“But there’s more to it than that. Despite the President and the Defense Minister having their own suitcase for command and control, actual physical control of the unlock and launch authorization codes resides with the military. In fact, the General Staff has direct access to these codes and can initiate a missile launch with or without permission of the political authorities.”

“So, if we captured the launch sites and the command posts, would we be able to take control of the missiles?”

“The million-dollar question, ma’am. We believe we can take control, but I will explain it at the end, so please bear with me. First though, while the Russians are focused on our main forces approaching the Baltics, 82nd Airborne will sneak in and secure the Kaliningrad launch sites. Meanwhile, our Special Forces will capture the command bunker from which all the sites are controlled. Once we’ve got them secured, we’ll redirect the missiles at the Russians. They’ll be bound to be threatening us once they realize what we’ve done, but we’ll be able to threaten them back. And with their own missiles. I can’t imagine the Russian people will exactly appreciate that scenario, especially once it’s all over social media, which we will ensure it is the moment it happens.”

Dillon leaned back and as she thought through the consequences and how it would work out politically, she began to smile. “If the President became a laughing stock after what the Latvians did to him in the forest, how much greater a humiliation this would be . . .”

Then her face hardened again. “But how many launch sites are there? How many missiles? And what do we have to put on the ground to grab them?”

McCann was ready for these questions. “We believe the Russians have got one hundred nuclear-armed Iskander missiles. Next slide please.” On the screen a high-resolution image of Kaliningrad appeared. “They’re on mobile launchers, but deployed at three protected launch sites.” And again, he directed his laser pointer at the screen. “Here, at Pravdinsk, Yuzhnyy and Ozërsk—with all the sites controlled from the command set-up at Pravdinksk—that’s here, in the center. As for numbers of our people. We’ll need to insert Special Forces, specially trained to adjust the missiles electronically, but also to act as pathfinders for the main force. They’ll be followed by an air assault force at each launch site to break in and secure the missiles.”

“How will you stop the Russians counter-attacking?” quizzed the President.