There was a screech of tires outside. Glukov went to the window and pulled back the curtain. Interior Ministry police were streaming from several vehicles, encircling his house. There was a heavy pounding on the front door.
Glukov put on his dress uniform jacket and buttoned it slowly, then sat at his desk. He heard the front door splinter into pieces, followed by men shouting and running. As heavy boots surged up the stairs, he reached for the pistol on his desk. He placed the barrel in his mouth, then pulled the trigger.
90
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
NCIS Special Agent Joe Gililland rode in the passenger seat of the black Buick headed east on Interstate 280, having landed at San Francisco International Airport an hour ago with his driver, Kelly Lyman. Local law enforcement officials had arrived at their destination this morning and confirmed the presence of their suspect, who had reported to work as expected. Gililland reviewed the information on his laptop computer in preparation for today’s arrest.
After Clark Curtain Laboratory identified the culprit microprocessor chip, NCIS had opened an investigation into DavRoc Enterprises, the company that manufactured it. DavRoc had the requisite bona fides: an American-owned company managed by American citizens, and a preliminary review of its employees identified no one noteworthy. Gililland had been prepared for a laborious investigation into every employee’s background to identify the traitor, but the answer had been tossed into his lap yesterday.
Russia’s GRU had contracted for the microprocessor alteration, and after President Kalinin regained power, he’d ordered the new director to cough up the details. Gililland reviewed the information on his laptop one final time, then closed the lid as the Buick pulled into the parking lot outside DavRoc’s main building. Gililland called the specified number on his cell phone, and several detectives and uniformed police officers crossed the street toward the black Buick. Gililland and Lyman stepped from their car, then led the entourage into the lobby.
“Fifth floor,” one of the detectives said.
Keith Vierling heard a buzz of commotion and looked up from his cubical desk. It wasn’t hard to figure out the walking suits exiting the elevator were detectives, as they were followed by uniformed police officers. He felt a rising trepidation when he spotted the officers, then panic stabbed into him as they turned toward his cubicle. Vierling looked straight ahead at his computer monitor, then took a deep, shaky breath and tried to focus. The sick feeling in the pit of his stomach was slowly replaced by anger. He would never be discovered, Ed Sutton had told him.
Making the requested changes had been easy; just a few subroutines added to the chip circuitry. The quick work had returned dividends over the last ten years, although he was certain the Russians paid him that long to keep him quiet during the decade-long navigation update to America’s nuclear weapons. Nothing would come of it, Vierling had convinced himself, justifying his actions. A full-scale nuclear war was too horrifying to imagine, something neither side would resort to.
A man and woman stopped at the entrance to his cubical.
“Keith Vierling?” the man asked.
Vierling considered, just for an instant, denying who he was. But the question was merely a formality. He nodded.
“I’m NCIS Special Agent Joe Gililland, and this is Special Agent Kelly Lyman. We’d like you to come with us.”
91
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Seated behind his desk in the Oval Office, the president pressed the intercom button on his phone, connecting him to his secretary in the adjacent office.
“Send SecDef Dunnavant in.”
The door to the Oval Office opened and SecDef Bill Dunnavant entered, along with Chief of Staff Kevin Hardison and Colonel DuBose.
“What have you got, Bill?” the president asked as the three men sat before him.
“As you’re aware,” Dunnavant began, “the mission to restore Kalinin to power was a success, although it didn’t go exactly as planned. We lost six SEALs inside the Ministry of Defense building, plus eight wounded. Add to that the four Delta Force and five SEALs killed during Kalinin’s extraction from Russia, and we’re looking at fifteen dead, of which we’ve recovered thirteen bodies. The two Delta Force soldiers ejected from the Black Hawk before it crashed remain unlocated.
“The remaining SEALs, along with Christine, are on their way back to Washington aboard a C-32 we sent over, along with thirteen coffins in the cargo hold. We’re making arrangements for a coordinated burial ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery.
“Regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and NATO countries, Kalinin kept his word. All troops have been withdrawn to Russia, although he did leave an additional battalion of his newest anti-air missile batteries in Kaliningrad Oblast, something NATO previously objected to. I recommend we not quibble over it, considering what we were looking at a few days ago.
“Kalinin dealt swiftly with the military coup, and four of the five commanders of the Russian military branches have been arrested, with the fifth, Colonel General Glukov, committing suicide. The arrests include General Zolotov, in command of Russia’s Strategic Missile Troops. The idea to divert American ballistic missiles was his brainchild, although it was envisioned for defensive purposes only. Russia has had this capability for the last ten years, increasing to one hundred percent as we rolled out our navigation upgrades to our ballistic missiles and B-2 bombers.
“In addition to the heads of the five main military branches, the four military district commanders have been arrested, along with the generals in charge of the GRU and national guard. Kalinin is ferreting out whoever else was involved in the coup, but it looks like they’ve got the main players except for General Andropov, whose whereabouts remained unknown until the SVR tracked him down yesterday, hiding out in a dacha in Siberia.”
“When do they plan to take him into custody?” the president asked.
“That’s the interesting part,” Dunnavant said. “It turns out that President Kalinin has as wicked of a revenge streak as you.”
The president leaned back in his chair, evaluating whether Dunnavant’s comment was a compliment or not.
Dunnavant continued, “President Kalinin wants us to take General Andropov out in a unique way.”
“What does he have in mind?”
“Andropov implemented the Zolotov option, eliminating our nuclear ballistic missile capability. Kalinin has proposed we kill Andropov with one of our conventional ballistic missiles.”
“How does he know we have that capability? It’s a Top Secret, compartmented program.”
“It is. But they’ve obviously figured it out.”
“It could be a ruse,” Hardison said. “An attempt to figure out whether we have the capability or not.”
“That’s true,” Dunnavant answered. “But it’s not critical, in my opinion. These missiles are difficult to employ against countries with intercontinental nuclear weapons due to the inability to distinguish between incoming conventional and nuclear-warhead-tipped missiles. It’s unlikely we’d ever use these missiles against Russia.”
“So Kalinin wants us to kill Andropov with a conventional strategic missile strike?”
“Yes, sir. We’d coordinate with Russia’s missile troops so they’d be aware of the launch, and they’d verify the missile’s trajectory takes it into remote Siberia where Andropov is hiding.”