‘Finally, there was the short and turbulent history of the neutron bomb, the evidence that the Russians demonstrably weren’t decommissioning their arsenal of nuclear weapons, and the fact that black-market sales of red mercury by Russia stopped about four years ago. We put all that lot together, and we came up with a theory.’
The Gold Room, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
The Joint Chiefs had left the Emergency Conference Room as soon as Walter Hicks and General Rogers had completed the briefing. Despite its name, the ECR was not designed for conferences, only for briefings, and the Joint Chiefs had immediately moved into the so-called ‘Gold Room’ conference suite, also on the third floor of the Pentagon.
The Secretary of Defense had not been present at the Kentucky Rose briefing, because he had been closeted in the White House Situation Room with the President, but by mid-morning he, too, was in the Gold Room. After a lengthy telephone conversation between the Secretary of Defense and the President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff elected to upgrade the alert status of the US forces immediately to DEFCON THREE.
Because of the time zone differences between Moscow and the east coast of America – eight hours – and because source RAVEN had specified the eleventh of the month as the actual date of implementation, the Joint Chiefs also instituted a formal countdown. It began at 0600 Eastern Standard Time on the ninth, and assumed that implementation of the assault would take place at midnight Moscow time – sixteen hundred EST – on the eleventh. That was designated H-Hour, and it was exactly thirty-four hours away. The clock was running.
Regents Park, London
The black Mercedes surged away from the traffic lights, drove rapidly down Park Road and stopped with a squeal of tyres at the western end of Hanover Gardens.
‘Wait, please,’ Abrahams said to the driver, and strode off briskly through Hanover Gardens towards Regents Park. He was a few metres from the second footbridge when he saw the slim figure beside The Holme. Piers Taylor wasn’t feeding the ducks. He was pacing up and down beside the Boating Lake and when Westwood stepped off the footbridge he strode forward to meet him.
‘Good morning, Piers,’ Roger Abrahams said.
‘It isn’t, actually,’ Taylor replied. ‘Thank you for coming. You had no trouble with my simple little code?’
Abrahams shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘“Anatidae” – family name of the class of swimming birds normally known as ducks. Besides, I recognized your voice.’
Taylor grinned, briefly.
‘So,’ Abrahams asked, ‘what’s up?’
Piers Taylor looked round, checking that nobody else was within earshot. ‘That matter we talked about with your American colleague,’ he began. ‘Now we think we know what it’s all about.’
French Ministry of the Interior, rue des Saussaies, Paris
Richter had the undivided attention of everyone in the room. ‘About four years ago, something happened in Russia. What, we don’t know, but whatever it was caused the stoppage of all external sales of red mercury. The obvious conclusion is that the entire production of the substance was diverted into a new project, a project that we’re seeing the results of now. What we think is that the Russians for some reason had a sudden need to manufacture a large number of strategic-yield neutron bombs, but didn’t want to use weapons-grade plutonium, either because they would have had to pull it out of existing nuclear weapons or because the refining process would have taken too long, or attracted too much attention. They needed the plutonium for something else, which I’ll get to in a moment.
‘The vaporization of the hill showed clearly enough that the neutron weapon would work, but we are moderately certain that that was just the last in a series of tests, but the first which the Russians had conducted above ground. The yield of the weapon was calculated to be at least five megatons, which makes it far and away the biggest neutron bomb ever detonated, and classifies it firmly as a strategic weapon. But that still left two questions unanswered. First, if the Russians had perfected a strategic-yield neutron bomb, how did that help them? It would have a higher yield than any ERWs in our inventory, but we couldn’t see how the weapon would benefit them if they went to war with the West.
‘If the Russians re-equipped their missiles with the new warhead and simply fired off their ICBMs and other assorted arsenal in the usual Doomsday fashion, the Americans would retaliate before their missiles were halfway across the Atlantic and the Russians would suffer unacceptable losses. Granted, the loss of life on the American continent might be somewhat greater than our colonial cousins would have been expecting, but that wouldn’t help a hundred million incinerated Russian citizens. So, there had to be something else.
‘Secondly, the lack of radiation emitted by the new device would favour the West, not the Russians. The balance of terror – Mutual Assured Destruction and all the rest of it – has always been predicated on the basis that neither side could win a nuclear war. Any significant nuclear exchange would turn both nations into radioactive wastelands, so neither could win in the conventional sense of the word. If the Russians used the new weapon, it would just cause massive damage and loss of life in America, but not render the country uninhabitable. That simply didn’t make sense. Using the new weapon would actually benefit the West.’
‘So there was something else?’ Tony Herron asked.
‘Oh, yes,’ Richter said. ‘There was definitely something else.’
8th Arrondissement, Paris
John Westwood’s mobile telephone, supplied by the Embassy in London, rang as he and Miles Turner turned right into avenue de Marigny from avenue Gabriel. Their appointment at the French Ministry of the Interior was at eleven thirty, and they had decided to walk. ‘Westwood,’ he said, moving to the side of the pavement away from the traffic noise.
‘John, it’s Roger in London.’
‘Yes, Roger?’ Westwood knew the matter had to be urgent, otherwise Abrahams would have used one of the secure communications links at the Embassy itself. He also knew Abrahams would have to be circumspect in what he said. Although calls made using digital mobile telephones are effectively scrambled, sophisticated equipment can still decode conversations.
‘I tried you at the office, but I must have just missed you,’ Abrahams said. ‘I have some business news for you. Our English friends think they’ve found the solution to our problem, and they suggest you contact their chief sales executive, Mr Beatty. He’s in Paris at the moment, and you can reach him through the Paris office of the English company.’
Westwood nodded. ‘That’s excellent news. Thank you, Roger, I’ll do that. See you.’ Westwood terminated the call and slipped the telephone back into his jacket pocket.
Turner looked at him. ‘News?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ Westwood said, glancing round cautiously. ‘Roger says the Brits have found out what the Russians are up to, and they’ve got a man here in Paris now, working out of the British Embassy. Guy name of Beatty. Do you know him?’
Turner shook his head. ‘Nope, but it could be a work-name.’ He looked at his watch. ‘We’ll go see the DST now, but I’ll call the Embassy and have them talk to the local SIS men.’
French Ministry of the Interior, rue des Saussaies, Paris
‘We even looked into the possibility of a co-ordinated satellite-launched attack which would do major damage in America before a retaliatory strike could be ordered. As I’m sure everyone in this room is aware, the Americans monitor all Russian satellite launches, and then disseminate the information to the British government and other interested parties. But analysis showed no unusual activity. All we found was a single new communications satellite – or what the Russians said was a communications satellite – in geostationary orbit over the eastern Atlantic. That could certainly not be construed as a threat to anyone or any country.’
‘So what is it? What are they going to do with the new weapon?’ Lacomte asked.
‘I’ll come to that in a moment. We believed until a few days
ago that some kind of action was imminent.’
‘Just a minute,’ Tony Herron interrupted. ‘You said that you believed some kind of action was imminent. Do you mean that it now isn’t imminent, or have you definite information concerning an attack?’
Richter nodded. ‘Definite information, yes, but not of an attack – at least, not the way you mean it. We decided to return the favour over our man in Moscow, and pulled the SVR London rezident.’
‘Orlov? You pulled Vladimir Orlov?’ Tony Herron sounded appalled.
‘Yes,’ Richter said.
‘What have you done with him? You can’t hold him for ever.’
Obviously word had yet to reach Paris. ‘Comrade Orlov,’ Richter said, ‘did not survive his interrogation. The important thing is that Orlov revealed everything he knew about the plan.’
‘And?’
Richter shrugged his shoulders. ‘Really, it’s all a matter of perspective. For years everyone has assumed that any future conflict would be between the superpowers, Russia and America. ICBMs and other weapons were targeted from one nation to the other. The rest of NATO, and of course the French, followed suit with their own forces. But why should that be the case? What good would it do Russia to attack America? It would be far more sensible for the Russians to simply neutralize America, to eliminate the States from any conflict—’
Tony Herron interrupted. ‘We never assumed Russia would attack America. We always thought Soviet ground forces would advance on Western Europe.’
‘Yes,’ Richter said, ‘but when allied forces were forced to retreat because of the sheer numerical superiority of the Russian forces, what would happen then? The defence strategy of every European nation is wholly based on the assumption that if the attacked country can just hold on for a few hours or days, the US cavalry will charge in to the rescue. No cavalry – no rescue. If there’s not going to be a rescue, what’s the point in fighting?’
‘So what are you saying? That America has been neutralized, and that the Russians are going to take Europe?’ Colonel Lacomte expressed it very well.
‘That’s it exactly,’ Richter said. ‘Russia wants neither a war with America nor a war in Europe. What it wants is Europe without a fight, and the whole purpose of this scheme is to achieve that.’
The room was silent again as his audience digested this. Finally, Tony Herron spoke. ‘But what about glasnost and the liberalization of the USSR? What about that?’
‘We believe that this plan is not, and never was, part of official Russian strategy. Piecing it together from what Orlov revealed, it looks as if the scheme was a strictly private venture, concocted by the SVR and the GRU, possibly under the auspices of Group Nord.’
‘Group Nord?’ Lacomte asked.
‘Group Nord,’ Richter replied, ‘was formed in the mid-1970s by Yuri Andropov when he was Chairman of the KGB. The Group’s members were the chiefs of all the KGB’s operational divisions and it met once a month. The declared object of Group Nord was to shatter the western alliance, isolate the United States of America, and so weaken or otherwise disable America that the country would no longer have the will to resist the Soviet Union. “Overkill” has all the hallmarks of a Group Nord operation.’
‘Just a moment.’ Colonel Lacomte was looking puzzled. ‘We seem to have missed the main point. You said that America had been neutralized. How?’
‘This information I have not had confirmed,’ Richter said, ‘mainly because the Americans either don’t know or won’t talk about it. However, according to the late Comrade Orlov, the Russians have spent the last four years carefully installing a selection of high-radiation conventional nuclear weapons in every major city in the United States.’ Tony Herron gave a gasp of astonishment. Richter carried on. ‘A thoroughly nasty idea. The Americans were spending billions on buying non-weapons-grade plutonium from the Russians, which was effectively a waste product they pulled out of their nuclear reactors, while the Russians were sending the plutonium the Americans thought they were getting to America, but inside live nuclear weapons. And you remember the communications satellite I mentioned – the one in geostationary orbit over the Atlantic?’ Lacomte nodded. ‘That’s the firing link. All the weapons have radio-controlled triggers, which the Russians can pull any time they want.’
‘How the hell did they get them into the States?’
‘A combination of smuggling and misuse of the Diplomatic Bag – it doesn’t have to be a briefcase carried by a Queen’s Messenger, you know. It can be anything from an envelope to an articulated lorry.’
Tony Herron spoke slowly. ‘I can see why they’re neither confirming nor denying it. But you said those were standard nuclear bombs. What about these high-yield neutron bombs? I thought that was what this was all about?’
‘It is,’ Richter replied. ‘The American weapons are only half of the story. The problem with taking Europe is that Britain and France have retained their own nuclear deterrent. That means that, even if America has been taken out of the equation, Russia could still suffer massive losses if her troops were to invade Western Europe. So the problem the SVR and GRU faced was to eliminate the British and French nuclear deterrents, but still not turn Europe into a nuclear wasteland. And for that, the strategic neutron bombs are tailor-made because of the high yield and very short-duration radiation. They could detonate a device under the Eiffel Tower and walk down what was left of the Bois de Boulogne five days later. You’d have to step over a lot of corpses, but you wouldn’t need to wear an NBCD suit or a mask.’
Colonel Lacomte shook his head. ‘This is unbelievable,’ he said.
‘It is,’ Richter agreed, ‘but it’s nevertheless true.’
‘Assuming for the moment that it is,’ Lacomte continued, ‘what can we do about it? And how far have the Russians got with the scheme?’
‘What we can do,’ Richter replied, picking up the ‘Overkill’ file, ‘is stop them delivering the last neutron bomb – which is destined for London – because that will stalemate the situation and keep the British independent nuclear deterrent as a counter-threat. And the reason it’s your problem as well as our problem is that, according to Orlov, the Paris, Toulouse, Nice and Bordeaux devices are already in place.’
Chapter Nineteen
Tuesday
French Ministry of the Interior, rue des Saussaies, Paris
The knock at the door sounded unnaturally loud in the silence that followed. Lacomte gestured to one of the DST men who walked over and opened it. He held a brief conversation with someone outside, then walked back and murmured to Lacomte. The colonel looked up at Richter and Herron, then spoke briefly to the DST officer, who immediately left the room. Lacomte smiled briefly. ‘We have some visitors,’ he said, ‘who may be able to corroborate some of what you are saying.’
‘Who?’ Herron asked, looking at Richter.
‘Two gentlemen from the American Central Intelligence Agency,’ Lacomte replied, as the door opened to admit John Westwood and Miles Turner.
Westwood stopped just inside the door as his eyes swept the room and then settled on Richter. ‘Paul?’ he said, his voice uncertain.
‘John Westwood,’ Richter said. ‘Long time no see. How the hell did you get here?’
Rozvadov, Czechoslovakia
The convoy came to a halt just west of the town of Rozvadov, about a mile short of the German border and at the end of the queue of vehicles waiting to cross. Most, Modin noted, were lorries, which probably meant delays while their loads or manifests were inspected and approved by the German Customs officers.
‘We cannot, I suppose,’ Bykov asked, ‘attempt to get across any quicker, because of our diplomatic status?’
Modin shook his head. ‘No,’ he said flatly, ‘not across the German border. Don’t forget, Viktor, the lorry is supposed to be carrying furniture and fittings for our London Embassy. It would be difficult to argue that these goods constitute any kind of a priority load. We wait, and we take our turn.’
French Ministry of the Interior, rue des Saussaies, Paris
‘Any questions on any of that?’ Richter asked.
‘No, not at the moment. Thank you for recapping,’ Westwood said. He and Turner had paled noticeably when Richter described the placement of the nuclear weapons in American cities. Richter’s second explanation had been much briefer than his first, and the Americans had already known at least some of the background data, which helped.
‘Would they have the ability to construct these devices – I mean the bombs back home and these new neutron devices – and get that satellite into orbit?’ Miles Turner asked.
‘Yes, without question,’ Richter said. ‘The GRU has an almost unlimited budget, and the SVR – like the KGB before it – is still the nation’s biggest single employer. We know they’d have the resources to do it. The Kremlin relies on the SVR, just as it used to rely on the KGB, to tell it what’s going on in the country. If the SVR doesn’t tell the Kremlin, the Kremlin probably won’t find out, because it’s got very few other sources of information. As long as this plot has been conceived at a high enough level it wouldn’t be too difficult to keep it quiet.
‘We believe that somebody – probably somebody in Group Nord – looked at Western Europe four or five years ago and saw the answers to all the problems of their nation. The fields of France could feed the world, if the political will existed to organize it. The German industrial machine could dominate the global economy, if it was given sufficient muscle. The resources were there; all that was necessary was to devise a plan to take them. We believe that the originator of this operation planned to annex most of Western Europe, incorporate it into an expanded Soviet bloc, and then continue with the age-old dream of Communist expansion throughout the world. They probably thought that by seizing Europe’s assets they could at last make the Communist system work, and demonstrate to the world that Lenin, Marx and all the rest of them had been right all along. We know better, of course. Given Communist management, or rather mismanagement, Germany would be a subsistence economy within five years, France in two.
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