Contents ( 55)
- In Memoriam
- Epigraph
- Cast of Characters
- Americans
- Russians
- Canadian
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Weapons and Acronyms
- Weapons
- Acronyms
- About the Author
- Also by Dale Brown
- Copyright
- About the Publisher
Admiral Chao nodded firmly. “That’s correct, Mr. Secretary.”
Taylor looked along the table toward Jonas Murphy, favoring him with a shrewd, amused smile. “Which brings us around to you, Jonas.”
“Me?” Murphy said, trying his best to sound surprised.
“Yes, you,” the older man said wryly. “Earlier today, your office transmitted a top secret alert to all of our U.S. Air Force formations deployed in Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq, right? An alert that raised the possibility of a Russian aircraft making an unauthorized transit through their areas of operation?”
Crap, Murphy thought, feeling suddenly cornered. “That’s true.”
“So why did you send out this highly unusual alert?” Taylor asked bluntly, not bothering to beat around the bush.
Left with no other choice, Murphy fell back on partial truth. “The CIA received intelligence from what appears to be a high-level Russian source. Intelligence which suggested the possible defection of a pilot flying one of their most advanced military aircraft sometime in the next twenty-four hours.”
“What type of aircraft?” Taylor pushed.
“Tupolev’s PAK-DA experimental stealth bomber prototype,” Murphy admitted.
That drew the reaction he’d expected. General Neary and the other Joint Chiefs of Staff seated at the table with him looked stunned at first and then somewhat predatory. The prospect of getting a close, hard look at the technology that Moscow had openly boasted would rival and even exceed that of America’s own stealth bombers was irresistible.
“How reliable is the CIA’s intelligence on this?” Taylor asked directly.
Murphy shrugged. “That’s unknown, I’m afraid. We don’t have any history with their source . . . yet.”
“A defection attempt of that magnitude could certainly explain the frantic Russian air and radar activity we’re seeing now,” General Neary mused out loud, looking up at the wall screens. Then he turned back to Murphy. “But do you have any honest-to-God confirmation that such a defection is actually underway?”
The DNI glanced at the secure smartphone he’d laid faceup on the conference table in front of him. There were no new messages from Miranda Reynolds, the head of the CIA’s clandestine operations service. He shook his head. “Unfortunately, I don’t.”
“Which means what you’ve been sold could be typical Russian disinformation,” Neary pointed out. “Part of a deliberate plan to sow confusion and slow our response to the increase in military readiness we’re seeing right now.”
Murphy nodded uncomfortably. “That’s certainly possible.”
“Which leaves us with the question of how we’re going to respond to what we do know right now,” Taylor broke in. “Which is that the Russians are rapidly bringing their combat air units and ground-based air defenses to wartime levels of readiness.” He looked along the table. “Suggestions?”
After a glance at his colleagues, Neary leaned forward. As the chief of staff for the Air Force, this was largely his bailiwick. “My recommendation to the president is that he immediately raise our own alert status to DEFCON Three, both here at home and abroad.” The other senior officers around the table nodded, signaling their agreement. DEFCON Three would put the entire U.S. military on full alert, with the Air Force ready to move at fifteen minutes’ notice. “And I also strongly recommend that he contact our allies and urge them to take similar precautionary measures.”