The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

ultimate safety, guarded by dedicated servants, but less than thirty minutes
from the time some faceless, nameless Russian made a decision, perhaps one made
already, she'd be dead. Dead, a few ashes in the wind, certainly no more than
that. Everything she'd worked for, all the books and classes and seminars would
have ended in a blinding, annihilating flash.
'Robert, we don't even know who we're talking to,' she said in an uneven voice.
'Back to their message, Mr President,' General Fremont said. ' "Additional
troops to investigate." Sir, that sounds like reinforcements.'
***
A rookie fireman found the first survivor, crawling up the concrete ramp from
the basement loading dock. It was amazing he'd made it. His hands had
second-degree burns, and the crawl had ground bits of glass and concrete and
Lord knew what into his injuries. The firefighter lifted the man – it was a cop
– and carried him off to the evacuation point. The two remaining fire engines
sprayed both men with water, then they were ordered to strip, and they were
hosed again. The police officer was semi-conscious, but tore a sheet of paper
off the clipboard he'd been holding, and all during the ambulance ride he was
trying to tell the fireman something, but the firefighter was too cold, too
tired, and much too scared to pay attention. He'd done his job, and might have
lost his life in the process. It was altogether too much for a twenty-year-old
who simply stared at the wet floor of the ambulance and shivered inside his
blanket.
***
The entranceway had been topped with a pre-stressed concrete lintel. That had
been shattered by the blast, with one piece blocking the way in. A soldier from
the tank snaked a cable from the turret-mounted winch around the largest of the
remaining blocks. As he did this, Chief Callaghan kept staring at his watch. It
was too late to stop now in any case. He had to see this through if he died in
the process.
The cable went taut, pulling the concrete fragment clear. Miraculously, the
remainder of the entranceway did not collapse. Callaghan led the way through the
rubbled opening, with Colonel Lyle behind him.
The emergency lights were on, and it seemed that every sprinkler head had gone
off. This part of the stadium was where the main came into the structure,
Callaghan remembered, and that explained the falling water. There were other
sounds, the kind that came from people. Callaghan went into a men's room and
found two women, both sitting in the water, both of their coats sprinkled with
their own vomit.
'Get 'em out of here!' he shouted to his men. 'Go both ways, give it a quick
check, and get back here fast as you can!' Callaghan checked all the toilet
stalls. They were unoccupied. Another look at the room showed nothing else.
They'd come all this way for two women in the wrong bathroom. Just two. The
chief looked at Colonel Lyle, but there really wasn't anything to say. Both men
walked out into the concourse.
It took Callaghan a moment to realize it, even though it was right there, an
entrance to the stadium's lower level. Whereas only a short time before the view
would have been of the stadium south side, and the roof, what he now saw was the