The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'But the cost of stationing American troops – '
'Rick, we have a military for the purpose of preserving the peace. That's their
job, and to do that job in this place, America will pay whatever it costs. This
isn't a sacrifice for the American tax-payer. It's a privilege, an historic
honor to place the seal of American strength on the peace of the world. Rick,
this is what America is all about. Of course we'll do it.'
'And that's it for now,' Rick said, turning back to Camera One. 'We'll be back
in two and a half hours for live coverage of the signing of the Vatican Treaty.
We now return you to New York. This is Rick Cousins reporting to you from the
Vatican.'
***
'Son of a bitch!' Ryan breathed. This time, unfortunately, the TV had awakened
his wife, who was watching the events on the tube with interest.
'Jack, how much did you – ' Cathy stood and went off to make the morning coffee.
'I mean, you went over there, and you – '
'Honey, I was involved. I can't say how much.' Jack knew he ought to have been
angry at how credit for the first proposal had been assigned to Alden, but
Charlie had been a good guy, even if he had displayed his share of human
weaknesses, and Alden had pushed it along when it had needed a push. Besides, he
told himself, history will find out a little, as it usually did. The real
players knew. He knew. He was used to being in the background, to doing things
that others didn't and couldn't know about. He turned to his wife and smiled.
And Cathy knew. She'd heard him speculating aloud a few months earlier. Jack
didn't know that he murmured to himself when he shaved, and thought he didn't
wake her up when he arose so early, but she'd never yet failed to see him off,
even if she didn't open her eyes. Cathy liked the way he kissed her, thinking
her asleep, and didn't want to spoil it. He was having trouble enough. Jack was
hers, and the goodness of the man was no mystery to his wife.
It's not fair, the other Dr Ryan told herself. It was Jack's idea, at least part
of it was. How many other things didn't she know? It was a question Caroline
Muller Ryan, M.D., F.A.C.S., rarely asked herself. But she could not pretend
that Jack's nightmares weren't real. He had trouble sleeping, was drinking too
much, and what sleep he had was littered with things she could never ask about.
Part of that frightened her. What had her husband done? What guilt was he
carrying?
Guilt? Cathy asked herself. Why had she asked herself that?
***
Ghosn pried the hatch off after three hours. He'd had to change a blade on the
cutting tool, but the delay had mainly resulted from the fact that he ought to
have asked for an extra hand but been too proud to do so. In any case it was
done, and a prybar finished the job. The engineer took a work-light and looked
into the thing. He found yet another mystery.
The inside of the device was a metal lattice-frame – titanium perhaps? he
wondered – which held in place a cylindrical mass . . . secured with heavy
bolts. Ghosn used his work-light to look around the cylinder and saw more wires,
all connected to the cylinder. He caught the edge of a largish electronic device
. . . some sort of radar transceiver, he thought. Aha! So it was some sort of .