Able One Read Free Page B

too.
    “Pyongyang has been on the wire with us for three hours now,” said the Secretary of State. Her normally cool demeanor was gone; she looked just as worried--almost frightened--as the rest of the people in the Oval Office.
    “They’re pissing themselves, they’re so scared,” the National Security Advisor added, with a grim smile. A former admiral, he still looked as if he were in uniform, despite his light gray hand-tailored three-piece suit. His silver hair was tousled, though; he’d been running his hands through it since this meeting had begun.
    Frowning slightly at him, the Secretary of State said, “The North Korean government is begging us to show some restraint--”
    “Restraint?” the President snapped. “They’ve attacked us!”
    State raised a brow. “‘Someone has attacked not only us but the whole civilized world. It’s not just our satellites that have been wiped out. But Pyongyang says it wasn’t them.”
    “That missile came from North Korea,” said the Secretary of Defense in his heavy, rasping voice. “We traced its launch and its orbital track.”
    “But it wasn’t launched from one of their regular launching bases,” State insisted. “Pyongyang assures us that the North Korean government did not authorize the launch or the detonation of that bomb in orbit.”
    “What difference does that make?” the President growled. “It came from their territory. It’s knocked out just about every satellite in orbit.”
    “Except for our hardened birds,” Defense pointed out. He was the oldest man in the room, a former longtime senator, bald and jowly. He and the Secretary of State had been senators together and rivals for the nomination that the man behind the desk had won.
    State raised a manicured hand. “Wait a minute. Since Kim Jong Il died last year North Korea’s been in turmoil, practically civil war.”
    “Their military took control of the government,” the National Security Advisor said.
    “Yes,” State agreed, “but there are factions within the military. One of the rebel factions must have fired that missile.”
    “What difference does that make?”
    “Pyongyang tells us they’re sending troops to the site where the missile was launched. They’re asking us to allow them to solve the problem by themselves.”
    “Won’t wash,” said the Security Advisor.
    “Are you saying we should send in our own troops?” the President asked.
    “Or hit that launch site with an air strike?” State added.
    The Security Advisor turned slightly toward the oversized television screen mounted on the wall between portraits of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt. Without asking the President’s permission, he half rose from his chair and reached for the remote control unit on the desk.
    The wall screen flickered, then showed a satellite image of rugged, mountainous country. Snowpacks covered many of the peaks; from orbit they looked like bony white fingers stretching across the bare brown mountains.
    “NRO satellite imagery, two hours old,” said the Security Advisor. “That’s the area where the missile came from.”
    The view zoomed in dizzyingly, then steadied to show a leveled area of ground where a dozen brown military trucks were parked in a ragged circle. At the center of the circle two missiles were standing on portable launch pads. A third pad was empty.
    “That’s where the missile was launched,” said the Security Advisor. “As you can see, they have two more ready to go.”
    The President sagged back in his chair. “They’re armed with nukes?”
    “We’ve got to assume that they are.”
    “Hit them now!” the Secretary of Defense urged. “I can get a submarine within range in a few hours. Wipe them out with one missile.”
    The President’s eyes never left the image on the screen. “In a few hours they could launch both those missiles.”
    “What’s their range?” asked Defense. “Could they hit us?”
    The CIA director said, “Our people have