The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

alter his appearance enough to dispense with that worry.
The President's helicopter flew in and landed only a hundred meters from where
he stood. A man with a man-portable SAM might stand a good chance of taking it
out – except for the practical considerations. To be there at the right time was
much harder than it seemed. The ideal way would be to have a small truck,
perhaps one with a hole cut in the roof so that the missileer could stand, fire,
and attempt his escape. Except for the riflemen who certainly perched on the
surrounding buildings, and Bock had no illusions that such snipers would miss
their targets. Americans had invented sharpshooting, and their President would
have the services of the best. Doubtless some of the people in this crowd of
tourists were also Secret Service agents, and it was unlikely that he'd spot
them.
The bomb could be driven here and detonated in a truck . . . depending on the
protective measures that Ghosn had warned him about. Similarly, he might be able
to deliver the weapon by truck to the immediate vicinity of the Capitol
Building, perhaps at the time of the President's State of the Union Address . .
. if the weapon were ready on time. That they weren't sure of, and there was
also the question of shipping it here – three weeks, it would take. Latakia to
Rotterdam, then transshipment to an American port. Baltimore was the closest
major port. Norfolk/Newport News was next. Both handled lots of containerized
shipping. They could fly it in, but airborne cargo was often X-rayed, and they
could not risk that.
The idea was to catch the President on a weekend. It almost had to be a weekend
for everything else to work. Everything else. Bock knew that he was violating
one of his most important operational precepts – simplicity. But for this to
have a chance of working, he had to arrange more than one incident, and he had
to do it on a weekend. But the American President was only in the White House
about half the time on weekends, and his movements between Washington, Ohio, and
other places were unpredictable. The simplest security measure available to the
President of the United States was the one they used: his movement schedule, as
well known as it might have been, was irregular and its precise details were
often closely held. Bock needed at least a week's lead-time to set up his other
arrangements – and that was optimistic – but it would be nearly impossible to
get that seven days. It would actually have been easier to plan a simple
assassination with conventional weapons. A small aircraft, for example, might be
armed with SA-7 missiles . . . probably not. The President's helicopter
undoubtedly had the best infra-red jammers available . . .
One chance. You get only one chance.
What if we are patient? What if we simply sit on the bomb for a year and bring
it into the country for the next State of the Union speech . . . ? Getting the
bomb close enough to the Capitol Building to destroy it and everyone in it
should not be hard. He'd heard – and would see tomorrow – that the Capitol was a
building of classical construction – lots of stone, but little structural
ironwork . . . perhaps all they needed was patience.
But that wouldn't happen. Qati would not allow it. There was both the question
of security, and the more important consideration that Qati thought himself a
dying man, and dying men were not known for their patience.