General Keith Morrison, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was the only other man in the room. He was sitting in one of the chairs in front of Castilla’s desk, talking quietly into a secure phone. After a moment he stood and wrote upside down on a legal pad in front of the president.

4m 30 sec

It was the countdown to when the two groups of fighters would come within weapons range. To when the world could potentially change forever.

“MR. PRESIDENT!” Castilla shouted at the top of his lungs. “LET ME SPEAK, DAMN IT!”

Yandong fell into a stunned silence just as a Secret Service man burst through the door with his gun drawn. He retreated when Keith Morrison waved him off.

“Mr. President,” Castilla said, moderating his tone. “The aircraft is not disabled. I want to tell you exactly what’s happening and why. Please, sir, let me fully explain the situation to you before it’s too late.”

The silence on the other end of the line extended for a few seconds. Finally, Yandong spoke. “You have one minute.”

It seemed like an arbitrary deadline to avert one of the worst humanitarian disasters in history but he’d have to work with it.

Castilla looked again at the numbers Morrison had written on the pad. Of course he wasn’t going to tell his Chinese counterpart the full, unvarnished truth. Instead, he’d use the cocktail of facts, diversions, and lies that Fred Klein had come up with. When it came to this kind of thing, Klein was the best who ever lived.

“Masao Takahashi has gone insane,” Castilla said deliberately. “We recently learned that he’s developed a new kind of biological weapon and that he’s planning on releasing it in China.”

This time the screaming at the other end was completely unintelligible. Some was in Chinese and obviously not aimed at him. Castilla tried to stay calm, praying that he hadn’t just opened the gates for a nuclear attack on Japan.

“President Yandong! Let me finish.”

The shouting on the other end died down and Castilla could hear the man’s elevated breathing over the line. It was a good sign. Yandong was understandably scared, and scared people were usually looking for a way out. Unless they panicked, in which case everyone was screwed.

General Morrison stood again and wrote 2m 30 sec on the pad. Castilla ran a hand across his throat, signaling him to stop with the updates. The pressure was bad enough as it was.

“We believe that Prime Minister Sanetomi and his government are completely ignorant of Takahashi’s pla—”

“Is Takahashi on the plane with Sanetomi?” Yandong interjected.

“Yes, but—”

“And does Takahashi have the biological weapon with him?”

“We believe he does. We also think it’s likely that he’s either subdued or murdered the prime minister.”