Michael Ensign: Beringer's Aide

WarGames

Beringer's Aide

Richter: [looking at a report] There's just been a very serious penetration into our WOPR Execution Order file.
Lyle Watson: What the hell's he saying?
Arthur Cabot: Let's have it in English.
General Beringer: I'll give it to you in English - somebody broke into Mr. McKittrick's well-known system and stole the codes that'll launch our missiles. That right, Mr. McKittrick?
John McKittrick: There's no cause for alarm. The system won't accept the launch code unless we're at DEFCON 1. I can have those codes changed in less than an hour.
Lyle Watson: Well, who did this?
John McKittrick: I think the kid's got to be working with somebody on the outside.
General Beringer: I don't know what they're up to, but I sure as hell don't want our bombers on the ground when it happens. Take us to DEFCON 3 and get SAC on the line...
[looks around for Major Daves]
General Beringer: ... where are you?
Major Daves: Uh, sir.
General Beringer: Oh, uh, and get me a report on those subs. I want to know what those bastards are up to.

Radar Analyst Kirkland: Inbounds presently MIRV-ing. We now have approximately twenty-four possible targets in track.
Colonel Joe Conley: Sir, new time to impact: eight minutes.
Major Dawes: [hands Beringer a telephone] Sir, SAC is launching the bombers. General Powers is on the line.
General Beringer: [into the telephone] Beringer.
[pause]
General Beringer: Goddamn it! We didn't get a launch detection from our satellite!
[pause]
General Beringer: No, no. Radar picked 'em up already out of the atmosphere. That's the first we heard of it.
[Beringer gives phone back to his aide, Major Dawes]
General Beringer: [to Colonel Conley] Get the ICBMs in the bullpen warmed up and ready to fly.
General Beringer: [to Major Dawes] Get me the President on the horn.

General Beringer: [on the Gold Phone with the President] Mr. President, we have forty-eight nuclear subs closing in on the United States, and a hundred thousand troops massing in East Germany. We're monitoring their bombers that are on alert...
[an airman shows Beringer a report]
General Beringer: Well that's a load of shit!
[into the phone]
General Beringer: Oh, no, no, sir. Not you. Yes, sir. We'll be in touch as soon as the information changes.
[hands the phone to Major Daves]
Major Daves: Intelligence reports rumors of a new Soviet bomber with stealth capabilities. It can project a false radar image 600 miles away from the real aircraft.
General Beringer: Christ! Now they've got us chasing shadows...

Captain Knewt: Punch up number five, let me see what you have.
Radar Analyst Kirkland: Yes, sir.
[flips a switch; a map of Soviet submarine deployments appears on screen]
Radar Analyst Kirkland: Twenty-two Typhoon-class submarines departing Petropavlovsk, turning south-bound at Nordkapp. Bearing: zero-nine-*five* degrees.
Captain Knewt: Sergeant, I hope you like vodka.
Radar Analyst Kirkland: Yes, sir. I just hope they don't make me eat none of them damn fish eggs.
Major Daves: [hands General Beringer a report] Sir, the Soviets are denying any increase in their submarine deployment. They want to know what the hell we're doing provoking them.
General Beringer: They're full of shit. We know they're down there. We'll blow their ass out of the water.