"Let's stick to the Baltics, Dvornikov," Greenfield said testily. "They're as independent as the United States or Ireland or the United Kingdom. If one or more of them asked the United States for support, the President would be inclined to give it."

"Military support? Your president would go to war against the Commonwealth to protect the Baltics?"

"Yes," Greenfield replied firmly. "The President may have slashed the U.S. military budget by one-third and closed a hundred military bases in three months, but he knows his role as leader of the free world. Yes, he would commit troops to Europe to back the Baltics."

"Even if it meant a nuclear confrontation?"

"Nuclear confrontation?" Greenfield's eyes registered her surprise. "Russia would risk a nuclear war to occupy the Baltics?"

"That was a very amateurish diversion, Sharon," Dvornikov said with a smile-obviously he enjoyed verbal jousting as much as Greenfield hated it. "I never said Russia wanted to invade the Baltics."

Greenfield was seething. "Look, can I be blunt? Let's cut the shit. If you really called me here to play political mind-games, then it's time I left. An attack on the Baltics could re-ignite the Cold War and erase all the gains that have been made over the years."

"Sharon. . ." Dvornikov sighed, lost in thought. "What the West sees as gains are seen by many in the former Soviet Union as losses. Some say that all perestroika has resulted in is confusion and uncertainty."

"Your current political and economic mess is a result of decades of mismanagement in the communist government, not of democracy and peace," Greenfield said. "Attacking the Baltics-which are now as free and independent as any other country in the world, despite your so-called historical precedent-is a serious act of aggression. The United States will respond as such."

"Sharon, there are immense pressures on the Commonwealth and the Russian government to do something about the current state of affairs. Citizens are starving on a massive scale.

There is unrest everywhere. Deep factions are developing in the central government. The peace of the entire world may be threatened if a military junta is successful or even attempted in Russia. If the Commonwealth breaks apart and Russia becomes a military dictatorship, the whole world will be affected."

"So what do you want the United States to do about it?" Greenfield asked. "You've spurned all attempts to reform your government and your society. Your government leaders can't stand the thought of some successful private-venture sausage-stuffer wielding more political power and becoming wealthier than they."

"I tell you, Sharon Greenfield, some government leaders will be forced to act just to hold on to their lives-not just their political life, their earthly life," Dvornikov said seriously.

"What will the Commonwealth do if one of the member republics invades the Baltic states?"

Greenfield asked.

"What can they do? What power do they have?"

"What power? The Commonwealth has a three-million-man army, two-thirds of which are in the western half."