The Third World War: A Terrifying Novel of Global Conflict

44

'We are treating this as a first strike, Jim,' said Mehta, his voice on an open speaker in the strangely empty Oval Office. 'The very fact that Pakistan had an assembled bomb contravenes the spirit of every agreement we ever made about our nuclear arsenals.'

West had not even attempted to replace Brock. The bond between the two men had been so deep that he preferred to keep his own counsel rather than work with a stranger. He had asked Tom Patton to oversee temporarily both the National Security Council and Homeland Security, and Patton sat back alone on the sofa, his arms linked behind his head, listening to the stubborn defiance of the Indian Prime Minister. Mary Newman, fresh from the attack in South Korea, was back on a plane and headed for Beijing. Chris Pierce was in New York, locked in an office at the United Nations with the Cuban ambassador. John Kozerski had perched himself on the window sill and quietly drummed the glass as he listened.

'You are telling me that you will retaliate?' West asked Mehta. He was sitting behind the Oval Office desk, one hand around a glass of iced water and the other tapping the end of his pen against a pad.

'Yes,' said Mehta. 'That bomb was meant for India, Jim—'

'It exploded over Pakistan, less than thirty miles from the capital city.'

'Because the pilot was crazy, that's why. He lost it.'

'Lost it?' exclaimed West. 'He bombed his own nuclear-weapons-making facility. To me that is not the act of a madman.'

'Can you assure me, Jim, that Pakistan has no more aircraft and missiles with assembled nuclear weapons ready to launch?'

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kozerski point towards the television screen, where pictures were showing the roads heading out of Islamabad clogged with people fleeing. Instead of a national leader appealing for calm, it was being left to the news presenters. The army appeared to have melted away, back to barracks. Every road out of Islamabad, except for that heading for Kahuta, was blocked with humans fleeing on foot and in animal-drawn carts, ending the chance of any vehicle making faster progress. When violence broke out, there were no police or troops to intervene. The fighting subsided naturally, usually when one side or another had been killed.

'Have you seen the television pictures, Vasant?' said West. 'I'm looking at them now. This is a broken nation.'

'Cut it,' snapped Mehta. 'I have made my policy perfectly clear. Pakistan has made its intention known. It has assembled a bomb—'

'If you strike back—'

'You should have thought about that when you were propping up that dictatorship. Now listen to me, Jim, because I am going to tell you precisely what we are going to do.'

West beckoned Kozerski, who walked quickly over to the desk and pulled up a chair. West pushed over the pen and notepad and took a sip of water. 'OK, tell me,' he said.

'Until now, we have kept our nuclear weapon components in three different locations. Which is why all these years, Jim, there has never been a threat of mistaken nuclear exchange. Today, that is changing. Now the nuclear pit, the part which goes into the warhead, is at one place, mostly at the Babhu Atomic Research Centre near Mumbai. The warhead is somewhere else, and the delivery system — plane, missile or submarine — somewhere else again. We are bringing all those three together to assemble our weapons. We have 150 warheads, excluding the 2-kiloton type of tactical weapon used last night. In six hours time, our Mirage 2000 aircraft, the Jaguars and the Sukhoi 30s will be armed and ready to strike. Eight hours from now the Agni missiles will also be ready, including the long-range Agni 3 which we will declare to deter any interference from China. Twelve hours from now two Akula 2000 class nuclear-powered submarines will be at sea, each carrying a 20-kiloton warhead for missile launch.

'Should we detect any new threat from Pakistan — even an aircraft flying towards our border — we will carry out a full strike, meaning we will take out their major cities and military installations. The exceptions will be Islamabad and Rawalpindi because the prevailing winds would take the radioactive debris across into India. For the same reason, Lahore is also safe. Once our nuclear weapons are in place, our conventional forces will move into Pakistan across the Wagah border to Lahore, from Fazilka towards Multan, and from Jaisalmer across from Rajasthan to Sukkur. We will also put a naval blockade around Karachi. Once we are certain that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are under international control and the military is put under an interim UN command, we will withdraw our troops from Pakistan. If that does not happen, we will conquer that nation and reintegrate it back into India.'

'You will be fighting for a hundred years,' said West softly.

'We've been fighting for sixty already,' said Mehta.

'Have you found the pilot?' said West.

'Yes. It was Tassudaq Qureshi. We shot his plane down. He ejected, landed safely and shot himself in the head before our rescue teams got to him.'

'Qureshi?' repeated West, looking over towards Patton and wishing that Brock was there to guide him. He wished he had not sent Newman and Pierce away. They might never have agreed with each other, but they showed a perfect path towards the middle ground.

'Exactly,' said Mehta. 'Qureshi led the coup against Khan. He was on a mission to carry out a nuclear attack on India, changed his mind and instead dropped the bomb on Kahuta — a target rich in symbolism. What that means, Jim, is that whoever has power in Pakistan now is more extreme than Qureshi and more than willing to use a nuclear weapon against us.'

A red light flashed silently on a telephone on West's desk. Kozerski stood and picked it up. West and Patton watched as Kozerski's face dropped into an expression of complete astonishment.

'What is it, John?' asked West. 'Sorry, Vasant, can you hold for just a moment?'

Kozerski cupped his hand over the receiver and looked first at Patton, then at West. 'North Korea has launched a missile. It's already flown over Japan and is heading out across the Pacific.'