Дэвид Балдаччи - Long Road to Mercy

“How the hell do you know that!” snapped Kettler. “Our people putting a nuke here? That’s nuts!”

“I agree, it is madness. But nevertheless, that’s what happened.”

“How can you be so sure?” asked Pine.

“Because I recognize the materials from which it was created. It’s Russian made.”

“But that’s Korean writing on the side there.”

“Russia supplied North Korea for years with material for making nuclear devices. Some of those materials were used to make this bomb.”

“Again, how can you be sure?” persisted Pine.

In answer Roth took a battery-powered screwdriver from a bag set next to the device and unscrewed the top panel of the device. He lifted it off, and held it up.

“The engraved writing on the inside of this panel, what language does that look like to you?”

“It’s the Cyrillic alphabet,” said Pine, examining it closely. “Russian.”

Roth put the panel aside. “That’s right. It states the place of origin and the serial number of the part. It’s just recycled.”

Pine said, “But if Russia supplied North Korea with nuclear material, it would make sense that it would have a Russian imprint. So how can you be sure that North Korea didn’t place it here?”

“Because this weapon was going to be the excuse to destroy North Korea. And I doubt very much that they would want to be a party to their own annihilation.”

Pine and Kettler looked at each other and then stared at the nuke.

Pine finally settled her gaze back on Roth. “You’re going to have to explain that.”

“It’s fairly simple. The Russians supplied us with this tactical nuclear weapon, and our country placed it here.”

“Why in the hell would our country want to blow up the Grand Canyon?” said Pine.

“This bomb can’t detonate. Which is the definitive reason I know that the North Koreans did not place it here.”

“But how do you know it can’t go off?” asked Pine.

“Because it’s lacking vital components.”

“What components?” asked Kettler.

“I can give you the layman’s thumbnail.” He pointed to the device. “This is what is termed a fusion bomb, or a thermonuclear weapon. It actually creates its destructive force in much the same way the sun creates energy. A conventional detonation is called the primary stage. That sends the fissionable uranium into a chain reaction, which results in an explosion producing heat at several million degrees. This heat and power is reflected back into the uranium core, which commences the second stage. This phase initiates fusion, and the explosion resulting from this secondary stage destroys the uranium container. The released neutrons then result in the fusion that makes for the thermonuclear event. Do you follow?”

Kettler scratched his cheek. “Damn, if that’s the dumbed-down version, I don’t want to hear the complicated one.”

Roth added, “The parts that were left out include the lithium-six deuteride, a functional reflector, and an appropriate tamper. Without that, you’ve basically got a pile of uranium and hydrogen atoms with nowhere to go.”

“Then what the hell was the purpose of placing it here?” asked Kettler.

Pine answered. “So we could use it as the reason to attack North Korea. That’s what Sung Nam Chung meant when he said he agreed with me that if the nuke went off, North Korea would be destroyed. He was trying to find the bomb and stop the plan.”

“Only he couldn’t know the real plan,” said Roth. “The bomb was never going to go off, but it nonetheless would be used against North Korea as though it had.”

“But if it lacked the vital components, wouldn’t that raise suspicions of it being bogus?”

“Who would know that?” countered Roth. “Journalists weren’t going to open it up and check the guts. And when they did get around to having ‘experts’ examine it, they would just tell them that those parts had been taken out afterward , just to make sure no accident happened. I can only imagine the media frenzy when the government announced that they’d found this in a cave in the Canyon. They would have choppered this out of the Canyon for all to see on live TV.”

“What would they have done after the device was made public?” asked Kettler.

“I think there would have been a presentation at the UN with graphs and slides, and documentation of exactly how the North Koreans had managed to put a nuke in the Canyon. All fabricated, of course, but seemingly all aboveboard and plausible.”

“But would it be plausible to argue that the North Koreans would plant a bomb on American soil?” said Pine. “They’d know we would destroy them if the truth came out.”

“Well, our side would counter that argument by simply saying if the bomb had exploded there would have been no evidence left of where it had come from. But if it came out that North Korea had tried to detonate a nuke in the heart of America’s greatest natural landmark before we found out and put a stop to it? War would have been inevitable.”

“And a lot of people would die in a war like that,” said Pine.

“It would be long and bloody with human carnage the likes of which we haven’t seen since World War II and the Korean War. Literally millions would die. Hundreds of thousands on the very first day.”

“My God,” said Kettler. “And I thought the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were bad.”

Roth said, “All wars are horrible when it comes to human casualties. I’m sure some wonks in the government have come up with ‘exact’ numbers of deaths in all categories along with the justification to sacrifice them in such a conflict.” He shook his head. “What a business to be in.”

“Why would we need the Russians to help us with this?” asked Pine.

“As I said, the Russians have assisted North Korea with their weapons programs for a long time. They had ready access to ‘legitimate’ fissile materials that our government needed to go through with this plan. The panel with the North Korean characters and the rest? We wouldn’t have to fake it since we could have the real thing. Without Russia we would have had to go out and find similar material, or else try to concoct a bogus weapon made to look like a North Korean weapon using materials we could gather here and there. But the nuclear weapons arena is an elite one. There simply aren’t that many players. And the ones in that arena are well known, as are their weapons-building signatures. So if we had gone to third-party sources other than Russia, that would have left a trail that would lead right back to us, making the plan a nonstarter from the get-go.”

“Okay, but then why would the Russians help us do this?” asked Pine. “What would they get out of it?”

“It would allow them to partner with the world’s only superpower. That elevates them to near our status. And Russia wants to be the lead actor in the Far East, but there is no way they can match Beijing’s economic machine. Thus, they’re looking for other ways to exert influence and have a voice in the region. I would imagine that Russia would be rewarded in some way. Maybe after we won the war, we would annex part or all of North Korea for Russia.”

“Like when they split up Germany after World War II?” said Pine.

“Yes. And North Korea has some natural resources — anthracite coal, for example — that Russia could use to bolster its Far East economy.” He paused and looked thoughtful. “Who knows, this might be the beginning of some grand bargain between us and the Russians to divvy up parts of the world. I mean that was what the Cold War was about, although America and Russia were adversaries back then.”