The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [192]
"Those plants were under international inspection, yes? Are there no controls on the production of tritium?"
"The Germans managed to circumvent some of the plutonium inspections, and there are no international controls on tritium at all. Even if there were such controls, concealing tritium production would be child's play."
Golovko swore under his breath "How much?"
The scientist shrugged "Impossible to say. The plant is being completely shut down. We no longer have access to it."
"Doesn't tritium have other uses?"
"Oh, yes. It's commercially very valuable. It's phosphorescent - glows in the dark. People use it for watch dials, gunsights, instrument faces, all manner of applications. It is commercially very valuable, on the order of fifty thousand American dollars per gram."
Golovko was surprised at himself for the digression. "Back up for a moment, please. You tell me that our Fraternal Socialist Comrades in the German Democratic Republic were working not only to make their own atomic bombs, but also hydrogen bombs?"
"Yes, that is likely."
"And one element of this plan is unaccounted for?"
"Also correct - possibly correct," the man corrected himself.
"Likely?" It was like extracting an admission from a child, the First Deputy Chairman thought.
"Da. In their place, given the directives they received from Erich Honecker, it is certainly something I would have done. It was, moreover, technically quite simple to do. After all, we gave them the reactor technology."
"What in hell were we thinking about?" Golovko muttered to himself.
"Yes, we made the same mistake with the Chinese, didn't we?"
"Didn't anyone -" The engineer cut him off.
"Of course there were warnings voiced. From my institute and the one at Kyshtym. No one listened. It was judged politically expedient to make this technology available to our allies." The last word was delivered evenly.
"And you think we should do something?"
"I suppose we could ask our colleagues in the Foreign Ministry, but it would be worthwhile to get something substantive done. So, I decided to come here."
"You think, then, that the Germans - the new Germans, I mean - might have a supply of fissionable material and this tritium from which they might make their own nuclear arsenal?"
"That is a real possibility. There are, as you know, a sizable number of German nuclear scientists who are mainly working in South America at the moment. The best of all possible worlds for them. They are doing what may well be weapons-related research twelve thousand kilometers from home, learning that which they need to learn at a distant location, and on someone else's payroll. If that is indeed the case, are they doing so merely as a business venture? I suppose that is a possibility, but it would seem more likely that their government has some knowledge of the affair. Since their government has taken no action to stop them, one must assume that their government approves of that activity. The most likely reason for their government to approve is the possible application of the knowledge they are acquiring for German national interests."
Golovko frowned. His visitor had just strung three possibilities into a threat. He was thinking like an intelligence officer, and an especially paranoid one at that. But those were often the best kind.
"What else do you have?"
"Thirty possible names." He handed a file over. "We've spoken with our people - those who helped the Germans set up the Greifswald plant, I mean. Based on their recollections, these are the people most likely to be part of the project, if any. Half a dozen of them are remembered as being very clever indeed, good enough to work with us at Sarova."
"Any of them make overt inquiries into?"
"No, and not necessary. Physics is physics. Fission is fission. Laws of science do not respect rules of classification. You cannot conceal nature, and that's exactly what we're dealing with here. If these people can operate a reactor, then the best