Ana

CH 27

Tom reached for Naomi's margarita and took a long drink from it then said, "Ana thinks you have some unique talents and contacts that can help us deal with certain aspects of the international community. I'm sure you understand me."

She tensed up and glanced quickly at Naomi's innocent face, and then back at Tom's rock hard stare. It was clear that Tom knew about her even if Naomi didn't. On the good side, it didn't sound like he was planning on killing her right away. "What makes you think the world is on the verge of a major war?"

Tom continued, "You know Iran has been trying to make nuclear weapons and the rest of the world has been trying to stop them. What isn't common knowledge is that Iran already has two nuclear warheads they got from Russian in exchange for a heavily discounted oil contract that will save them over a billion U.S. dollars during a ten year period."

Was that possible? The ramifications were staggering.  If Iran set off a nuclear bomb in Israel, or anywhere else for that matter, world war might not be far off. "If that's true, and you have the means, you need to destroy those weapons immediately."

"That's what I told him," Naomi said giving Tom a playful kick from the bar stool she was sitting on. "See, she agrees with me. All you have to do is tell Ana to blast them and be done with it."

Tom frowned at Naomi. "Look, I already explained why I can't do that."  He turned to Heidi. "This is where I'd like your opinion on Ana's model because you have some idea of how the U.S. will react to treats on their national security."

Heidi stiffened again. "Yes, he knew."

"According to the model, if I do take direct action to destroy the warheads, Iran will think it is an attack by the United States or Israel and retaliate. According to Ana's analysis, Iran will react first by launching missile attacks on Israel and then follow up with numerous attacks on soft American targets. Then things start to get out of control when the United States retaliates by bombing Iran. That causes a split with Russia and they send troops and missile defense systems into Iran to protect them, which eventually leads to an all out world war."

Heidi held up her hand to interrupt him. "I'm sorry but you're talking like you know exactly what will happen, but you can't know that for sure and I don't think what you're proposing is even close." Her eyes narrowed. "I seriously doubt you have the necessary experience in political science to comprehend the intricacies of global world politics."

His casual assumption that he could predict what Iran was going to do was alarming. The world didn't need an amateur like this man toying with nuclear politics. She better talk some sense into this guy before the situation got out of control.

Tom didn't look fazed at all by her jab. In fact, he had a twinkle in his eye and his lips were stretched in an unmistakable smirk. "I haven't had the training that you have had, but you need to understand that one of Ana's main functions is to forecast the most probable course of events and she's remarkably accurate at doing so."

Heidi pointed at Tom. "If you really know where these bombs are and you aren't going to destroy them, you need to tell the CIA where they are and let the proper officials decide how to handle this."

"That is one option, however, the forecasting shows that if I do that, the United States will launch a preemptive strike to destroy them and the whole sequence of events I've described happens anyway. I've spent a lot of time looking this over and the best solution so far is to disable them secretly in a way that Iran thinks they are still operational. They won't know anything is wrong until they try to use them and then they'll have no idea why they don't go off. However, there are some details of the plan I want to go over with you when we have more time."