The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'You know that I can never reveal a source. That violates our code of ethics.'
'Ethics in a reporter,' the man said, just loudly enough to be heard over the
music. 'I like that. Do you also protect sources who lie to you?'
'No, we don't do that.'
'Okay, then I'm going to tell you a little story, but the condition is that you
may never, ever reveal what I am going to tell you. Will you honor such a
condition?'
'What if I find out you are misleading me?'
'Then you will be free to print it. Fair enough?' Clark got a nod. 'Just
remember, I will be very unhappy if you ever print it, 'cuz I ain't lying. One
more thing, you can't ever use what I am going to tell you as a lead to do your
own digging.'
'That's asking a lot.'
'You make the call, Mr Holtzman. You have the reputation of an honest reporter,
and a pretty smart one. There are some things that can't be reported – well,
that's going too far. Let's say that there are things that have to remain secret
for a very long time. Like years. What I'm getting at is this: you've been used.
You have been conned into printing lies in order to hurt someone. Now, I'm not a
reporter, but if I were, that would bother me. It would bother me because it's
wrong, and it would bother me because someone took me for a sucker.'
'You have it figured out. Okay, I agree to your conditions.'
'Fair enough.' Clark told his story. It took ten minutes.
'What about the mission? Where exactly did the man die?'
'Sorry, pal. And you can forget about finding that one out. Less than ten people
can answer that.' Clark's lie was a clever one. 'If you even manage to figure
out who they are, they won't talk – they can't. Not too many people voluntarily
leak information about breaking laws.'
'And the Zimmer woman?'
'You can check out most of that story. Where she lives, the family business,
where the kid was born, who was there, who the doctor was.'
Holtzman checked his notes. 'There's something really, really big behind all
this, isn't there?'
Clark just stared at him. 'All I want is a name.'
'What will you do with it?'
'Nothing that concerns you.'
'What will Ryan do with it?'
'He doesn't know we're here.'
'Bullshit.'
'That, Mr Holtzman, is the truth.'
Bob Holtzman had been a reporter a very long time. He'd been lied to by experts.
He'd been the target of very organized and well-planned lies, had been the
instrument of political vendettas. He didn't like that part of his job, not in
the least. The contempt he felt for politicians came mainly from their
willingness to break any rule. Whenever a politician broke his word, told the
most outrageous of lies, took money from a contributor and left the room at once
to perform a service for that contributor, it was called 'just politics.' That
was wrong, and Holtzman knew it. There was still in him something of the