The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'Believing it is possible?'
Jack nodded. 'That's one area where we have the advantage over you guys, my
friend. We've been through all that.'
'True, but the Soviets never said – proclaimed – for two generations that they
wanted to wipe you from the face of the earth. Tell the worthy President Fowler
that such concerns are not so easily allayed.'
Jack sighed. 'I have. I did. Avi, I'm not your enemy.'
'Neither are you my ally.'
'Allies? We are now, General. The treaties are in force. General, my job is to
provide information and analysis to my government. Policy is made by people
senior to me, and smarter than me,' Ryan added with deadpan irony.
'Oh? And who might they be?' General Ben Jakob smiled at the younger man. His
voice dropped a few octaves. 'You've been in the trade for what – not even ten
years, Jack. The submarine business, what you did in Moscow, the role you played
in the last election – '
Ryan tried to control his reaction, but failed. 'Jesus, Avi!' How the hell did
he find that out!
'You cannot take the Lord's name in vain, Dr Ryan,' the deputy chief of the
Mossad chided. 'This is the City of God. Those Swiss chaps might shoot you. Tell
the lovely Miss Elliot that if she pushes too hard, we still have friends in
your media, and a story such as that . . . '
Avi smiled.
'Avi, if your people mention that to Liz, she will not know what you are talking
about.'
'Rubbish!' General Ben Jakob snorted.
'You have my word on that, sir.'
It was General Ben Jakob's turn to be surprised. 'That is difficult to believe.'
Jack finished off the beer. 'Avi, I've said what I can. Has it ever occurred to
you that your information may not have come from an entirely reliable source? I
will tell you this: I have no personal knowledge of what you alluded to. If
there was any kind of deal, I was kept out of it. Okay, I have reason to believe
that something may have happened, and I can even speculate what it might have
been, but if I ever have to sit in front of a judge and answer questions, all I
can say is that I do not know anything. And you, my friend, cannot blackmail
someone with something that person doesn't know about. You'd have to do a pretty
good selling job just to convince them that something had happened in the first
place.'
'My God, what Moore and Ritter set up really was elegant, wasn't it?'
Ryan set down his empty glass. 'Things like that never happen in real life,
General. That's movie stuff. Look, Avi, maybe that report you have is a little
on the thin side. The spectacular ones often are. Reality never quite keeps up
with art, after all.' It was a good play. Ryan grinned to carry the point.
'Dr Ryan, in 1972 the Black September faction of the Palestine Liberation
Organization contracted the Japanese Red Army to shoot up Ben Gurion Airport,
which they did, killing off mainly American Protestant pilgrims from your island
of Puerto Rico. The single terrorist taken alive by our security forces told his
interrogators that his dead comrades and their victims would become a