After two hours they drove into a broad valley that had been taken over by the Red Army. Here engineers were building a launch site. This was one of more than a dozen tucked away out of sight in the folds of the mountains all across the 777-mile-long island of Cuba.

Tanya and Paz got out of the car to watch the crate being off-loaded from the truck, again under floodlights. “We did it,” said Paz in a tone of satisfaction. “We now have nuclear weapons.” He took out a cigar and lit it.

Sounding a note of caution, Tanya said: “How long will it take to deploy them?”

“Not long,” he said dismissively. “A couple of weeks.”

He was not in the mood to think about problems, but to Tanya the task looked as if it might take more than two weeks. The valley was a dusty construction site where little had so far been achieved. All the same, Paz was right: they had done the hard part, which was bringing nuclear weapons into Cuba without the Americans finding out.

“Look at that baby,” Paz said. “One day it could land in the middle of Miami. Bang.”

Tanya shuddered at the thought. “I hope not.”

“Why?”

Did he really need to be told? “These weapons are meant to be a threat. They’re supposed to make the Americans afraid to invade Cuba. If ever they are used, they will have failed.”

“Perhaps,” he said. “But if they do attack us, we will be able to wipe out entire American cities.”

Tanya was unnerved by the evident relish with which he contemplated this dreadful prospect. “What good would that do?”

He seemed surprised by the question. “It will maintain the pride of the Cuban nation.” He uttered the Spanish word dignidad as if it were sacred.

She could hardly believe what she was hearing. “So you would start a nuclear war for the sake of your pride?”

“Of course. What could be more important?”

Indignantly she said: “The survival of the human race, for one thing!”

He waved his lighted cigar in a dismissive gesture. “You worry about the human race,” he said. “My concern is my honor.”

“Shit,” said Tanya. “Are you mad?”

Paz looked at her. “President Kennedy is prepared to use nuclear weapons if the United States is attacked,” he said. “Secretary Khrushchev will use them if the Soviet Union is attacked. The same for De Gaulle of France and whoever is the leader of Great Britain. If one of them said anything different he would be deposed within hours.” He drew on his cigar, making the end glow red, then blew out smoke. “If I’m mad,” he said, “they all are.”

• • •

George Jakes did not know what the emergency was. Bobby Kennedy summoned him and Dennis Wilson to a crisis meeting in the White House on the morning of Tuesday, October 16. His best guess was that the subject would be on the front page of today’s New York Times, with the headline: