The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

He wrenched his stick left, his throttle hand punching the flare/chaff-release
button, as his eyes searched the darkness for his attacker.
Sanchez's second missile missed right. It didn't matter. He was still tracking,
and the MiG's turn brought the target right into the path of his 20mm cannon.
One quick burst detached part of the MiG's wing. The pilot barely ejected in
time. Sanchez watched the chute deploy. A minute later, as he orbited overhead,
he saw that both Russians seemed to have survived the incident. That was fine
with Bud.
'Splash two. Stick, we have two good chutes on the splashes . . . wait a minute,
there's three strobes down there,' Jackson called. He gave the position, and
almost instantly a helicopter lifted off from Theodore Roosevelt.
'Spade, is it supposed to be this easy?' Walters asked.
'I thought the Russians were smarter than this myself,' the captain admitted.
'This is like first day of duck season.'
Ten minutes later, Kuznetzov made a radio call for its two MiGs, and got no
reply.
***
The Air Force helicopter returned from Rocky Flats. Major Griggs alighted with
five men, all of them dressed in protective gear. Two of them ran to find Chief
Callaghan close to the M728 engineer tanks.
'Ten more minutes, if we're lucky,' Colonel Lyle shouted from atop the lead
tank.
'Who's in charge here?' one of the NEST team asked.
'Who are you?'
'Parsons, team leader.' Laurence Parsons was the head of the on-duty Nuclear
Emergency Search Team, yet another failure for this day. Their job was to locate
nuclear devices before they went off. Three such teams were kept on duty around
the clock, one just outside Washington, another in Nevada, and the third,
recently activated at Rocky Flats to help make up for the retirement of the
Energy Department's weapons-fabrication facility outside Denver. It had been
anticipated, of course, that they wouldn't always be able to get there in time.
He held a radiation counter in his hand, and didn't like what he saw. 'How long
have your people been here?'
'About half an hour, maybe forty minutes.'
'Ten more minutes, I want everybody away from here. You're taking Rems here,
Chief.'
'What do you mean? The major said the fallout is all – '
'What you're getting is from neutron activation. It's hot here!'
Callaghan cringed at the thought. His life was being attacked by something he
couldn't see or feel. 'There may be people inside. We're almost there.'
'Then do it fast! I mean fast!' Parsons and his team started moving back to the
helicopter. They had their own work to do. At the chopper, they met a man in
civilian clothes.
'Who the fuck are you?' Parsons demanded.
'FBI! What happened here?'
'Take a guess!'
'Washington needs information!'