by Saul Herzog
“For forever,” Roth said quietly.
“For forever,” Lance said. “That’s what I signed up for. That’s what you told me the day you recruited me.”
Roth remembered it. He remembered the words he’d spoken. He hadn’t known until this moment that Lance had even heard them.
“You told me we were the virus that holds back the virus. The fighters that hold back the war.”
Like a vaccine. It was true. Roth had used the analogy. He’d forgotten that.
“Lance,” the president said. “Let’s be explicit. You’re going to take out the General Staff Building?”
“That’s correct, sir. They can’t launch this invasion without their command. Especially if you hit them hard at the same time.”
“Can we do that?” the president said to Schlesinger. “Can we hit them with… hard, as Spector put it?”
“We can hit them hard, sir. We can strike the Black Sea fleet immediately, taking out a huge part of their navy. That will threaten their hold on Crimea and the Donbass regions of Ukraine. And at the same time, our two carrier strike groups in the Baltic can launch air strikes against all their forward positions inside Latvia. In addition, we’ve got the entire 480th Fighter Squardon deployed and ready to scramble out of Spangdahlem, sir. Currently, we’ve even got F-22 Raptors available at that base.”
The president reached onto the desk and put his finger on the speaker. “Lance,” he said, “I’m going to mute you for one second.”
He muted the mic and looked at his cabinet.
“This is it, gentlemen. This is the moment our fathers warned us of. This is a strike against Russian targets, on Russian soil, fired in anger. If anyone has any objections, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
Everyone looked at each other, like the witnesses at an uncertain wedding, and no one uttered a single objection.
“We’re going to hit the Russian Black Sea fleet with the Eisenhower and its strike group. We’re going to hit the Russian forward positions in Latvia with the Ford and Truman strike groups. And we’re going to hit mobilized forces inside Russia with 480th Fighter Squardon out of Spangdahlem.
“And Lance is going to take out their command,” Roth added.
The president nodded. He gave everyone one final opportunity to speak up, then unmuted the mic.
“Do it, Spector. Take out the building. We’re going to hit them with everything we’ve got on our end.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Lance,” Roth said.
“Yes, sir.”
“God, speed.”
89
Lance looked out the window of the café across the Bol’shaya Plaza at the General Staff Building.
It was a truly magnificent structure, a five-hundred-meter long façade that arched around the Palace Square that seemed almost to embrace the Czar’s Winter Palace. Its two wings were separated by an enormous triumphal arch that commemorated the Czar’s victory over Napoleon in 1812. It’s monumental, neoclassical style, its vast scale, it’s imperial aspirations, all spoke to the granduer of what was, after all, the world’s largest empire and nation.
It was a truly magnificent building, but it also had weaknesses.
For one thing, its full schematics had once fallen into the hands of the enemy.
For two years and four months, the city of Leningrad, as Saint Petersburg was known during the Second World War, stood firm in the face of the most devastating siege known to modern warfare.
For eight-hundred-seventy-two days, the Nazi army tried to starve, freeze, bombard, and burn the city and its inhabitants into submission.
The city never surrendered.
But in all that time, many of its secrets fell into the hands of the German forces. Those secrets were later sold to the CIA, and with respect to buildings still used by the Russian military, Roth had ensured that they remained as complete and up to date as possible.
He’d also ordered all Special Operations Group assets to study them.
Lance was the only asset left, and therefore, one of the few people on the planet who had memorized the blueprints for the General Staff Building.
He knew exactly where he had to go.
And he knew how he would get there.
That there wasn’t a way back out was a detail that he didn’t allow himself to consider.
He still had the waitress’s phone and he made another call, this time to the embassy in Riga, where he asked to be connected to Laurel.
When she picked up, he said, “It’s me.”
He heard an audible gasp on the other end of the line.
“Lance,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting…”.
“Laurel, I wanted to…”.
He didn’t know what he wanted to say to her.
“What is it, Lance?”
“I’m going in to the General Staff Building.”
‘“What do you mean, you’re going in?”
“I told Roth I’d take out the Russian command.”
“But Lance, if you go in there…”.
“I’ll be fine, Laurel.”
“You will not be fine, Lance. You’ll be…”.
“I’ll be all right.”
“I’ve seen those schematics, Lance. I know where you’re going. There’s no way out.”
“Laurel, listen. The president’s ready to stand up to the Russians.”
“The time to stand up to them was weeks ago,” she said. “Back when the Kremlin first started rattling its sabers. Now, it’s too late.”
“Better late than never, Laurel.”
“But Lance, you’re not thinking straight. You can’t mean to end it like this. There are other options. Other ways to take out the Russian command.”
“None of them will be fast enough,” Lance said.
“Lance,” Laurel said. She was crying. “Please don’t do this.”
“I have to do it.”
“No you don’t. This isn’t even the reason you came back.”
“Of course it is.”
“You’re only here to get revenge for what happened to Sam.”
Lance made to speak but stopped. He hadn’t known she knew about Sam’s death.
“Laurel,” he said. “That’s not the only reason I came back. You know that.”
Laurel was really crying. He’d never heard her like this.
“This is good bye, isn’t it?” she said. “Oh my God. That’s why you called. I can’t believe it.”
“Laurel.”
“Lance, you don’t have to do this.”
“You know I do,” Lance said.
“If the president orders air strikes,” Laurel said, “the Russians will back down.”
“No they won’t,” Lance said. “You know they won’t. Not if they can fight..”
“And you think…”.
“I think this is the only way.”
“Lance, you haven’t thought this through.”
“Yes, I have, Laurel.”
“But…”, she said, and he waited while she sobbed. “Why me?” she said. “Why did you call me.”
“Because we’re …”.
“We’re what?”
Lance didn’t say it. He didn’t know how to say it. He looked around the café. The people sitting, chatting, sipping drinks and the snow falling outside over the plaza.
“Because you know me, Laurel. You know who I am. You’re the only one who knows who I really am.”
90
Lance left some money on the table and walked out of the café. Directly across the street, at the corner of the plaza and Nevsky Avenue, was the Saint Petersburg branch of Privatbank Zürich, a secretive Swiss bank that the CIA maintained a relationship with because of the proximity of its branches to Russian government buidings.
Roth himself, over thirty years ago, had been the one to advocate the strategy, stating that if you couldn’t beat them, then you joined them.
He recognized that, because of Switzerland’s extreme bank se
crecy laws, laws that put it at odds with the US government, CIA targets were extremely likely to be doing business with them. The banks offered a range of complex services that allowed secretive people with shady dealings to remain secretive, and to conduct their dealings without the interference of law enforcement agencies.
Roth told the then president that virtually every single high-level CIA target from the previous thirty years had a relationship with at least one Swiss bank.
And so, rather than fighting the banks, as his predecessors had done, Roth began doing business with them. He set up a number of shell companies under the aegis of the Special Operations Group, and used those companies to build relationships with the banks most likely to be used by terrorists, Russian oligarchs, and foreign dictators.
Roth soon learned that as well as allowing him to get closer to his targets, the services the banks offered were exceedingly useful to spies too. He was able to maintain accounts for deep-cover agents, transfer funds to foreign informants secretly, and use bank safety deposit boxes around the world as weapons caches.
Some of the banks, when they realized what he was using them for, actually went out of their way to increase their level of service to him, and to his network of assassins.
As had been the case in countless other wars, the Swiss were perfectly comfortable serving both sides at the same time.
Privatbank Zürich was one of Lance’s favorites precisely because of the location of its branches, as well as the nature of its safety deposit box system. Specializing in services that were of particular interest to politicians who needed to avoid the scrutiny of domestic regulators, the bank maintained elaborate facilities close to the major centers of power in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Riyadh, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tehran, Damascus, and even Pyongyang. Within a kilometer of the seat of government of every major nation deemed a credible war opponent by the Pentagon, Privatbank Zürich maintained safety deposit boxes that could be used by anyone, to store virtually anything.
In Lance’s name, the Special Operations Group maintained a special type of contract that allowed him to access a metal box measuring seventeen-and-a-half inches by thirteen inches, at any of their forty two branches worldwide. Inside each box, was an identical, secure briefcase that always contained the same items.
The boxes were available to him at any branch, at any hour of the day or night, without the need to use a key or show any kind of documentation or identification.
Inside the briefcase was a silenced Glock pistol, ammunition for the pistol, passports containing his photo from Russia, China, Iran, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Ireland, and the United States, a variety of vials containing chemicals that could be used as poisons or truth serums, a few hard to get medications, some illicit recreational drugs, cash in US dollars, Swiss Francs, Pounds Sterling and Euros, three radio detonators, and half-a-pound of a substance called EPX-1.
EPX-1 was a research-stage, experimental explosive compound made from pentaerythritol tetranitrate and dibutyl phthalate that had never been used publicly by the US government or any of its agencies. As such, it could not be traced back to the US government if it was ever used in a sensitive operation.
It’s secrecy was valuable, but the main reason it was used by the Special Operations Group was its stability in storage, its explosive characteristics, its detonation velocity, and its thermodynamic profile.
Combined, these characteristics made it more suitable for Group use than any other military and civilian explosives available on the market.
Lance entered the bank, where a security guard escorted him to a private room and asked him to verify his identity. This was done using a retinal scan, a pre-recroded voice recognition match, and a fingerprint scan.
He was then brought into a waiting area that resembled the lounge of an exclusive club, complete with leather furniture, a fireplace, and an assortment of the finest whiskies in the world. These were laid out in exquisite crystal decanters on a bar of finely inlaid mahogany.
Lance waited for another security guard, who escorted him to the safety deposit box room.
There, he was left alone.
He found his box and opened it, removing the case and opening it carefully.
He didn’t think he would require the passports or cash, this was a one way trip and he’d accepted that.
The explosive was wrapped in a metal foil, and was about the size of a stick of butter. He removed it from the case, as well as the detonators, the Glock, and the pistol ammo.
Then he left the bank.
91
Roth knew what Lance was going to do. He’d seen the same schematics Lance had seen. He’d analysed the building for the same weaknesses.
All buildings had weaknesses.
The thing that made the General Staff Building different was that, despite the implementation of the most advanced security upgrades available, its blueprints, down to the finest detail, had fallen into enemy hands.
Construction on the building, one of the largest and grandest in all of Czarist Russia, had begun in 1819, and even today, with all ots upgrades it had a number of vulnerabilities.
The Keyhole satellite system was back up and running, and Roth, the president, and the other members of the cabinet were seated around the table, watching the building through ultra-high-resolution, real time surveillance footage.
“Where’s he going now?” the president said, as they watched Lance enter one of the buildings off the Bol’shaya Plaza.
Roth raised an eyebrow.
He wasn’t sure.
He had to think for a second before remembering what was there.
“Of course,” he said. “It’s a bank. A Swiss bank. The Group keeps safety deposit boxes in it. It will have supplies Lance can use.”
“We have a safety deposit box that close to the General Staff Building?”
“The bank was chosen specifically because of its proximity to all the main Russian government buildings.”
“We use Swiss banks for weapons caches?” Schlesinger said.
“That’s correct,” Roth said.
Schlesinger nodded. “That’s genius,” he said.
They waited, and a few minutes later, Lance came out of the bank. He wasn’t carrying anything extra, but Roth said, “There’s an explosive compound in the safety deposit box. He must have that on him now.”
“How much explosive?” the president said.
“Not enough to take down a building, sir,” Roth said. “But enough to set off other explosions if you know what you’re doing.”
“Not military command doesn’t occupy the entire General Staff Building, correct?” the president said.
“That’s correct, sir. As you can see, there are two wings, separated by the triumphal arch in the middle. Command of the Western Military District is in the west wing.”
“What’s in the east wing?” Schlesinger said.
“It’s part of the Hermitage musuem,” Roth said.
The musuem contained some of the most important works of art in all of Europe, and Roth would be sorry if it was damaged, but it was a price he was willing to pay.
Next to the screen tracking Lance’s movements, was another screen showing a broad satellite view over the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Livonia. On that screen, they could see Carrier Strike Groups Ford and Truman speeding toward Latvian waters.
They made for an impressive sight, even from space, with the Nimitz-Class USS Harry S. Truman flanked by a guided missile cruiser and a squadron of five Arleigh-Burke Class destroyers. A few miles to their east was the USS Gerald R. Ford, flanked by two Triconderoga-Class cruisers and over a dozen other warships. As well as the ships, the carriers had multiple squadrons of F-18 Hornets, F/A-18 Super Hornets, Boeing EA-18G Growlers, and surveillance aircraft.
The planes were visible on the decks of the ships, fueling and preparing for take off. Their targets would be the Russian units that had already crossed the border into Latvia, and which appeared to b
e headed directly for Riga.
Separate forces from Spangdahlem would be flying even more dangerous missions over Russian territory to attack the ground forces that had been mobilized for the second wave of the invasion.
“What’s the vulnerabilty of those Carrier Strike Groups?” the president said to the Navy Chief of Staff.
“Once this agent blows up their command center,” the admiral said, “there’ll be very little risk of a coordinated attack.”
“What about right now,” the president said. “Don’t the Russians have carrier killer missiles?”
“Sir, people throw around the term carrier killer, but taking down these ships requires a kill chain far more complex than simply firing off a missile. I don’t think the Russians are capable of it in this theater. These ships are the largest warships ever built, sir. Their higher than a twenty-five story building.
“Doesn’t their sheer size make them vulnerable?” the president said.
The admiral looked around the room for support, then said, “Sir, the sea is a big place. Even finding these ships requires more low-earth orbit satellites than the Russians can currently muster.”
“But we’re going to be getting a lot closer,” the president said.
“We are sir, but I assure you, our anti-missile defenses are more than up to the task at hand. We can take out hundreds of targets within minutes of a Russian missile being fired, and it would take a lot more than a single missile to take down these ships.”
“What about mines? And subs? The Russians have dozens of subs.”
The admiral shook his head.
“Sir, these ships wouldn’t have been deployed if they were vulnerable. The chance of a Russian submarine surfacing close to our position is virtually nil, and with our defenses, we’d take it out long before it got into a shooting position. And then, even if they fired off twenty torpedoes, and all of them hit their mark, the hulls of these ships are made of literally hundreds of watertight, armored compartments that prevent a single breach from becoming a serious problem.”
