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directions and speeds of motion of suspect echoes, the whole process being brought
together for inspection at Air Force HQ near Omaha, Nebraska, whence identical
information was instantly transmitted to the Presidential bunker in Washington D.C.
In spite of the response of the Presidential party being almost as fast as it was possible to
be, much time had already been lost. Yet if the President had been in a press conference, or
in an electorial confrontation on TV held under the auspices of the League of Women
Voters, it is hard to see how any response at all within the flight time of missiles from the
Soviet Union would have been possible. Or if the President, or his Soviet counterpart in a
reversed situation, had even been occupied with the elementary necessities of life about
which one does not normally speak, the situation would have been the same.
In view of the urgent need of a Presidential response, because of the dual key system used
in the control of nuclear weapons, it defied logic that such simple domestic matters hadn't
been subjected to big-ticket- item study. Of course, as everybody of importance knew quite
well, the Presidential nuclear key was carried in person in a specially-sealed pocket, and
could have been quickly activated in response to a telephone call, without the President
even needing to stir an inch from the desk in his office. But the President would then in effect
have been taking instructions on perhaps the most responsible aspect of his office,
instructions from the person at the other end of the telephone. Only by seeing the evidence
for himself could the President make the independent assessment of the gravity of the
situation he was supposed to make. And how, without a descent to the bunker, was that to
be done? All this only went to show how exceedingly unstable the whole system had
become, viewed either from the West or the East. Which meant that sooner or later the
balloon was going to go up, inevitably so.
rl
The Secretary of Commerce watched in fascination as two military officers cut an inner
pocket of the President's jacket open and took a small cassette therefrom, thinking that this
was surely carrying a schoolboy exercise a little too far. The officers went quickly to an
important-looking console and clipped the cassette into a vacant space, and then
proceeded to type with fast-moving fingers at a large keyboard, whereon the five-star
General shouted:
'And now we can go! Soviets here we come!'
At this outburst it at last dawned on the Secretary of Commerce that the brouhaha might be
for real. With this sickening perception she went immediately to study a huge wall display in
many colours. It was an enormous world map showing streaks of red light converging on the
major cities of the United States, with the oceans across which the streaks were moving
displayed in a light blue. According to the babble of conversation around the console, the
red streaks were missile tracks.
Then, after studying the vast wall display for a while with mounting horror, the Secretary of
Commerce saw with immense relief that it couldn't be for real.
'There's a missile track coming from Antarctica,' she said to the President and the five-star
General, who were now standing close by, also studying the wall display.
'I always said those Soviet scientists down there in the Antarctic were a bunch of suspect
bastards,' answered the General.
True, there was a big cluster of tracks emanating from the direction of northern Canada,
which looked as if they might really have come from Siberia. But there were several others
that seemed odd to the Secretary of Commerce, who by now had an eye sharply-tuned to
the pattern of the red-coloured trails.
'Look,' she said, 'there's one from the Sahara.'
'It's the Libyan bastards in Chad.'
'And another from West Africa.'
'The Cubans,' roared the General. 'My God how we've been sold down the river,' he added
in disgust.
'And another from the Indian Ocean.'
'Submarines!' the General instantly countered. 'This is a worldwide conspiracy. How is it we
had no warning I'd like to know, sir?' he asked the Director of the CIA with fierce
belligerency.
It was at this point that the President telephoned the British Prime Minister to say that Cruise
missiles were being launched from British bases, a call that was followed after a
forty-second interval by one of similar duration to the German Chancellor, to say that
Pershing n missiles from German bases were being launched. Afterwards, the
President was able to point with pride to the fact that in a situation of extreme tension, where
every single second counted, he'd nevertheless set aside nearly a minute and a half to
inform his allies of the desperate nature of the situation.
'There's one coming straight from the Himalayas,' the Secretary of Commerce squeaked.
'Now we know why the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Goddam it!' the five-star General
thundered in reply.
'And another from Australia,' the Secretary of Commerce squeaked again.
'It's not from Australia. It's from a submarine in Australian waters,' one of the military officers
remarked, taking the load off the five-star General.
'You said that right,' nodded the General.
'Wouldn't it have been more sensible for the Soviets to have submarines in Californian
waters?' the Secretary of Commerce persisted.
'It would be more sensible if you kept quiet, miss,' another military officer remarked in a
sharp voice.
'You said that damn right,' agreed the General. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]