The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

despite what his son had said. The farmer knew that much of fate. If the bomb
had wanted to kill him, it would have happened by now. What other misfortune had
avoided him?
***
The newsies finally got something to sink their teeth into the next day.
Dimitrios Stavarkos, Patriarch of Constantinople, arrived by car – he refused to
fly in helicopters – in broad daylight.
'A nun with a beard?' a cameraman asked over his hot mike as he zoomed in. The
Swiss Guards at the door rendered honors, and Bishop O'Toole conducted the new
visitor inside and out of view.
'Greek,' the anchorman observed at once. 'Greek Orthodox, must be a bishop or
something. What's he doing here?' the anchor mused.
'What do we know about the Greek Orthodox Church?' his producer asked.
'They don't work for the Pope. They allow their priests to marry. The Israelis
threw one of them in prison once for giving arms to the Arabs, I think,' someone
else observed over the line.
'So, the Greeks get along with the Arabs, but not the Pope? What about the
Israelis?'
'Don't know,' the producer admitted. 'Might be a good idea to find out.'
'So, now there are four religious groups involved.'
'Is the Vatican really involved, or did they just offer this place as neutral
ground?' the anchor asked. Like most anchormen, he was at his best when reading
copy from a teleprompter.
'When has this happened before? If you want "neutral," you go to Geneva,' the
cameraman observed. He liked Geneva.
'What gives?' one of the researchers entered the booth. The producer filled her
in.
'Where's that damned consultant?' the anchor growled.
'Can you run the tape back?' the researcher asked. The control-room crew did
that, and she freeze-framed the monitor.
'Dimitrios Stavarkos. He's the Patriarch of Constantinople – Istanbul to you,
Rick. He's the head of all the Orthodox churches, kind of like the Pope. The
Greek, Russian, and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches have their own heads, but they
all defer to the Patriarch. Something like that.'
'They allow their priests to marry, don't they?'
'Their priests, yes . . . but as I recall if you become a bishop or higher, you
have to be celibate – '
'Bummer,' Rick observed.
'Stavarkos led the battle with the Catholics over the Church of the Nativity
last year – won it, too, as I recall. He really pissed a few Catholic bishops
off. What the hell is he doing here?'
'You're supposed to tell us that, Angie!' the anchor noted crossly.
'Hold your water, Rick.' Angie Miriles was tired of dealing with the air-headed
prima donna. She sipped at her coffee for a minute or two, and made her
announcement. 'I think I have this figured out.'
'You mind filling us in?'
***