Vortex

Levi passed the photo back to O’Connell.

“You have sow question about the facility, Colonel?”

“Not exactly.” The American frowned.

“I need a quick, efficient way to destroy the damned place.”

Levi wasn’t surprised. It was a logical step. Seizing South

Africa’s nuclear stockpile without wrecking its uranium enrichment plant made little long-term sense. Why go to a lot of trouble to take a few bullets away while leaving the whole ammunition factory behind?

Levi steepled long, graceful hands-hands his ex-wife had thought more appropriate for a surgeon than a nuclear physicist. It was an intriguing problem. What was the best way to wreck thoroughly Pelindaba’s enrichment plant? Placing conventional demolitions meant capturing the facility itself and then spending a fair amount of time wiring a large number of charges together. You’d need a lot of explosive power to destroy everything.

Power. That might be it. Levi sat up straighter, a series of half-formed ideas and concepts floating through his brain. He looked across at

O’Connell.

“There could be a relatively simple way to do such a thing,

Colonel.” His fingers beat a quick, distracted beat on the desk.

“However,

I will need a little time to work out all the details.”

O’Connell nodded briskly.

“Good. Because a little time is all we’ve got.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Which brings me to my second reason for wanting to see you. Can you get Lieutenant Vaughn’s special weapons team ready to go by the twenty-ninth?”

“Impossible.” Levi shook his head decisively.

“Your Rangers are good students, Colonel, but even they cannot learn everything they will need to know in anything less than a week.”

“I see.” The American officer sounded disappointed, but not particularly surprised. He glanced down at a manila folder in front of him. Levi saw a small tag that bore his name.

“I understand you’re an Israeli Defense Force reservist, Professor.

“That’s correct. Just like any other adult male in my country.” Levi looked curiously at the folder. Had Jerusalem given the Americans his whole personnel record?

“Paratrooper?”

Levi smiled and shook his head.

“Nothing so glamorous, Colonel. As a senior scientist, I now have an exemption from active duty, but I wasn’t quite so fortunate as a young student.

Consequently, I spent several long months as a lowly infantryman. Why do you ask?”

O’Connell slid a telex across the desk.

“Because your government’s called you back to the colors, Professor. As of six hundred hours tomorrow, you’re to consider yourself attached to my battalion in a military capacity.”

Levi stared at the message form for several seconds.

“But why? I don’t understand.”

Now it was O’Connell’s turn to smile.

“It’s pretty simple, Private Levi.

Washington’s changed the timetable. We’re jumping into Pelindaba on the twenty-ninth-a week ahead of schedule. And I need a special weapons team led by an expert. Unfortunately, you’ve just con finned that my troopers won’t be ready by then. So you’re going to be my expert.”

Levi felt his mouth drop open and stay open.

Visibly amused, the American officer nodded briskly and stuck out his hand.

“Welcome to the Rangers, Professor.” His thin smile turned into a wide grin.

“You’re just lucky that lea ming how to jump out of airplanes isn’t quite as complicated as lea ming how to assemble and disassemble Abombs. “

NOVEMBER 26-STATE SECURITY COUNCIL CHAMBER, PRETORIA

Karl Vorster glared at the ashen-faced South African Air Force officer standing at attention before him.

“I am not interested in listening to your meaningless technical babble, General! I want to know when you can be ready to attack again! Nothing else, understand?”

The officer drew a quick, shaky breath and tried to explain.

“The planes and weapons themselves can be readied in a matter of hours, Mr.

President. But target selection isn’t so simple a matter.”

Vorster’s eyes seemed to flash fire and he turned slowly red, working himself into a towering rage.

Whitehaired Gen. Adriaan de Wet recognized the danger signs and interceded.

“What General Roefs is trying to say,

Mr. President, is that the Cubans are taking steps to make it impossible to use another nuclear weapon on them.”

“What steps?” Vorster’s voice was dangerously calm.

“The remaining fighting units are staying as close as possible to our own defending forces. And their support units stay just as close to captured towns filled with our own civilians. ” -SoT I

De Wet took great care to control his own temper. Three of the several empty chairs in the council chamber had belonged to men who’d angered

Vorster at the wrong moment.

“As things are, Mr. President, we cannot strike the communists without killing hundreds or thousands of our own folk in the same instant. We can gain no military advantage under these conditions.”

Vorster signaled his understanding with a curt nod and sat brooding at the end of the table. From time to time he glanced up at the situation maps hung at one end of the room, a sour frown fixed on his face.