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"Those estimates, sir," stated Kennedy, "were based on Saddam rebuilding his own nuclear program. They did not include him bypassing the developmental stage and purchasing technology, components and scientists from North Korea."
The President was seething. His administration had been making great strides with the North Koreans. At this very moment they were trying to push through a billion-dollar aid package to try to help the anemic North Korean economy get back on its feet. Kim Jong II himself had told Hayes that he would personally bring an end to North Korea 's state-sponsored terrorism. The President told himself to put North Korea out of his mind for the moment. That would have to be dealt with later.
Stabbing his index finger at the photos in front of him, Hayes asked, "How accurate is this information?"
"I consider it to be very reliable, sir." Freidman kept his eyes focused on the President and did not waver.
"How reliable?" Hayes wanted more.
"This is, of course, not to leave this room." Freidman took a moment to look each of the President's advisors in the eye. The mole he had cultivated in the Iraqi regime was the highest Mossad had ever turned. To lose him would be devastating. "We have someone on the inside, and I can tell you nothing more. He is well-placed and highly reliable."
"Under a goddamn hospital," was all General Flood could say. His military mind was already trying to come up with ways to level the building.
"What type of weapons are we talking about?" asked Haik.
"Two of them are ten-megaton nukes designed to be delivered by the new Scud Three missile, and the third is a five-megaton nuke designed to be delivered by bomber or specialized artillery."
The room fell deathly silent. All of them had sat through enough intelligence briefings to know the level of carnage just one of the bombs could cause. Each of the three individually was more than sufficient to level Tel Aviv.
"Mr. President, none of us are happy about this. Least of all the leaders of my country." Freidman paused for a second before continuing. "I have been sent here by my prime minister to inform you that we will not allow these weapons to be deployed." Freidman's tone was calm but determined. Though he had been sent to Washington to get the Americans to do Israel 's dirty work, there was no mistaking the resolve of his people. If the Americans failed to act, Israel would.
President Hayes nodded slowly. He had already deduced as much. There was no way Israel would let a megalomaniac like Saddam join the nuclear club. President Hayes wasn't about to allow it, and he was more than five thousand miles away. The Israelis were separated by only five hundred miles.
Finally, President Hayes asked, "When are you heading back
to Israel?"
"I leave this evening."
Hayes drummed his fingers on the table while he thought of the next step. "Mr. Freidman, I appreciate you making the trip. Could you wait outside for a minute while I have a word with my advisors?"
Freidman collected the photos and placed them back in his briefcase. When he had left the room Hayes took off his suit coat and began pacing. He thought about taking his new director designate of the CIA to task for allowing him to be blind-sided, and then decided it wasn't fair, and in the end probably counterproductive. Instead he said, "Around the horn. I want to hear opinions on what we just heard. Starting with you' Valerie "The President stopped and looked at his chief of staff.
"I think before we do anything we need to confirm that this is really the case."
"Oh, its for real," moaned General Flood. The bear-size warrior had his elbows on the table and his face buried in his hands. "They would never send Ben Freidman all the way to Washington if it wasn't. Besides, we know how eager Saddam is to get his hands on one of these things. He's just found a way with the help of the North Koreans to cut a few years out of the process." "Michael?" asked Hayes.
The national security advisor replied, "We need to make sure this time line is correct, and then we need to get a guarantee from the Israelis that they will not act before we have time to come up with a solution."
"General?"
Flood lifted his face from his hands."I hate to say it, Mr. President, but we need to level this facility, and my guess is Tomahawks aren't going to do the job. We are going to have to put planes over Baghdad. We might lose some people, but they are definitely going to lose people. I mean they put the damn thing under a hospital for a reason. They don't think we have the stomach for it." Flood was extremely concerned. He had been warning everyone who would listen about the problem of nuclear proliferation for years. He leaned forward and looked at the President's chief of staff. "I'm telling you right now' Valerie I know how your mind works. You ten steps ahead of the rest of us. You're thinking of the political fallout this will create. You imagining the reporters standing in front of the hospital while they pull the twisted bodies of children from the rubble. Well let me replace it with some different pictures. Imagine an entire U. S. Navy carrier battle group patrolling the Persian Gulf. Now blink your eyes and they're gone. Over seven thousand men and women vaporized. Imagine a nuclear warhead exploding over the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. Now imagine the entire world economy plunged into a depression because those oil fields are rendered useless for the next hundred years due to radioactivity."
Flood paused just long enough to catch his breath. "That's just for starters. Now imagine Saddam throwing two of these things at Israel, figuring he can wipe them off the map before they have the chance to retaliate. Theres only one problem with that plan. The Israelis aren't stupid. They keep their nukes spread out in secure underground hardened bunkers. Some of those weapons will survive, and whoever is left won't hesitate to return the favor to Saddam. We'll have a full-scale nuclear war in the Middle East. The initial blasts will kill millions. God only knows how many more will die from the fallout, but it won't be pretty. The region will shut down, oil production will screech to a halt, and the economic tidal wave will make the Great Depression look like a hiccup." The President had stopped pacing halfway through the general's rant. Looking at the military's top officer, Hayes was slightly unsettled by the fact that he agreed with everything the man had just said. So much so that a brief shiver ran down his spine. Finally looking to Kennedy he asked, "Irene?"
Kennedy also agreed with everything that had been said so far. "They want us to take care of the problem for them."
"You mean Israel?"
"Yes." Kennedy folded her arms across her chest. "But make no mistake about it-if we don't act, they will."
"Shit." The President walked back to his chair and sat. He tried to decide on a course of action. Leveling a hospital with God only knows how many innocent civilians inside was not a pleasant thought, but taking no action at all, and being confronted with one of the scenarios that General Flood had described, was horrific.
For the first time in his presidency he was honestly scared. He would have to call the Israeli prime minister at some point, but that could wait for a day. The list of people he would have to tell domestically was long, but due to secrecy concerns, most of them would have to wait until the last possible moment. The best move right now was to delegate and manage.
As if he were pulled out of a trance, the President lifted his head and said, "Irene, I want you to take Freidman back to Langley and debrief him personally. Get as much information as you can from him, and then as quietly as possible try to confirm it. But, before you bring any of your people in on this, I want you to call me and tell me what you've learned"
Pointing at the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the President said, "General, put your best people on this, and give me some options. I want to be prepared to move at a moment's notice if needed."