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<span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-r">HOUR 6</span></span>
>Carter, are you ready?
The young man nods, once, beads of sweat running down his face but a look in his eyes that tells you he’s up to the task. The rest of the table says nothing, intently watching you as you reach for the red telephone. You pick it up and listen. It buzzes only once before you hear a familiar voice on the other end, and Carter begins speaking.
“Mr. President. Are you ready to give us the data we need to defend ourselves?”
>Not yet, Grigory, I’m calling you about something more urgent. One of our subs sent a distress call an hour ago, off the coast of Norway, and we believe your navy is now hunting it. We are hoping it has not been sunk. Do you know about this?”
“No we- There’s some murmuring on the other end sir, uh, I think some of his generals. They’re telling him about the submarine. He isn’t happy. Some swearing. I think he’s coming back. Ahem. No, Mr. President, I did not know about this. What would you have me do?
>We need to find that submarine. I want to set up a 90 minute joint rescue zone in the area around its last known position, both of us working together to find it instead of staring at each other and seeing who’s going to shoot first. We each send a ship, get Norway involved to supervise, no tailing, no hunting, everyone keeps their weapons cold. Cooperation, not competition. Our local commanders will stay in direct contact, just like we’re doing now, so nobody gets confused or starts panicking. You follow me so far?
“… I do.”
>Good. We’ll have a rescue group nearby and airborne early-warning planes, just to keep an eye on things with strict self-defence orders. I expect you’ll do the same. If you agree, we coordinate to find this sub and pull the crew out alive. If you don’t, we issue an international Search and Rescue notice through Norway and find it ourselves, and the ball will be in your court. What do you say?
