The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'Where to?' Andy Bowler asked.
'We're going to the command center – shopping center. Should be nice and cold
there. You take the samples back and run them through the spectrometer.'
'You should come along.'
'Can't,' Parsons said with a shake of the head. 'I have to call into D.C. This
isn't what they told us. Somebody goofed, and I gotta tell them. Have to use a
landline for that.'
***
The conference room had at least forty phone lines routed into it, one of which
was Ryan's direct line. The electronic warble caught his attention. Jack pushed
the flashing button and lifted the receiver.
'Ryan.'
'Jack, what's going on?' Cathy Ryan asked her husband. There was alarm but not
panic in her voice.
'What do you mean?'
'The local TV station says an atomic bomb went off in Denver. Is there a war,
Jack?'
'Cathy, I can't – no, honey, there's no war going on, okay?'
'Jack, they showed a picture. Is there anything I need to know?'
'You know almost everything I know. Something happened. We don't know what,
exactly, and we're trying to find out. The President's at Camp David with the
National Security Advisor and –'
'Elliot?'
'Yes. They're talking to the Russians right now. Honey, I have work to do.'
'Should I take the children somewhere?'
The proper thing and the honorable and dramatic thing, Jack told himself, was to
tell his wife to stay home, that they had to share the risks with everyone else,
but the fact was there was no place of safety that he knew. Ryan looked out the
window, wondering what the hell he should say.
'No.'
'Liz Elliot is advising the President?'
'That's right.'
'Jack, she's a small, weak person. Maybe she's smart, but inside she's weak.'
'I know. Cathy, I really have things to do here.'
'Love you.'
'And I love you, too, babe. Bye.' Jack replaced the receiver. 'The word's out,'
he announced, 'pictures and all.'
'Jack!' It was the Senior Duty Officer. 'AP just sent out a flash: shooting in
Berlin between U.S. and Soviet forces. Reuters is reporting the explosion in
Denver.'
Ryan got on the phone to Murray. 'You have the wire services?'
'Jack, I knew this wouldn't work.'
'What do you mean?'
'The President told us to shut the networks down. I guess we goofed somewhere.'
'Super. You should have refused that one, Dan.'
'I tried, okay?'
***