The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

States of America, and their host, Italy, arrayed themselves around a massive
15th Century table, punctuated with their chief diplomats and representatives of
the Vatican and the Greek Orthodox church. In deference to the Saudis, toasts
were offered in water or orange juice, which was the only discordant note of the
evening. Soviet President Andrey Ilych Narmonov was particularly effusive. His
country's participation in the treaty was a matter of great importance, and the
inclusion of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Commission for Christian Shrines
would have major political import in Moscow. The dinner lasted three hours,
after which the guests departed in view of the cameras on the far side of the
avenue, and once more the newsies were thunderstruck by the fellowship. A jovial
Fowler and Narmonov traveled together to the former's hotel and availed
themselves for only the second time of the opportunity to discuss matters of
bilateral interest.
'You have fallen behind in your deactivation of your missile forces,' Fowler
observed after pleasantries were dispensed with. He eased the blow by handing
over a glass of wine.
'Thank you, Mr President. As we told your people last week, our disposal
facility has proven inadequate. We can't dismantle the damned things fast
enough, and our nature-lovers in parliament are objecting to our method of
neutralizing the propellant stocks.'
Fowler smiled in sympathy. 'I know the problem, Mr President.' The environmental
movement had taken off in the Soviet Union the previous spring, with the Russian
parliament passing a new set of laws modeled on – but much tougher than –
American statutes. The amazing part was that the central Soviet government were
abiding by the laws, but Fowler couldn't say that. The environmental nightmare
inflicted on that country by more than seventy years of Marxism would take a
generation of tough laws to fix. 'Will this affect the deadline for fulfilling
the treaty requirements?'
'You have my word, Robert,' Narmonov said solemnly. 'The missiles will be
destroyed by 1st March even if I must blow them up myself.'
'That is good enough for me, Andrey.'
The reduction treaty, a carryover from the previous administration, mandated a
50 percent reduction in intercontinental launchers by the coming spring. All of
America's Minuteman-II missiles had been tagged for destruction, and the US side
of the treaty obligations was fully on track. As had been done under the
Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, the surplus missiles were dismantled to
their component stages, which were either crushed or otherwise destroyed before
witnesses. The news had covered the first few destructions, then grown tired of
it. The missile silos, also under inspection, were stripped of their electronic
equipment and, in the case of American structures, fifteen had already been
declared surplus and sold – in four cases, farmers had purchased them and
converted them to real silos. A Japanese conglomerate that had large holdings in
North Dakota had further purchased a command bunker and made it into a wine
cellar for the hunting lodge its executives used each fall.
American inspectors on the Soviet side reported that the Russians were trying
mightily, but that the plant built for dismantlement of the Russian missiles had
been poorly designed, as a result of which the Soviets were 30 percent behind