and he is demanding that the Government refer the matter to the Press Council.â
Most of those sitting around the table had felt themselves to be victims of the media at some stage in their careers, and there was a murmur of agreement.
âItâs still far from clear what this security leak amounts to,â Sproat continued. âSome or all of the plansfor the new Polaris warheads have apparently been photocopied, and one page has mysteriously found its way in a Defence Ministry folder to a rubbish bin on Hampstead Heath. Now this may well have been a dead-letter box, and the handover to some foreign power may have been aborted by the tramp â we havenât traced him yet, by the way â and by the general taking his morning constitutional. We donât know that for sure â but there could well be some other explanation, too. Weâre putting out feelers both here and abroad to discover if the Soviets are really behind it, and whether or not theyâve already received other pages from the blueprint.â
âThe point is this,â the Prime Minister broke in, aggravated by the lack of firm information, âwe
have
to assume the Russians have acquired the papers â all of them. Itâs simply not safe to assume anything else. And weâve got to make plans to counter whatever advantage the Soviets might now have over us.â
The PM turned to study the faces of the other men present. The Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary were there from his Government, joined by the head of MI6, the First Sea Lord, and the Chief of the Defence Staff. None of them, though, was fully qualified to assess exactly what was at risk in this affair.
âItâs time to call in that chap weâve got waiting outside,â the PM then announced. âWould you mind, Marcus?â
Beckett crossed the room to the door and called down the corridor, âWould you come in now, Mr Joyce?â
As he entered the room, Peter Joyce noticed a look combining both expectation and hostility on the faces of the various politicians. He knew they needed him to tell them precisely what was what â since they wereignorant of the technology â but that they resented the power that his knowledge now gave him. He quietly took the spare chair that Beckett gestured him towards.
âNow then, Mr Joyce,â the Prime Minister continued, âwe need your technical expertise so that we can judge the seriousness of this affair. Would you be so good as to explain, in the simplest terms possible, just what the stolen plans revealed. And please remember that most of us in this room are laymen when it comes to the business of ballistic missiles.â
Peter stood up so that he could get a clearer view of the nine other men around the table. He looked from one face to the next, to see who he recognised. Despite what the PM had just said, four of the men were from the Defence Ministry, so had already been briefed on the project. The security men were the only ones unfamiliar to him.
âWell, gentlemen, as you know, the document found on Parliament Hill was part of the secret plans for Skydancer,â he began. âPerhaps the first thing I should do is remind you why Skydancer was set up to start with. About five years ago, the Soviet Union began to spend a great deal of extra money on Ballistic Missile Defence â literally defences against incoming ballistic missiles. The Americans had already launched their own BMD programme, the Strategic Defence Initiative, the one the media called Star Wars, and, as you will remember, the 1972 ABM treaty between the two countries, which had limited BMD systems, rather fell by the wayside as a result of the technical advances being made.
âWe in Britain were faced with a dilemma. We were investing ten billion pounds in the Trident system to replace Polaris, but suddenly faced the danger that the new Soviet Defences might make Trident obsolete
Most of those sitting around the table had felt themselves to be victims of the media at some stage in their careers, and there was a murmur of agreement.
âItâs still far from clear what this security leak amounts to,â Sproat continued. âSome or all of the plansfor the new Polaris warheads have apparently been photocopied, and one page has mysteriously found its way in a Defence Ministry folder to a rubbish bin on Hampstead Heath. Now this may well have been a dead-letter box, and the handover to some foreign power may have been aborted by the tramp â we havenât traced him yet, by the way â and by the general taking his morning constitutional. We donât know that for sure â but there could well be some other explanation, too. Weâre putting out feelers both here and abroad to discover if the Soviets are really behind it, and whether or not theyâve already received other pages from the blueprint.â
âThe point is this,â the Prime Minister broke in, aggravated by the lack of firm information, âwe
have
to assume the Russians have acquired the papers â all of them. Itâs simply not safe to assume anything else. And weâve got to make plans to counter whatever advantage the Soviets might now have over us.â
The PM turned to study the faces of the other men present. The Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary were there from his Government, joined by the head of MI6, the First Sea Lord, and the Chief of the Defence Staff. None of them, though, was fully qualified to assess exactly what was at risk in this affair.
âItâs time to call in that chap weâve got waiting outside,â the PM then announced. âWould you mind, Marcus?â
Beckett crossed the room to the door and called down the corridor, âWould you come in now, Mr Joyce?â
As he entered the room, Peter Joyce noticed a look combining both expectation and hostility on the faces of the various politicians. He knew they needed him to tell them precisely what was what â since they wereignorant of the technology â but that they resented the power that his knowledge now gave him. He quietly took the spare chair that Beckett gestured him towards.
âNow then, Mr Joyce,â the Prime Minister continued, âwe need your technical expertise so that we can judge the seriousness of this affair. Would you be so good as to explain, in the simplest terms possible, just what the stolen plans revealed. And please remember that most of us in this room are laymen when it comes to the business of ballistic missiles.â
Peter stood up so that he could get a clearer view of the nine other men around the table. He looked from one face to the next, to see who he recognised. Despite what the PM had just said, four of the men were from the Defence Ministry, so had already been briefed on the project. The security men were the only ones unfamiliar to him.
âWell, gentlemen, as you know, the document found on Parliament Hill was part of the secret plans for Skydancer,â he began. âPerhaps the first thing I should do is remind you why Skydancer was set up to start with. About five years ago, the Soviet Union began to spend a great deal of extra money on Ballistic Missile Defence â literally defences against incoming ballistic missiles. The Americans had already launched their own BMD programme, the Strategic Defence Initiative, the one the media called Star Wars, and, as you will remember, the 1972 ABM treaty between the two countries, which had limited BMD systems, rather fell by the wayside as a result of the technical advances being made.
âWe in Britain were faced with a dilemma. We were investing ten billion pounds in the Trident system to replace Polaris, but suddenly faced the danger that the new Soviet Defences might make Trident obsolete
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