“I know Plotovsky,” Goldman said quietly. “I met him when I was in the Times Bureau in Moscow. He’s an old man now but still powerful in the Politburo. One of the original great heroes of the Communist Revolution. A very hard case. He’s a moderate who often runs counter to the policies of the Party.”
“In what way?” Captain Steel spoke for the first time since the meeting began.
“He doesn’t dislike Jews, for one thing, and he’s spoken out against persecution of the Jewish intellectuals.” Goldman said. “He fought beside Jews in the Revolution and found out they could fight as well as any other Russian.
“He doesn’t hate the United States. He distrusts us but he doesn’t hate us. He believes the Khrushchev Doctrine that a controlled state economy can, in time, undermine capitalism and that the world will fall into the Soviet Union’s lap if they are just patient.” He stopped and nodded at Wilson to continue
“Bernstein told me he believed Shevenko was telling the truth,” Wilson said. He looked again at his notes. “He said when he made the call to Plotovsky’s office that Plotovsky answered the telephone himself and then put Shevenko on the line. Bernstein doesn’t believe that Plotovsky would be a party to a nuclear attack and he doesn’t believe Shevenko would dare lie with Plotovsky listening, that he’d be hung by his balls. Exact quote, sir,” he said looking at the President.
“Bernstein also said that I should tell you, Mr. President, that if the Soviet Union launches a nuclear attack against the United States Israel would attack the Arab States within minutes.”
“That would be difficult,” Captain Steel said. “The last reports I saw showed that the Israeli Army is tied up with the border incidents that Egypt is carrying out against Israel. To attack the Arab states, he used the plural? That would require a call-up of all reserves and that would take weeks.”
“How long does it take to roll back the covers of underground silos and fire nuclear rockets?” Wilson said in a dry tone of voice. “How long does it take to put nuclear bombs on aircraft and get them airborne?”
“Israel has never admitted it has the capacity to make nuclear weapons but we know they have and we know they’ve got nuclear weapons.” He put his notes back in his shirt pocket and looked around the table.
“Isser Bernstein also said that Israel was not going to sit there and be taken over by, quote and unquote, madmen like Nasser and Qaddaffi as if we were rabbits in a pen. Make sure your President knows that.”
The President looked at the clock on the wall of the Oval Office. “It’s four-thirty in the morning,” he said slowly. “What time is it in Moscow and in Greenwich?”
“Eleven-thirty A.M. in Moscow, sir. Nine-thirty A.M. at Greenwich.” Mike Brannon said. “To put it another way, we’ve got six hours to their launch time.”
The President began to crack the knuckles of his right hand with the fingers of his left. “Six hours. If we can believe this report and I think we’d better damned well believe it. Except that they might begin firing before the launch time they’ve set. They’re capable of that.”
“Capable but I don’t think they will, sir,” Goldman said slowly. “I don’t think the hardliners would dare start a nuclear war before the Politburo met. The way I read this from what I know about the workings of the Politburo and the Soviet mind, and I’d appreciate your feedback Admiral Benson, Mr. Wilson, is that the hardliners are gambling on carrying the vote for all-out nuclear war against us, against Red China. I read the voting as iffy with maybe Brezhnev casting the vote to break a tie.
“If the hardliners get the votes they’ll launch at the designated time. The information we have is supposed to be secret. That right, Admiral Benson? We’re not supposed to know they’re planning an attack? If they do launch, Brezhnev would be on the phone to the President with an ultimatum, unconditional surrender or what did you say in the last meeting Admiral Brannon? We lose fifty million people within an hour? That ultimatum would be followed by a strike against Red China. How do you see it Admiral Benson, Mr. Wilson?”
Benson nodded his head slowly. “I have to agree, sir.” He looked sideways at Bob Wilson who nodded his head in confirmation.
“And that means that within minutes after the Soviets launch, Israel will launch and the whole damned world will be in flames!” the President said. “Damn that woman! When I called her to congratulate her on her election as Prime Minister she swore to me on the head of her grandchildren that Israel had no nuclear weapons and would never countenance nuclear weapons anywhere in the Middle East.”
“Six hours to holocaust unless we can figure out some way to stop it,” Goldman said softly. He looked up as a quiet knock sounded on the door of the Oval Office. Captain Steel rose and went to the door and opened it and took the salute of the Marine Sergeant on duty outside the door.
“The switchboard has an urgent call for Mr. Wilson, sir. I am instructed to say that it is of the highest priority and that he must answer it at once, sir.” Captain Steel nodded and closed the door and Goldman motioned to Wilson to take the call at a phone on the sideboard. He put a pad of paper and a pen down beside the phone as Wilson picked up the receiver.
“Press the button on the far left if you’re getting a scrambled call,” he said. Wilson nodded, listened for a moment and pressed the button. He wrote quickly, scrawling the words in large letters, thanked the person at the other end of the line, and hung up and walked back to the table and sat down.
“That was Isser Bernstein in Israel,” Wilson said. He put his notes on the table and looked at them.
“He said they had just received a message from an agent in Moscow. There was a second part to the information they gave us earlier this morning about the time of the missile strike. Right after that message was sent another message was sent to all Soviet ballistic missile submarines on station. Those submarines are ordered to be in a position to receive incoming messages between fourteen and fifteen hundred hours, that’s Greenwich Time, today. At that time they will be given a go or no go order on the missiles.” Wilson pushed the paper over to Admiral Benson, who smoothed it out and studied it.
The President looked at Mike Brannon. “That sound authentic to you? Would that be what they would do if they were thinking about firing their missiles?”
“It’s not what we would do,” Brannon said slowly. “Our procedures are different. The naval officer with the Football, with your up to date codes for ordering our submarines to fire, would give you the black book and you’d prepare the firing order.
“I don’t know what their procedures are. I don’t think anyone knows. We’ve always assumed that they would operate somewhat as we do.”
“I’ve been around Khrushchev when he was out of the Soviet Union and I never saw anyone with anything like our Football procedure,” Goldman said. “When he visited the United States he wasn’t even in communication with Moscow for days at a time.” He pulled his pipe and tobacco pouch out of his trouser pocket and carefully filled the pipe.
“It might be,” he said in a thoughtful voice, “it just might be that Admiral Zurahv is covering his retreat. If the Politburo meeting goes badly for his side he’d have time to call off the missile launch.”
“Or he could order the operation to go forward even if his side loses this afternoon and then take over the government,” Captain Steel said in his harsh voice. “It would be a fait accompli situation.”
“No,” the President said. “I don’t think so. Brezhnev would have him shot within minutes.”