War with Russia

“PJHQ hosted a visit a few years ago from a group of Russians who were setting up the NDCC, before Crimea—when relations were still OK. Well, naturally, my predecessor took advantage of it and laid the ground work. The team monitored the computer usage of a number of the colonels when they were back in their hotel and managed to get IP addresses and other details. Roll the clock forward and one of those colonels is now a general in the NDCC, so we continued to monitor his usage and hacked into his computer with the details recorded from that time. We had clocked that he was a regular subscriber to a couple of dodgy websites and we also knew that he was in the habit of taking work home and transferring work from his laptop onto his office computer.

“The next step was to infect the websites he was downloading with Rasputin. So the next time he logged into one of his favorite porn sites, his computer was infected. Then he made the mistake of transferring a military presentation he’d written at home on his laptop onto the desk top in his office at the NDCC. His desk top is on the military net and that was that—we’d penetrated the system.”

The Prime Minister looked impressed. “Ingenious… and very, very far-sighted,” he commented.

“That’s the nature of our work, Prime Minister.” Berry once again took over. “Thanks to Nicola and the team we can take down the Russian General Staff network on call. However, we must assume they’ll have some form of reversionary mode and be able to get back up and running again very quickly. How quickly we have no idea. So, to get the best result for the operational boys, we’ll have to initiate the Rasputin attack with maximum precision. And that means the closest possible coordination with the operational plan. Which is why the military team are here today.”

“Impressive,” said Little. “But doesn’t that still leave the nuclear command and control?”

“Yes, Prime Minister, but we can fix that.” Then Berry explained how the Russian system, on the face of it, depended on authority for launch from the President, who was always accompanied by an aide who carried the nuclear launch briefcase. “Cheget is connected to Kavkaz, the senior government officials’ communication system. That is connected to Kazbek, the broader nuclear command and control communication system. But, and this is the really good bit, it’s possible for more junior people to intervene in the system.”

“Go on,” said Little, “I think I’m still with you.”

“The Russians have a back-up system called Perimetr—literally ‘dead hand’—which is designed to launch an attack in the event of a massive strike that has decapitated the Russian leadership. It’s a sort of last-ditch revenge strike, which would send us all to oblivion: a modern-day version of Doctor Strangelove.”

“You’re having me on,” the Prime Minister exclaimed. “Life imitating art in the most ghastly way…”

“Exactly, Prime Minister, and I wish I was having you on. But what matters for today is that, by using Rasputin, we can now break into the operating system and insert a malicious code with a Trojan Horse, one that will not only give us access to Perimetr, but allow us to control it. So instead of Perimetr thinking that Russia’s command and control has been destroyed and that it must now nuke the West, Rasputin will fool it into surrendering control to us. We will then have electronic control of the Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad. But, and again, for how long we just don’t know.”

“But long enough to create… chaos?”

“We believe so.”

The Prime Minister leaned back. “Pure genius,” he breathed. “We hold the Russians to ransom with their own missiles.”

“Exactly, Prime Minister,” Berry said.

“And this is where Dave comes in, Prime Minister,” Kydd interjected. “This will be a NATO operation although, of course, the US will be lead nation. Rasputin is the key to success so, if this is to work, it’ll be very much down to the skill and ingenuity of GCHQ. And Dave is the key to linking Rasputin with the NATO plan. However, we shouldn’t forget that, given the size of force we can offer these days, the US consider us as a junior partner alongside other European nations. It’s just lucky that DSACEUR is still a UK post, but we can’t take even that for granted indefinitely.”

“What do you mean?” demanded Little, turning to McKinlay. “UK has always been a lead nation in NATO and punched well above its weight.”

Walker watched as McKinlay thought for a moment, as if pondering whether to accept the Prime Minister’s line or to push back. Then he saw the Royal Marine’s jaw set and his eyes narrow. He looked the Prime Minister directly in the eye and spoke.