A letter from U.S. Navy Commodore Stephen Decatur indicates that the British fleet had warning of the attack, and may have taken action to destroy the submarine.
There are no recorded accounts of the engagement, if one occurred. The only established fact is that Halsey didn’t return from his mission.
We’ll likely never know whether he was killed by enemy fire or dragged to the bottom and drowned by some mechanical failure. History remembers Halsey as the first submarine sailor to die in the line of duty.
He would not be the last.
CHAPTER 34
President Bradley looked up from the short briefing sheet. “Are we absolutely certain that it wasn’t nuclear?”
The national security advisor nodded. “As near certain as we can be this soon after the attack, sir.”
“Meaning there’s room for doubt,” the president said.
Cerney nearly shook his head, but caught himself. “Not much room, sir. We may not have conclusive proof yet, but the initial evidence all points to conventional explosives.”
“And what evidence have we got?”
“Four primary indicators,” Cerney said. “First, the damage radius was much too small for even a minimum yield nuclear weapon. Second, a nuclear ground burst gives off a particular type of seismic shock that didn’t occur during this attack. Third, Homeland Security offers funding to first responder units who want to purchase chemical, biological, or radiological testing equipment. We got lucky and the local fire department had a handheld survey meter taking up shelf space in the Chief’s office. They report only normal background radiation at the blast site.”
“That’s only three things,” the president said. “You said there were four.”
“Number four is the easy one,” said Cerney. “No mushroom cloud.”
“Then we’re certain it wasn’t nuclear?” asked the president.
“Nearly certain,” Cerney said.
“What will it take for us to be completely certain?”
“There’s some kind of test for xenon isotopes that’s considered absolutely definitive.”
“But in the absence of that, we’re as sure as we can be?”
“Yes, Mr. President.”
“This is a hell of a thing to be nearly certain about,” the president said. “What about casualty reports? Do we have any numbers?”
“No, sir, but I can tell you it’s not going to be pretty. The point of impact was in the parking lot of the Coolsprings Galleria shopping mall. The blast area overlaps the mall buildings, about a fifty-yard swath of Interstate 65—in both directions — and a sizeable section of the parking lot itself. About half of the mall buildings were collapsed by the explosion, and the other half are in flames. Between shoppers, mall employees, and drivers on the freeway, the number of casualties is going to be off the scale. We could easily be looking at two or three times the body count of 9/11.”
President Bradley tried to keep his features impassive, to mask the growing sense of shock that threatened to overwhelm him. Thousands of deaths from a single conventional missile attack? How was that even possible? How was any of this possible?
North Korea had somehow gone from a pathetic kindergarten bully to a dire and immediate nuclear threat. As little as a week earlier, the idea of such a tectonic shift in the balance of power would have been laughable. But — some uncounted number of bodies later — no one was laughing, except (possibly) Kim Yong-nam and his puppet government.
“We have to hit them,” said a baritone voice. “We have to hit them hard; and we have to hit them now.”
The president turned to see General Boosalis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, crossing the operations room on an intercept course.
“Exactly which ‘them’ are you talking about?” the president asked. “The missile sites? Or the North Koreans?”
The general stopped when he reached easy conversation distance. “Both, Mr. President. We need to hammer those missile sites for obvious reasons. And we have to retaliate against North Korea because what they’ve done is an act of war, and because no one can be allowed to massacre American citizens and get away with it.”
“I’m with you on all counts,” said the president. “The question is: how do we hit either set of targets without getting a few dozen of our own cities nuked in the process? We can’t retaliate against North Korea while an unknown number of nuclear warheads are pointed at our collective foreheads. And we can’t call in a strike on the missile sites until we know how many there are, and where they are.”
The general nodded. “That just about sums up the opinions of the Joint Chiefs, sir.”
“Wonderful,” the president said. “We may be getting our asses kicked by a third world maniac, but at least we’ve got consensus.”
“We are making some progress,” said the national security advisor. “Between satellite coverage and high altitude surveillance drones, we believe we’ve identified two of the missile sites. Possibly three.”
The president raised his voice. “Possibly three? Meaning we’re pretty sure it’s a nuclear missile site, and not some local bootleggers cooking rum in a sugarcane barn? This is a friendly country we’re talking about. I can’t launch strikes against possible missile sites. We’ve got to have hard data.”
“We need boots on the ground,” the general said. “To verify targets before we call for strikes.”
President Bradley shook his head. “If I try to put troops into Cuba, Kim Yong-nam is going find out in about five seconds. And about two seconds after that, he’s going to start pushing buttons.”
“I wasn’t thinking of a new deployment,” said the general. “We’ve already got troops in Cuba. The Marine Corps Security Force Company out of Naval Station Guantanamo.”
The national security advisor looked doubtful. “Are those guys trained for this kind of thing? We can’t afford to screw this up.”
The general smiled. “Recon is part of their training, sir. And these are hardcore Marines. They’ll get the job done.”
“I need to talk to State,” said the president. “We’ll have to clear this with President Diaz-Canel through diplomatic channels.”
“That’s your privilege, Mr. President,” said General Boosalis, “but I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Why not? We’re not dealing with Fidel or Raúl Castro anymore. The new administration is approachable and reasonable.”
The general was slow in answering. “I’ll tell you why I’m concerned. Because the North Koreans could not have mounted an operation this large without help from someone powerful in the Cuban government or military.”
The president’s eyebrows went up. “You’re suggesting that President Diaz-Canel had a hand in this?”
“Not at all, sir,” the general said. “In fact, I’d consider that unlikely. I don’t think he would deliberately invite U.S. nuclear retaliation against his country. But it’s got to be somebody near the top. Someone with enough pull to facilitate North Korea’s plans, and then keep it quiet. If that person gets word of what we’re doing, he’ll alert Kim Yong-nam, and the jig will be up.”