Free Straits of Power by Joe Buff Page B

nuclear winter. . . . And the Axis are ruthless enough to try to use the mere threat of that happening, embodied in the potential for a first new mushroom cloud erupting near the Nile or in Germany to ignite the global tinderbox, to force an armistice where we cede them all of Europe and Africa.” The president grew bitter. “This Israel-to-Berlin atomic trip wire, instead of a deterrent by the Israelis, becomes a lever with which the Axis propagandist bastards want to break the American public’s will to resist by inflicting sheer terror.”
    The national security advisor gave her assessment, coldly and tersely. “The Axis aren’t the types to blink first in that sort of all-or-nothing quick-draw showdown, which means in the worst case, we could be forced to accommodate them fast or be incinerated slightly less fast. Either way, we lose the war.”
    A collective shudder went through the group. No one spoke.
    Jeffrey had been feeling a conceptual insight sneak up on him during the past few minutes, as he struggled to mentally integrate everything he’d heard and learned; now the intuitive leap burst fully formed, like a tsunami, inside his brain.
    I suspect how the Germans intend the brinkmanship to work. It’s the ultimate act of can’t-lose aggression, if everything goes just right for them. . . . If something goes wrong at their end, it is wholesale Armageddon.
    The bleak mood in the room had reached a crisis point. Jeffrey began to wonder if his well-honed ability to think on his feet during combat, further primed that very morning, let him form a conjecture that his superiors, all desk jockeys, just couldn’t see. He opened his mouth, and Hodgkiss frowned at him instantly, but the national security advisor gestured for him to continue.
    “Ma’am, the point is, the Germans are not insane. They wouldn’t attack through Egypt and Israel unless Berlin really believed they had a way to keep their homeland, the sacred German fatherland, safe. Suppose that Zeno is a great computer genius after all, and he did make some kind of breakthrough. And I mean a really huge breakthrough, maybe with some strange new logic algorithm, or hardware a decade ahead of its time, I don’t know. Then Plan Pandora could be to somehow neutralize Israel’s ability to blow their bombs in Germany, at just the proper moment for the Afrika Korps to assault to the east. Peapod mentioning Zeno and Pandora by name in this message from the brothel might be his way of establishing bona fides to us. And if he is for real, he might be so appalled by what he knows and what he created that that’s the reason he wants to defect, to help stop Pandora.”
    Everyone stared at Jeffrey, then turned to the president. Once voiced like this, it all fit too well for even the FBI director to object. The president looked up at the ceiling again, considering things very carefully. He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, an exhalation that seemed to Jeffrey to be driven out of the man by the weight of the world.
    At last the president nodded decisively. “There’s no way in hell we buckle under to Axis intimidation or trickery without first putting up a damned good fight. We take the risk and take Mohr at his word. . . . Much as I’ve always thought some interservice rivalry is a healthy thing, we can’t have separate teams competing and tripping over each other on this. . . . General, sorry, your Delta guys have to sit this one out.” The president glanced at Jeffrey and winked, then turned to the CNO. “Admiral, activate Undersea Task Group 47.2 immediately. For now, we’re in the body-snatching business, and Zeno is our prize.”

Chapter 4
    A t the Severodvinsk shipyard complex, on the White Sea in bleak northwestern Russia, just south of the Arctic Circle, Egon Schneider was very annoyed. He had a stack of papers to sign on behalf of his government, taking official possession as captain of the latest piece of military hardware