The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'What?' The youngster at the helm was all of nineteen, and had never heard a
captain's order countermanded. 'What do I do, sir?'
'Captain, if you goose the engines like that, we lose the shaft in about fifteen
seconds!'
'Shit, you're right.' Ricks was pink beneath the red battle lights in the
control room. 'Tell the engine room, best safe speed, helm, right ten degrees
rudder, come north, new course zero-zero-zero.'
'Right ten degrees rudder, aye.' The boy's voice quavered as he turned the
wheel. Fear is as contagious as plague. 'Sir, my rudder is right ten degrees,
coming to new course zero-zero-zero.'
Ricks swallowed and nodded. 'Very well.'
'Conn, sonar, bearing to torpedo is now bearing one-nine-zero, torpedo going
left to right, torpedo is not pinging at this time.'
'Thank you,' Claggett replied.
'Without our tail, we're going to lose track of it real quick.'
'That's true, sir. Captain, how about we let the Orion know what's going on?'
'Good idea, run up the antenna.'
***
'Sea Devil One-Three, this is Maine.'
'Maine, this is One-Three, we are still evaluating that torpedo we dropped and –
'
'One-Three, we have a torpedo in the water one-eight-zero. You missed the guy.
Start another search pattern south of us. I think this bird is engaging our
MOSS.'
'Roger, on the way.' The Tacco informed Kodiak that there was a for-real battle
going on now.
***
'Mr President,' Ryan said, 'we may have some useful information here, sir.' Jack
was sitting down in front of the speaker phone, his hands flat on the table and
wet enough to leave marks on the Formica top, Goodley saw. For all that, he
envied Ryan's ability to control himself.
'What might that be?' Fowler asked harshly.
Ryan's head dropped at the tone of the reply. 'Sir, the FBI has just informed us
that they have information on two, possibly three, confirmed terrorist suspects
in Denver today. Two of them are believed to be on an airliner inbound to
Mexico. I have people in the area, and we're going to try and pick them up,
sir.'
***
'Wait a minute,' Fowler said. 'We know that this wasn't a terrorist act.'
'Ryan, this is General Fremont. How was this information developed?'
'I don't know all the details, but they have information on an automobile – a
truck, I think, a van, that was at the site. They've checked the tag number and
the owner – the owner turned up dead, and we ran the other two down by their
airline tickets and – '
'Hold it!' CINC-SAC cut Ryan off. 'How the hell can anyone know that – a
survivor from the bomb site? For Christ's sake, man, this was a hundred kiloton
weapon – '