In the British government bunker, Winterburn grimaced at Nielsen’s coarseness. But some of his advisors were not quite so reserved. The PM saw that Roland was trying hard not to laugh.
“You are in no position to be making threats,” Berger said, breaking his silence.
Nielsen placed the palms of both hands flat on the table, hunching his shoulders towards the speakerphone. His words were spoken in a flat monotone that left no room for ambiguity. “Gentlemen, let me spell it out for you quite clearly. In the next few hours, U.S. supertankers and support aircraft will be taking off from bases around Europe in support of our strategic bomber fleet. If one -just one - of them is impeded, I will consider that a state of war exists between NATO and your respective nations. Furthermore, I will personally ensure that the reign of destruction that befalls your nations exceeds anything in your darkest nightmares. And this time, there will be no Marshall Plan to bail you out. America has been attacked with weapons of mass destruction. The one and only consequence of this is that America will now wage war with all the power – I repeat,all the power – at her disposal. We are about to unleash the appetite for vengeance of two hundred and sixty million people. If you want to help us, then I would much appreciate that. If not…” Nielsen paused, allowing his words to sink in. “If not, then I will consider that you are an enemy of the United States, and your nations will suffer the entirety of our vengeance.”
There was a stunned silence on the other end of the phone. Finally, Betin replied in a meek voice, “I think we have nothing further to discuss, Mr. Nielsen.”
A few moments later, Winterburn and Nielsen were once more alone on the line. “What did you think?” The American asked.
“Very… diplomatic,” his British counterpart replied tactfully. “But I know these chaps, Mr. Nielsen. They are solid in their resolve. They really believe that America is a fallen giant, and they don’t think that Britain has the stomach to go it alone.”
“And have you the stomach, Harold?”
A short pause. “As I speak, a squadron of RAF Tornado bombers is being scrambled. They will fly to the Plateau d’Albion, where the bulk of France’s nuclear arsenal is located. Of course, the French also have some sub-launched nuclear missiles, but not as many as do we. I don’t anticipate they’ll use those, since we can retaliate in kind. Besides, I really don’t believe the French have the stomach for that kind of fight.”
“I hope you’re right,” Reynolds commented. “What else are you planning, Prime Minister?”
“Well, another RAF squadron is flying out of Norway, from where they will attack German radar capability. Their job is to draw fire away from your forces. If we can keep French and German defenses busy for long enough, they’ll be too preoccupied to bother you. One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“We have one card up our sleeve that the French don’t know about yet.”
Westwood immediately realized what the British PM was referring to. “The X-40,” he muttered under his breath.
Nielsen looked at him in puzzlement.
“The X-40,” Westwood repeated, louder.
This time, Nielsen understood what he meant. The X-40 was the world’s first tri-service stealth fighter, a VTOL fighter/bomber, jointly designed by British Aerospace and Lockheed-Martin for deployment by both American and British forces. Its maneuverability was at least as good as an F-22 and its stealth capabilities were far greater. It was, however, still an experimental warplane, and that had prevented its deployment so far in this conflict.
“But we’re not rolling them out for another two years,” Nielsen pointed out.
“That’s right, but the Royal Navy have been testing the prototype for the last eighteen months,” Westwood reminded him. “They’ve got a dozen of ‘em.”
“Are you sure those planes are combat ready?” Nielsen asked Winterburn.
“I am assured that they are. We intend to use them to eliminate France’s ground-based radar capability and, since we’ll have AWACS watching everything, we stand an excellent chance of achieving total air dominance, despite France’s vaunted Mirage jets.”
“How do you intend to do that with a dozen prototypical X-40s?” Westwood inquired.
Nielsen could almost imagine the smile on Winterburn’s face. “You’ve obviously forgotten about the Eurofighter. One of the benefits of being in the EU, General, was that we managed to acquire ninety of them. They will be used to maintain air dominance once the X-40s have cleared a path.”
“Don’t the French have them too?” Nielsen asked.
“Yes, but they only have about a dozen of them. And I believe that our pilots are somewhat more accomplished. Better training, you see.”
“We’re not just talking about France and Germany though,” Westwood remarked. “Who else in the EU is likely to back them up?”
The reply came from the British Chief of Defense Staff. “Oh,” he remarked dryly, “the Belgians will probably scramble both of their fighter jets. The Dutch will make a lot of noise, but in the final analysis, they’ll sit things out and wait to see what happens. The Austrians? I don’t even think they have a military of any note. The Spanish will more than likely taunt us in Gibraltar, but they don’t have the ability to do much more than that. Especially since we have a carrier, HMS Excalibur, down in the Med. Greece might cause us a few headaches in Cyprus, but nothing we haven’t handled before. As for Luxembourg and Portugal, well…” He left the rest unsaid. They were of no consequence.
“You do realize,” Nielsen reminded him, “that you guys are on the front line here. We have no aerial capability in Europe any more.” In fact, the last American offensive weapons had been reassigned from Western Europe to Poland and Czechoslovakia three years’ ago, further antagonizing the Russians in the process. USAF bases in locations such as Ramstein, Volkel, Lakenheath and Spangdahlem now contained support staff and equipment only. In fact, the sole remaining active USAF base in Western Europe was Aviano in Italy, which housed the 31stFighter Wing, although the seventy-five F-16s that comprised the 31stwere already too busy on combat patrol over the Med to be of any use.
Nielsen lowered his voice a notch. “I’m relying on you and whatever other forces you can muster from your friends to help ensure that our bombers complete their missions.”
“You really intend to go through with this, don’t you?” Winterburn commented, more a statement of fact than a question. He was, of course, referring to the nuclear bombardment of Russia.
“Unless Yazov suddenly has a change of heart, yes I do.”
“Very well,” the PM sighed acquiescently. “If our cross-Channel cousins want a fight, I suggest we give them one. Don’t you agree?”
For the first time in hours, Nielsen managed a thin smile. “I couldn’t have put it better myself, Prime Minister. Couldn’t have put it better myself.”
When the call was over, Nielsen turned to Westwood, a wry grin on his face.
“You know, that is one ballsy bastard.”
Westwood and Reynolds, exchanging an uneasy glance, didn’t share in their Commander-in-Chief’s amusement.
Part 3
THE AFTERMATH
XVI
MEANWHILE…
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
(Revelation 6:8)
THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Despite Russia’s attempt to cut them off with nuclear strikes, they continued to surge forward, their relentless advance barely slowed. Indeed, if anything, the nuclear attack had given fresh impetus to PLA Commanders who dared not return to Beijing with anything less than total victory.
Twenty-five Russian nuclear warheads – varying in yield between a hundred kilotons and one megaton – had been airburst over Chinese positions on the border. Although each target had represented a key strategic stronghold for the PLA, their forces were too widely dispersed for the nuclear attack to have anything more than
a nominal effect. Russian military planners would later lament that the nuclear attack had, if anything, taken place too soon. The bulk of China’s expeditionary force hadn’t even crossed the Amur yet.
Despite the nuclear detonations, bulkily dimensioned PLA transport planes continued to ferry in weapons and supplies to troops that were on the verge of occupying Vladivostok and Novosibirsk, having encountered little in the way of Russian resistance in their forceful advance. Control of these cities effectively afforded China control of the Russian Far East.
And neither did the Russian nuclear attack go unanswered. Thirty minutes after the airbursts over PLA positions, China retaliated by detonating forty low yield nuclear warheads over Russian military bases that had not yet been affected by the American strikes. Most of them were either inactive or deserted, but the attack nevertheless served to hammer yet another nail into the coffin of Russia’s corpse.
ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
For the first time since 1945, Japan’s self-defense forces went on full scale alert; a state of affairs provoked by both the nuclear conflict and what the Japanese Prime Minister termed “Chinese belligerence”, in a reference to the PRC’s invasion of Russia.
Indeed, Japan had much to be concerned about. In an emergency cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister reminded colleagues that America’s value as an ally had been severely - perhaps irreparably - impaired by the nuclear conflict, and that Japan might now have to stand alone in the Far East against the People’s Republic without American support. He speculated that this was the reason for China’s invasion of Russia. Now that two superpowers had been effectively removed from the geopolitical equation, China was moving to fill the global power vacuum. Japan simply could not allow that to happen. Were China to establish itself as not only a regional superpower, but a global one, the Japanese would be relegated to the role of paupers to the Communist Prince.
Following that meeting, the Prime Minister issued a statement, warning China to “cease its aggressive actions or face the gravest of consequences.” He added that, “Japan will not allow the Beijing Government to destabilize matters in the Pacific region…. [We] will take all necessary measures to defend ourselves.”
Elsewhere in the region, attention was focused on financial markets that were taking an unprecedented hammering. America had always provided the solid foundations upon which the world economy was built. Now those foundations had crumbled, leaving nothing to support the burgeoning economies of nations such as Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea. Eventually, all central banks in the region suspended trading in all markets in a desperate attempt to stop the avalanche of selling. By the time they did so, Far East stock market indices had lost anything from thirty to sixty percent of their opening values.
Even if the world recovered from the nuclear war, it was now bound to face a global economic depression of unprecedented magnitude.
But at this stage, nobody outside of the financial markets cared much about that.
EASTERN EUROPE
The first skirmishes between Polish and Russian jets went largely unnoticed with everything else that was happening at the time. As it happened, the Russians were outnumbered and outgunned by Polish F-16s and F-14s with relative ease. For the Poles, the victory was less strategically important than it was cathartic. A small reimbursement for years of Soviet occupation.
By the time Hungarian and Czech forces were spurred into action, there was no enemy left for them to fight. Russia’s western air defenses - what remained of them - had been totally smashed. Even the few Russian jets that remained flight-worthy were grounded, abandoned by their crews.
Soon, the focus in Eastern Europe would shift west.
To Germany.
THE MIDDLE EAST
The Arab world’s first reaction to the Russian-American conflict came almost inevitably from Saddam Hussein. In an address broadcast on Iraqi state television, he enthused that “the world’s two great bullies have finally been punished for years of murderous deeds, and the Iraqi people shall rejoice in their suffering.”
Reaction was somewhat more muted, however, in Iran and Israel. One of Iran’s leading hardline clerics – a protégé of the late Ayatollah Khomeini – held a rally to celebrate the destruction of the “Great Satan and the Lesser Satan”. Barely 5,000 people turned up, all of them looking uneasy and doing anything but celebrating. An Iranian commentator justified the low attendance by explaining that many people had stayed at home due to Iran’s proximity to Russia and therefore its susceptibility to radioactive fallout. Inevitably, this was blamed on American warmongering.
In Tel Aviv, Israel’s Prime Minister urged his people to pray for peace, and for the millions who had died in the nuclear war. Over 50,000 people – Jew and Moslem alike – spontaneously gathered in East Jerusalem in an unprecedented show of unity. Holding candles aloft as they marched silently through the ancient city, their calls for peace went unnoticed by the rest of the world.
Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia asserted its neutrality, with state-controlled news bulletins referring only briefly to the nuclear war as “a military clash between America and Russia”. But Kuwait offered its unqualified support to the United States, its Emir noting that “the brotherhood forged between the American and Kuwaiti people in our hour of need will be remembered and honored for all time.”
But, for once, the Middle East had become an irrelevancy in the big picture.
Nobody was listening.
THE BALTIC SEA
Like a tiger stalking its helpless prey. Sleek, efficient and deadly, the fast-attack submarine USS Los Angeles was assigned to a mission that its captain thought had become obsolete with the end of the Cold War. Its task was to detect, hunt down and kill as many Russian boomers as it could find. Without getting killed itself, of course.
Most of the crewmembers were too young to remember the days when American and Soviet subs had routinely played cat and mouse in the world’s oceans, preparing for the day of reckoning that had now arrived. But the Captain remembered those days well. He had been an XO back then and he was now reminded of the tense silence that had descended on his crew whenever it got the faintest sniff of a Soviet sub.
Of course, his present crew was not quite so combat-sharp as its predecessors had been in the 1970’s and 80’s. Small wonder, given that most of these kids had spent their entire sub-aquatic careers tracking whales on behalf of environmental groups with money to burn. But the same was also true for the Russians, wasn’t it? Indeed, more so. Many Russian crews were not just ill prepared but – unpaid and unmotivated – they were downright incompetent.
That was good news for the Los Angeles and other U.S. fast attack subs. It made for easy pickings. So the theory went…
In reality, of course, things were rather different. Russian boomers – the very vessels set to wreak devastation on U.S. cities in due course – were easy to detect once you found yourself in their vicinity, butfinding their vicinity without first being detected by Russian ‘Bastion’ patrols was quite another matter entirely. Although the Captain of the Los Angeles assured his crew that it was purely a matter of patience, skill and cunning, he would only admit to himself that the most important factor of all was luck.
As it happened, luck was to grant him a small favor this time. His sonar officer detected the unmistakable signature of a Typhoon in shallow waters outside of Murmansk. It was such an easy kill that the Captain thought it almost unsporting. Then he remembered that the Typhoon’s mission probably involved the murder of several million Americans. Oh well, buddy. Tough luck. Nothing personal. After stalking in the Typhoon’s wake for no more than ten minutes, the Russian sub was torpedoed before its unfortunate crew even knew the Los Angeles had been trailing it.
Within two hours, five Russian boomers had been detected and destroyed by U.S. fast attack subs. British submarines in the North Atlantic sank three more. NATO ships suffered no losses in these exchanges.
But there were still many more Russian boomers ou
t there, waiting to fire their SLBMs at helpless American cities. Between them, they still had over five hundred nuclear warheads.
That point was not lost on one single U.S. submarine commander involved in the conflict.
NORTHERN FRANCE
Francois Gertilimon had been tending his fields for the near entirety of his seventy-six years, as had his father before him, and since he had never ventured far outside of his immediate community, he had little interest in the fact that his country was about to go to war again. He was just old enough to remember when, as a small child, he had seen the first of the German invaders enter the village. He could still recall their starched uniforms and steel boots, and the distinctive sound their boots made on the cobblestones of the village. Yet Francois’ father had not stopped work for as much as a day during the Nazi occupation, even when he knew his profits were going to the Vichy government. He hadn’t known how to stop working. He hadn’t known how to do anything else.
And so it was for Francois. Although uneducated by urban standards, he was by no means illiterate. He understood precisely what was going on in the world. It was going mad. But that was no excuse for giving up work. The world had gone mad before; it would surely do so again. The Nazis had come and gone, but the Gertilimon farm remained, as it had done for nearly two centuries. This war would also pass into the history books given time. Such things did not concern him, and even if they did, what could one do about them?
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