Chapter One Hundred One Three Down-One To Go

On board Kilo 102, the first officer, who understands and speaks passable English, is trying to make out a jumble of overlapping messages. He wants to hear whether their missile launch was a success or failure. The amount of radio traffic seems to be substantial, the tone of communications animated. He’s having a hard time making sense of it all.

Then he hears, loud and clear, that a nuclear-armed cruise missile landed in the middle of Oakland, California. He stops. That cannot be. He listens again for further transmission. The first officer starts to radio the captain but finds himself speechless. I can’t have heard correctly. Nuclear weapons? Instead, slowly, mechanically, he crosses from the radio room to the control room, seeking out the captain.

“Our launch was successful, Captain,” he reports, his voice hollow. He pauses.

The captain looks up at him with nervous irritation. “Is there something else to report, number one?”

“Did – anyone tell you that the missile we fired was carrying a nuclear warhead, sir?”

“What are you saying? There was nothing in my orders about nuclear warheads. We were supposed to be firing conventional weapons. Certainly we would have been told…”