A fictional nuclear coercion plan without a working remote detonator

An aside during the shelf build recalls an unnamed geopolitical thriller about a fictional war between Russia and Japan. Russia officially has no nuclear weapons in the story, which is supposed to make its covert nuclear mission deniable. The mission uses a diesel submarine and commandos to place nuclear weapons in a Japanese harbor, tentatively recalled as Tokyo Bay. The weapons are meant to coerce Japan through the threat of remote detonation. A poorly made box reveals that the operation has no working remote control or detonator. The submarine crew discovers that the weapons cannot be fired remotely and can therefore go out and disarm them. Although the mission has succeeded in placing the weapons, its coercive threat fails because the equipment needed to carry it out does not work.