The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'Back to the bugging equipment. We won't be reading this in real-time?'
'No way.' Clark shook his head. 'What'll come across will be garbled, but we'll
use high-speed tape machines to record, then we can wash it through the 'puters
downstairs to get clean copy. It's an additional operational safeguard. The guys
in the chase birds won't know what they're listening to, and only the drivers
need to know who they're shadowing . . . maybe not even that, as a matter of
fact. I have to check on that.'
'How long to produce clean copy?'
'Have to do it at this end . . . say a couple of hours. That's what the S&T guys
say, anyway. You know the real beauty of this?'
'Tell me.'
'Airplanes are about the last place you can't bug. Our S&T guys have been
playing with it for a long time. What made the breakthrough came from the Navy –
very black project. Nobody knows we can do this. The computer codes are very
complex. Lots of people are playing with it, but the actual breakthrough is on
the theoretical side of the math. Came from a guy at NSA. I repeat, Sir John,
nobody knows this is possible. Their security guys will be asleep. If they find
the bug, they'll think it's an amateur attempt to do something. The receiver I
put aboard won't actually recover anything usable to anyone but us – '
'And we'll have a guy recover that also, to back up the aerial transmissions.'
'That's right. So we have double-redundancy – or triple, I never have figured
what the right terminology is. Three separate channels for the information, one
in the plane, and two being beamed out from it.'
Ryan raised his coffee mug in salute. 'Okay, now that the technical side looks
possible, I want an operational feasibility evaluation.'
'You got it, Jack. Goddamn! It's good to be a real spy again. With all due
respect, watching out for your ass does not test my abilities all that much.'
'I love you, too, John.' Ryan laughed. It was his first in too long a time. If
they could pull this one off, maybe that Elliot bitch would get off his back for
once. Maybe the President would understand that field operations with real live
field officers were still useful. It would be a small victory.
CHAPTER 25
Resolution
'So, what's the story on the things?' the Second Officer asked, looking down at
the cargo deck.
'Supposed to be the roof beams for a temple. Small one, I guess,' the First
Officer noted. 'How much more will these seas build . . . ?'
'I wish we could slow down, Pete.'
'I've talked to him twice about it. Captain says he has a schedule to meet.'
'Tell that to the fuckin' ocean.'
'Haven't tried that. Who do you call?'
The Second Officer, who had the watch, snorted. The First Officer – the ship's
second in command – was on the bridge to keep an eye on things. That was
actually the captain's job, but the ship's Master was asleep in his bed.
MV George McReady was pounding through thirty-foot waves, trying to maintain