Third World War (42 page)

He began the descent lazily, then went steeper, then slowed again, and changed the angle of the incline so that the aircraft would not flip over on the sudden release of the bomb.

Gravity pushed his eyes back in their sockets. He began to sweat.

He broke through at 15,000 feet and kept heading down. The target was on the screen. Qureshi made three slight corrections. He was twenty miles from target. His ground speed was 420 knots. The G-force rushed through his body, sucking the skin of his face right against his cheekbones. The bomb sight locked on to the target. He waited eight more seconds, then released the bomb.

The aircraft jumped, suddenly much lighter, but he kept descending, pushing the aircraft until he had a visual sighting, then pulled the Fantan round in a loop to put as much distance as possible between himself and the nuclear weapon.

A bright light filled the plane from the fireball below, making the whole night sky shimmer. The aircraft juddered, then the second blast, the reflection from the forces hitting the ground, came seconds later and shook the Fantan still more. He kept climbing higher and higher. He could no longer see the ground, only a boiling cloud mushrooming, climbing like a hot-air balloon, drawing air inwards and upwards as it ascended, dragging behind it dirt and debris from the ground which clung together forming the stem of the cloud, getting taller and taller as if it were chasing him.

The plane bounced in turbulence. On the ground it looked as if smoke and fire were creeping up the side of the mountains. The bomb had exploded forty-five seconds after he had released it, 2,000 feet above the ground. On the edges of the mushroom cloud was a bubbling mass of purple-grey smoke. Inside was a burning core which made the ground burn like red coals.

Qureshi's hands and wrists ached from gripping the controls. He relaxed in his seat. They broke radio silence, at first the tower at Rawalpindi. Then Hussain's voice, a cry, dropping to a whisper, incredulous and confused. 'Kahuta,' he managed. 'He's betrayed us.' And Qureshi flicked the radio off.

The plane juddered as he levelled off at 16,000 feet, and he turned due east. He felt simultaneously sick and elated. He squeezed his eyes and opened them again.

A cannon shell from an attacking aircraft ripped through his wing. Smoke filled the cockpit, laced with the smell of cordite. Qureshi ejected and in the few seconds he had in the air, he had a brilliant view of his plane going down in a fiery spin towards the red and blue glow of the mushroom cloud.

Everywhere else looked tranquil and at peace.

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43*

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Chunggang-up missile base, North Korea*

'I can do it,' said Kee Tae Shin, standing at the base of the missile. 'But are you certain this is what you want?'

Park Ho would have taken the question from no one else. Park understood Kee better than any man in North Korea. Park was the man Kee had called upon when his wife was dragged away to a labour camp. Park was by his side when gunmen from the previous regime broke into his apartment and shot dead Kee's son and daughter in front of his eyes. It was Park who had tracked Kee's wife to Khechen prison, where he found her on the workhouse floor between rows of sewing machines, her spine broken from beatings, and sleeping in her own urine. It was Park who had knelt down, snapped her neck, then loaded her body into a helicopter and flown it back to Pyongyang, where he appeared, carrying the corpse in his arms, at Kee's door, his eyes wet with tears. And it was Park who had stayed up many nights with the distressed and lonely Kee, guiding him back to his science and skilfully steering his motivation towards support for the regime that had destroyed his family.

Without Kee, Park would never even have been able to make the choice over which delivery system he would use. Kee was one of Park's more brilliant creations and for that Park was prepared to be questioned, as long as they were alone.

He put his hand on Kee's shoulder. 'We have to create the threat of mutually assured destruction, a scenario which stipulates that if we are challenged there will be such terrible consequences that few people are likely to survive.'

Kee looked up sharply, his eyes following the contours of the missile and pointing towards the top of the rocket. 'They know we have this weapon, but they do not know how far it can fly. They know we have nuclear warheads, and they know what happens when one is exploded. But they do not know we have variola major, and they do not know we have a delivery system for it.'

Kee turned as the door behind them opened and Li Pak was ushered in. Unlike Park and Kee, Li had a wife and a son, and therefore everything yet to lose. There was a subtle difference in Li's expression. It was one of nervous enthusiasm, still motivated by the thought of creating something. Park and Kee, on the other hand, were men driven by revenge.

'Tell him,' ordered Park, as soon as the door closed behind Li. Li's presence made the space between the two missile fins and the reinforced concrete wall much smaller. The air was heavy with stale smells of oil and rocket fuel.

'We have successfully activated the interleukin-4 agent with the variola major virus,' said Li. 'Its effect on a human being is rapid and devastating. At the moment, we believe the strain we have created is resistant to the common smallpox vaccinia vaccine, and we are in the process of creating our own antidote to the new strain.'

Although the information was for Kee, Li looked only at Park as he spoke, unable to conceal his excitement.

'Can it withstand the impact stresses of delivery?' asked Kee softly.

'The liquid formulation when deep-frozen is stable in aerosol form,' said Li. 'If the technology explained to me by Comrade Park works, then, yes, the virus will survive a traumatic delivery impact. We have also put in an additive which lowers the freezing point. Your technology will allow the smallpox agent to travel in a refrigerated warhead with thermal shielding to allow it to survive re-entry into the atmosphere.'

Kee nodded. 'That is correct. We tested it over Yokata, and no one picked up what we were doing. It was a complete test of our guidance and delivery systems.'

Park shifted to the door and knocked on it twice. It opened from the other side. 'Come,' he said to Li. 'Dr Kee has something to show you.'

In the small room outside, two oblong-shaped metal casings lay on a table. Kee picked one up. 'You put the liquid formulation in here,' he said, tapping the inside. 'Right in the centre is a barometric pressure trigger. On re-entry, the warhead would release each of these capsules into the atmosphere. They would descend, stabilized by a fixed propeller which would cause the capsule to spin. Between 100 and 25 metres above the ground, the trigger would free the virus from the capsule, but would not destroy it, creating a cloud of infection which would float to the ground.'

Li nodded thoughtfully. 'A trigger, you say?' he muttered. 'Explosive or mechanical?'

'Mechanical. Just enough to prise open the capsule,' said Kee.

Li picked up the second half of the capsule from the table and examined it. 'It should work,' he said. 'We have tested the decay of our viral particles in varying conditions of heat, humidity and light. It would work with even a tiny explosion, if you don't trust the trigger.' He looked up at Park. 'Are we to test this system as facility for a fine-particles aerosol?'

Park laughed. 'Even a test will be seen as an act of war,' he said. 'Give Kee six capsules to put in his warhead.'

Li looked bemused. 'But that is nothing,' he said.

'How much do you have?' asked Park sharply.

'We haven't even begun to mass-manufacture yet--'

'Precisely,' snapped Park. 'And it will take you weeks to do so. You need 20 tonnes to infect 4,000 square kilometres of territory, and only then will we begin to destroy the apparatus of the United States. And by then, they will have developed a vaccine.' He took the capsule off Li and put it back on the table. 'No, Dr Li, you will prepare enough of the virus to show them that we have it and that we can deliver it. This is a weapon which complements the nuclear deterrent. Its purpose is to destroy those elements of society left functioning after a nuclear attack.'

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44*

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Washington, DC, USA*

'We are treating this as a first strike, Jim,' said Mehta, his voice on an open speaker in the strangely empty Oval Office. 'The very fact that Pakistan had an assembled bomb contravenes the spirit of every agreement we ever made about our nuclear arsenals.'

West had not even attempted to replace Brock. The bond between the two men had been so deep that he preferred to keep his own counsel rather than work with a stranger. He had asked Tom Patton to oversee temporarily both the National Security Council and Homeland Security, and Patton sat back alone on the sofa, his arms linked behind his head, listening to the stubborn defiance of the Indian Prime Minister. Mary Newman, fresh from the attack in South Korea, was back on a plane and headed for Beijing. Chris Pierce was in New York, locked in an office at the United Nations with the Cuban ambassador. John Kozerski had perched himself on the window sill and quietly drummed the glass as he listened.

'You are telling me that you will retaliate?' West asked Mehta. He was sitting behind the Oval Office desk, one hand around a glass of iced water and the other tapping the end of his pen against a pad.

'Yes,' said Mehta. 'That bomb was meant for India, Jim--'

'It exploded over Pakistan, less than thirty miles from the capital city.'

'Because the pilot was crazy, that's why. He lost it.'

'Lost it?' exclaimed West. 'He bombed his own nuclear-weapons-making facility. To me that is not the act of a madman.'

'Can you assure me, Jim, that Pakistan has no more aircraft and missiles with assembled nuclear weapons ready to launch?'

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kozerski point towards the television screen, where pictures were showing the roads heading out of Islamabad clogged with people fleeing. Instead of a national leader appealing for calm, it was being left to the news presenters. The army appeared to have melted away, back to barracks. Every road out of Islamabad, except for that heading for Kahuta, was blocked with humans fleeing on foot and in animal-drawn carts, ending the chance of any vehicle making faster progress. When violence broke out, there were no police or troops to intervene. The fighting subsided naturally, usually when one side or another had been killed.

'Have you seen the television pictures, Vasant?' said West. 'I'm looking at them now. This is a broken nation.'

'Cut it,' snapped Mehta. 'I have made my policy perfectly clear. Pakistan has made its intention known. It has assembled a bomb--'

'If you strike back--'

'You should have thought about that when you were propping up that dictatorship. Now listen to me, Jim, because I am going to tell you precisely what we are going to do.'

West beckoned Kozerski, who walked quickly over to the desk and pulled up a chair. West pushed over the pen and notepad and took a sip of water. 'OK, tell me,' he said.

'Until now, we have kept our nuclear weapon components in three different locations. Which is why all these years, Jim, there has never been a threat of mistaken nuclear exchange. Today, that is changing. Now the nuclear pit, the part which goes into the warhead, is at one place, mostly at the Babhu Atomic Research Centre near Mumbai. The warhead is somewhere else, and the delivery system - plane, missile or submarine - somewhere else again. We are bringing all those three together to assemble our weapons. We have 150 warheads, excluding the 2-kiloton type of tactical weapon used last night. In six hours time, our Mirage 2000 aircraft, the Jaguars and the Sukhoi 30s will be armed and ready to strike. Eight hours from now the Agni missiles will also be ready, including the long-range Agni 3 which we will declare to deter any interference from China. Twelve hours from now two Akula 2000 class nuclear-powered submarines will be at sea, each carrying a 20-kiloton warhead for missile launch.

'Should we detect any new threat from Pakistan - even an aircraft flying towards our border - we will carry out a full strike, meaning we will take out their major cities and military installations. The exceptions will be Islamabad and Rawalpindi because the prevailing winds would take the radioactive debris across into India. For the same reason, Lahore is also safe. Once our nuclear weapons are in place, our conventional forces will move into Pakistan across the Wagah border to Lahore, from Fazilka towards Multan, and from Jaisalmer across from Rajasthan to Sukkur. We will also put a naval blockade around Karachi. Once we are certain that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are under international control and the military is put under an interim UN command, we will withdraw our troops from Pakistan. If that does not happen, we will conquer that nation and reintegrate it back into India.'