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will arrive before this hearing is concluded. Nowtell me why the Pravda was sunk and what has become of the missile it carried. Is it safely at the bottom of the sea?" |
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With drunken defiance, Aleyev raised his head and shouted, "The Device is where it is intended to be. The Device will do what we intended it should do." |
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Cherny's face seemed paler than before. "Hear me and understand what I am telling you. A Canadian woman claims to have been an eyewitness to the sighting of a submarine in Hudson Bay at approximately this time last year, that the airplane in which she was a passenger was shot down by that same vessel. Are you aware of that? Yes, I see you are. I believe it was the Pravda. What I did not know until the Canadians and the Americans approached me this very day for 'a Russian nuclear accident team,' was that there has been widespread nuclear pollution in the precise location where the submarine was seen last year. Now goddamn you to hell, Eduard Sergeivich, tell me what you and your fascist Soyuz friends have done and why." |
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Aleyev, his moment of defiance over, closed his eyes and said nothing. |
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Cherny turned to Yadanov. "Describe the modifications that were made to the missile that was put abroad the Pravda. Don't look in your notes. Just speak." |
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"Yes, Mr. President." The man's skin was the color of chalk. "Ahaccording to General Orgonev's designwe, ahenlarged a surplus SS-18 and fitted it into the modified missile bay of the Pravda. The mitred warhead was removed and replaced with a single warheadahthat had beenahenhanced. The yield was increased to an estimated eighty to a hundred megatons, Honorable President, suitable for detonation in space as a pulse weapon." |
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Cherny leaned forward. "A pulse weapon? To be used for what purpose?" |
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"A large detonation at the proper altitudevery highwould render an enemy electronically deaf, dumb, and blind |
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