The warning, however, lingered in his mind as a quiet, unsettling footnote to the day's events.…. The call from the side gate guardroom was a curious intrusion into the otherwise routine calm of NATO Headquarters. “Chief,” the voice reported, “an old man wants to meet the Chief of the Joint Operations Room.” The Chief of Staff, a veteran of countless briefings and strategic discussions, paused. The Joint Operations Room had been a Cold War-era command center, decommissioned two decades ago. He was skeptical, but a strange sense of unease prompted him to investigate personally. At the side gate stood an old man, his face a roadmap of a bygone era, leaning on a cane. “I worked here for 15 years,” he announced, “as a member of the Joint Operations Room staff.” “Do you have an ID card?” the Chief asked, following protocol. “Or an identification code?” The man shook his head impatiently. “Now is not the time for that. I’ve com...