There were other Brethren still buried in high places. There had to be. How did Senator Mark Stanfield get word so quickly about the change in the DEFCON status after the attack on the Elkton? Who fed Stanfield the information about the Iranians carrying false passports aboard the Regal…?
But what troubled Falcone the most was Midas. Who was he? Did he mastermind Operation Cyrus or just fund it? Did he have other plans, other people in place?
Falcone called Rachel, reminding her that she had promised to reveal the identity of Midas. Once again she demurred, saying that she had not heard from her superiors and would let him know as soon as possible.
The following day, the New York Times and Washingon Post published major stories about the death of billionaire Rolf Eriksen in his family’s Connecticut mansion.
“Mr. Eriksen’s mother found the body and called the family physician,” the Times story said. “The physician, a family spokesman said, certified the cause of death as heart failure. The body was removed by a local funeral home and cremated before Southport police could begin a routine ‘untimely death’ investigation. A police spokesman said that since the physician was not in attendance at the time of death, his certification of death by heart failure was ‘irregular but legal.’”
The Post story quoted anonymous financial observers as speculating that Eriksen had killed himself with a drug overdose after learning he was under investigation by a private investment counselor for diverting funds from his mother’s company, Eriksen Inc. “Betsy Eriksen did not like trouble,” one source said. “Cremation avoided it.”
After reading the stories, Falcone called the Hay-Adams and learned that Rachel had checked out. He had Anna make an official call to the Israeli United Nations delegation. Anna was told that Ambassador Yeager had been recalled to Israel.
*
FALCONE found himself wondering often about where and who Norman Miller was. The CIA and NSA had kept a tight watch on Miller until, one day, he vanished. But in some strange way, Falcone believed that Miller would keep his word and disclose the identity of the man who had conceived and funded Operation Cyrus.
Falcone knew it was Rolf Eriksen. It had to be.
He had asked for the CIA’s analysis of the sudden death of a Hamas assassin in Dubai. “The drug used,” the analysis said, “was probably a large dose of succinylcholine, which produces asphyxia and death due to muscular paralysis.”
Falcone imagined Rachel, up to her old Killer Angel tricks, gaining easy access to Stonemill, perhaps paying a social call on Betsy Eriksen, dropping into Rolf’s library to say hello … and rushing up to find Betsy and say that Rolf had keeled over … Betsy summoning a doctor, a distraught Rachel being chauffeured back to New York, then whisked away to Israel.…
Maybe Dake knew the answer. Maybe he was saving the secret to make sure he had another blockbuster. Maybe it was Falcone’s fate to never know.
But that was no longer his concern. The people were going to the polls tomorrow to vote for their presidential candidate. The attack on Savannah had shaken confidence in Oxley and it was still possible he could lose.
Falcone hoped not.
America was in need of men like Oxley if it was ever going to deal with the challenges that were infinite in number and complexity. The only thing he absolutely knew was that he was packing his bags. He had given his last service to his country and was determined to move on to a life of personal freedom.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction and all of the characters and events are the product of the author’s imagination. There is one exception, though: the bomb that is central to the story is real. On February 5, 1958, a U.S. Air Force F-86 fighter collided with a B-47 on a simulated combat mission. The pilot of the B-47 jettisoned one of America’s first hydrogen bombs off Savannah’s coast.
The Air Force searched for more than nine weeks but failed to find the bomb.
Responding to persistent fears of local people and an inquiry from a congressman, the Air Force in 2001 issued a thirteen-page report that reiterated what had been said in 1958: “The bomb was incapable of a nuclear explosion.” The Department of Energy, according to the report, “determined that there is no current or future possibility of a nuclear explosion.”
The Air Force report can be found at http://www.nukestrat.com/us/afn/AF2001_Savannah1958.pdf.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’m frequently asked how long it takes me to write a novel. The clever answer I offer is, “A lifetime.” Publishers are not impressed with cleverness, and their tolerance for procrastinators is not unlimited.
I’ve been blessed to know Tor/Forge’s Tom Doherty, who nearly two years ago, along with editor and author par excellence Bob Gleason, asked me to write a fictional account of a subject that consumed my waking days and sleepless nights at the Pentagon. Fortunately, both tolerated my extensive international travels and logistical excuses—up to a point. Once they advised me that my novel was listed in the 2011 fall catalogue of Tor/Forge publications, my ruses were up. The hammer had fallen, and I could no longer run out the clock or escape their e-mails that oh-so-gently asked, “So when did you send in the manuscript?”
I am indebted to Tom Allen, historian, author, and friend, whom I’ve had the pleasure to know and admire for more than thirty years. Tom has been a great mentor and constant source of sage advice and encouragement. He is a veritable fountainhead of information and wisdom—the possessor, no doubt, of a Jesuit education—and rivals Google in the speed and depth of content produced in response to any question I have, however minor or seemingly unrelated it may be to the arc of the novel’s narrative or that of its characters
A salute goes to General Joseph Ralston (Ret.), the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Supreme Allied Commander Forces Europe, who zeroed in on the literary license I took and made sure that I was not too far off target.
Admiral Jim Loy, the former commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, and deputy secretary of Homeland Security, helped steer me clear of some dangerous, subsurface obstacles that I had failed to anticipate.
Craig Kelly, former ambassador to Chile, a baseball afficionado, called balls and strikes (with diplomatic gusto) on key elements in the story line. I am also indebted to Nicholas Burns, former ambassador to NATO and Greece, and currently a professor at Harvard, who has a jeweler’s eye for detail and factual accuracy.
My sincere thanks to Dean Graham Allison, who is a prominent expert on the threat posed by nuclear weapons. I relied heavily on his seminal work, Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, and drew in particular on examples of the lapses in security contained in pages 3–6, 46–49.
In the interest of full disclosure, General Ralston, Admiral Loy, and Ambassadors Craig Kelly and Nick Burns are also colleagues of mine at The Cohen Group. Rest assured, however, that they remained loyal to their professional code of honor and pulled no verbal punches!
I benefited greatly from discussions with former colleague Frank Miller, an expert in all matters related to nuclear weaponry. Frank had spent most of his life worrying about and managing the metrics of throw weights, pay loads, and the dangerous consequences of strategic imbalances in nuclear weapons.
While time and distance frequently separate us, I remain inspired by the talent, friendship, and motivational support offered by brilliant novelist Richard North Patterson, who throughout his personal and professional career has never blinked while staring into the white light of controversial moral issues.
I have borrowed liberally from the thoughts and insights of Gabe Erem, one of the most extraordinary men I know, whose knowledge of strategic issues and the dangerous back alleys of Middle East politics is unparalleled.
Finally, the person I turn to for intellectual balance and penetrating logic is my wife, Janet Langhart Cohen, author, playwright, and force of nature who was once described as “a cupcake—with a razor blade inside.” Indeed, Janet is the alter ego of the charact
er Rachel, and the reason I dedicated the novel to Velvet, who is smooth, beautiful, and dangerous.
Forge Books by William S. Cohen
Dragon Fire
Blink of an Eye
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
BLINK OF AN EYE
Copyright © 2011 by William S. Cohen All rights reserved.
A Forge® eBook Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cohen, William S.
Blink of an eye / William S. Cohen.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2764-2
1. Nuclear terrorism—Fiction. 2. Political fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.O434B55 2011
813'.54—dc22 2011019778
First Edition: November 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-8617-5
Blink of an Eye Page 37