The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

effect on the treaty is substantive, not merely numerical. But there's more.'
'Okay,' the President said.
'According to this report, there appears to be some collusion between the
military and the KGB. As you know, while the Soviet military owns and maintains
the strategic launchers, the warheads have always been under KGB control.
Kadishev thinks that those two agencies are getting a little too cozy, and
further that security on the warheads might be problematic.'
'Meaning what?'
'Meaning that an inventory of tactical warheads is being withheld.'
'Missing nukes?'
'Small ones. It's possible, he says.'
'In other words,' Fowler said, 'their military may be blackmailing Narmonov, and
it's possible that they are holding some small weapons as their trump cards?'
Not bad, Mr President. 'Correct, sir.'
Fowler was quiet for thirty seconds or so, turning that over in his head as he
stared into space. 'How reliable is this Kadishev?'
'Mr President, he's been in our employ for five years. His advice has been very
valuable to us, and to the best of our knowledge he's never misled us.'
'Possible that he's been turned?' Elliot asked.
'Possible but not likely. We have ways of dealing with that. There are
pre-arranged code-phrases which warn us of trouble. Good-news phrases accompany
each report, and did in this case also.'
'What about confirming the report through other sources?'
'Sorry, Dr Elliot, but we have nothing to confirm this.'
'You came down here with an unconfirmed report?' Elliot asked.
'That is correct,' Ryan admitted, not knowing how tired he looked. 'There aren't
too many agents who could make me do that, but this is one of them.'
'What can you do to confirm that?' Fowler asked.
'We can make discreet inquiries through our own networks, and with your
permission we can have careful discussions with some foreign services. The Brits
have someone in the Kremlin who's giving them some really good stuff. I know Sir
Basil Charleston, and I can make approaches, but that means revealing something
of what we know. You don't do something like this on the old-boy net. At this
level you have to make a real quid pro quo. We never do that without getting
executive approval.'
'I can understand that. Give me a day to think about it. Does Marcus know about
this?'
'No, Mr President. He has the flu. Ordinarily, I would not have come here
without consulting with the Director first, but I figured you would want to know
about this quickly.'
'You've said previously that the Soviet military was more politically reliable
than this,' Elliot observed.
'Also correct, Dr Elliot. Action such as Kadishev reports is completely
unprecedented. Historically, our worries about political ambition within the
Soviet military have been as groundless as they've been continuous. It would
seem that this may have changed. The possibility of a de facto alliance between
the military and the KGB is most disturbing.'