“Mr. President, gentlemen. We appear to have a problem.” A former Stanford law professor, the NSA treated every briefing like a classroom lecture. He looked at the group around the big table over the tops of his glasses and rubbed his chin. He seemed to be considering whether or not to give a pop quiz. “It appears that the Russian government has entered a period of serious and tumultuous upheaval. You have all seen the interview with Admiral Durov, I am sure. He is not only assuming the reins of government of his country by using military force, but he is also accusing the United States of sinking two Russian submarines, and also of kidnapping President Smitrov, precipitating this whole crisis. He is, in effect, blaming his coup on us. We…those of us in this room…know what has truly taken place. We also know that our operatives near the submarine base have images of Durov’s troops kidnapping the president. So far as we know, those Navy SEALs somehow managed to get Smitrov away from Durov’s people and were attempting to rendezvous with one of Admiral Donnegan’s submarines…the Toledo…somewhere in the Murmansk Fjord. The plan was to use a mini-submarine to extract them. That is, I’m afraid, about all we do know. We do not know if President Smitrov is dead or alive. We do not know if the SEALs were able to escape. We have satellite evidence that they used a Russian troop carrier to attempt an escape from Polyarnyy, but that carrier was destroyed by Russian fire. There is every chance that everyone…the SEALs, the Russian president…were all killed in that attack and the photo evidence of the kidnapping of President Smitrov was destroyed as well. If that is the case, to the rest of the world, all evidence would now point to Admiral Durov being accurate in his charges against us. In short, gentlemen, we have one royal mess up there!” Kinnowitz turned to look at Admiral Donnegan. He stared at him for a full fifteen seconds before he spoke again. “Tom, what have you heard from your assets up there? Please give us some positive news.”