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Sergei's plan depended on the fox having a better than even chance. The hunt needed to be a lengthy affair, long enough for his guest to become fond of the little creature. Ideally the fox would escape many times before the hounds cornered it. Then he would hand his exalted guest a rifle, urging him to put an end to the fox. This would leave the general only three options. He could refuse to accept the rifle. Or he could have pity on the little creature and forego the killing. Or, if Sergei's hunch were correct, he would shoot the fox.
Once he shot it, it would then become Peter's task to make certain the general felt as rotten about it as could possibly be arranged. The rules of the hunt would decree that the general must carry the blood stained, lifeless body back to the house. Peter would insist on it. At the house, then, he would take the fox from him, examine it, declare it a worthless mess, and hurl it into a garbage container with obvious disgust.
It was a risky plan. But the plan worked. In fact it worked so well that it had a greater impact on the general than either Sergei or Peter had envisioned.
Two weeks after the hunt, Sergei received a call from Moscow. He was informed that the general was about to resign. Laara suggested that he might have been already wavering, but as an old guard general, didn't want to lose face. He may not have shot the fox if it were up to him.
As it was, the general's resignation didn't fit Sergei's plan. The named successor was a 'bloodhound!' Sergei needed an ally in high places. So, several more invitations were required, and hours of patient arguing preceded the old general's promise to remain in office long enough to convince the rest of the generals that it was in their own best interest to let the security project proceed.
In time, Sergei and the general became good friends. On one of his later visits the general explained how deeply this incident had touched him. "The idea of targets suddenly appeared in a different light. Code-names no longer hid the fact that our targets were children, men, women, struggling to build a life for themselves in an often hostile world." He told Sergei, he became disgusted with the idea of regarding people as factors in a mathematical equation. "There was something about the fox. He had outwitted us. And it wasn't the dogs that killed him. I did that." What bothered him, was that we could have pity on a fox, but not on our fellow human beings.
With the general's support, the post-launch-targeting project became a reality. The exotic recruiting had paid off, while the controversy surrounding the project continued to smolder in high places.
"Damn! Ralph; hold it! I can prove to you that I'm not lying," Sergei shouted into the telephone in response to Ralph's outrage. "Let me supply you with evidence that we really have this Post-Launch-Targeting system installed. I will send you a copy of the status file for the missile that got away. This file will contain a target list with no names entered, which means that targeting is in a 'reset' state. In other words: there are no targets assigned to the launcher."
Sergei leaned back into his chair while Peter entered the appropriate request to access the status file for launcher 243. As the list appeared on the screen Sergei nearly fainted. The list wasn't in a reset state! It was active. Targeting had been applied. Post targeting was indicated as being turned off, but it shouldn't have been; Peter had been successful....
A meeting of two weeks prior came to mind, while he struggled not to faint at this crucial hour. At this meeting he had pleaded with the technical people not to make the targeting mode optional. They hadn't listened. What happened now was the direct result of it. Or was it his fault? Had he not pressed hard enough? Was there anything more he could have done?
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