‘Thank you, Sir, but I have my own cigarettes”, Yevgeni mumbled. “I only wanted to know if I, too, can smoke here in the room.”
“Take one, take, Colonel!” the Minister commanded. “It seems that at least today, you’ve earned one good American cigarette. For tomorrow, we shall wait and see.”
Yevgeni immediately felt the metaphorical lead weights lifting from his shoulders. His hand shook when he held the Marlboro box and pulled out a single cigarette, which he kept unlit between his fingers. The Minister watched his every move, passing his fingers through his hair in a familiar gesture.
“The first plan can be executed quickly, even within hours”, said the Minister, “and this is probably its biggest advantage. On the other hand, you also noted its limits. For now, it seems that we will proceed with the second plan, but before we do this, I want you to list all, but all, its weaknesses. I’m waiting.”
Yevgeni recomposed himself quickly. He was no longer shaking and his voice was steady.
“Mr. Minister, I truly do not believe that there is any problem in execution. I am certain it will work, but the problem is with the schedule. We would require assistance in the matter from our Electronic Warfare corps. We would have to conduct several explosions at sea and document the effects. We also have to practice it on one of our nuclear submarines, so it is difficult for me to tell you just how many days it will take, but I give you my word, the word of an officer in the Red Army, that we shall do it in the best and quickest way possible.”
The Minister of Defense was enjoying every drag of his cigarette as he listened intently to every word.
“So you give me the word of an officer”, he said, “and that is good. And I tell you that from this moment, you, Colonel, are selected to lead this plan, even though your team includes officers who are more senior than you. Is that clear to you, General Vitaly Okhramenko?”
The General leapt onto his feet from among the team members sitting before the Minister.
“Yes, Mr. Minister!”
The officers in the team had not yet gotten to know one another very well, and they had not been properly introduced, mostly because, so far, the main work had been done by Colonel Yevgeni and Brigadier General Dimitri; so it came as a great surprise to them that the short, fat older fellow was a Red Army General.
“I have a surprise for you, Colonel Yevgeni”, the Minister said, leaning back.
“We have invested a lot of brainpower in selecting the team members and their specialties. If you have not discovered yet, General Okhramenko is one of the leading experts in electronic warfare in the Red Army, and probably in the world. If you guide him correctly with data, he will solve all your problems in this area.”
Yevgeni, still standing beside the general, mumbled some words of gratitude.
“Wait, I’m not finished yet”, the marshal said. “Colonel Nazarbayev!”
Again, the five team members shifted their gaze to Colonel Nazarbayev, who snapped to attention and called out: “Yes, Mr. Minister”.
Colonel Nazarbayev had the build of a wrestler. His round head and narrow eyes, as well as his name, revealed his Kazakh origins.
“Colonel Yevgeni”, the minister roared. “What is going on with you? Are you a pack of lone wolves? Do you think only you and Dimitri have a role here and all the others are just observers? It is time you got to learn about one another. Colonel Nazarbayev is a well-known expert in ordnance, warheads, and explosives. I think you have someone here that you can run with. This time tomorrow, we shall meet here again. I will bring some experts with me and we shall analyze all the aspects of this operation together; all the advantages and disadvantages of your plan, Yevgeni.”
It was the first time that the Minister called someone by his first name without preceding it with his military rank.
The Minister rose, followed by everyone else. He hurried to the door, closely followed by Gregory.
Dimitri, who only a few hours before had returned from Germany and felt tired, approached Yevgeni and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Did you see that motion that the Minister made with his fingers of how he would scatter us?”
“Did I see? Of course I did. How could I not see?”
Dimitri smiled at Yevgeni and again tapped him on the shoulder.
“As partners in the same fate, I want to thank you for saving our skins for at least a few more hours. In my opinion, you are a genius. You are a true genius. By the way, how long have you been a smoker?”
“Since yesterday”, Yevgeni replied with a half-smile. “From the moment you took off for Germany and left me here alone. At least now I can say that the Minister and I smoke together.”
Chapter 5
Colonel Yevgeni’s five colleagues seated themselves at their desks. Yevgeni motioned to Brigadier General Dimitri with his hand to take the seat to his right, and when he did, turned to him and whispered in his ear.
“I need you close to me. You have a primary role in our plan. You are a Navy man and only you understand what happens above and below the water. My own knowledge of water begins and ends at the level of a daily shower.”
Dimitri smiled and replied in a whisper.
“I will make you a certified seaman, don’t you worry. Now that we know each other a little better, maybe you can tell me what the expertise of the sixth man is? Regarding Sergei, the Minister’s assistant, I assume that he is here in the capacity of the minister’s eyes and ears or what may be called a nark, but the sixth man is really a mystery. He makes comments every once in a while, but my impression is that he has nothing concrete to offer and that he has no specific expertise. What is your impression of him?”
A wry smile appeared on Yevgeni’s face.
“Look, we are a team of experts, right? The sixth man gives the impression of being a bit of an expert in a bit of everything. This is usually the expertise of KGB men. Or he may belong to our host’s military intelligence. In my opinion, he supervises us on their behalf. We need to include him more so that he doesn’t get suspicions of our real roles in the team. Okay, let’s start the meeting — everybody’s watching us.”
“Good morning”, Yevgeni said, quickly scanning his colleagues’ faces.
“This is not our first meeting, but it is the first that will yield a specific detailed plan, and we have a lot of work to do. But before we start, I have two comments. Yesterday, we were all clutching our heads, but it must be clear to everyone that not much has changed since yesterday. This is a large and complex plan and I have no doubt that many moments of desperation and failures await us.
“The Minister is coming back here tomorrow, this time with more experts. In my estimation, these will be Navy men or operations research specialists.”
“Or both”, Dimitri added.
“You are right, Dimitri. The Navy men, you know how to deal with. As for the others, we don’t know if they will question us on the very technical points, or if the Minister will include them in an open discussion in order to examine all the ramifications of such an operation. We have three issues, in three different areas. Let’s start with you, Colonel Nazarbayev.”
The Kazakh colonel was attentive.
“The blast that will be carried out at a certain distance from the American submarine must have one purpose only: to cause its crew to think that a nuclear explosion has occurred on the East Coast of the United States. I will be more specific. We need to execute a small blast that is far enough from the submarine for the submarine not to hear the blast itself, but near enough for it to detect signals from a seismological station that indicate a nuclear explosion or an earthquake.