The secure video bridge from NATO headquarters in Brussels was a grid of pale, terrified faces. Eight heads of state sat in isolated rooms across the continent, lit only by the harsh glow of emergency monitors.

“We have six minutes,” the briefing officer in Brussels stammered, his voice straining against rising panic. “The launch was detected twelve minutes ago in the mid-Atlantic abyssal plain. Multiple submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Flight trajectories confirm high-altitude re-entry targeting major hubs—London, Berlin, Warsaw, Paris.”