to get rid of every copy except the one with the insert in case anyone thought to make comparisons.”
“I suppose he had an unfortunate accident?”
“The forger? Yeah, he swallowed hydrochloric acid, can you imagine?” Noordhof shook his head sorrowfully. “Don’t worry, Ollie, I’ll be more humane. And you’ve still got five minutes.”
“I’m curious about one thing,” Webb said, to keep the conversation going. “Where did my so-called assassin come into it?”
Noordhof looked glum. “A sideshow that went wrong. I fixed it so you would have to buy the lousy manuscript. Uncle Sam was supposed to pay a couple of million bucks for it; half for me, half for my Italian counterpart — not that he’d have lived to collect it. But the guy gets greedy. He guesses the manuscript might be worth a lot more so he sells you a story about a contract on you and tries to jack up the payment for himself.”
A thunderclap shook the room and the light flickered briefly. Webb asked, “What’s the story when I don’t report in at T equals Zero?”
“Another accident, of course.”
“You expect to get away with that?”
Noordhof’s eyes glinted. “Ollie, we expect to get off with a nuclear strike.”
Webb let it sink in slowly. “I was afraid of that.”
“Yeah, and with a few thousand nukes pouring into the Evil Empire, who’s going to notice some Brit going missing in Mexican bandit country?” The soldier glanced at his watch. “By the way, you’ve got four minutes. How time flies when you’re enjoying yourself.”
Now Judy was patting her legs dry with the towel. She looked around and dragged over a coffee table with a box of paper handkerchiefs and a heavy marble ashtray.
“Is the President in on this?” Webb asked.
“Poor Ollie, still on planet Mars. Things don’t work that way, friend. If the Chief knew about it, how could he deny it? We’re protecting him. Nemesis is the nuclear button, but if it’s going to work the Chief has got to believe in it.”
“I think I can see how it works,” said Webb. “The nonexistent asteroid grazes the atmosphere. An electromagnetic pulse shorts out your electronic systems and you lose all contact with the White House. So the President thinks the non-existent asteroid has hit, the shock wave is on the way in and America is on the way out. So he gets the nukes away while he can.”
“Got it in one,” Noordhof said with genuine admiration. “We will have total control over everything coming into the President’s War Room, wherever it is. There will be a perfect simulation of an asteroid strike, and when the smoke clears, it turns out it was all a grazing encounter like you say but tears of joy and ring out the bells, America is still with us and the Bear is dead.”
“And Karibisha?”
“We were going to shift perigee into the Gulf at the last minute but in this weather ain’t nobody going to see it here, so why bother.”
“Post-encounter?”
“The Earth has deflected it back into the sunlight.”
“But the EMP! You can’t fake that over the whole of America.”
“No but while we’re zapping Russia a couple of our nukes will go off prematurely and give us the real thing. Who’s going to tell the difference?”
“And Russia just lets it all happen.”
“BMDO tell us they can handle the response. Provided we get in an overwhelming first strike, our losses will be acceptable. And if a couple of their nukes get through, we have even more EMP to add to the confusion.”
“Acceptable losses,” Webb said thoughtfully. “I have one question.”
“Sure.” Noordhof waved the Colt invitingly. “You still have three minutes.”
“Why? Zhirinovsky, right?”
“Zhirinovsky, right. We have an overwhelming nuclear advantage now. But he’s catching up fast. In a few years we’ll be back to the old parity only this time we’ll be facing a raving lunatic and it’s only a matter of time before he decides to zap us except that on account of some of us love our country we’re trying to do something positive about that.”
“The guy is just bombast. And he probably won’t survive the next Russian election.”
“Thank you, Oliver, you’re full of surprises, I didn’t know you included political analysis amongst your talents.”
Noordhof leaned forward to say more, waving the gun at Webb. There was a crackle and a tremendous bang, and the lights went out. Webb froze in the pitch black. When they came on a second later Noordhof’s eyes were wide and he was holding the Colt at arm’s length, and it was pointing straight at Webb’s chest. The soldier re-folded his arms.
Webb glanced at Judy, but her eyes betrayed nothing. “One last question.” He suppressed an urge to panic. “What about the New Mexico scorpion here?”
Judy gave a cold smile.
“We needed an ear in the team. A scientist to make sure things went smoothly, to make sure y’all got the right ideas at the right times and nobody started getting any wrong ideas. Doctor Whaler came on the personal recommendation of right-thinking people at the highest level in the National Security program.”
“After all, Oliver, my job is to preserve peace through revolutionary and visionary means,” Judy said.
“Revolutionary? I don’t think so. Nemesis is a hoary old ploy, a border incident created to justify war.”
She continued. “But what a wonderful challenge! And morally justifiable, contrary to what you seem to think. What’s the point of a short-lived peace if it’s just an interlude before annihilation? What we’re facing is a Ghengis Khan with nukes. The threat posed by his weapons of mass destruction is just too great. Surely Mark’s philosophy is right? Seize the moment, and settle the issue for all time.”
“Skipping the tedious legalities,” Webb suggested. A thunderclap shook the French windows.
The Colonel said, “You know the old saying, Ollie. My country, right or wrong.”
“Respect for the tedious legalities is what separates men from monkeys. And you from me.”
The soldier faked a smile. “Negative, Oliver. The vital difference between us is that I’m holding the gun.” He glanced again at his watch. “Anything else you want to know?”
“You’re not going to shoot me.”
Noordhof raised an eyebrow.
Webb took a deep breath. He could hardly speak. “I have protection.”
“Sure you have. I can’t wait to hear about it.”
“A couple of hours ago I was sent a fax. ‘When is a custard pie not a custard pie?’ The desk will confirm it.”
“He’s right,” Judy said.
“Yeah, we know. It got us puzzled. It should have been intercepted but the stoopid girl…”