The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'Ja. Thank you, Herr Ghosn.'
'Now we only need to weld the case shut, draw the vacuum – oh, excuse me, the
tritium. How did I forget that? Who does the welding?' Manfred asked.
'I will. I'm very good at that.' The top half of the bombcase had a wide flange
to ensure the safety of that procedure, and it had already been checked for a
perfect fit. The machinists had not merely handled the precise work on the
explosive part of the device. Every single part – except for the single
mis-trimmed fitting – had been cut and shaped to Fromm's specifications, and the
bomb-case had already been checked. It fit as tightly as the back of a watch.
'Doing the tritium is easy.'
'Yes, I know.' Ghosn motioned for the German to go outside. 'You are fully
satisfied with the design and the assembly?'
'Completely,' Fromm said confidently. 'It will function exactly as I predict.'
'Excellent,' Qati said, waiting outside with one of his bodyguards.
Fromm turned, noting the Commander's presence, along with one of his ubiquitous
guards. Dirty, scruffy people, but he had to admire them, Fromm told himself, as
he turned to took at the darkened valley. There was a quarter moon, and he could
just make out the landscape. It was so dry and harsh. Not these people's fault
that they looked as they did. The land here was hard. But the sky was clear.
Fromm looked up at the stars on this cloudless night. More stars than one could
see in Germany, especially the Eastern part, with all its air pollution, and he
thought about astrophysics, the path he might have taken, so closely related to
the path he had.
Ghosn stood behind the German. He turned to Qati and nodded. The Commander made
the same gesture to his bodyguard, whose name was Abdullah.
'Just the tritium remains,' Fromm said, his back to them.
'Yes,' Ghosn said, 'I can do that myself.'
Fromm was about to say that there was one more thing. He let it wait a moment,
and didn't pay attention to Abdullah's footsteps. There was no sound at all as
the guard removed a silenced pistol from his belt and pointed it at Fromm's head
from a range of one meter. Fromm began to turn, to make sure that Ghosn knew
about the tritium, but he never made it around. Abdullah had his orders. It was
supposed to be merciful, as it had been for the machinists. It was a pity that
it had been necessary at all, Qati thought, but it was necessary, and that was
that. None of that mattered to Abdullah, who merely followed his orders,
squeezing on the trigger smoothly and expertly until the round fired. The bullet
entered the back of Fromm's skull, soon thereafter exiting through his forehead.
The German dropped in a crumpled mass. Blood fountained out, but sideways,
without reaching Abdullah's clothing. The guard waited until the blood flow
stopped, then summoned two comrades to carry the body to the waiting truck. He'd
be buried with the machinists. That, at least, was fitting, Qati thought. All
the experts in the same place.
'A pity,' Ghosn observed quietly.
'Yes, but do you really think we would have further use of him?'
Ibrahim shook his head. 'No. He would have been a liability. We could not trust
him. An infidel and a mercenary. He fulfilled his contract.'
'And the device?'