"Over at the Northeast Air Defense Sector’s command center, the NORAD exercise is about to commence. Here is how it goes: Russian Bears are piercing the airspace up off Alaska. The Tupolev Tu-95, known colloquially as Bear, has propellers that move faster than the speed of sound, making it the loudest plane in the world. The bomber — booming, blade tips spinning — slips through Alaska’s airspace like a pin, or a needle: the thing that does the pricking."