There was silence. “I see it does,” announced Kostilek before anyone could disagree or ask questions. “I therefore call upon DSACEUR to discuss force generation.”

McKinlay looked around the table. In contrast to the previous NACs, there was a sense of purpose and a determination he had never felt before. In its blackest hour, this historic alliance, the most successful the world had ever seen, had found the will and determination to fight back.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I will not go into detail now. Suffice it to say that I will be engaging with each of your nations to discuss the detailed force generation requirement for the operation the Secretary General has referred to. Let me leave you with one point: the operation we are planning will require forces on a scale that NATO has not considered since the days of the Cold War. Unless your nations are prepared to support it properly, it will fail. Be in no doubt that the Alliance has the capability if it has the will. As the Secretary General said earlier, with millions of men and women under arms, NATO is more than a match for anything Russia can put into the fight. My staff are now engaging with each of your nations on what we need. I ask you to convey the message to your governments, that only if they are prepared to step up to the mark will NATO achieve success in liberating the Baltic states.”

He stopped and waited for questions. There were none and shortly afterward the meeting was brought to a conclusion by Kostilek. Howard and McKinlay had their green light.

Admiral Howard leaned over to McKinlay when the last ambassador was well out of earshot. “Now, as we discussed, we start preparing two plans. The deception plan and the real plan. You leave the bullshit one for me to sell to the ambassadors and their political masters. Once the information goes back to national capitals and it’s been crawled over by every goddam civil servant, I’m banking on the Russians having a full copy on their desks a few hours after it has been circulated. Nevertheless, I’ll only reveal details with huge reluctance and under enormous political pressure. That’ll help allay inevitable Russian suspicions. You focus on the real plan. And keep it tight. Very, very tight. If the Russians get even a sniff of it. Well . . .”

An hour later, after yet another high-speed car ride through the Brussels traffic, McKinlay was at his desk in SHAPE, mug of tea in his hand, as the phone call on the secure Brent system was put through to General Reinhardt Jacobsen, the German Chief of Defense Staff, an old friend who had attended Staff College at Camberley with both McKinlay and Kydd, the new British Chief of Defense Staff.