and your assembled advisors I say this; it has never been, nor will it ever be, my intention to use my considerable arsenal in an offensive manner against another nation. The nuclear and traditional forces under my control are currently on standby readiness, but it is purely defensive in nature, and is only aimed at internal targets if Admiral Torrance should decide to initiate a hostile act,” Alex said and Liz spoke in Russian to relay his message.
“General, Admiral Krystanilaus, you have most of the land based and some of the air to air nuclear weapons at your disposal is that correct?” Liz spoke to Alex.
“No sir that is not correct, this morning we effectively shut out Admiral Torrance from any land based nuclear weapon systems; I now command NORAD and SAC exclusively. I have all of the land-based weapons and all of the air-to-air nuclear weapons in my arsenal. I have Air Force 2 and three separate control centers spread out across the nation from which to launch if I choose to do so,” Liz translated.
“Then Admiral Torrance has the U.S. Navy and its carrier force along with the submarine fleet?” The Admiral inquired. Liz spoke to Alex.
“No sir, that is not correct either, approximately six hours ago I secured the loyalty of Admiral Hanover and his entire staff. Along with that comes three carrier groups, two in San Diego, and one in Hawaii, twelve attack subs, six missile frigates, and thirty-eight thousand sailors and airmen, which includes, two full Marine divisions,” Alex said and Liz passed it on to the Admiral.
“General, you are now the most powerful military figure to ever walk the earth; I pray that you will be wise and judicious in using your new found power. That is all I had Mr. President.” Liz translated for Alex.
“Gentlemen, it is my most fervent hope that I will never have to fire a shot in anger at anyone. However, do not mistake my defensive posture as one of weakness. I will not hesitate to act against any aggressor to protect this nation, I hope you can relay that to your Chinese friends for me,” Alex finished and Liz spoke in Russian.
“General, this is General Inken, I head up the Air Forces for Russia. You have command of the B-2 bomber squadron and all the air launch nuclear tipped cruise missiles?” he asked. Liz relayed the question to Alex.
“Yes General, they are all under my control,” Alex replied and Liz interpreted.
“Mr. President, as long as General Hanken has that kind of control over so much of the US strategic arsenal we don’t have to worry about Admiral Torrance, that is all I had,” Liz passed it along to Alex.
“One final question General Hanken, what if Admiral Torrance launched an attack against us with no provocation on our part, who would you support?” the President asked.
“Mr. President, I would employ the old military tactic that states, my enemy’s enemy is my ally, I would help to annihilate him, he is a traitor to this country, and I will spend my last drop of blood seeing to it that he hangs,” Alex concluded and Liz interpreted.
“General Hanken, I like what I hear from you, it sounds like you are a reasonable and honorable man. If we can help in any way, call on us, and I look forward to meeting you someday. Elena and Andrade you show the Americans how good we are at counter intelligence make us proud, good day General,” the President said.
“And good day to all of you, and thank you.”
Alex turned and looked at the astonished expression on Ted Jeffers’ face and the blank stare on Somers face.
“Alex do you think the Russians bought that?”
“Of course not, but I wanted to strike the first conciliatory note, it will give us some time before they start dispatching agents over here to stir the kettle.”
“Jesus Hanken, you just did in fifteen minutes what nine previous Presidents have been unable to do for over forty years,” Jeffers commented.
“Don’t you believe it for a minute, the Russians still don’t trust us.”
“He’s right our military leaders especially don’t trust the Americans, but my boss, Petrov Ingosich, I think he can be swayed to your way of thinking General,” Elena offered.
Sandi stuck her head in and mentioned to Alex that the base housing officer was here to take Elena and Andrade to the civilian office for their housing and id’s. Alex told them both to return to the residence for dinner at six sharp, they agreed and excused themselves.
“Mom, he had the entire Russian elite eating right out of his hands, it was a truly historic moment.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you Liz, you were outstanding, there was no hesitation during your interpretation, excellent job, and you might be exaggerating a little on the level of acceptance by the Russians,” Alex stated.
Alex asked Sandi to have a nice dinner prepared. He wanted to get things started on the right foot. Sandi mentioned he needed call to Torrance at eight. Also, did he remember Professor Kumar from Cal Tech, who gave the presentation in Washington DC? He had called and wanted to speak to him as soon as possible. She told the professor that Alex would call him back the next morning. Alex put his arm around Sandi’s shoulder and told her how important she was to him and what a great job she was doing; she was the tie that kept him strong. He asked if the staff had gotten Ted settled into his room there at the residence and she said it was taken care of.
“Alex, I think we have some of our little family here starting to show signs of affection for one another,” Sandi said.
“Oh really, I hadn’t noticed.”
“Of course not, men never do,” Sandi looked at Alex and he had the deer in the headlights look on his face. Or was it that he was so preoccupied with the struggles before them that he seemed detached from the moment?
Sandi decided these weren’t issues Alex should be concerned with and would let those issues reside with her to deal with them as they arose. Liz and Bill were definitely moving closer together and she suspected Tina and Lt. Commander Morris might be having their moments together as well. Since Alex was relying more and more on Mike Morris she arranged to have Morris assigned to a spare bedroom in the residence…maybe that would help.
Major Kemp, the base housing officer drove Elena and Andrade to the civilian processing office to get their id’s and the cash advance. When they entered the office and the Major explained what he wanted, the Air Force clerk said they would have to fill out six different forms and have their backgrounds checked by the FBI before he could do anything. Elena and Andrade looked at each other and sighed heavily.
“Uh, young man come here, you see these two people standing here; they are the personal guests of General Hanken. They are going to be here for quite some time, as opposed to you, who, when I tell General Hanken how you treated them, will undoubtedly end up counting penguin droppings on the North Slope of Alaska.”
“Uh, yes sir, I didn’t realize they were General Hanken’s guests, I’ll get this processed right away, just a couple of minutes, and how much cash advance did they want?”
“Two thousand.”
Once they had the id’s and the cash, the Major drove them over to the motor pool to pick out a vehicle. The motor pool sergeant was about to offer resistance in the form of paperwork, when Kemp informed him of the guest’s status with General Hanken. He gave them a staff officer car, with a prepaid unlimited gas credit card. The Major told them to
