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Page 326
''He is in American hands, in an American hospital."
Aleksandr Cherny closed his eyes for a moment. "The astonishing thing is that you three and your mentor, Piotr Kondratiev, have so little knowledge of the world. The American President has discovered your intentions. He has ordered an alert at the level of defense condition two while lecturing me as if I were a child still in school. Their submarines are already putting to sea, their strategic bombers are already on air alert, and their missile silos are manned and ready to fire. The crucial element of surprise in your plan has been lost. In fact, they have declared that any attempt at an illegal change of government in this country will be considered an act of war. And now we are required to supply a disaster response team, to be sent to Canada by tomorrow. The team is to find the missile in concert with the Canadians."
Aleyev blurted arrogantly, "You agreed to this, Aleksandr Borisovich? This is not the Persian Gulf, and we are not Iraqis. The Americans' golden weapon systems will be jammed, unusable. Our Device is safe on the bottom of Hudson Bay. They'll never find it. It will launch itself no matter what the Americans say or do."
Boris Gallikov, silent to this point, said harshly, "Honorable President, that's not so. I have looked into the technical side of this missile very thoroughly. If Eskimo are dying of plutonium poisoning in Canada's Northwest Territories, that is evidence the Device is leaking. If so, the chances of the missile launching itself are remote."
"Well, Lykov? Is that true?" Cherny demanded.
"Yes." Lykov's reply was almost inaudible.
Time seemed to pass very slowly in the hot, paneled room.
"Go on, Lykov," Cherny said. "Now."
The weapons man spoke haltingly, "He is right. A launch failure will not deactivate the warhead, Excellency." Lykov's voice dropped to almost a whisper. "The device is one designed to detonate a given number of seconds after the designated time of launch. It was made so in order to prevent

 
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