The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

tried to hide it from me and everybody else. I know that he's being investigated
by the government.'
'What do you mean?'
'A government investigator was here at Hopkins! I know that!'
'Dr Ryan, there is no such investigation at CIA, and no investigation at the
FBI, either. That's a fact.'
'Then who was here?'
'I'm afraid I don't know that,' Clark answered. It wasn't entirely true, but
Clark figured this lie was not pertinent to the matter at hand.
'Look, I know about Carol Zimmer,' she said again.
'What do you know?' Clark repeated quietly. The response he got surprised him.
The answer almost came out as a scream. 'Jack's playing around, and she's the
one! And there's a kid involved, and Jack is spending so much time with her that
he doesn't have any time for me and he can't even – ' She stopped, at the point
of sobbing.
Clark waited for her to settle down. His eyes didn't leave her face for an
instant, and he saw it all as clearly as though it had been printed on a page.
Ding merely looked embarrassed. He wasn't old enough to understand.
'Will you hear me through?'
'Sure, why not? It's over, the only reason I haven't just walked out is the
kids. So go ahead, make your pitch. Tell me that he still loves me and all that.
He doesn't have the guts to talk about it to me himself, but I'm sure he had
something to do with this,' she concluded bitterly.
'First of all, he does not know we are here. If he finds out, I'll probably lose
my job, but that's no big thing. I have my retirement. Besides, I'm about to
break bigger rules than that one. Where do I begin?' Clark paused before going
on.
'Carol Zimmer is a widow. Her husband was Chief Master Sergeant Buck Zimmer,
U.S. Air Force. He died in the line of duty. As a matter of fact , he died in
your husband's arms. I know. I was there. Buck took five rounds in the chest.
Both lungs. It took him five or six minutes to die. He left behind seven
children – eight, if you count the one his wife was carrying. Buck didn't know
about that one when he died. Carol was waiting to surprise him.
'Sergeant Zimmer was the crew chief on an Air Force special operations
helicopter, We took that aircraft into a foreign country to rescue a group of
U.S. Army soldiers who were conducting a covert mission.'
'I was one of 'em, ma'am,' Ding announced, somewhat to Clark's displeasure. 'I
wouldn't be here if the doc hadn't put it out on the line.'
'The soldiers had been deliberately cut off from support from this end of the
operation
'Who?'
'He's dead now,' Clark answered in a way that left no doubt at all. 'Your
husband uncovered what was an illegal operation. He and Dan Murray of the FBI
set up the rescue mission. It was a bad one, really tough. We were very lucky to
get it done. I'm surprised you haven't noticed something – nightmares, maybe?'
'He doesn't sleep well – well, yes, sometimes he . . .'
'Dr Ryan missed having a bullet take his head off by . . . oh, maybe two inches,