CHAPTER 15 – ON THE EDGE OF ARMAGEDDON
09:34 (Moscow Time)
Tuesday, May 9, 1989 ‘C’
V.I.P. gallery, Red Square
Moscow, Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev sighed in exasperation when Boris Yeltsin finally arrived by limousine at the foot of the staircase leading up to the V.I.P. gallery facing the huge expanse of Red Square: the President of the Soviet Union was again late…and drunk, and this on one of the two most important annual events in the U.S.S.R. He however kept his tongue as Yeltsin, assisted by an army officer, slowly climbed the stairs on unsteady legs: However much of a drunkard and incompetent he was, Yeltsin’s support was crucial for Gorbachev in order to keep his position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and thus stay in power. Too many high and mid-level Party officials were criticizing him lately, finding his reforms program too liberal and clamoring for the ‘good old days’ of Stalinist-style Communism. What was especially troubling him was the fact that more and more generals and admirals were gradually joining up with those conservative politicians, as those senior officers lamented the steady decline of military budgets under Gorbachev. They of course didn’t care about the fact that those past astronomical military budgets had effectively been strangling the economic growth of the country and blocking the renewal and modernization of the various infrastructures in the Soviet Union, which were often in a dilapidated state.
With Yeltsin finally getting to his place on the V.I.P. gallery, Gorbachev gave the signal to the parade commander to start the parade meant to celebrate the Soviet victory over the Nazis in 1945. Ten minutes later, the first units of marching soldiers started goose-stepping past the gallery, bayonets fixed and flags flying as a military band played. Gorbachev, Yeltsin and the other Party leaders present on the gallery saluted in return the marching troops as multiple columns of tanks were forming up at one end of the Red Square, getting ready to roll past the dignitaries. As Gorbachev was waving one hand at the spectators, a tremendous blast projected him, the other dignitaries and broken pieces of the gallery high in the air, while the pressure wave of the explosion bowled over the nearest ranks of marching soldiers. The state television Soviet cameramen, along with quite a few foreign ones who were filming the parade from some distance away, were able to capture the explosion which disintegrated the V.I.P. gallery before the blast wave made their cameras tumble to the ground. The thousands of Soviet citizens assembled on the sidelines and watching the parade could only look on with disbelief as the smoke from the explosion was blown away by the wind, revealing the now ruined gallery, strewn with the broken bodies of their political leaders. Utter pandemonium then broke out.
06:35 (Washington Time) /14:35 (Moscow Time)
Ingrid’s kitchen, 326 South Grove Street
Aurora Hills, Arlington, Virginia
U.S.A.
Ingrid was absently listening to her radio while preparing breakfast for Leonardo and Nancy, prior to driving them to their fifth-grade classes at the Congressional School. In a bit over two years, Leo and Nancy would have completed their eight-grade and were then going to have to change to another school to attend high school, as the Congressional School did not offer high school-level education. Then, Ingrid was going to have to select carefully what type of school and which establishment to choose for Nancy and Leonardo. Since their personal interests and abilities were very different from each other, that meant that they probably wouldn’t study at the same place. That alone promised to complicate life for all three of them.
Ingrid’s ear was twitched when the meteorological forecast on the radio was suddenly cut and replaced by the voice of the news anchorman.
‘’We have to interrupt this meteorological bulletin in order to pass an important breaking news. Eight hours ago, a powerful bomb exploded under the V.I.P. dais occupied by the Soviet leadership at Moscow’s Red Square, and this as the Soviet leaders were reviewing the May Victory Parade. Reported dead are a number of high-level Soviet leaders, including President Boris Yeltsin and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. A number of the parading troops were also hurt by the explosion. The Soviet authorities have launched an intensive investigation of what they call a terrorist attack on the Soviet Union. We will keep you informed of the developments as more information becomes available…’’
Turning down the volume of her radio, Ingrid then sat down heavily on one of the high stools lined along the kitchen’s counter, a dismayed expression on her face. That attracted a worried question from Leonardo.
‘’Is this bad news, Ingrid?’’
‘’Very, Leo! The consequences of this could be incalculable and could easily lead to war, depending on who the surviving Soviet leaders will blame for this terrorist attack.’’
‘’And who could have done that, Mommy?’’ asked Nancy. Ingrid thought for a moment before answering her.
‘’Actually, very few people would be able to hide a large bomb in such a place, Nancy. I have seen that V.I.P. dais and it sits directly against the perimeter wall of the Kremlin, one of the best guarded places in the Soviet Union. That dais also touches on the Red Square, which is a vast open square with nowhere to hide. Whoever did this had to have accomplices within the Soviet government, military or police. It would be like someone would place a bomb inside the White House. I just can’t see how a foreign group or organization could pull such an attack.’’
‘’Are you saying that the Soviets themselves did it, Ingrid?’’ asked Leonardo, making Ingrid shake her head.
‘’Not THE Soviets but rather some Soviets, Leo. Soviet power politics are a cut-throat business and many Soviet leaders in history were either purged, sent to Siberia, killed, jailed or simply disappeared when they fell out of favor or lost a battle for power. However, if this turns out to be an internal struggle for power, then you can expect the new leaders to blame some foreign scapegoat for this, as Soviets hate to wash their private laundry in public.’’
Ingrid then sighed heavily.
‘’Hopefully, the consequences of this won’t be as severe as I expect, but I am not very optimistic about that. Well, let’s finish your breakfast, kids: you have school to attend this morning.’’
Ingrid then mentally asked herself if she should contact the White House about this, to ask the officials there if they wanted her to help deal with whatever will happen next, but decided not to. If they really wanted her help, then they would call her.
16:15 (Washington Time)
Friday, May 12, 1989 ‘C’
The Oval Office, the White House
Washington, D.C.
‘’The CIA? THE CIA?! THAT’S NUTS! WHO WOULD BELIEVE SUCH A CRAZY NOTION?’’
‘’Those new Soviet leaders would only need the Soviet citizenry to believe that, Mister President. This was obviously made up mostly for internal consumption within the U.S.S.R. And as much as this could sound crazy, we do have more than a few conspiracy theorists here in the United States who would be ready to gobble up this Soviet fable. Unfortunately, there is enough dirty secrets in the past history of the CIA to lend at least a bit of credence to such a theory.’’
President George Herbert Walker Bush, serving his second term as President of the United States, was tempted to reply to his National Security Advisor, Brent Scowcroft, but instead looked at his director of the CIA, William Webster.
‘’Please tell me that nobody within your staff was stupid enough to pull such a stunt, Bill.’’
‘’Of course we didn’t do this, Mister President!’’ replied Webster in an indignant tone. ‘’The consequences and fallout of this for the United States could only be negative. This is Soviet propaganda in its purest hypocrisy, Mister President.’’
Bush was about to ask a question to his Secretary of State, James Baker, when his secretary stuck her head into the Oval Office after knocking urgently on the door.
‘’Excuse me, Mister President, but the chief of staff of Secretary Baker is asking to speak urgently with him. He said that it was extremely important and urgent.’’
‘’Then, transfer that call to my line, Misses Pringle: Secretary Baker will take it from here.’’
‘’Understood, Mister President.’’
Bush had time to look around at his advisers and principal cabinet members before the telephone on the presidential desk rang, to be picked up by a waiting James Baker.
‘’James Baker here! What is going up, Don?... THEY WHAT?!’’
President Bush and the other officials in the room watched on with growing unease as the Secretary of State became increasingly agitated on the telephone.
‘’Twelve hours, you said?... I see! Tell Ambassador Matlock to comply as best he can with the Soviet demands. I will pass all of this to the President at once.’’
Baker then put down the receiver before looking with discouragement at Bush.
‘’The Soviets just ordered all of our embassy and consular staff to leave the Soviet Union within the next twelve hours. Ambassador Matlock was also told that the U.S.S.R. is cutting all diplomatic relations with the United States and is closing its airspace and territorial waters to all American aircraft and ships. The American private citizens presently in the Soviet Union will have on their part 24 hours to leave the country. Similarly, all the Soviet citizens presently in the United States are ordered to return to the U.S.S.R. within the next 24 hours.’’
‘’But all those things amount to something just short of a declaration of war!’’ objected Bush, flabbergasted. ‘’Why would they do all this, especially in view of how flimsy and laughable their accusations against the CIA are?’’
‘’When you have serious internal problems, then create an external one, as the popular saying goes, Mister President.’’ replied glumly William Webster. ‘’Those new Soviet leaders who just took over from Gorbachev and Yeltsin obviously don’t care for the truth one bit and only care about consolidating their new power, in this case by inventing an imaginary external threat. This actually reinforces my initial opinion that those new leaders are the ones who had that bomb planted in Red Square, Mister President.’’
‘’Well, we still have to react to their actions, and quickly.’’ replied Bush, still fuming. ‘’We have to ensure that all our citizens presently inside the Soviet Union get out of there within 24 hours, in order not to become hostages in the hands of this new Soviet government. Also, I want all our ships and aircraft to leave Soviet airspace and waters at once and then stay away. Those are our top priorities right now. I want the National Security Council to meet tomorrow in the Situation Room at nine in the morning, to review our options on how to respond to those Soviet accusations and moves. In the meantime, I am ordering our armed forces to go to DEFCON 3, with particular attention paid to any Soviet military moves or deployments around the World. I want preliminary briefing notes about those new leaders prepared and ready for tomorrow’s morning meeting: we need to know what kind of people we are facing now.’’
‘’I will have my best specialist on Soviet affairs, Condoleezza Rice, work on that, Mister President.’’ replied Brent Scowcroft. Bush nodded his head at that.
‘’Then, let’s get to it, gentlemen! We have a lot to do and little time to do it.’’
The officials assembled inside the Oval Office then left to return to their respective offices or departments, leaving President Bush alone to rehash in his mind what he had just learned and discussed. The relations with the Soviet Union had been relatively cordial during the last twenty years or so, but this bomb in Moscow and the advent of those new leaders were now abruptly changing everything and could even cause a war, where the use of nuclear weapons was likely. Bush couldn’t help feel discouragement as he contemplated that prospect. An idea then came to his mind, prompting him to pick up his telephone while consulting his rolodex, then punching in a number and waiting for an answer. He couldn’t help smile when a young girl’s voice answered the call after two rings.
‘’Hello?’’
‘’This is the President speaking. I need to speak urgently to your mother.’’
‘’Oh! One moment, please!’’
Bush then heard the girl run away from the telephone. Some twelve seconds later, a woman’s voice came on the line.
‘’Yes, Mister President?’’
‘’Ingrid, I need your advice, badly…’’
08:43 (Washington Time)
Saturday, May 13, 1989 ‘C’
White House Situation Room
Washington, D.C.
Ingrid had just entered the Situation Room when Brent Scowcroft also came in, accompanied by a small, thin black woman. Ingrid went at once to shake hands with her friend and presidential national security advisor.
‘’Brent, it is nice to see you again.’’
‘’And it is nice to see you again as well, Ingrid. Let me present you to one of my protégées who is my top expert on Soviet affairs, Condoleezza Rice.’’
‘’Pleased to meet you, Miss Rice.’’ said Ingrid while shaking hands with the black woman, who was looking up at her with open admiration.
‘’And I am honored to meet you, General. You are a true living legend.’’
‘’Pah! Those stories about me are so misleading.’’
‘’Yeah! because they undervalue you, Ingrid.’’ replied Scowcroft, tongue in cheek. ‘’Every time I think that I know everything about you, then you do something new and extraordinary. And how is your flying daughter doing?’’
Ingrid rolled her eyes at that question. Since that episode when Nancy had flown to the rescue of Leonardo a year ago, her superpowers had frequently been making the front pages of the tabloids. Her vaporizing of mobsters with energy balls and her flying around in a Supergirl costume during last Halloween had not helped in that aspect.
‘’Doing well and growing very fast, thank you. I should be about to have my first gray hair soon.’’
‘’ Gray hair? You, a young 63-year-old widow?’’ replied a smiling Scowcroft. ‘’You will never grow old, at least in my eyes.’’
‘’Flattery will get you nowhere, Brent. Well, we better sit down and switch to more serious business. What do we have on that bunch of assholes now in charge in the Kremlin?’’
‘’That they are ruthless, Stalinist assholes, General. I have prepared briefing notes on them and made copies for everyone here. Here is a copy for you, General.’’
‘’Thank you!’’ said Ingrid, taking the offered document before going to sit at her assigned place around the conference table. She then read quickly the four-page document, increasingly frowning as she went.
‘’Those are indeed old-guard Stalinists, Miss Rice, something that does not augur well for the present situation. Those men care little for the wellbeing or even the lives of others: they only care about their personal power. They would be capable of the most horrible crimes in order to stay in power. Believe me: I had to deal with Stalin while he was still alive and his megalomania cost millions of lives. He in fact was the one who said once that quote the death of one person is a tragedy, but the death of millions is a statistic unquote.’’
‘’I know that one, General.’’ replied Rice in a sober tone. ‘’That men with similar thinking could now be in power in Moscow is a truly frightening notion. Unfortunately, the Soviets’ nuclear arsenal, while not as sophisticated as ours, is now at least equal in quantity to our own nuclear arsenal. That will severely cut our range of options when dealing with this present crisis.’’
‘’I fully concur, Miss Rice. This is no time to play a Curtiss LeMay moment.’’ said Ingrid, referring to a past U.S. Air Force general who had pushed for a preventive nuclear strike against the U.S.S.R. during the 1950s and 1960s.
President Bush then arrived in the Situation Room, making those already present rise from their chairs, with the uniformed military officers in the lot also saluting.
‘’At ease, ladies and gentlemen! Do we have everybody?’’
‘’We are still missing CIA Director Webster, Mister President.’’ answered his chief of staff, John Sununu. ‘’However, he should be here very shortly.’’
‘’Then, we will wait for him: he will be crucial for this meeting.’’
Instead of sitting, Bush then walked to Ingrid, shaking hands with her while smiling.
‘’Ingrid, it is nice to see you again at the White House. Any chance that you could return to work here?’’
‘’None, Mister President: my daughter is proving quite complicated to handle and I now have a boy to take care off on top of that.’’
‘’Too bad! Do you have any ideas on how we could respond to this crisis, Ingrid?’’
‘’Quite a few, actually, Mister President. However, one thing that I am sure is that we should avoid war as much as possible: the risks of escalating to a full-blown nuclear war are too high.’’
‘’Agreed!’’ replied Bush, who then saw William Webster enter the Situation Room at a hurried pace. ‘’Aah, here is Webster! We will now be able to start this meeting.’’
With everybody sitting down, Bush then looked at the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Crowe.
‘’Admiral, have all American ships and aircraft pulled away by now from Soviet territorial waters and airspace?’’
‘’Yes, Mister President! I ordered our ships to stay at least 250 nautical miles from Soviet coasts, in order to prevent any misunderstanding or attempt by the Soviets to falsely accuse us of violating their waters.’’
‘’Excellent! How about our citizens presently inside the U.S.S.R., James?’’
The Secretary of State, James Baker, had a glum expression as he answered his president.
‘’I am actually worried about that, Mister president. The delay that the Soviets gave us for our citizens to leave Soviet territory was unusually short and I am afraid that quite a few of our citizens won’t be able to get out in time. I am in fact wondering if the shortness of that delay could have been intentional.’’
‘’I would say yes to that, Mister President.’’ Said Condoleezza Rice after raising one hand. ‘’Since the new Soviet leaders are accusing our CIA of placing that bomb on Red Square, I suspect that they would like to be able to arrest some of our citizens presently inside the U.S.S.R. and then make them confess to be CIA saboteurs before putting them through show trials.’’
‘’I concur with Miss Rice, Mister President.’’ added Ingrid. ‘’That would be a typical Stalinist tactic to invent scapegoats and justify their own actions in the Kremlin.’’
‘’And what could be the ultimate goals of those new Soviet leaders in your opinion, Ingrid?’’
‘’To deflect the Soviet public opinion from the possibility that they were the ones who placed that bomb that killed the more moderate Soviet leaders, Mister President, and to justify ruling the country under harsh dictatorial measures under the pretext of taking emergency measures to defend against an imminent attack by us. Here, I must emphasize that what the rest of the World thinks of their actions is of no importance to these new leaders. The only thing important for them is to gain and keep the loyalty and support of the Soviet military and citizenry. For that, they will be ready to serve us the worse lies possible, as long as their own citizens gobble up those lies…or don’t dare contradicting them.’’
‘’I see!’’ said Bush glumly. ‘’So, we can’t expect any rationality in the Soviets’ actions to come, nor any honesty or decency, right?’’
‘’Especially no honesty and decency, Mister President.’’
‘’Great! So, who are those new Soviet leaders?’’
That was when Brent Scowcroft spoke up for the first time.
‘’Mister President, my expert on Soviet affairs, Miss Condoleezza Rice, has prepared an information brief about those leaders and has made copies of it for all of us.’’
‘’Then she may distribute them around this table.’’
‘’Thank you, Mister President!’’
There were then a few minutes of relative silence as copies of the brief were distributed around and as the members of the National Security Council read it. At the end of his own reading, President Bush looked up at the members of his NSC, looking a bit discouraged.
‘’A fine bunch of old, dogmatic bastards indeed! Could we reason with such men?’’
‘’I would answer ‘no’ to that, Mister President.’’ answered Brent Scowcroft. ‘’The only thing that these men respect and understand is strength. Unfortunately, with both of our countries possessing large nuclear arsenals, any use of force by us could well trigger a catastrophic nuclear exchange, in which everybody would lose.’’
‘’Are you telling me that we are powerless in bringing sense back to these men, Brent? What if, as Miss Rice and General Dows suggest, some of our citizens inside the U.S.S.R. are arrested, forced to confess to be CIA agents and then put on public trial? I am sorry, but I am not ready to let the whole of the United States be publicly humiliated and falsely accused in front of the whole World, even if that costs us a few dozen citizens. If we bend on that, then those Soviet leaders will feel free to do about everything they want after that.’’
‘’Mister President,’’ then said Ingrid, ‘’you are both right and wrong here. Let me explain. First, you are right in my opinion about not bending to any Soviet blackmail involving American citizens wrongly jailed in the U.S.S.R. The United States cannot be seen to capitulate to such barbaric tactics. However, you are wrong in us being powerless in pressuring those Soviet leaders, Mister President. Those leaders depend on the loyalty of the rank and file of the Soviet military, without which it would be impossible for them to stay in power. While Soviet public opposition will be much less critical for them, as they would not hesitate to react brutally to any public protests, they still would need to be cautious about not inflaming Soviet public opinion against them. After all, the members of the Soviet police and military forces are still human beings, with family members and friends composing the Soviet public, something reinforced by the fact that the huge majority of Soviet soldiers are conscripts. Excessive government brutality against unarmed protestors may well turn those conscripts into opponents of this new regime. If you are truly willing to risk losing those American citizens trapped inside the U.S.S.R., then I would suggest that we reply to any Soviet blackmail attempt by a complete embargo against the U.S.S.R. By this, I mean shutting down all the international borders around the Soviet Union and completely cutting the international traffic of both people and goods in and out of the U.S.S.R. If we manage to enroll all our allies in this, it would quickly strangle the Soviet economy, which is already in a rather bad shape, and in turn cause resentment within the U.S.S.R.’’
‘’Convincing all the neighbors of the Soviet Union to enforce such an economic blockade won’t be easy, Ingrid.’’ replied the Secretary of State, James Baker. ‘’Some of those neighbors are officially neutral countries, like Finland and Sweden, while I doubt that China would be ready to backstab a fellow Communist country.’’
‘’Then, we will have to be persuasive, Secretary Baker.’’ said Ingrid, her expression dead serious. ‘’This is a make or break moment and we will have to show resolve if we don’t want to become the puppets in this game of Soviet blackmail.’’
‘’What about our citizens who could end up in Soviet jails, tortured into confessing crimes they didn’t commit? You said yourself that using military force would be too dangerous?’’ protested Vice-President Dan Quayle. ‘’Are you really ready to abandon them?’’
That earned him a sharp stare from Ingrid, who replied in a cold, warning tone.
‘’I never abandoned American citizens during my decades of service, Mister Vice-President, and I am not about to start now. What I said was that direct military action would be too dangerous, while we will need to apply pressure on the Soviets via an economic blockade. That doesn’t mean that we can’t use other means to save our citizens from becoming hostages and victims of the Soviets.’’
‘’And what kind of means does that leave us, General Dows?’’
‘’I would prefer to discuss this in private with the President, if you don’t mind, Mister Vice-President. Utter secrecy will be needed in this. Let’s see first what the Soviets will do. Then we will be able to take firm decisions.’’
‘’Let it go, Dan!’’ then said Bush, understanding what Ingrid had in mind. He then looked around the table at the members of the NSC. ‘’I believe that what General Dows said is most reasonable and logical. Let’s first see what the Soviets will do, while we do everything possible to warn our citizens to get out of the U.S.S.R. within the next few hours. Then, we will reconvene and examine our response to whatever the Soviets did. I thus declare this meeting over. Ingrid, I will need to speak with you in the Oval Office.’’
As the participants to the meeting left the Situation Room, Dan Quayle went to see Brent Scowcroft, who was about to leave with Condoleezza Rice, and spoke to him in a near whisper.
‘’What kind of means does Dows have in mind, in your opinion, Brent?’’
In response, Scowcroft gave him a no-nonsense look.
‘’It should be quite obvious, in view of her past history, Mister Vice-President. Remember when she was sent on a diplomatic mission to the Middle East years ago, to prevent an imminent Arab-Israeli war? Then, the Israeli nuclear research complex in Dimona literally vanished into thin air, while the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, was found dead in his palace, dead from a brain aneurism. We are talking about a woman who has basically stopped aging in the last four decades and who is known to be able to fly by herself and to heal via the touch of her hands. Whatever she has in mind is probably not some conventional means.’’
16:53 (Moscow Time) / 08:53 (Washington Time)
Taxi, rolling towards the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport
U.S.S.R.
‘’Driver, could you please go faster?’’ asked in good but accented Russian the man in his late forties sitting in the back of the taxi rolling on the highway leading from downtown Moscow to the Sheremetyevo Airport. The driver looked at him through his rear-view mirror.
‘’I’m sorry, sir, but I am already at the speed limit. If I go faster, I will get a ticket.’’
Arthur Woolworth, while exasperated and anxious, did not insist, as the man really was going as fast as he legally could. To his relief, he soon was able to see the terminals and hangars of the airport after a few more minutes. Another seven minutes and his taxi stopped in front of the main entrance to the international passenger terminal. Stepping out of the taxi, the travel agency manager paid the driver, leaving him a good tip, then grabbed his two suitcases and started walking towards the glass doors of the entrance. He was still some ten meters away from them when four burly men in cheap suits jumped on him, forcing him face down on the concrete surface while handcuffing his hands in his back.
‘’OW! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?’’
‘’SHUT UP!’’ shouted one of his attackers, punctuating his order with a brutal punch to his head. Half knocked out, Woolworth was roughly put back on his feet, with a dark bag slipped over his head, then was marched to a waiting car, where he was unceremoniously stuffed into the trunk. The car, with the four bullies in it, then rolled out of its parking spot and took the highway leading back to Moscow.
The travel agency manager had plenty of time to worry about his fate while the car drove along. When it finally stopped and its engine was shut down, Arthur Woolworth was already deathly afraid of what would happen to him next. His four years in Moscow had told him plenty about the brutality and the complete lack of regards towards individual human rights shown by the Soviet police, as he had no doubt that his kidnappers were not simply criminals. The trunk of the car was then opened and two men grabbed him, pulling him out of the trunk and then forcing him to walk while still blinded by the hood. He heard at least two steel doors or gr