“Correct.”
The minister pursed his lips, contemplating. “Perhaps we don’t need to hold it.” He leaned back and inhaled. “Perhaps… we just need leverage.”
“Sir?”
“It’s not just us the Americans don’t want to know about it. They likely do not want anyone to know about it.”
Koskov smiled. “Extortion.”
The defence minister frowned. “Such an ugly word. But, yes. We need enough information to prevent a counterattack."
"Or enough hostages.”
“True,” he nodded. “Assuming that enough survive.”
With that, the minister sighed and turned his attention to one of the other details of the report: the visit by the Americans to Transocean. One of the names listed earlier had caught his attention. The name of Langford.
It was a name the Russians knew well.
26
Unlike the Russian defence minister, Admiral Langford’s eyes bore a look of grave worry. Without a word, he closed the large white door behind him and looked across the table at U.S. Secretary of Defense Merl Miller, wearing an expression very much the same.
Neither spoke as Langford made his way to the table and sat down in a dark leather chair across from the secretary. A silent Miller watched as Langford reached into his pocket and withdrew a small round disc, resembling a miniature hockey puck. On the top was a single button along with several small holes.
He calmly depressed the button and waited a moment before settling back in his chair. The small device was something Will Borger called a voice jammer. Inside, a set of integrated speakers emitted competing noises in the same spectrums as both Langford and Miller’s voices. Enough to make their conversations unrecognizable to any listening devices.
The Pentagon was one of the most thoroughly swept buildings in the country for bugs and other spying devices, but that was still no guarantee. Borger’s device allowed both men to talk freely without the risk of being recorded. Or more accurately, if they were recorded, the result would be digitally undecipherable. At least that’s what he’d claimed. To them, it was hard to know if the unit was even working, save for the small green light on top.
Across from him, Miller stared at the small unit absently. When he spoke, his face was long. “I hope he’s right.” His eyes moved to Langford. “The President. I hope this was all worth it.”
“So do I.”
“The Chinese have to know that we have the bacteria.”
Langford nodded. “We must assume so.”
“Which means they’re going to want it back.”
“Presumably.”
Miller managed a wry grin. “I don’t think we need to presume. If they’d taken it from us, we’d be working on a barrage of retaliations.”
“Yes. We would.”
Both men fell silent, sinking deeply into their thoughts. The implications were expanding rapidly. The President’s National Security Council knew about the bacteria as well as the plants found underwater near Trinidad.
But there were also things they did not know. Things that Langford and Miller were keeping secret. If the President and his staff felt the implications were extensive now, they’d be absolutely stunned to learn the whole story. Or at least the parts that had been uncovered thus far.
“Eventually,” Miller said, shaking his head, “this thing is going to blow up on us. And when it does, it will be impossible to contain without the mother of all diversions. I mean a multilateral effort of the biggest kind.”
Langford’s tired eyes stared back at him. What Miller meant by multilateral was an international effort. Something beyond a single government. The U.S. government had learned many years ago both the importance of and the best ways to suppress information in an internationally coordinated effort with other friendly countries. And they had become extraordinarily effective at it. But the real question was what happened when friendly governments became competitors for the same prize? There was a point where even allies knew too much.
Bad things, Langford thought to himself. Bad things were going to happen that would eventually end up in war. Because this discovery by the Chinese had everything it needed to set the world on fire.
However, as bad as the situation was, Langford was also mulling over another possibility. A much more radical idea that he’d thought long and hard about before he’d been ready to mention it to Miller.
Langford cleared his throat and spoke carefully. “What if there’s another way?”
“Another way for what?”
“To avoid war.”
Miller stared curiously across the table. “I am all ears.”
Langford reached up and ran his finger back and forth over his bottom lip. “We let it loose.”
“We what?”
“We let it loose.”
Miller squinted at him dubiously. “What do you mean by loose?”
“We give it to everyone.”
Miller frowned. “Are you on some sort of medication?”
Langford smiled at the joke. “As a matter of fact, I am. My blood pressure and cholesterol are both too high. And this isn’t helping.” When his amusement faded, he continued. “When you boil it right down, there are only two real options here. Keeping the whole thing secret, or exposing it.”
“And you think exposing it would be better?”
“I honestly don’t know. But one thing it would do is destroy anyone else’s leverage over us. And it would almost completely eliminate the Chinese’s reason to attack.”
Miller leaned back. “Jesus, Jim. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d gone off the deep end.”
“Maybe I have,” Langford shrugged. “But if I haven’t…”
“If you haven’t, it’s an intriguing idea. But a scary one. Beginning with one hell of a population problem.”
“Eventually,” Langford acknowledged, “there’s clearly some downside. But there could be a hell of a lot of upside.”
“There could be a hell of a lot of downside too. There would be no way to know. No way to anticipate just how things would unravel.”
“True. But ask yourself this: What would happen if every country had more than enough food? More than enough energy? What would it mean if we only needed healthcare for accidents? All of us.”
“Now you’re sounding crazy. That’s just a liberal’s dream. It would never happen like that, and you know it. Not with human nature being what it is.”
“No,” Langford said. “It’s everyone’s dream. Even us conservatives.” He leaned forward, staring intently at Miller. “We’re both pushing seventy, Merl.”
“God dammit, don’t remind me.”
“Tell me something. What’s the biggest cause of your problems today? Personally.” He watched Miller’s expression tighten. “What causes you the most grief every day?”
Miller replied, reluctantly. “Health.”
“Health,” Langford nodded. “Same for me. It’s the same for everyone, sooner or later. And later ain’t that far away. For any of us. And that’s just getting old. What about diseases?”
Miller shook his head. “We’re not just talking about a court-martial, Jim. We’re talking about treason. Giving this secret up isn’t some token of goodwill by a couple of old farts who’ve seen enough war. I mean, this is actual treason, to our own country. And you know as well as I do the type of people who run this place. The same that run every country. So let’s not be naive.”
At that, Langford stopped and considered Miller’s words. He knew it wasn’t that easy. But at some point, someone needed to stand up for what was right. For humanity.