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      Printed and bound in Canada

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       Books by Richard Rohmer

       Fiction

      Richard Rohmer Omnibus (2003)

      Caged Eagle (2002)

      Death by Deficit (1995)

      John A.’s Crusade (1995)

      Red Arctic (1989)

      Rommel & Patton (1986)

      Starmageddon (1985)

      Retaliation (1981)

      Triad (1981)

      Separation II (1981)

      Periscope Red (1980)

      Balls! (1976)

      Separation (1976)

      Exodus/UK (1975)

      Exxoneration (1974)

      Ultimatum (1973)

       Non-Fiction

       Generally Speaking: The Memoirs of Major-General

      Richard Rohmer (2004)

      HMS Raleigh on the Rocks (2003)

      Mustangs Over Normandy (1997)

      The Golden Phoenix: The Biography of Peter Munk (1997)

      Massacre 747 (1984)

      How to Write a Best Seller (1984)

      Patton’s Gap (1981)

      E.P. Taylor (1978)

      The Arctic Imperative (1973)

      The Green North: Mid-Canada (1970)

       Others

      Poems by A.H. Ward (1975)

      Report: The Report of the Royal Commission on Book Publishing (1972)

       Practice & Procedure Before the Ontario Highway Transport Board

       CHAPTER 1

      He spoke softly. Not with anger but with unmistakably firm intent. Sitting well back in his leather-cushioned chair behind his desk, flanked at the windows by his flags of office, he addressed his Secretary of State. She could barely hear his voice, but she had spent so much one-on-one time with him both before and after he became president that she could hear, as well as understand, nearly every word, every inflection.

      “What did that briefing tell you?” he asked, his fingertips together in front of his sombre face as if to underscore his troubled mind.

      The briefing in the Oval Office had been well organized, outlining what he wanted and how much money the United States had given to Russia — so far — for the purpose of cleaning up Putin’s nuclear messes. Messes? The derelict nuclear subs, the plutonium factories, the tons of weapons-grade material littered across Russia with little or no security against theft, against al Qaeda, against terrorists who would sacrifice their lives, anything, to mount a nuclear strike against the heart of America. That heart was anywhere, everywhere, inside the body of the United States.

      How much more money had Congress pledged to give to Russia for cleaning up that nuclear shambles? And where was Russia putting, storing, disposing of its massive amount of high-level nuclear waste? That was the stuff that could be the gut material of those dreaded words “nuclear proliferation,” the spreading of the ability of rogue nations and universal terrorists to create and use nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Against whom? The target of escalating choice: America at home and wherever its face was seen in the world.

      The President’s hands dropped away from his lined face below his full head of greying hair. He leaned forward, elbows on the desk. “Look, we have to make the Russians accountable. We have to do what Rob Ross suggested.”

      “What d’you mean?”

      “We have to tell them that for every million dollars we give them for disposing of their high-level nuclear waste, they have to give us a record of what they’ve done with it. I mean, we just can’t keep on throwing our taxpayers’ money at them and still have no idea of what they’re doing.”

      “So what’s your plan, Mr. President? What d’you want me to do?”

      “Simple. Give Putin the Dr. Ross ultimatum. Either do what I want, nuclear waste–wise — or else.”

      She shrugged. “That I can do. But you have to put some meat on this ultimatum skeleton of yours.”

      The President stood

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