The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

expected anything else, but Fowler could have shown grace and humanity. He'd
stood to lose nothing by it, after all. Instead he was as petty as any local
Party apparatchik. Tell me, Robert, Narmonov asked behind a poker face that
would have stood him well in Las Vegas, what sort of man are you?
'It is late, my friend,' Narmonov observed. 'Tomorrow afternoon, then?'
Fowler stood. 'Tomorrow afternoon, Andrey.'
Bob Fowler escorted the Russian to the door and saw him off, then returned to
his suite of rooms. Once there he pulled the hand-written check-list out of his
pocket to make sure he'd asked all the questions.
'Well?'
'Well, the missile problem, he says, is exactly what our inspectors said it is.
That ought to satisfy the guys at DIA.' A grimace; it wouldn't. 'I think he's
worried about his military.'
Dr Elliot sat down. 'Anything else?'
The President poured her a glass of wine, then sat beside his National Security
Advisor. 'The normal pleasantries. He's a very busy, very worried man. Well, we
knew that, didn't we?'
Liz swirled the wine around the glass and sniffed at it.
She didn't like Italian wines, but this one wasn't bad. 'I've been thinking,
Robert . . .'
'Yes, Elizabeth?'
'What happened to Charlie . . . we need to do something. It isn't fair that he
should have disappeared like that. He's the guy who put this treaty on track,
isn't he?'
'Well, yes,' Fowler agreed, sipping at his own replenished glass. 'You're right,
Elizabeth. It really was his effort.'
'I think we should let that out – quietly, of course. At the very least – '
'Yes, he should be remembered for something other than a pregnant grad student.
That's very gracious of you, Elizabeth.' Fowler tapped his glass against hers.
'You handle the media people. You're releasing the treaty details tomorrow
before lunch?'
'That's right, about nine, I think.'
'Then after you're finished, take a few of the journalists aside and give it to
them on background. Maybe Charlie will rest a little easier.'
'No problem, Mr President,' Liz agreed. Exorcizing that particular demon came
easily enough, didn't it? Was there anything she could not talk him into?
'Big day tomorrow.'
'The biggest, Bob, the biggest.' Elliot leaned back and loosened the scarf from
her throat. 'I never thought I'd ever have a moment like this.'
'I did,' Fowler observed with a twinkle in his eye. There came a momentary pang
of conscience. He'd expected to have it with someone else, but that was fate,
wasn't it? Fate. The world was so strange. But he had no control over that, did
he? And fate had decreed that he would be here at the moment in question, with
Elizabeth. It wasn't his doing, was it? Therefore, he decided, there was no
guilt, was there? How could there be guilt? He was making the world into a
better, safer, more peaceful place. How could guilt attach to that?
Elliot closed her eyes as the President's hand caressed her offered neck. Never