Eighteen months later, Admiral Arkady Morozov and Professor Vladimir Nikolaevich from the Russian Scientific Foundation for Advanced Research, waited in the Premier’s private office, the polished table before them strewn with maps, documents, and blurred reconnaissance photographs. The heavy door swung open, and the Premier entered without a word. Both men rose. For a moment, only the faint hum of the overhead lights filled the silence. Then the Premier’s gaze fixed on them, cold and deliberate. 


 

“Comrades,” he said quietly, “update me on the development of Poseidon.”