Uncharted Union: A Love to Overcome All Odds.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, please!"

The old man's voice was high and reedy and it carried despite the relative quiet of the room. The silence was punctuated by the occasional clink of a glass or the murmur of someone still awake on their phone. A few were eying him with distrust and he knew why; his name was Richard Nixon and he had been President of the United States during a time when relations between the two countries had not been at their best.

"I know that you don't trust me for a second but I assure you that this is an opportunity you cannot afford to waste."

The former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, rolled his eyes and toyed with his empty wine glass. "What exactly could you possibly know that we don't?"

Nixon smiled thinly. "Believe me, I'm as surprised as anyone that I do know something that you don't." He held up his hand when Cameron opened his mouth to speak again. "Let me explain."

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a sheet of paper, unfolded it and smoothed it flat with one gnarled hand. The room went silent as they took in what they saw there - a map from Britain to Russia with a series of scribbles on it; roads, towns, cities. There were crosses all over it in red pen.

"What is this?" asked Cameron quietly.

"It's the route of an invasion," replied Nixon. "Well, it will be if your people don't cooperate with mine."

There was a collective gasp from around the table. A few men leapt to their feet, shouting angrily at him but he held up his hands again until they had sat down once more and waited until he could get their attention.

"As I said before, I have no idea why I know this...it just came to me while I was in bed last night," he explained and looked around at those who were now glaring at him suspiciously. "Anyway...the day after tomorrow there will be an invasion force gathering up near Newcastle in your country and heading east along the A1 towards Germany." He pointed to the red crosses on the map and then folded it up again and tucked it away in his pocket. "We have troops massing in Kamchatka near Vladivostok where we will launch our counter-attack."

There was another groan from around the table as everyone behind Nixon nodded sagely at each other; they had known about this for months so why was Nixon telling them? The British PM looked like he wanted to burst into tears while his Foreign Secretary scratched his head thoughtfully; perhaps this might be useful after all? It wasn't everyday that they got to hear first-hand information like this from their American cousins...he looked across at Eisenhower who was eyeing Nixon suspiciously but remained silent nevertheless.

"So what do you want?" asked Cameron cautiously at last.

Nixon smiled again before answering slowly. "We need your support if we're going to succeed in pushing back against Moscow." He shook his head when Cameron opened his mouth again as though this was something he should already know about and continued before anyone else could interrupt him again: "We're going to need air support from all your major airports so that we can move our troops from Kamchatka through Siberia into Russia quicker than our enemy can react..." He trailed off when Cameron started nodding vigorously before continuing: "...but most importantly we need help getting rid of Putin once we are in Moscow because we cannot rule Russia without him there." He paused for effect then added: "And we won't stop until Putin is gone."