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He bit his nails. How would he explain this to them? How would he explain to them that this was an accident? He knew nothing more than they did. And damn! What if it wasn't an accident? What if it was a calculated, sinister plan to start a global offensive?
"You should also scan the alert lists," he said to Peter. "See if Lenin Base had anything special going at this time!"
Sergei himself was busy trying to gain access to the security system's log file, to see if it contained a clue as to where the launch had originated.
"Did it ever occur to you that the whole thing may be a test?" said Peter. "Maybe someone is testing us to see how fast we can respond?"
"If this is a test, I'll hang the one who thought of it. But it doesn't look like a test, Peter. Nobody would call a test with no information to respond to. No Peter, that's no test, something has gone awfully wrong, I just can't figure out what it is."
At this point the telephone began to ring. The National Security System had finally established the requested telephone link to NORAD center in Colorado that Ralph was assigned to.
"Its about time!" Sergei muttered. "The whole world could go up in smoke before one can get any response out of these damn machines."
The commanding officer was on the line, shouting angrily at Sergei before he had a chance to speak a word.
"I suspect you have registered our launch," Sergei replied calmly.
"What the hell is going on?" the American commander requested.
"I wish I knew," Sergei replied. "But let me speak to Ralph Weissenberg if he is on duty, he speaks Russian better than anyone else at your base. Actually, I only want to verify with you what our own radar has reported."
Weissenberg was less excited.
"OK, what can you tell me, Sergei," he asked in Russian. "Is this another one of your famous tests, eh?"
"I have a gut feeling that this may be a test of some sort," Sergei came back, "except I see no entry in the system about a test, or anything else, only a radar report that something has been launched from Freedom One, that's Lenin Base."
"You've launched one all right," Ralph replied, "Alaska confirms that it came from Lenin Base. Our generals here are wondering why it hasn't been terminated yet. Usually your tests are terminated very quickly...."
"Lenin Base should have issued the self-destruct before it left the base perimeter, unless it was a malfunction during the alert," Sergei responded. "The trouble is, Lenin Base didn't even acknowledge that anything went up, nor did they respond to my emergency call. You wouldn't have attacked them with your new stealth aircraft, would you?"
"Hey, you don't honestly believe that the Air Force would inform us so that we could pass information like that on to you? Not a chance my friend. We, too, only follow orders, and are told no more that we need to know. And I can assure you, the only thing I know for certain, is that your damn missile is still coming towards us, and that your people haven't made any effort to stop it."
"Don't worry Ralph, we have a good team in the north," Sergei replied. "If the base hasn't been blown up, by an accident or whatever, they'll get the thing terminated before it goes out of range. They always have in the past, haven't they?"
"...Yes, but it has never taken them that long!"
At this point Peter came to the phone, saying that he had gained access to the alert files. "Lenin Base had an alert in progress, for launcher 243."
"Get me the missile status file, Peter."
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