Read Online The Threat by David Poyer - Free Book Online

her, “Yeah, I’d heard that. How can we help over at NSC?”
    White said she’d drafted an attempt to persuade France and Germany to put the same financial and legal controls in place that the U.S., Britain, and Japan had. The European Union should enforce heavy penalties for laundering money and supplying arms and technical assistance to the cartels.
    â€œAll right,” Dan said. “Our shop will support that, and I have a contact at Treasury who’s thinking along the same lines. Maybe a meeting? To look at your draft?”
    â€œSet up a time and I’ll be there.”
    â€œNow let me shift to a different issue. Threat reduction.”
    â€œUm, I do work some of that, but Dr. Sola has the lead in that area. Dr. Umberto Sola. Director of the Office of Nuclear Affairs. Unfortunately he’s speaking at the Middle East Center in Michigan today.”
    Dan tried to find out exactly what State’s plan was for expanding operations in Kazakhstan. White grew vague. She said the effort was underfunded and not well coordinated. He asked whom she dealt with at Defense. She said as far as she and Sola had observed, Defense displayed little interest in threat reduction. “The undersecretary’s tried to push it in several venues. With nothing in the way of concrete results, manning, or even transport. Destroying a weapon by negotiation’s not manly, I guess. Or maybe, the more warheads the other side has left, the more Defense gets to keep. Regardless of what the president’s promised.”
    â€œThat’s a pretty cynical attitude,” Dan told her.
    White looked as if he’d just told a joke. “You think so? The Chiefs pooh-pooh anything from us. They might respond to White House direction, though.”
    â€œI have some of the action on threat reduction,” Dan said, though so far he hadn’t actually seen his name on anything. “Maybe we could coordinate a paper. Or ask for a supplemental?”
    White said it would be good if he could get it into one of the president’s speeches somehow. Just a line or two. “Funding’s what makes things happen, but it’s not the whole story. We can have teams out there, but if the leadership, on both sides, isn’t serious about securing the weapons, the situation on the ground’s not going to change. De Bari’s personal attention, that could move it to the top of everyone’s agenda.”
    Dan reflected grimly on the damage one loose nuclear shell had caused. He’d lost ten people topside to the burst itself, forty blinded or injured, and who knew how many to cancer in years to come. Maybe it wasn’t where Sebold and Clayton wanted him to put in his time, but he was determined to get involved somehow. And hadn’t De Bari said, while they were jogging, that he wanted his ideas? “Well, I can’t promise anything, but there might be a chance of getting the president to go on the record. If you and this Dr. Sola think it’d help.”
    â€œThat would be great, ” she said, and knocked a binder off the desk. It hit a pile of papers and publications, and the tower rocked alarmingly before she grabbed it. “The last administration blew us off whenever we tried to do anything. ”
    He tried one more question. “Has anyone over here given any consideration to how somebody could get nukes into this country?”
    White looked surprised. “Well, that’s not our area of expertise. I’m sure your military and intelligence people have that covered. On threat reduction, let me talk to Dr. Sola when he comes back. Let’s see if there’s something we can do to move this issue forward. Are you going to Leningrad? I mean, Petrograd? The conference?”
    â€œI’d like to, but I’m not sure they’ll send me.”
    â€œI might be able to do something. To make sure you get invited.”
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