He paused for breath. “Under international agreements, I must remind you that you have no right to harm any of my people and in fact must see to their reparation as quickly as possible through the graces of a neutral country,” he continued, hoping that the Englishman would let him finish. “As diplomats, we have rights…”
“Put your weapons down and assume the position,” the British soldier said to the guards, cutting Molotov off in mid-lecture. Resentfully, the guards obeyed; other British soldiers appeared and scooped up the weapons, guarding the Russians carefully as they were all herded into the grounds. The embassy quickly emptied of staff; cooks, cleanings, a handful of girls who were officially typists, but were really there to be mistresses, all joined the soldiers on the ground.
“Now, Mr Ambassador,” the British soldier said. “Lead me to the jamming system.”
Molotov obeyed.
Chapter Fifteen: Picking Up The Pieces, Take Two
Never has America been more alone in spreading democracy's promise. […] It is the last country with a mission, a mandate and a dream, as old as its founders. All of this may be dangerous, even delusional, but it is also unavoidable. It is impossible to think of America without these properties of self-belief.
London, England
“Mr Ambassador, there’s a fucking air raid coming in,” Captain Douglas McDonald shouted, bursting into the room. “Get into the emergency escape shaft, now!”
Ambassador Andrew Luong didn’t hesitate; the access shaft was already unsealing as alarms started to sound inside the American Embassy. He wondered if it was the President’s idea of a joke — he had once accused her of being on the rag when she had sent Special Forces into Central Asia to kill a warlord who had been only making anti-American proclamations — but dismissed the thought of a drill; McDonald had sounded far too serious… and even scared.
His assistant, Margery Wayne, was even more scared. He ignored her questions as the training took over; he took a breath and jumped into the emergency shaft, falling down through several floors into the bomb shelter underneath the basement. Though some miracle of science he didn’t even begin to understand, his fall was slowed somehow and he popped out of the end of the tube as if he had just jumped off a stool. Moments later, a protesting Margery followed, her skirt bunched up around her waist by the air pressure in the tube, revealing her underwear to his eyes. He grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the tube, seconds before McDonald followed, his voice grim.
“All right,” Luong said, “what the hell is going on?”
“We just had a FLASH warning from NORAD,” McDonald said. “Orbiting satellites have tracked the launch of over three thousand missiles in Europe, with at least two hundred of them aimed into British airspace. We don’t have targeting indicators for them yet, but it’s a certainty that some of them are going to fall within London. This place is a prime target.”
The Marine wasn't even breathing hard, Luong noticed, resentfully. “I see,” he said, between pants. His heartbeat was racing so fast that he was surprised he hadn’t had a heart attack by now. “What’s the hell happened? Are the Europeans at war?”
“It looks that way,” McDonald said. “I’m very much afraid that…”
“Targets identified, central London,” a Marine called, from the large console that controlled the emergency systems in the basement. If a group of terrorists mounted an attack, standard procedure was to hole up in the bunker and wait for the English cops to arrest the terrorists, after which the Americans could escape. Missiles, on the other hand… Luong knew that a bunker-busting missile would have no problems at all busting the embassy bunker. “I think… Westminster and Whitehall; one fell in Northwood, explosion registered on NORAD’s satellites, non-nuke, I repeat, non-nuke.”
Luong closed his eyes. His tenure as Ambassador to Great Britain had been a surprise to him, particularly after the infamous rag comment, but he had understood the importance of the President’s decision. The United States needed allies, and even if NATO and all of the formal alliances had been dissolved, there was still a great deal of cooperation between the United States and its former allies. It was true that the misnamed and over-exaggerated Embassies War had damaged reputations, but some elements within the various establishments were still willing to work privately with the Americans.
But even that had limitations. If he had had the chance, Luong would have happily strangled Corporal Mike Collins himself; the young fool had cost America far too much. No one, not Hitler, not Yamamoto, not even Osama bin Laden himself had wreaked so much havoc… and the worst of it all was that it had been unnecessary. The British might have frowned on prostitutes, but there had been plenty of them near RAF Mildenhall. Collins had never needed to go find a young innocent girl, let alone rape and murder her. The crime had shocked England…
Luong had seen the reports, the increasing war waged in Parliament, tearing apart a desperate attempt by the British Government to keep it all quiet until Collins could be extradited properly and sentenced to life imprisonment at His Majesty’s pleasure. The American Government had cooperated… but the British media and even some media back in the States had treated it as if Collins had been flown out of the country to safety. The British Government had been forced into retreat after retreat and finally… America had been asked to leave the country. It had been the final act of that government; it had fallen a month afterwards.
Collins had died the same year, murdered in Leavenworth by a fellow inmate during a particularly nasty homosexual rape; as far as Luong was concerned, it wasn't anything like enough. The storm had refused to abate; governments had fallen across Europe, and by the time the storm had started to fade, American forces had been evicted from almost every base in Europe. Horror stories, many of them older than the Cold War, had been dug up and tossed at America; Americans were using Europe, Americans were fighting the war in Europe, Americans were intent on eternally controlling Europe…
The year afterwards, NATO had dissolved permanently.
Luong stared up at the console, saying nothing, as the missiles found their targets. He had had hopes of repairing the relationship with Britain, at least, after he had been appointed to England. It hadn’t been easy; the Prime Minister was a committed believer in Europe and had been inclined to allow matters of international concern to slip to Brussels. The European Parliament, overwhelmingly elected by socialists and known anti-Americans, had found America-bashing to be a substitute for its own failed politics. They had passed resolutions that condemned the rise of the American police state, border controls and harsh responses to terrorism, all the while ignoring the growing threat under their own noses. Places like France, and Spain, and even London provided a haven for terrorists… and the European Parliament didn’t even care. They had even welcomed in thousands of known terrorist fighters from Palestine…
A Marine looked up at McDonald, just as the ground shook. “That was at least four impacts in quick succession,” he said. “The missiles hit Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament; NORAD’s uplink is reporting multiple missile hits across the United Kingdom and several airliners going down in flames. The main power seems to have failed completely, sir; the generator is all that’s keeping the embassy working.”
Luong took a breath, trying to act ambassadorial and failing. America had warned the British that they were inviting trouble; they had warned the French and the Germans, but none of them had listened. It was easy to blame America for Europe’s woes, from the endless trade disputes to the funding provided for terrorists from European Muslim groups. Some Americans could never set foot in Europe without being arrested for war crimes; many more Europeans who had no loyalty at all to Europe would be arrested and charged with terrorism — which carried the death penalty — in America. America had lost some of her innocence… and it showed.