"What might that be?" Fowler asked harshly.

Ryan's head dropped at the tone of the reply. "Sir, the FBI has just informed us that they have information on two, possibly three, confirmed terrorist suspects in Denver today. Two of them are believed to be on an airliner inbound to Mexico. I have people in the area, and we're going to try and pick them up, sir."

"Wait a minute," Fowler said. "We know that this wasn't a terrorist act."

"Ryan, this is General Fremont. How was this information developed?"

"I don't know all the details, but they have information on an automobile - a truck, I think, a van, that was at the site. They've checked the tag number and the owner - the owner turned up dead, and we ran the other two down by their airline tickets and -"

"Hold it!" CINC-SAC cut Ryan off. "How the hell can anyone know that - a survivor from the bomb site? For Christ's sake, man, this was a hundred kiloton weapon -"

"Uh, General, the best number we have now - it came from the FBI - is fifty-KT, and -"

"The FBI?" Borstein said from NORAD. "What the hell do they know about this? Anyway, a fifty-kiloton weapon wouldn't leave any survivors for over a mile around. Mr President, that cannot be good information."

"Mr President, this is the NMCC," Ryan heard on the same line. "We just received a message from Kodiak. That Soviet submarine is attacking USS Maine. There is a torpedo in the water, Maine is attempting to evade."

Jack heard something, he wasn't sure what, over the speakerphone.

"Sir," Fremont said at once, "this is a very ominous development."

"I understand that, General," the President said just loudly enough to hear. "General - SNAPCOUNT."

"What the hell's that?" Goodley asked quietly.

"Mr President, that is a mistake. We have a solid piece of information here. You wanted information from us, and now we have it!" Ryan barked rapidly, almost losing it again. His hands went from flat to fists. Jack struggled with himself again, and regained control. "Sir, this is a real indicator."

"Ryan, it looks to me like you've been lying and misleading me all day," Fowler said, in a voice that hardly sounded human at all. The line went dead for the last time.

The final alert signal was sent out simultaneously over dozens of circuits. The duplication of channels, their known function, the brevity of the message, and the identical encipherment pattern told the Soviets much, even before the receipted signal was input into their computers. When the single word came out, it was reprinted in the Kremlin command center only seconds later. Golovko took the dispatch off the machine.

"SNAPCOUNT," he said simply.

"What is that?" President Narmonov asked.

"A code-word." Golovko's mouth went white for a moment. "It's a term from American football, I think. It means the set of numbers used before the - the quarterback takes the ball to begin a play."