Mounting Fears (4 page)

“When George wakes up, tell him I’m praying for him.”

“I will.”

“Good night.” Will hung up the phone.

“How is he?” the speaker asked.

“Not good,” Will said.

WILL WAS BACKSTAGE at Madison Square Garden in the reception room that had been arranged for him. Kate arrived from Washington with his stepson, Peter, in tow.

Will kissed them both. “Any news on the Pakistani thing?”

“The counterattack should be in progress now,” she said. “I don’t know when we’ll have the result.”

Kitty came over. “Excuse me, Mr. President, but I think we should get Mrs. Lee and Peter to their box now, before the speaker introduces Governor Stanton.”

“Right,” Will said. He kissed them good-bye, then sat down to watch the proceedings on television, like everyone else.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,” Martin Stanton roared, “the once and future president of the United States of America!”

Will entered from the wings, and a roar went up in the huge arena. The band was playing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” but nobody could hear. The pandemonium continued for a good five minutes, while Will plastered a smile on his face, put an arm around Stanton, and waved like an idiot until they quieted.

As the roar expired, Will stepped forward to the lectern and checked the TelePrompTers on both sides of where he stood.

“The first thing I should tell you is that I’ve just spoken to the vice president’s surgeon and to Nancy Kiel, and George is out of surgery. I hope we’ll have more news of him before the night is over.

“I know that having a new vice-presidential candidate came as a surprise to you, but I didn’t know about it myself, until George came to see me this morning. I hope you’ll all mention him in your prayers tonight.

“Martin Stanton is going to be a great vice president!” he said, and the roar came again, while Stanton waved from the sidelines. Then, as Will was taking a breath to begin his acceptance speech he heard two cell phones begin ringing behind him on the stage. Then he heard more cell phones, some from the audience, and two Secret Service agents came running down the aisles and stood at the foot of the podium, facing the audience.

Will looked over his shoulder and saw Tim Coleman striding toward him from the wings, his cell phone in his hand.

Will stepped away from the microphones. “What’s happened?” he asked as Tim reached him.

Tim leaned in close to Will’s ear. “There’s been a nuclear explosion in Pakistan,” he said.

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WILL FOLLOWED TIM COLEMAN BACK TO THE GREEN ROOM, JUST OFFSTAGE. KITTY Conroy was waiting, and a moment later Kate walked in with Peter in tow.

Will turned to his Secret Service agent. “Please find Peter a safe and private place to wait for us,” he said. “Be sure there’s a TV set.” He turned to Peter. “Peter, please go with the agent. We have to have a meeting here.” Peter left the room with the agent without a word. It was not the first time he had been asked to leave a room.

Will looked at the large-screen TV set on the wall of the room. It was divided into four areas with a different network on each screen. None of them appeared to have the story.

“What kind of communications do we have here?” Will asked.

“One secure line to the White House switchboards, Mr. President. Other than that, only ordinary phone lines, four of them. They’ve been checked repeatedly for bugs.”

“Where’s the nearest command center?” Will asked.

“At the Waldorf, sir.”

“Clear me a path to the Waldorf and let me know when the motorcade is ready to go.”

“Right away, sir,” the agent said. “It shouldn’t take more than ten or twelve minutes.” The man went to work on his cell phone.

“Kate,” Will said, “do you know anything I don’t?”

“No,” Kate said, “but I have a secure cell phone, and I can call Lance at Langley.”

“Please do so.” Will picked up the secure phone, and a White House operator answered immediately. “This is the president. Please connect me with the duty officer at the Pentagon.”

“Yes, sir.” The line was picked up on the first ring.

“Duty officer, Colonel Bird.”

“Colonel, this is the president speaking.”

“Yes, sir?”

“Where are the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the other chiefs of staff?”

“The secretary is still on vacation at his home in Aspen, sir. The others are all en route to the Pentagon, Mr. President,” the colonel said. “The earliest will arrive in twelve minutes and the latest in twenty-one minutes.”

“What information do you have on the nuclear explosion in Pakistan?”

“Only that it has occurred, sir. We caught it on satellite, about forty miles east of the missile site from which it was fired.”

“Thank you, Colonel. Please tell the chairman to call me at the Waldorf command center as soon as he has assembled his group and to arrange to feed video to me there and to the secretary in Aspen.” He hung up the phone and looked at the Secret Service agent. “How soon can we leave for the Waldorf?”

“In about five minutes, sir.”

“I’m going back to the podium,” Will said. “Tell the speaker to call for order now.” Will went and stood in the wings while the speaker quieted the arena, then he walked to the lectern.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please excuse my brief absence. I have some important news for you that has not been broadcast on the networks yet.” Silence fell over the arena. “Early this morning, eastern time, an attack was made by elements of the Taliban, with the possible assistance of Al Qaeda, on a missile launch site in northwestern Pakistan. The site was captured, and among the six missiles stored in silos there, two had uranium-235 nuclear warheads of about ten kilotons each, or about half the size of the Hiroshima bomb.

“I spoke twice this morning and this afternoon to President Khan of Pakistan, and he assured me that preparations were under way to retake the missile site and that the attack would be made this evening. President Khan assured me that all precautions were being taken to secure other missile sites.

“As a precaution, I gave orders to put on alert an Air Force squadron of fighter jets, armed with conventional missiles, and a unit of ground troops, in case they were needed to assist the Pakistani army.

“A few minutes ago, we learned from satellite observations that a nuclear device had detonated in a remote area of northwest Pakistan. We do not know yet whether this was deliberate or accidental.

“As I speak, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are assembling at the Pentagon, and shortly I will be speaking to them and to the secretary of defense, who is in Colorado, from a command center in New York City. I must leave now to go to that site, but I want to assure you that we have no intelligence at this time to indicate that any other place in the world is being threatened. Every indication we have so far is that this disturbance is highly localized, so you have nothing to fear.

“Before I go, please let me say that I am honored to accept your nomination to once again lead my party in the race for president and that I look forward to campaigning all over the United States. Thank you and good night.”

Will turned and walked toward the green room and was met by the speaker on the way.

“What should I do now?” the speaker asked.

“Our business is done here, Tank,” Will said. “Close the convention as planned and send these people home.”

“Yes, sir.”

TWO MINUTES LATER, Will, Kate, and Peter, along with Martin Stanton, were in the presidential limousine bound for the Waldorf. Eight minutes later they were in the Presidential Suite in the Waldorf Towers, sitting at the dining room table, watching an array of screens that had been previously installed in the room. The phone on the table rang, and, simultaneously, the Joint Chiefs of Staff appeared on one screen and the secretary of defense, Charles Quarry, on another.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” Will said. “Mr. Chairman, what do you have to tell us?”

“Mr. President,” the chairman said, “there is precious little information coming in at this time.”

“One moment, please,” Will said. “Tim, get President Khan on the telephone as quickly as you can. General, please go ahead with your report.”

“We know from satellite observations, Mr. President, that the attack by the Pakistani army took place and that, during heavy fighting, a missile was fired—we don’t know whether that was accidental or not. Shortly after that, when the missile was around forty miles downrange in a southeasterly direction, on a course that would have taken it toward Islamabad, it exploded at an altitude of approximately thirty thousand feet.”

“That’s much higher than if an airburst attack had been planned,” Will said.

“Yes, sir. A more effective altitude for an airburst would be three to five thousand feet, depending on the throw weight of the missile.”

“Does it seem likely that the target was Islamabad, then?”

“Yes, sir, it does.”

“We are trying to contact President Khan now. Do you have any information from him or from the Pakistani army at this time?”

“No, sir. We have been unable to reach either the Presidential Palace or army headquarters.”

“The president told me earlier that he was removing himself from the palace to a bunker. Have we had any communication with that place?”

“No, sir. We are unable to reach anyone in authority at this time.”

The secretary of defense spoke up. “General, I believe you have a standing plan to take out the other Pakistani nuclear missile sites.”

“Yes, sir. We do.”

“Do you need to move forces or aircraft to get that done?” Will asked.

“No, sir. We have attack submarines present in the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman as well as in the eastern Mediterranean that can hit the sites with multiple cruise missiles.”

“I want it clearly understood that, should it become necessary to hit the missile sites, all our missiles will be armed with conventional, non-nuclear warheads.”

“That is confirmed, Mr. President. Our plan calls for staggered firings, dependent on the distance of each sub from the targets, so that we get simultaneous strikes, thus giving no opportunity for a retaliatory nuclear attack. We have allotted four cruise missiles for each target.”

“What sort of casualties would such an attack engender?”

“All the sites are on military bases, except the one captured, which is thirty miles from a base. Large numbers of Pakistani troops man the bases, and there are some military dependents there, too, as well as civilian employees. However, the missiles are accurate to within three meters and can be programmed to explode after entering the ground at the sites. Virtually every person manning the sites would be killed, but those in the surrounding area would have a better chance of survival.”

“Can you put a number on the fatalities?”

“Likely several hundred at each of the five remaining sites. Do you wish us to target the site from which the missile was fired?”

“Plan for it, but I’ll make that decision after I speak with President Khan.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Stand by. Madame Director?” Kate was on a phone at the other end of the conference table.

“Yes, Mr. President?”

“Have you been able to obtain any information from your sources in Islamabad?”

“Sir, we have reports from our station there and from our resources on the ground that the blast was seen in the sky from Islamabad, but at the moment the city is reasonably calm. The streets are full of people waiting for news from the president, but no official announcement has been made, except to request calm and that people remain in their homes, which many are not doing.”

“General, did you hear that report?” Will asked.

“Yes, Mr. President, and with that I believe you have everything we can now confirm, until you speak with President Khan or we speak with Pakistani army headquarters.”

“Thank you, General. Please call when you have further information, we’ll be here.” Will hung up. Kate was still on the phone.

“Kate?”

She put her hand over the phone. “Yes?”

“Is there any indication that the attack on the missile installation was part of a planned coup d’état?”

“No, not at this time.”

She continued to talk on the phone, presumably to Lance Cabot, and Will sat and tried to think if there was anything he could do that he had not already done.

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