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"Maybe nothing has happened."
Sergei shook his head. "If North Point station was seeing a ghost, Lenin Base should have immediately responded with a denial."
"It really looks like they're all asleep up there!" said Peter, and leaned back in his chair.
Sergei agreed. "You'd better call Lenin Base and find out what they know.... Unless they have been wiped out by a surprise attack."
Peter stared at him. The two men looked at each other in silence. "Stealth Cruise Missiles would not have been seen by North Point radar," said Peter.
"You're right. You'd better get me a line to NORAD first," said Sergei. "Get me Ralph Weissenberg if he is there. I met Ralph and his daughter at Disney World last year. We've talked a number of times since. We understand each other; he won't lie to me."
"Shouldn't you leave the diplomacy to Moscow?" Peter replied.
"No, Peter, don't argue, just do it. Moscow is talking to the generals, I want to hear the story from someone in the war room, someone with lesser rank, someone I can trust."
Peter complied with his wishes.
Sergei felt that if this were an accident, he would be partly responsible. It was his primary duty in the service of his country to keep the strategic planners in line so that there would be no accidents! Safety was regarded equally as important as strength. Only, could one man, working alone, do such a thing and do it in secret? An impossible task! If he failed, it wasn't his fault, he reasoned. He had done his best, had he not?
One of the most recognized facets of the old Soviet political system, under which his career begun, has always been its secrecy. In this regard, nothing had changed. The veil could still be so dense on occasion that several departments might try to control the same mission without any one knowing of the other. The Department of Strategic Planning was one of these.
The strategic planning office resided in a thirty-nine story concrete tower in the capital's university district. Were it not for a ten foot iron fence surrounding the grounds and military guard stations at its entrances, the complex could well be mistaken for an institution of learning or research. In a broad sense perhaps, it was an institution of research and learning. Behind its vast mosaic of double pane windows the country's strategic thrust was born. With mathematical precision, strategies of nuclear deterrence and war fighting capabilities were formulated, modeled, studied, evaluated, modified.... Unknown to all but a few, a second Strategic Planning office existed thousands of miles away, set up to keep the thrust of the first within reasonable limits. This was Sergei's domain.
His operation was based inside an old country estate in one of the finest ranching districts south of the Ural Mountains. Its location was ideal, on a high plain near a lake, surrounded by forests and open lands. The ranch once served as a summer escape for Moscow's nobility. Sergei called it his oasis. For his purposes the place and location was ideal. It provided the needed isolation that his job depended on. He needed to be distant from the influence-seeking mania that reigned within the strategic department in Moscow. He had selected the ranch himself. He needed a place to take the various policy makers to, when he felt they needed to get away from their desks in order that he might re-shape their ambitious plans by injecting some common sense, as it were. He felt this could be achieved in the solitude of a country-estate setting.
Usually, when his visitors arrived, they had a long journey behind them. Usually, he would have them arrive by train from Gurjev, which can be reached from Volgograd via a local air service with a twin engine turbo prop. Peter would pick them up at the train station, adding a two-hour bus ride to the end of their journey. This was all part of the plan. He could have arranged for air transportation right to the ranch. The ranch featured an airstrip long enough for a small bomber to land on. Except this fast access would have destroyed the feeling of isolation which he felt his visitors needed.
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