2 miles NNE Jamburg, Duchy of Estland, 0300 12 September 1972

The Luga river glittered sullenly in the moonlight. A small patrol of the 
Scandinavian Jaegerkorps was tucked into the birch forest overlooking the 
river, keeping close surveillance of the still scene in front - the river, 
some 50 yards wide and, on the Russian side, water meadows stretching 
away, grey under the bright early autumn night sky.

The members of the patrol stiffened as movement became visible on the 
other side of the river. Two men were cautiously making their way through 
the calf-high grass towards the Russian bank of the river. The patrol 
leader gestured and two team members slid away to the Scandinavian bank, 
kneeling and taking up firing positions with their Krag machine pistols. 
The patrol leader cautiously flashed a red light from his hand lantern 
towards the Russian bank. Two red flashes came in reply from the two men 
on the Russian side.

The figures slid into the river and slowly made their way across, using a 
rope which it was now clear had been secured on both banks. Having reached 
the Scandinavian side, they made their way into the cover of the birches 
and were intercepted by the patrol and guided away. One of the two patrol 
members left on the riverbank stayed on alert as the other slipped across 
the river, freed the rope and swam back, coiling the rope as he went.

Five minutes later there was no sign at the Luga that anything at all had 
occurred.

**********************

The Cabinet Room, Christiansborg Castle, 1000 13 September 1972

The Scandinavian Defence Committee - the Chancellor, the Minister of 
Defence, the Foreign and Interior Ministers, the heads of the Security 
Service, MET [1], KIT [2], the Chief of the Great General Staff and the 
King (in his persona as Marshall The Duke of Holsten) [3] - had been 
called into existence at the start of the Global War and had met on at 
least a monthly basis ever since.

This meeting was out of sequence and had been called by the Chancellor. 
Additional attendees at the meeting included the Chiefs of Staff of the 
Army, the Fleet and the Air Fleet and Mr Gustav Lu, a businessman, 
observing. The Chancellor, Grev Rasmus von Moltke, had the floor:

"I have a proposition which I wish to present to this meeting. As we are 
all aware, the German Empire is the single largest threat to our national 
security. It is an autarky, with sufficient control over natural resource 
- primarily oil - as to render it effectively proof against pressure from 
external economic sanctions. It is militarily dominant throughout Europe 
and the Near East and our primary competitor for influence throughout the 
Russian states.

The Empire is currently dealing with an upsurge in civil disorder, notably 
in France and Poland and there are indications, based partially on the 
results of the interrogations of the members of the German apparat which 
we rolled up last month and partially on some very
convincing source intelligence from our Russian friends, that the Empire 
is considering the application of pressure to both ourselves and the 
Swiss, perhaps even escalating to military confrontation, in order to 
stimulate a resurgence of support for the German system throughout Europe.

We cannot hope to win such a military confrontation. Even with the 
dramatic improvement in our military technology over the last few years, 
we could not match the manpower reserves and experience of the German 
ground forces. Our naval superiority would give us the ability to sweep 
the oceans clear of the German merchant marine, but this would have an 
insignificant affect on their economy. Similarly, our aviation, while 
competent, is dramatically outnumbered and would not be able to guarantee 
maintaining air superiority, or even contesting it, if it came to open 
conflict. Project Tordenskjold is some months away from completion and we 
remain strategically vulnerable until then.

I think this is an opportunity, rather than a threat. I see considerable 
merit in our taking some active measures to make life more interesting for 
German security forces in the - shall we be frank and term them 
"occupied"? - territories, specifically in those nations and former 
nations in which we can generate some local advantage, on the basis of our 
possession of people with appropriate language skills. A continuing high 
level of insurgent activity - perhaps even escalating to local armed 
uprisings in the occupied territories - would distract the German 
government from its external focus and concentrate its attention 
internally, thus giving us breathing space to complete our ongoing 
project. There is reason to suppose that the foreign services of the CNA 
and Britain would be keen to engage with us in this activity.

I propose that we task the Chiefs of MET and KIT to prepare a plan to 
initiate covert operations against the German Empire and to make contact 
with their equivalents in Burgoyne and London and I hereby invite His 
Majesty's Defence Committee to declare a state of internal alert in the 
security and intelligence agencies of the Kingdom."

There was little discussion - the Chancellor had taken the precaution of 
stacking the deck cold in advance of the meeting - and the logic was 
persuasive, in any case. The motion was proposed, seconded and carried nem 
con.

[1] MET - den Militaere Efterretningstjeneste - Military Intelligence 
Service
[2] KIT - den Kongelige Informationstjeneste - Foreign Intelligence 
Service
[3] Thus neatly circumventing the need for Royal Honours and 
disassociating the Crown from the committee, while still giving the King a 
voice.