“Yes.”
“Okay. Scratch that, then. But there are troop concentrations all along the border, right? All the way south from Paraguay to Uruguay?”
“Yes. On both sides, ours and Argentina’s. We’re running low on artillery shells already…. So are the Argentines, from what our intelligence sources indicate.”
“Then that’s it,” Jeffrey said decisively. “They’ll set off the American bomb somewhere just on the Argentine side of the border. Kill some of their own troops, but not damage any primary fascist assets. Make it look like Brazil brought the bomb to the border from your side, Mr. President, and snuck it across, and you set it off as prelude to a breakthrough assault through the hole you punch in Argentina’s shaken defensive front lines.”
Da Gama stared at the map for a very long time. Finally, he nodded. “Our paradigm, our perspective, was wrong. They don’t intend to use the stolen device as a weapon of terror. They plan to use it as tactical nuclear arms were designed to be used, on a military battlefield…. It makes their scheme to implicate Brazil and the U.S. wholly plausible to world opinion this way…. What do you want us to do?”
“When the hovercraft change shifts at Paranaguá, while they escort my submarine south, I want my SEAL team to sneak off Challenger and come ashore at Paranaguá. That’ll put them in better striking distance of anywhere on the border, hours sooner than otherwise.”
“Why SEALs, Captain?” da Gama said.
“The border is mostly defined by major rivers in full flood.”
“Yes. The Iguazú. The Uruguai. The bridges were blown and the ferries burned, days ago now.”
“That makes the warhead recovery a riverine operation, sir. That’s one thing SEAL teams do. It’s our warhead; let it be our people who fight to get it back or disarm it.”
“I’m not sure.”
“If there must be a border incursion, Mr. President, it should be by Americans. Later you can deny you’d ever approved — in order to defend Brazil’s neutrality.”
“We have our own troops on the border. The core battalions are very well trained. Professionals. I’m hardly the only one who studied with your U.S. Army.”
“Sir, no slight on your men is intended, or implied. But my team have recent live experience on an actual nuclear battlefield. They’ve gone up against kampfschwimmer hand to hand and they did well.”
“Yes?” Da Gama sat thoughtfully. “It does make sense the Germans would use kampfschwimmer to plant the bomb…. Very well, I give you my permission.”
Jeffrey wondered how much da Gama knew about the Rocks.
“I’ll get on that for you, Captain,” Colonel Stewart said. “I’ll help get the commo links set up, here and in the States, and we’ll get your orders to Challenger by low-frequency radio.”
“And Mr. President?” Jeffrey said.
“Captain?”
“Can you have a long-range transport helicopter put on alert at Paranaguá, please, for use by my SEALs? Their lieutenant’s name is Felix Estabo. He and his men are all Latino, fluent in Portuguese or Spanish or both. They won’t arouse suspicion. They’ll blend in.”
“And then what?”
“If nothing more happens, then nothing, and your country is blameless. Or at least subjected to no more possible blame beyond right now.”
“Yes.”
“If the American warhead does come ashore in Argentina, sir, we need to lock on by aerial recon and track it and the kampfschwimmer carefully. Send my SEALs in your helo on an interception course, on the Brazilian side of the frontier.”
“A race to meet, and fight at close quarters?… It doesn’t sound like very much to go on.”
“I know, Mr. President…. We need a way to harass and distract the bad guys. Something that intimidates, confuses, but nonlethal and without a premature border violation… If I understand the mind-set of the Argentine rebels, sir, their leaders are rash, incautious.”
Da Gama nodded.
“I want us to put more pressure on the Argentines and Germans. Breathe down their necks and let them know it, bad. If they start to worry that we’re catching on to them, it might force our opponents to rush and make hasty decisions, maybe even commit some revealing mistakes…. Less time to work with also heightens the dangers for our side. It’s a risk we’ll have to accept…. Mr. Jones, how far up the Riode la Plata estuary do international waters go?”
“The twelve-mile limit? Pretty far up. It’s a hundred miles wide at its mouth.”
“And what platforms monitor your gamma-ray detectors?”
“I’m guessing we have operatives in Argentina, or across the estuary in Uruguay, with proper equipment. Out on the water in boats, on top of mountains, I don’t know.”
“Okay… Colonel Stewart, invoke the code name Mercury, and use that to make some drones available, fast. Predators, Global Hawks, whatever. And a U.S. Air Force B-One-B bomber based from Venezuela, something really conspicuous but well able to defend itself. It can follow a dogleg course out over the ocean, we don’t need to think about overflight rights. It’s supersonic, it can be at the estuary very quick. Have it fitted with a recon sensor pod. Visual and infrared especially… And have the bomber loaded with active sonobuoys; don’t worry about the receivers, this part is just for effect, to slow von Scheer and her minisub.”
“I’ll make the request Flash Immediate, route it through Atlantic Fleet so Admiral Hodgkiss can press his support.”
Jeffrey nodded. “Can the B-One break the sound barrier at sea level?”
“I think it can manage a thousand knots or so.”
“Have it do that a few times in the estuary. Make big noises at Mar del Plata, rattle windows in Buenos Aires, get on the enemy’s nerves and keep them wondering why it’s there.”
Jeffrey turned to da Gama. “Is this acceptable to you, Mr. President?”
“Yes.”
“And Colonel Stewart, if you don’t mind acting as my executive assistant for the duration of this, add a summary of our intentions for Atlantic Fleet, with informational copies to whoever you think makes sense. Do it in my name, and say up front ‘Unless otherwise directed.’ Then we go into motion and hope nobody upstairs screams.”
Stewart nodded, his wounds forgotten now.
“And Mr. Jones. I don’t want to take any chances your local people might be compromised or neutralized. Call Langley now. Get technical specs to the air force, pronto. Make sure that B-One’s avionics include a black box that can listen for those bottle-cap things to go off. The magic word is Mercury.”
CHAPTER 31
Beck was startled out of his sleep when a messenger knocked on his cabin door. He pulled on a robe and answered.
“Sir, the communications officer sends his respects, and he has received this over our floating wire.” The messenger handed Beck a sealed envelope.
“Did the Einzvo see this?”
“Yes, sir. I gave him a copy at the conn. He awaits your further instructions.”
“Very well.”
Beck sat at his desk and read.
Berlin — with help from Moscow — was seeing a suspicious pattern to Allied radio communications and aircraft flights to and from Brazil and near Argentina. Axis High Command believed that the enemy might be aware of von Scheer’s plans. The timetable was therefore being moved up aggressively, with support by added information-warfare attacks and jamming.
That’s easy for them to say, but my ship even at flank speed can’t work miracles. We’ve a very long way to go to reach Mar del Plata.