America was preparing to slaughter the armor-denuded Russian infantryman in numbers that would make the Nazis blush. There was going to be a land invasion of Russia itself. And it was going to work, even with the lesser forces of NATO. A push right into Russia's heart, and any resistance would be ruthlessly crushed. First the missiles, next the armor, then Russia's heart would be taken out and baked dry. Of course.
Even while the American technicians and Russian military technicians were poring over the large maps and the fields of detection, which were, as the Russians were determining, absolutely genuine, Zemyatin was demanding details. In the details lay the truth.
Officers were running in and out of the field marshal's private room with scraps of paper, reports, and sometimes the officer who had received the initial report.
The Americans had indeed done a test. It was picked up immediately because Russian monitors had been on the alert. Incidentally, he was told, the British had picked it up, too. Although badly damaged, the British system was still functioning.
"The Americans did not warn the British of our penetration. They had to know. From what I have been informed they had to know."
"They did know, sir, but there is no indication at this time, Comrade Field Marshal, that they have notified their supposed allies in any way."
"Didn't bother to notify," said Zemyatin. He felt he needed water on that one.
"Something bad, sir?"
"When you are in a fishing contest, and your opponent has caught a minnow, do you stop to take it away from him?"
"The Americans are after bigger fish?"
"The Americans are far shrewder than we ever imagined. At this point, if they believed I had a secure advantage, should they disabuse me of it? Go ahead."
"Shorter duration this time in firing. More precise."
"Weapons-grade accuracy," said Zemyatin.
"Apparently, sir."
"So that if they used it on, say, an entire front, it could be so brief as to not endanger the rest of the world." Zemyatin, of course, had hit upon the key giveaway: the device was a weapon. There was a time that Russia itself had stacked so many heavy atomic weapons that to use them, their scientists determined, would ruin life for themselves. Ironically, when cleaner weapons, as they were called, were invented, that would be the signal not that the inventions were more humane, but that they were more likely to be used in a war.
The Americans had made the fluorocarbon device weapons-grade.
"I might add, sir," said the officer, "that we had networked the entire American continent to locate the source."
"It failed?"
"No, sir. We located the source, at great risk of manpower. I think the Americans must have caught about fifteen of our people. The priority was not safety but success."
"Yes. Good."
"We had cars alerted. Actually, people driving with dishes on their vehicles once the device was fired."
"That would attract attention."
"That is why we lost so many operatives. But it also enabled us to establish that the beam was generated just north of the American city of Boston, in an area of high military and industrial technology."
Zemyatin knew the area. It was a secondary atomic target in the Russian order of battle, war nuclear. The primaries were the missiles and then came the bases that created them. The armies, of course, could be ignored, considering the leadership.
But far from rejoicing, Zemyatin had warned the Russian generals not to rejoice in American incompetence. If one remembered the Second World War, the Americans had also been considered incompetent then, and they had won a war on two seas defeating armies that had had years of preparations.
In the Russian order of battle, American ground forces had been designated as a low priority. Now, with what he was seeing out of America, they were suddenly becoming a major priority if there was no great Russian armor to oppose them.
The test had consisted of fifty new cars, expensive cars, finer than the Russians could build.
"Within five seconds, Comrade Field Marshal, every one of those cars was inoperative. Not even the paint was damaged."
"How inoperative?"
"All the electronics had failed."
"Not another mark on them?"
"Not a scratch. But more important, the agent who got this information was picked up by the Americans. And they questioned him as to what he knew about it, as though he were the cause."
"Correct deception."
"But that is not all. As you know, America is a commercial country. We discovered who owned that land, who had bought the cars, and who had paid for people to attempt to start them."
"Yes."
"Not the military."
"Of course not," said Zemyatin.
"Dummy corporations. We have estimated that it cost them at least three times as much to disguise who ran the experiment as it did to conduct it."
"CIA." said Zemyatin.
"Of course," said the officer. "Dummy corporations, money without end. Our old friends."
Zemyatin let out a grunt as though he'd been punched. And then, with a sense of helplessness he had not felt since he was a boy, said to the young officer:
"See? I have said it a thousand times. Here it is. You are laughing again at the American officer corps. You thought their invasion of Grenada was a sloppy operation. You were so confident. Look at this. Look at what they have done."
"We still have our missiles, Field Marshal," said the young officer.
"Yes. Of course we still have them," Zemyatin said, dismissing him as the Premier left the table on the other side of the soundproof one-way mirror. If the young officer should find out about that missile battery made useless, he would probably have to be killed along with any of those who had told him.
The Premier entered.
"The officers say the American diagrams are genuine. Absolutely genuine. I guess we should share with them now what we know about this weapon. After all, Field Marshal, what is the point of any of us living in a world where we cannot live? It is a good point that the American millionaire made."
"If he came to you with a bow and arrow, would you take down your pants, bend over, and spread your cheeks, Premier?" said Zemyatin.
"I am still your Premier."
"They give you their defense arrangements because they don't need them. They will not matter in the next war. The only thing between us and an American tank outside these walls is their lack of knowledge of what they can do to our missiles. That's all."