The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

pair dodged the first wave of SAMs, but one was caught in the frag pattern of
second-wave SA-11 it almost but not quite evaded. That pilot ejected
successfully, but died when he landed too hard on the roof of an apartment
building. The fourth F-16 escaped by skimming the rooftops and screaming west on
full burner. Two of the Eagles joined him. A total of five American aircraft
crashed into the city. Only one of the pilots lived. The escaping aircraft
radioed the news to Commander U.S. Air Forces Europe at Ramstein. Already, he
had twelve F-16s arming up with heavy ordnance. The next wave would be
different.
***
PRESIDENT NARMONOV:
WE SENT SOME AIRCRAFT INTO BERLIN TO INVESTIGATE THE SITUATION THERE. THEY
WERE
SHOT DOWN WITHOUT WARNING BY SOVIET MISSILES. WHY WAS THIS DONE?
***
'What does this mean?'
' "Shot down without warning"? There's a battle under way, and that's why the
aircraft were sent there! The regiment has anti-aircraft troops,' the Defense
Minister explained. 'They only have short-range, low-altitude rockets. If the
Americans were just looking from a safe height – ten thousand meters – we
couldn't even have touched them. They must have been lower, probably trying to
support their troops with an air attack. That's the only way we could have
gotten them.'
'But we have no information?'
'No, we have not established contact yet.'
'We will not answer this one.'
'That is a mistake,' Golovko said.
'This situation is dangerous enough already,' Narmonov said angrily. 'We do not
know what is going on there. How can I respond when he claims to have
information which I do not?'
'If you do not respond, you appear to admit the incident.'
'We admit nothing!' the Defense Minister shouted. 'We could not even have done
this unless they were attacking us, and we don't know whether it really happened
or not.'
'So, tell them that,' Golovko suggested. 'Perhaps if they understand that we are
as confused as they, they will also understand that – '
'But they won't understand, and they won't believe. They've already accused us
of launching this attack, and they won't believe that we have no control over
the area.'
Narmonov retreated to a corner table and poured himself a cup of tea, while the
intelligence and defense advisors traded – arguments? Was that the right word?
The Soviet President looked up at the ceiling. This command center dated back to
Stalin. A spur off one of the Moscow subway lines built by Lazar Kaganovich,
Stalin's pet Jewish anti-semite and his most trusted henchman, it was fully a
hundred meters down, but now his people told him that it was not truly a place
of safety after all.
What was Fowler thinking? Narmonov asked himself. The man was undoubtedly shaken