The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

suspect that they've done this thing, and that you're angry enough to retaliate
in one way or another. If they're thinking that, sir, they might also be
thinking that their best way of protecting themselves is to disarm us quickly.
Mr President, I'm not saying that they are thinking that way, but that they
might be.' And a cold evening grew colder still.
'And how do we stop them from launching, General?' Fowler asked.
'Sir, the only thing that will keep them from launching is the certainty that
the strike will not work. That's particularly true if we're dealing with their
military. They're good. They're smart. They're rational. They think before they
act, like all good soldiers. If they know we're ready to shoot at the first hint
of an attack, then that attack becomes militarily futile, and it will not be
initiated.'
***
'That's good advice, Robert,' Elliot said.
'What's NORAD think?' Fowler asked. The President didn't think to consider that
he was asking a two-star general to evaluate the opinion of a four-star.
'Mr President, if we are to get some rationality back into this situation, that
would appear to be the way to do it.'
'Very well. General Fremont, what do you propose?'
'Sir, at this point, we can advance our strategic-forces readiness to
DEFCON-ONE. The codeword for that is SNAPCOUNT. At that point we are at maximum
readiness.'
'Won't that provoke them?'
'Mr President, no, it should not. Two reasons. First, we are already at a high
state of alert, they know it, and while they are clearly concerned, they have
not objected in any way. That's the one sign of rationality we've seen to this
point. Second, they won't know until we tell them that we've upped things a
notch. We don't have to tell them until they do something provocative.'
Fowler sipped at his newest cup of coffee. He'd have to visit the bathroom soon,
he realized.
'General, I'm going to hold off on that. Let me think that one over for a few
minutes.'
'Very well, sir.' Fremont's voice did not reveal any overt disappointment, but a
thousand miles from Camp David, CINC-SAC turned to look at his Deputy Chief of
Staff (Operations).
***
'What is it?' Parsons asked. There was nothing more for him to do at the moment.
Having made his urgent phone call, and having decided to let his fellow NEST
team members handle the lab work, he'd decided to assist the doctors. He'd
brought instruments to evaluate the radiation exposure to the firefighters and
handful of survivors, something in which the average physician has little
expertise. The situation was not especially cheerful. Of the seven people who
had survived the explosion at the stadium, five already showed signs of extreme
radiation sickness. Parsons evaluated their exposures at anywhere from four
hundred to over a thousand Rems. Six hundred was the maximum exposure normally
compatible with survival, though, with heroic treatment, higher exposures had
been survived. If one called living another year or two with three or four