General Hawkins said, "Amen," then observed, "With Baghdad and most of Iraq gone, we won't need to go to war with Saddam Hussein."

Wolffer replied, "Actually, we won't need to go to war with Syria either, or Iran, or any other hostile country which will no longer exist."

Madox said, "I like the sound of that. Don't you, Harry?"

Harry hesitated, then replied, "Yeah, if you like the sound of mass murder."

Madox stared at Harry and said, "I have a son, Harry-Bain Junior, who is a reserve officer in the United States Army. If we go to war with Iraq, he will be called to active duty, and he may die in Iraq. Bottom line on that is I'd rather see everyone in Baghdad dead than to be notified that my son is dead in Iraq. Is that selfish?"

Harry didn't answer, but thought, Yes, that is selfish. Also, Madox was conveniently forgetting the American sons and daughters he was going to nuke in America.

Bain Madox said to Harry, and to the others, "Sometimes a joke illuminates a truth that people won't admit to. So let me tell you a joke, Mr. Muller, which, in your line of work, you may have already heard." Madox smiled in the manner of a person about to tell a good one. "So, it seems that the president-Mr. Dunn's boss-and the secretary of defense-Mr. Wolffer's boss"-he smiled again and went on-"are having a disagreement over some policy issue, so they call in a junior aide, and the secretary of defense says to the aide, 'We've decided to A-bomb a billion Arabs and one beautiful, blond-haired, blue-eyed, big-breasted woman. What do you think?' And the young aide asks, 'Mr. Secretary, why would you bomb a beautiful, blond-haired, blue-eyed, big-breasted woman?' And the secretary of defense turns to the president and says, 'See? I told you no one cares about a billion Arabs.'"

There was some polite and restrained laughter around the table, and Harry, too, smiled at the old joke, which he'd heard a few times.

Madox asked Harry, "Point made?"

Edward Wolffer returned to his subject and said, "Regarding Iraq, ground wars are costly in terms of men, materiel, and money. And ground wars always have unintended consequences. I can tell you from firsthand knowledge-and Paul can verify this-that this administration is hell-bent on provoking a war with Iraq, then Syria, and eventually Iran. In principle, none of us, I think, are opposed to this. But for those of us here who fought in Vietnam-Bain, Jim, and I-we can say with some authority that when you let loose the dogs of war, those dogs are out of your control. The beauty of a nuclear attack is that it is quick and cheap. We've already bought and paid for a huge atomic arsenal-we presently have about seven thousand nuclear warheads-that is sitting around doing nothing. For a small fraction of the cost of those warheads, we can achieve monumental results. The results of a nuclear strike are unequivocal." He grinned and added, "The New York Times and the Washington Post won't have to agonize over whether or not we're winning the war on terrorism."

Everyone laughed, and Bain Madox asked, rhetorically, "You mean, I won't have to read some bleeding-heart story in the Times about some little girl and her grandmother who were wounded by American fire?"

Again, everyone laughed, and Wolffer said, "I don't think the Times or the Washington Post are going to send any reporters into the nuclear ash to get a so-called human-interest story."

Madox chuckled, then looked again at the map on the screen. "I see on the list the Aswan High Dam." He moved a cursor to Egypt and the southern Nile. "That, I assume, is the mother of all targets."

Wolffer replied, "Indeed, it is. A multi-warhead missile will take out that dam and send billions of gallons of water rushing down the Nile, which will, in effect, wipe out Egypt, killing perhaps forty to sixty million people as it floods the Nile Valley on its way into the Mediterranean. This will be the largest single loss of life and property-and there are no oil fields there. Unfortunately, we have to accept the loss of thousands of Western tourists, archeologists, businesspeople, and so forth, along with the loss of historical sites." He added, "The pyramids should survive."

Madox said, "Ed, I see that several Egyptian cities along the Nile Valley are on the list to be hit with nuclear warheads. Considering that the Aswan waters will sweep away those cities, aren't the missiles redundant? Or are they biblical?"

Wolffer glanced at his friend and replied, "I never thought about that." He considered a moment, then said, "I suppose the floodwaters will put out the fires in the burning cities."

Madox commented, "That's too bad."

Wolffer went on, "Some bad news, as I've alluded to, is that a great number of Westerners will be killed in this attack. Tourists, businesspeople, expats, embassy people, and so forth. That number could easily reach a hundred thousand, many of them Americans."

No one commented on that statement.

Wolffer continued, "Unfortunately, too, we can't predict when these areas will again be habitable or socially stable enough to get the oil flowing. A Defense Department analysis, however, predicts that there will not be much shortfall in global or national needs because these countries which produce the oil will no longer be using any. Therefore, oil from other sources, along with reserves, should be sufficient to meet any short-term demands in America and Western Europe." He added, "The Saudi oil will probably be available to us first-within two years."

Madox interjected, "You government people should speak to us in the private sector. My analysis is that Saudi oil will be on board tankers and coming this way in about a year. I think we can get a hundred dollars a barrel, if we exaggerate the post-nuclear-war problems of pumping and shipping."

Wolffer hesitated, then said, "Bain, the Defense Department is thinking more in terms of twenty dollars a barrel, since we'd be controlling all aspects of pumping and shipping. The idea is that we'll need cheap oil to help revive the American economy, which we predict will go into a severe slump after two American cities suffer nuclear devastation."

Bain Madox waved his hand and said, "I think that's also an exaggeration. You'll see a stock-market slump of a few thousand points for less than a year. Some cities will experience a population flight for a few months, the way New York did post-9/11. But after it becomes clear that the enemy is dead and buried, you will see an American renaissance that will amaze the world." He said to Wolffer, "Don't be pessimistic. If the collapse of the Soviet Union was the dawn of the American century, then the obliteration of Islam will usher in the millennium of American peace, prosperity, and confidence. Not to mention unrivaled power. The American millennium will make the Roman Empire look like a third-world country."

No one commented, so Madox continued, "Things will be different. The last global threat to America will be gone, and the entire nation will rally around the government, as it did post-9/11 and postPearl Harbor. The internal enemies of America, including the growing Muslim population, will be dealt with without protest. And you won't be seeing any anti-war demonstrations in America, or anywhere in the world. And those bastards around the world who danced in the streets after 9/11 will be either dead or kissing our feet."

He took a breath and spoke rapidly. "And the Europeans will shut their mouths for a change, and then it will be Cuba's turn, then North Korea. And the Russians will keep their mouths shut as well. Because after we go nuclear once, everyone will understand that we will do it again. And when the time is right, we will smother the China problem in its cradle before it grows up to challenge us."

Harry Muller watched the other men as Madox continued his tirade. It seemed to Harry that the other guys were a little uncomfortable now that Madox had taken off from the Islamic terrorist problem and was finding new enemies to kill. And then there was the oil thing, which Harry thought was at least as important to Bain Madox and Global Oil Corporation as getting rid of terrorists. Harry already knew this guy was nuts, but now he was seeing how nuts-and so were Madox's buddies.

Madox stood, and his voice became strident. "And as a Vietnam veteran, I tell you, we will also redeem our lost honor when American troops march into Saigon and Hanoi without a peep from China or anyone."

He looked at his four colleagues and concluded, "For us not to go nuclear-for us to continue this fight against our enemies by conventional and diplomatic means, to waste lives and treasure in this battle, to prolong it without a clear victory in sight-is morally wrong. We have the means to end this quickly, decisively, and cheaply through the use of nuclear weapons that we already possess. To not use these weapons against people who would use them against us if they could would be national suicide, a strategic blunder, an affront to common sense, and an insult to God."

Bain Madox sat down.

The room was still.

Harry Muller studied the faces in the dim light and said to himself, Yeah, they know he's nuts. But they don't care because he's just saying what they're thinking.

Bain Madox lit a cigarette and said matter-of-factly, "Okay, let's talk now about which American cities need to be sacrificed, and how and when we're going to do that."

PART V

Saturday

NORTH FORK, LONG ISLAND

Nassau Point, Long Island, August 2, 1939

F. D. Roosevelt, President of the United States,

White House, Washington, D.C.

Sir ... it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated ... by which, my dear Mr. President, it might be possible to unleash an immense destructive force.

-Albert Einstein

CHAPTER ELEVEN

After dinner at the barge restaurant, Kate and I drove out toward Orient Point on the eastern tip of the North Fork of Long Island.

The sky was partly cloudy, but I could see stars, which I rarely see in Manhattan.

The North Fork is a windswept spit of land, quite beautiful in a stark sort of way, surrounded by the Long Island Sound to the north, Gardiner's Bay to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.

Because the surrounding water holds its summer heat, the autumns are unusually warm for this latitude. In fact, this microclimate, plus maybe global warming in general, was the reason for the newly planted vineyards, and the resulting explosion of tourism, which has changed the feel of the land.

As a kid, I summered out here with my parents along with other hardy and less affluent families who could not afford the Hamptons, or who specifically wanted to avoid the Hampton crowd.