Second Strike

CHAPTER 24

^MOSCOW,

^{AUGUST 15, 11:18 P.M. MSK}

Egorshin took the encrypted call while seated at his desk drinking tea and reviewing information in preparation for the event. The enormity of the undertaking was overwhelming. Petabytes of data were involved. They had run countless simulations over several months. Recalibrated, tweaked, and refined their calculations. For the last month every simulation yielded the same results. Save for inconsequential deviations to account for uncontrollable atmospheric variables, every simulation was a success. Most gratifying was the success of yesterday’s dry run for the secondary plan, involving a flight from Salt Lake City to Seattle.

Egorshin sat up straight as he placed the receiver to his ear. The call came on the line reserved for one purpose, and just a short time ago Aleksandr Stetchkin had made clear he expected Egorshin to accommodate the caller.

“Yes?”

“We need simultaneous satellite feeds for all of the families.”

“Of course,” Egorshin replied.

“With full audio and encryption.”

“Understood.”

“When can you establish connections?”

“When do you need them?”

“It will take a few minutes for us to set up each of the locations.”

“Ten minutes?” Egorshin asked.

“Excellent. Would it be possible to display the images on the screen as a grid?”

“That is how I understood your request.”

“Very good,” said the Zaslon Unit operator and terminated the call.

Egorshin punched the button for Major Volkov. When his subordinate picked up, Egorshin tersely directed him to satisfy the Zaslon operator’s request while emphasizing the imperative that it be done immediately. Egorshin didn’t want any complaints to be made to the tyrant.

Then he resumed scrutinizing the data.