Stuart Woods - Mounting Fears

“Where’s the nearest command center?” Will asked.

“At the Waldorf, sir.”

“Clear me a path to the Waldorf and let me know when the motorcade is ready to go.”

“Right away, sir,” the agent said. “It shouldn’t take more than ten or twelve minutes.” The man went to work on his cell phone.

“Kate,” Will said, “do you know anything I don’t?”

“No,” Kate said, “but I have a secure cell phone, and I can call Lance at Langley.”

“Please do so.” Will picked up the secure phone, and a White House operator answered immediately. “This is the president. Please connect me with the duty officer at the Pentagon.”

“Yes, sir.” The line was picked up on the first ring.

“Duty officer, Colonel Bird.”

“Colonel, this is the president speaking.”

“Yes, sir?”

“Where are the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the other chiefs of staff?”

“The secretary is still on vacation at his home in Aspen, sir. The others are all en route to the Pentagon, Mr. President,” the colonel said. “The earliest will arrive in twelve minutes and the latest in twenty-one minutes.”

“What information do you have on the nuclear explosion in Pakistan?”

“Only that it has occurred, sir. We caught it on satellite, about forty miles east of the missile site from which it was fired.”

“Thank you, Colonel. Please tell the chairman to call me at the Waldorf command center as soon as he has assembled his group and to arrange to feed video to me there and to the secretary in Aspen.” He hung up the phone and looked at the Secret Service agent. “How soon can we leave for the Waldorf?”

“In about five minutes, sir.”

“I’m going back to the podium,” Will said. “Tell the speaker to call for order now.” Will went and stood in the wings while the speaker quieted the arena, then he walked to the lectern.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please excuse my brief absence. I have some important news for you that has not been broadcast on the networks yet.” Silence fell over the arena. “Early this morning, eastern time, an attack was made by elements of the Taliban, with the possible assistance of Al Qaeda, on a missile launch site in northwestern Pakistan. The site was captured, and among the six missiles stored in silos there, two had uranium-235 nuclear warheads of about ten kilotons each, or about half the size of the Hiroshima bomb.

“I spoke twice this morning and this afternoon to President Khan of Pakistan, and he assured me that preparations were under way to retake the missile site and that the attack would be made this evening. President Khan assured me that all precautions were being taken to secure other missile sites.

“As a precaution, I gave orders to put on alert an Air Force squadron of fighter jets, armed with conventional missiles, and a unit of ground troops, in case they were needed to assist the Pakistani army.

“A few minutes ago, we learned from satellite observations that a nuclear device had detonated in a remote area of northwest Pakistan. We do not know yet whether this was deliberate or accidental.

“As I speak, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are assembling at the Pentagon, and shortly I will be speaking to them and to the secretary of defense, who is in Colorado, from a command center in New York City. I must leave now to go to that site, but I want to assure you that we have no intelligence at this time to indicate that any other place in the world is being threatened. Every indication we have so far is that this disturbance is highly localized, so you have nothing to fear.

“Before I go, please let me say that I am honored to accept your nomination to once again lead my party in the race for president and that I look forward to campaigning all over the United States. Thank you and good night.”

Will turned and walked toward the green room and was met by the speaker on the way.

“What should I do now?” the speaker asked.

“Our business is done here, Tank,” Will said. “Close the convention as planned and send these people home.”

“Yes, sir.”

Two minutes later, Will, Kate, and Peter, along with Martin Stanton, were in the presidential limousine bound for the Waldorf. Eight minutes later they were in the Presidential Suite in the Waldorf Towers, sitting at the dining room table, watching an array of screens that had been previously installed in the room. The phone on the table rang, and, simultaneously, the Joint Chiefs of Staff appeared on one screen and the secretary of defense, Charles Quarry, on another.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” Will said. “Mr. Chairman, what do you have to tell us?”

“Mr. President,” the chairman said, “there is precious little information coming in at this time.”

“One moment, please,” Will said. “Tim, get President Khan on the telephone as quickly as you can. General, please go ahead with your report.”

“We know from satellite observations, Mr. President, that the attack by the Pakistani army took place and that, during heavy fighting, a missile was fired-we don’t know whether that was accidental or not. Shortly after that, when the missile was around forty miles downrange in a southeasterly direction, on a course that would have taken it toward Islamabad, it exploded at an altitude of approximately thirty thousand feet.”

“That’s much higher than if an airburst attack had been planned,” Will said.

“Yes, sir. A more effective altitude for an airburst would be three to five thousand feet, depending on the throw weight of the missile.”

“Does it seem likely that the target was Islamabad, then?”

“Yes, sir, it does.”

“We are trying to contact President Khan now. Do you have any information from him or from the Pakistani army at this time?”

“No, sir. We have been unable to reach either the Presidential Palace or army headquarters.”

“The president told me earlier that he was removing himself from the palace to a bunker. Have we had any communication with that place?”

“No, sir. We are unable to reach anyone in authority at this time.”

The secretary of defense spoke up. “General, I believe you have a standing plan to take out the other Pakistani nuclear missile sites.”

“Yes, sir. We do.”

“Do you need to move forces or aircraft to get that done?” Will asked.

“No, sir. We have attack submarines present in the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman as well as in the eastern Mediterranean that can hit the sites with multiple cruise missiles.”

“I want it clearly understood that, should it become necessary to hit the missile sites, all our missiles will be armed with conventional, non-nuclear warheads.”

“That is confirmed, Mr. President. Our plan calls for staggered firings, dependent on the distance of each sub from the targets, so that we get simultaneous strikes, thus giving no opportunity for a retaliatory nuclear attack. We have allotted four cruise missiles for each target.”

“What sort of casualties would such an attack engender?”

“All the sites are on military bases, except the one captured, which is thirty miles from a base. Large numbers of Pakistani troops man the bases, and there are some military dependents there, too, as well as civilian employees. However, the missiles are accurate to within three meters and can be programmed to explode after entering the ground at the sites. Virtually every person manning the sites would be killed, but those in the surrounding area would have a better chance of survival.”

“Can you put a number on the fatalities?”

“Likely several hundred at each of the five remaining sites. Do you wish us to target the site from which the missile was fired?”