“There is no way for this weapon to be manually armed Stan,” he declared. Stan nodded, “The receiver is for microwave burst transmission, and the processor would be capable of coded reception and decryption, why?”
Gupta was frowning.
“There is no failsafe that I can find, nothing that permits its being disarmed,” he was thinking out loud now.
“The person planting it would arm it with a hand held transmitter I would think,” was all Stan could suggest.
“No, it would not work, if I knew the arming code I could demonstrate that nothing we have here would deliver the strength of pulse required… this is designed only to receive a powerful satellite transmission.” Unlike Gupta, Stan had been briefed on the strong possibility that this was but one of a hundred such devices. He hurried to the nearest telephone.
After four years of wearing civilian clothing, Colonel General Serge Alontov was again in the uniform of his country.
He was stood before his premier, waiting for his hand to be shaken and receipt of orders posting him to a command position once again.
“These are great times Serge, the rebirth of communism celebrated by the defeat of world capitalism,” he said solemnly.
“Comrade Premier, it was your vision, we merely assisted with putting the plan together and implementing it. In twelve hours’, thirty-seven minute’s time the satellite begins transmitting the arming code and detonation time. Nothing can stop them then. Provided the groups carrying out the attacks place them correctly the targets will be destroyed, even if they do not the shock and confusion of their detonations will demoralise the masses. Their servicemen abroad will be distracted by the news that their loved ones are under attack at home.”
“How is the determination of these groups, Serge?”
“They believe that they have total control of the weapons, the remote control sets we provided will tell them what they want to believe. Certainly the Muslims think they are striking a blow at the great Satan by damaging the White House and destroying a few buildings. The security forces seem to believe their road checks and restrictions will prevent the bombs exploding if they merely prevent the terrorists placing them at their targets.”
The Premier nodded in satisfaction,
“There may be a shortage of useful fools from the old times but equally stupid extremists have their uses too.” After a moment he held out a large envelope to Serge.
“Colonel General, the present commander of army Spetznaz forces is too good a man to replace and he is fully conversant with the fine detail his men’s missions, which you are not… however, I need an experienced senior officer to lead a large force of troops. You know the mission because your knowledge gave that phase of my plan feasibility.”
Serge stepped forward and took the orders from his hand. Stepping back a pace he saluted smartly and left the room.
In the anteroom without, Peridenko nodded cordially to Serge as the soldier emerged and a smile spread across the man’s face as he watched the broad shoulders depart for the last time, probably. Serge Alontov may not have a wife for the Premier to covet, but like the Jewish King David he had placed the soldier in the front rank. Men of Alontov’s calibre had to be shackled or eliminated lest they one day seek the throne for themselves. Sometimes I am so poetic it hurts thought Peridenko as he headed for the Premiers inner sanctum through the door held open by an aide.
There were many thoughtful faces in the room as Art Petrucci gave them the results of the Aldermaston AWRE examination of the London device over speakerphone. The full report was in the process of being transmitted for the technical brains to pick over but Arnie’s précis had provided food for thought to those present.
When he had finished the president thanked him and left the line open while his chief scientific advisor spoke.
“First thing that comes to mind sir is that we do not know if all the devices, if they exist, are all of the same design. The London bomb was a series up upgrades and new components added over thirty plus years. If it was originally a mass-produced weapon there is no guarantee that the remainder were upgraded the same way. Microwave communications were, after all, just chalked equations on a research facility blackboard in 1960. Originally they would have to be armed manually I would suggest.”
General Shaw spoke first.
“Excuse me Mr President; what the CSA said is all academic surely? We should assume the worst, that all the devices are of the London design… how do we stop them going off?” The CSA nodded, “Point taken, Russia has some 39 active satellites in orbit at the moment and another 12 we believe to be no longer functioning. The components the satellite would require to perform this task would be mission specific. They could not just dial into any commercial satellite and send it that way. Do we have the means to identify the satellite they will use or shut down all those 51 satellites?” The general was shaking his head
“We have four anti-satellite missiles on the inventory, the project was cancelled as too costly to justify more.”
“I thought as much. Then the only solution is to prevent them from going off where they would cause the most damage, it’s the best I can suggest.”
“Ben,” said the president,
“You have to bring forward your plan to hit the suspected groups, understood?”
“I’m on it, sir.” The FBI Director answered, reaching for the phone in front of him.
“Next thing… ” the president addressed the room, “… is it feasible to evacuate all the target areas?”
General Shaw cleared his throat and replied.
“It is only doable at six of the sites on US turf. If we did not have a deployment taking place it would be fourteen, but the evacuees would prevent our deploying units and supplies from reaching their ports of departure. The remaining eighteen are in the middle of towns and cities, where the hell do we put… ” he glanced at his notes before continuing
“… Ninety-eight million people. How do we feed and shelter them?” Letting out a sigh he continued.
“We have tentage and emergency relief stores capable of supporting 250,000 people for one month… and that’s all.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, it is inconceivable that there is no one in this room without a friend, relative or favourite stocks and bonds advisor, in one of the target areas.” The president was looking around the room as he spoke.
“You cannot, you must not, warn any of those people of the danger. I realise this is a heavy burden I am putting on some, if not all, of you. We cannot guard against the bombers and deal with the panic… do you understand?”
There was silence in the room.
“Do you understand?” he raised his voice as he repeated his instruction. There was a rumble of, Yes Mr President’s, from around the room, all the voices were subdued.
“In the meantime we need to work on preventing the signal from being sent. Should any device be detonated on our territory or that of our allies I am obliged to consider very seriously, the option of nuclear retaliation? If I do, it will not be two kiloton’s but twenty megatons I drop on Red Square and that sonofabitch will then reply in kind!” An aide interrupted the president by handing him a note. He thanked the aide and instructed his CSA.
“Joseph, you need to find out what our research people can suggest straight away.”