The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'One, we know that they have missing warheads. That is a lie.
'Two, why is he stressing the fact that it's really him, that you two met in
Rome? Why bother doing that unless he thinks that we suspect it's not Narmonov
at all? The real guy wouldn't do that, he wouldn't have to, would he? Probably a
lie.
'Three, we know that they've attacked us in Berlin. That's a lie.
'Four, he brings up the KGB for the first time. I wonder why. What if they
actually have a cover plan . . . after intimidating us – beautiful, after
intimidating us, they offer us their cover plan, and we have to buy it.
'Five, now he's warning us not to provoke him. They're in a "defensive posture,"
eh? Some posture.' Liz paused. 'Robert, this is spin-control pure and simple.
He's trying to take us out.'
'That's the way I read it, too. Comments, anyone?'
'The non-provocation statement is troubling,' CINC-SAC replied. General Fremont
was watching his status boards. He now had ninety-six bombers in the air, and
over a hundred tankers. His missile fields were on line. The Defense Support
Program satellites had their Cassegrain-focus telescopic cameras zoomed in on
the Soviet missile fields instead of on wide-field scanning mode. 'Mr President,
there is something we need to discuss right about now.'
'What is that, General?'
Fremont spoke in his best calm-professional voice. 'Sir, the build-down of the
respective strategic-missile forces on both sides has affected the calculus of a
nuclear strike. Before, when we had over a thousand ICBMs, neither we nor the
Soviets ever expected that a disarming first-strike was a real strategic
possibility. It just demanded too much. Things are different now. Improvements
in missile technology plus the reduction in the number of fixed high-value
targets now means that such a strike is a theoretical possibility. Add to that
Soviet delays in deactivating their older SS-18s to comply with the
strategic-arms treaty, and we have what may well be a strategic posture on their
part in which such a strike may be an attractive option. Remember that we've
been reducing our missile stocks faster than they. Now, I know that Narmonov
gave you a personal assurance that he'd be fully in compliance with the treaty
in four more weeks, but those missile regiments are still active as far as we
can tell.
'Now,' Fremont went on, 'if that intelligence you have that Narmonov was being
threatened by his military is correct – well, sir, the situation is pretty
clear, isn't it?'
'Make it clearer, General,' Fowler said, so quietly that CINC-SAC barely heard
him.
'Sir, what if Dr Elliot is right, what if they really expected you to be at the
game? Along with Secretary Bunker, I mean. The way our command-and-control
works, that would have severely crippled us. I'm not saying they would have
attacked, but certainly they would have been in a position, while denying
responsibility for the Denver explosion, to – well, to announce their change in
government in such a way as to prevent us, by simple intimidation, from acting
against them. That's bad enough. But they've missed their target, so to speak,
haven't they? Okay, now what are they thinking? They may be thinking that you