The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'What are you going to do about it?' Liz asked.
'Well, we have to verify it, of course, but I think we'll be able to do that.
Brent is flying back from the game tonight. I'll want him in my office early for
his advice, but I figure we'll just confront him with it. If he doesn't like it,
that's just too damned bad. This is Mafia stuff.'
'You really do have a thing about this, don't you?'
Fowler opened a bottle of beer. 'Once a prosecutor, always a prosecutor. A hood
is a hood is a hood.'
***
The JAL 747 touched down at Dulles International Airport three minutes early.
Out of deference to the weather, and with the approval of the Japanese
Ambassador, the arrival ceremony was abbreviated. Besides, the sign of a really
important arrival in Washington was informality. It was one of the local
folkways that the ambassador had explained to the current Prime Minister's
predecessor. After a brief but sincere greeting from Deputy Secretary of State
Scott Adler, the official party was loaded into all the four-wheel-drive
vehicles that the embassy had been able to assemble on such short notice, and
headed off to the Madison Hotel, a few blocks from the White House. The
President, he learned, was at Camp David, and would be coming back to Washington
the following morning. The Japanese Prime Minister, still suffering from the
lingering effects of travel, decided to get a few more hours of sleep. He'd not
yet taken off his coat when another clean-up crew boarded the aircraft yet
again. One man retrieved the unused liquor, including one bottle with a cracked
neck. Another emptied the wastebaskets of the various washrooms into a large
trash bag. They were soon on their way to Langley. All of the chase aircraft
except the first landed at Andrews Air Force Base, where the flight crews also
began their mandated rest periods – in this case at the base officers' club. The
recordings started their trip to Langley by car, arriving later than the tape
recorder from Dulles. It turned out that the machine off the 747 had the best
sound quality, and the technicians started on that tape first.
***
The Gulfstream returned to Mexico City, also on time. The aircraft rolled out to
the general-aviation terminal and the flight crew of three – it was an Air Force
crew, though no one knew that – walked into the terminal for dinner. Since they
were Air Force, it was time for some crew rest. Clark was still at the embassy,
and planned to catch the first quarter at least, before heading back to D.C. and
all that damned snow.
***
'Be careful or you're going to fall asleep during the game,' the National
Security Advisor warned.
'It's only my second beer, Elizabeth,' Fowler replied.
There was a cooler next to the sofa, and a large silver tray of munchies. Elliot
still found it quite incredible. J. Robert Fowler, President of the United
States, so intelligent and hard-minded in every possible way, but a rabid
football fan, sitting here like Archie Bunker, waiting for the kickoff.
***
'I found one, but the other one's a son-of-a-bitch,' the crew chief reported.