Майкл Ридпат - Launch Code

‘You did what your orders told you to do,’ I said. ‘You followed procedure. That’s what you are supposed to do in a crisis.’ And I meant it. I understood what Driscoll had chosen to do; I had been through the same thought process myself.

But Driscoll shook his head. ‘You and da Silva figured it out. The procedures were wrong. There was only one correct alternative. I should have chosen it.’

‘How’s Weps?’

‘He’s come around. We have the combination to his safe. Who knows? We may yet need it.’

I swallowed. ‘Can I see him?’

It took a while. The captain kept Lars and me under armed guard in our stateroom, the JO Jungle. He explained he had to. We had breached Navy regulations in about as serious a way as was possible. And the submarine was still on patrol. She still might be ordered to launch her missiles, in which case the captain decided Lars and I should be kept away from where we could do further damage.

The wardroom steward brought us supper, and then there was a knock at the door. It was the XO, come to take me to the wardroom to speak to Craig.

Like the captain, the XO looked drained. I didn’t know what to say to him.

‘Bill,’ he said, as we walked along the passageway, every passing sailor staring at us. ‘I’m sorry for what I said back there. And I’m sorry for backing the captain to accept the launch order. I was wrong.’ He sucked through his teeth. ‘I was really worried that the Soviets were going to launch a nuclear strike in response to Able Archer. So when we received that EAM, I immediately assumed that’s what had happened. I thought we couldn’t afford to screw around worrying about erroneous messages. I was so wrong.’

What could I say? How could I absolve a man from nearly blowing up the world? I settled on ‘thank you’. It takes some courage for a senior officer to apologize to a junior one.

Craig was in the wardroom, slumped in his usual chair, a thick bandage obscuring the top of his head. He looked rough.

He lifted his head as I came in, his eyes hostile.

‘How is it?’ I asked.

‘It hurts like hell.’

I took a deep breath. ‘Sorry.’

Craig just stared at me. ‘You tried to kill me,’ he said. ‘I was doing my duty and you tried to kill me.’

I had feared that response. It was true, of course, but somehow I had hoped that Craig would forgive me.

‘At least we are still alive.’

‘You didn’t know the launch order was an error,’ Craig said. ‘How could you?’

‘You said yourself that East Berlin was weird.’

‘Yes, but in a real war there will be orders that seem weird. And we will follow them.’

‘Like I said, Craig. I’m sorry.’

Craig looked down at his fingernails. ‘Get out.’

I never saw Craig again. Two days later the XO came into the JO Jungle where Lars and I were still in custody to tell us that Craig had just collapsed. They were watching a movie in the wardroom — not Barbarella — and he had just keeled over.

He died nine hours later. Bleeding in the brain from the initial blow with the wrench.

I had killed him after all.

Saturday 30 November 2019, Norfolk

‘Wow,’ said Megan. ‘So you killed Craig on purpose? I knew Craig had died in an accident on board the submarine, so I assumed from the letter it was your fault somehow, and you had never admitted it to anyone but Mom.’

She took the letter from Toby and read the passage aloud: ‘ I still can’t get over what I did to Craig. I’ll never forgive myself. I just try not to think about it. ’ She looked up at her father.

‘Well, it wasn’t an accident,’ said Bill. ‘But you can see why I struck him with that wrench?’ Bill’s expression mixed pain and pleading as he faced his daughter.

‘Oh my God, yes,’ said Megan. She got up and flung her arms around him. ‘You had to do it. If you hadn’t done it, we wouldn’t be here. No one would be here.’

Bill’s face broke into a smile over Megan’s shoulder.

‘Craig really was a good friend. He was also a good man. He was just wrong. Following orders right then was a very bad call.’

‘I can see why the Navy wanted to keep it all a secret,’ said Toby.

‘So can I,’ said Megan, breaking away from her father. ‘Who would trust them with a nuclear submarine after that? I know I wouldn’t.’

‘Yes, they did keep it secret,’ said Bill. ‘But they also made changes to the launch protocols so it couldn’t happen again. If a submarine gets a doubtful order now, the captain is required to go to periscope depth and check it.’

‘What had gone wrong?’

‘Same as what happened a couple of years before at NORAD when they thought the Soviets were attacking us. A systems upgrade test went wrong. Lars was right: the fact the target was exactly the same as the exercise and the lack of context in raising readiness to DEFCON 3 should have alerted us. But, on the other hand, launch protocol said Commander Driscoll had to obey the order, not question it.’

‘And was the XO right about Able Archer?’ Toby asked. ‘Did the Soviets really think we were about to attack them?’

‘Yes,’ Bill nodded. ‘Robinson was absolutely right, although the high-ups in the CIA overruled him and his colleague. But a secret report was written by the CIA in the 1990s that suggested that Andropov really was convinced the United States was planning a decapitation first strike. When they intercepted our signals during Able Archer, the Soviets put their nuclear forces on high alert.’ Bill blew out through his cheeks. ‘It was close. And if the Alexander Hamilton had launched its birds, there is no doubt the Soviets would have retaliated with everything they had.’

The three of them sat in silence as they thought about what Bill had just said, Megan and Toby on the bed, Bill on the delicate chair with the tapestry.

‘Can I have my letter back now?’ said Bill, holding out his hand.

‘Oh, yes, sorry,’ said Toby. He wasn’t apologizing for reading the section where Bill was telling Donna about how bad he felt about killing Craig. But there was stuff in there about how much Bill loved her, and other stuff which Toby had no business reading. Somehow it seemed worse now she was dead. And now Bill had told Toby more about her.

He slipped the letter back in its envelope and handed it back to Bill.

‘I wish I had known Donna,’ he said. ‘She sounded... unique. Special.’

‘She was,’ said Megan.

Bill grinned gratefully at his daughter.

‘Why did Lars claim to have killed Craig?’ Toby asked.

‘That took me completely by surprise,’ said Bill. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to him yet about it. Loyalty, I guess. Despite his faults, Lars is a good friend. He could probably see how upset Justin was with me.’

‘Are you going to tell Justin?’ Megan said. ‘That it was you who killed his father?’

‘No,’ said Bill. ‘This stuff is genuinely top secret. I shouldn’t have told you. Donna shouldn’t have told you girls anything about it. And you shouldn’t tell anyone else. Even the police.’

‘But it’s just a cover-up,’ Toby said. ‘What kind of state secret is that?’

‘I know it’s a cover-up,’ said Bill. ‘But it’s still necessary. Nuclear deterrence only works if people trust it. People on your own side, and the enemy, whoever they turn out to be. This is the kind of story that could undermine that trust.’

Toby wasn’t convinced. Bill noticed. ‘You have signed the Official Secrets Act, Toby.’

He had. In a way he was grateful. That meant he didn’t have to agonize over whether to tell the police; his duty was clear and spelled out. Or his duty to his country was.