Now even the most cynical foreign observers of the British scene were remarking at the return of the “Blitz” spirit of 1940. Even more unexpected had been the reaction of hitherto pacifist Germany, where the Bundestag and Constitutional Court had been almost bellicose in their support for Article 5. Meanwhile, it looked as if America under its new president, despite its much-heralded Asia–Pacific pivot, might be about to refocus on Europe and resume its infernal interference with European defense. This was despite the President’s clever move in repatriating the American bodies and prisoners taken at Lielvārde air base in Latvia with due ceremony, in an effort to make some sort of amends, and try and draw a line under the matter. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, word had it that the intelligentsia, hitherto uncritical supporters of the President, were whispering—very quietly—that all this had come about because the President had lost his temper and become a laughing stock.

And now, the President had just ordered General Gareyev to put Major Vronsky, his lead operative in Latvia and the man currently charged with hunting down the leaders of these Forest Brother terrorist cells, to finding a lowly British captain of infantry; a man so unimportant that he hardly even counted as a pawn in the deadly game of geopolitical chess they were now engaged in. That more than anything made Komarov wonder whether the whisperers might be right; that the President was losing his sense of perspective and with it his grip. He prayed he was wrong because, as the President’s enabler, it would be a very exposed place to be if the President insisted on making any more poor decisions.

At that point the President’s mistress entered the room. “Darling,” she purred as she ruffled the President’s sparse hair. “Have a glass of champagne. Our dinner is nearly ready . . .”

Komarov promptly stood up and left the room. The fact that the War Cabinet had not warned him that Gareyev would give the President this very downbeat briefing meant that they were talking to one another, but no longer to him. The tectonic plates looked as if they might be shifting. It was time to start making some new alliances.

1345 hours, Monday, June 5, 2017

The White House, Washington, D.C.

PETE CHIARINI, THE President’s Executive Assistant, walked through the door and sat down in the easy chair by Colonel Bear Smythson’s desk.