Tom Clancy

General, the President is basing his decisions on some really bad information right now. And if you shut me out, your family, and my family, and twenty-five million other families will be dead in thirty minutes.

I'm just saying Zorkin's putting on weight. Really, I don't know why you guys have to reduce everything to sex. It's just disgusting.

Sir, I know you. I know you had nothing to do with the Baltimore bomb, and you sure as hell know you didn't! But you're still about to launch a nuclear strike against us! This no longer has anything to do with Baltimore! Now it's about fear! Our fear of your missiles, your fear of our subs, fear of being weak, fear of making a mistake... the same fear of the other guy that had us build these goddamn bombs in the first place!

The bomb is in play! Dylan's called the AFRAT team! They're meeting me at the docks in twenty minutes! We're going to see if we can find it!

Mr. President, conventional wisdom would suggest that Nemerov is playing the traditional Russian role: be aggressive, flex your muscles, dare the world to stop you. But Nemerov isn't conventional.

What if Nemerov didn't order the attack? What if it was a, uh-uh… rogue general or a splinter military unit frustrated they couldn't get the rest of the rebels out of the city?

I know, that's why he's not gonna move 'em. It's like a chess game. He's just thinking three moves ahead. He knows he has so many more tanks than we do. And the NATO playbook says the only we could stop 'em is using tactical nuclear weapons.

Sir, those three missing scientists? Milinov's expertise is detonators. Spassky's expertise is the package; the nuclear core itself. And Orlov is a mathematician whose expertise is the geometry of high explosives inside a fission bomb.

Oh, I don't think so. I need to know everything you know about the bomb.

Captain. Captain! I don't have time for this. I need to know where this bomb came from. I will settle for where it didn't come from, but I need to know now, otherwise there may not be a tomorrow.

We don't have an hour! Fowler's gonna want to show how tough he is! He's gonna hit back now! Listen to me. We have to prove that it wasn't the Russians before he's convinced it is.

No, we… there's no time! There must be a command post on site. The-the radiation assessment team. Where are they?

Most people believe that the 20th century was a death struggle between Communism and Capitalism, and that Fascism was but a hiccup. But today we know better. Communism was a fool's errand. The followers of Marx gone from this earth, but the followers of Hitler abound and thrive. Hitler, however, had one great disadvantage. He lived in a time when Fascism, like a virus… like the AIDS virus… needed a strong host in order to spread. Germany was that host. But Germany did not prevail. The world was too big. Fortunately, the world has changed. Global communications, cable TV, the internet. Today the world is smaller and a virus does not need a strong host in order to spread. The virus… is airborne. One more thing. Let no man call us crazy. They called Hitler crazy. But Hitler was not crazy. He was stupid. You don't fight Russia and America. You get Russia and America to fight each other… and destroy each other.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

So what shall we make of Chechnya, asking the West for protection? She is like a beautiful virgin, escaping the clutches of a lecherous bear… and running to Bill Clinton to save her maidenhood.

Each day we lose a little bit more of our separate, sovereign ability to determine our own futures... and each day the world comes a little bit closer to that terrible moment when the beating of a butterfly's wings unleashes a hurricane God himself cannot stop.