But Pauline bypassed the Oval Office and entered the comfortable small Study, a workplace with no atmosphere of ceremony. She read the full report of the raid on Hufra in the Sahara Desert, noting the reappearance of two effective women, Susan Marcus and Tamara Levit. She mulled over the North Korean weaponry found at the camp, and the mystery man who called himself Park Jung-hoon.
Her mind returned to the conversation with Pippa. Thinking back over what she had said, she did not want to change any of it. Having to justify yourself to a child was a good exercise, she reflected; it cleared the mind.
But the overwhelming feeling she was left with was loneliness.
She would probably never have to make the decision Pippa had asked about – heaven forbid – but every day confronted her with heavy questions. Her choices brought people wealth or poverty, fairness or injustice, life or death. She did her best, but she was never 100 per cent sure she was right.
And no one could share her burden.
*
The phone woke Pauline that night. Her bedside clock said it was 1 a.m. She was sleeping alone in the Lincoln Bedroom, again. She picked up and heard Gus’s voice. ‘We think North Korea is about to attack South Korea.’
‘Shit,’ Pauline said.
‘Soon after midnight our time, signals intelligence noticed intense communications activity around the Korean People’s Army, Air and Anti-Air Force headquarters at Chunghwa, North Korea. Senior military and political staff were notified and are now waiting for you in the Situation Room.’
‘On my way.’
She had been in a deep sleep, but she had to clear her head fast. She pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt and pushed her feet into loafers. Her hair was a mess and she paused to tuck it into a baseball cap, then she hurried to the basement of the West Wing. By the time she got there she felt fully alert.
When the Situation Room was in use it was usually full, with every chair around the long table taken, and aides in the seats ranged along the walls, under the screens; but now just a handful of people were present: Gus, Chess, Luis, Chief of Staff Jacqueline Brody, and Sophia Magliani, the Director of National Intelligence, with a handful of aides. There had not been time for others to assemble.
At every place there was a computer workstation and a telephone headset. Luis was wearing his headset, and as soon as Pauline walked in he began speaking, without preamble. ‘Madam President, two minutes ago one of our infra-red early warning satellites detected the launch of six missiles from Sino-ri, a military base in North Korea.’
Pauline did not sit down. She said: ‘Where are the missiles now?’
Gus put a mug of coffee in front of her, dark with a splash of milk, just how she liked it. ‘Thanks,’ she murmured. She sipped gratefully while Luis continued.
‘One missile misfired and came down in seconds. The remaining five headed into South Korea. Then another broke up in flight.’
‘Do we know why?’
‘No, but missile failures aren’t unusual.’
‘Okay, carry on.’
‘At first we thought they were aimed at Seoul – the capital seemed the logical target – but they have now passed over the city and are approaching the south coast.’ He pointed to a wall screen. ‘The graphic, built up from radar and other inputs, gives a picture of where the missiles are.’
Pauline saw four red arcs superimposed on a map of South Korea. Each arc had an arrowhead that crept slowly southwards. ‘I see two likely targets,’ she said. ‘Busan and Jeju.’ Busan, on the south coast, was South Korea’s second city, with three and a half million people and a huge naval base for both Korean and American forces. But the much smaller Korean-only base on the holiday island of Jeju might have symbolic importance because it was where the North Korean submarine had been destroyed yesterday.
Luis said: ‘I agree, and we’ll soon know which.’ He held up a hand, asking everyone to wait while he listened to his headset, then he said: ‘The Pentagon says the missiles are now more than halfway across South Korea and they should reach the coast in two minutes.’
The speed at which the missiles travelled a hundred miles was breathtaking, Pauline thought.
Chess put in: ‘There is a third possibility, which is no target at all.’
‘Explain,’ said Pauline.
‘The missiles could be meant only as a demonstration, to scare South Korea, in which case they could overfly the entire country and come down in the sea.’
‘Something to hope for, but somehow I don’t think that would be the Supreme Leader’s style,’ Pauline said. ‘Luis, are those ballistic missiles or cruise missiles?’