Washington, 19 February, 0200 GMT (18 February, 2100 Local)

Admiral Daniels put the handset down and turned to the tall, broad-shouldered man seated in the shadows in the back of the White House basement situation room. “Mr. President, the paratroopers’ aircraft are over the Med. They were all successfully refueled.”

“Good, Arch.”

“I recommend we shift command and control of the operation to Sixth Fleet, sir.”

“We could get it back?”

“Of course, sir, at any stage. But the timing is tricky, and it will be better if Admiral Bergeron and his staff can get the feel of coordinating all the elements.”

“OK, Arch. Give them the ball.”

“Yes, Mr. President.” Admiral Daniels turned to his radioman, who immediately fed the tape with the coded command into the teletype transmitter in front of him and pressed the high-speed transmission key. The signal, double-encrypted, was transmitted from the radio tower on the White House roof to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic, and relayed instantaneously to the America, where it was unscrambled and decoded. The Communications Chief of the Watch took the short message into Flag Plot and handed it to Admiral Bergeron. The admiral read the message and handed it to his Chief of Staff. “Gentlemen,” said Admiral Bergeron to his assembled staff officers, “in all but name, we are now at war.”

The Chief of Staff held the tape up to a red night light and read it:

     0219-0211Z     TOP SECRET LIMDIS OSCAR/FIRE ARROW FLASH     FM: MILESTONE     TO: TOP HAT     PROCEED FIRE ARROW UNODIR EXECUTE ENDS