Alekseyev handed his aide the message form in the back of the staff car, along with an ironic look.

"What does this mean?"

"We'll find out in a few hours, Vanya."

MOSCOW, R.S.F.S.R.

"They are truly mad."

"You should choose your words with greater care, Boris Georgiyevich," Sergetov said. "What has NATO done now?"

The KGB Chief shook his head in surprise. "I mean the Defense Council, you young fool!"

"This young fool has no vote on the Politburo. You pointed that out yourself." Sergetov had held the fleeting hope that the Politburo might be brought to its senses.

"Mikhail Eduardovich, I have worked very hard to protect you to this point. Please do not make me regret this. If you had managed to force a Politburo decision in the open, you would have lost and possibly destroyed yourself. As it is"-Kosov paused for another of his grins-"as it is, they have asked me to discuss their decision with you in hope of getting your support.

"They are doubly mad," Kosov went on. "First, the Defense Minister wishes to initiate the use of a few small tactical nuclear warheads. Second, he hopes for your support. They propose the maskirovka all over again. They will explode a small tactical device in the DDR, forcing us to retaliate while proclaiming that NATO has violated the no-first-use agreement. But it could be worse. They've summoned Alekseyev to Moscow to seek his assessment of the plan and how best to implement it. He should be on his way here now."

"The Politburo will never agree to this. We're not all crazy, are we? Have you told them how NATO will react?"

"Of course. I've told them that NATO will not react at all at first, they will be too confused."

"You encouraged them?"

"I wish you would keep in mind that they prefer Larionov's opinions to my own."

Comrade Kosov, Sergetov thought to himself, you care less about the danger to the Rodina than you do for your own future. You'd be quite satisfied to bring the whole country down if you bring them down first, wouldn't you?

"The votes on the Politburo... "

"Will support the Defense Council. Think. Bromkovskiy will vote no, perhaps Agriculture also, though I doubt it. They want you to speak in favor of the plan. This will reduce the opposition to old Petya. Petya is a good old man, but no one really listens to him anymore."

"I will never do this!"

"But you must. And Alekseyev must agree." Kosov got up and looked out the window. "There is nothing to fear-no nuclear bombs will be used. I have already seen to that."

"What do you mean?"

"Surely you know who controls the nuclear weapons in this country?"

"Certainly, the strategic rocket forces, the Army's artillerymen-"

"Excuse me, I phrased my question poorly. Yes, they control the rockets. It is my people who control the warheads, and Josef Larionov's faction does not include that segment of the KGB! This is why you must play along."

"Very well. Then we must warn Alekseyev."

"With caution now. No one seems to have noticed that your son has made several trips to Moscow, but if you are seen with General Alekseyev before he meets with them... "

"Yes, I can understand that." Sergetov thought for a moment. "Perhaps Vitaly can meet them at the airport and pass a message?"

"Very good! I will make a chekist of you yet!"

The Minister's driver was summoned and handed a written note. He departed at once, taking the Minister's Zil out toward the airport. A military convoy of wheeled armored personnel carriers held him up. Forty minutes later, he noticed that his gas gauge was down. Odd, he'd just filled the car up the day before-the Politburo members were never short of anything. But it kept dropping. Then the engine stopped. Vitaly pulled the car over, seven kilometers from the airport, got out, and opened the hood. The chauffeur checked belts and electrical connections. Everything seemed as it should. He got back in and tried to start the car, and nothing happened. He figured out a moment later that the alternator had gone bad, and the car had been running off battery power. He tried the car phone. The battery was completely flat.

Alekseyev's transport was just arriving. A staff car provided by the commander of the Moscow Military District motored up to the plane, and the General and his aide got in at once for the ride to the Kremlin. For Alekseyev the most frightening part of the flight was getting out of the aircraft-he halfway expected to see KGB troops waiting for him instead of the staff car. It would almost have been a relief to be arrested.

The General and his aide rode in silence-all their talking had been done on the noisy aircraft where listening devices could not possibly have worked. Alekseyev noted the empty streets, the absence of trucks-most of them now at the front-even the shorter-than-usual lines outside the food stores. A country at war, he thought.

Alekseyev had expected the ride to the Kremlin to seem slow. The reverse was true. Seemingly in the blink of an eye the car pulled through the Kremlin gates. A sergeant outside the Council of Ministers building pulled open the door, saluting smartly. Alekseyev returned it and walked up the steps to the door, where another sergeant waited. Alekseyev walked like a soldier, back straight, his face set in a stern mien. His newly polished boots glistened, and his eyes caught the flashing reflection of the ceiling lights as he walked into the lobby. The General disdained the elevator, preferring the stairs for the trip to the conference room. He noted that the building had been repaired since the bombing incident.

A captain of the Taman Guards, the ceremonial unit stationed at Alabino outside Moscow, met the General at the top of the stairs and escorted him to the double doors of the conference room. Alekseyev ordered his aide to wait as he entered, his visored cap tucked tightly under his arm.

"Comrades: General Colonel P. L. Alekseyev reports as ordered!"

"Welcome to Moscow, Comrade General," the Defense Minister said. "What is the situation in Germany?"

"Both sides are exhausted but still fighting. The current tactical situation is one of stalemate. We have more troops and weapons available, but we are critically short of fuel."

"Can you win?" the General Secretary asked.

"Yes, Comrade Secretary! Given several days to organize my forces, and if I can do some crucial work with the arriving reserve formations, I think it likely that we can sunder the NATO front."

"Likely? Not certain?" the Defense Minister asked.

"In war there is no certainty," Alekseyev answered simply.

"We have learned that," the Foreign Minister answered dryly. "Why have we not won yet?"

"Comrades, we failed initially to achieve strategic and tactical surprise. Surprise is the most important variable factor in war. With it we would probably-almost certainly-have succeeded in two or three weeks."

"To achieve certain success now, what else will you need?"

"Comrade Defense Minister, I need the support of the people and the Party, and I need a little time."

"You evade the question!" Marshal Bukharin said.

"We were never allowed to use our chemical weapons in the initial assault. That could have been a decisive advantage-"

"The political cost of those weapons was deemed too great," the Foreign Minister said defensively.

"Could you make profitable use of them now?" the General Secretary asked.

"I think not. Those weapons should have been used from the first on equipment-storage depots. The depots are now mainly empty, and hitting them would have only a limited effect. Use of chemicals at the front is no longer a viable option. The newly arriving C formations lack the modem equipment necessary to operate efficiently in a chemical environment."