The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

A grunt. 'You ought to have heard him a couple hours ago. He lost it, Arnie.'
'That bad?'
Jack nodded. 'That bad.' A pause. 'Maybe anybody would have, maybe you just
can't expect a guy to deal with this, but – but that's his job, man.'
'You know, he once told me that he was most grateful for Reagan and the others
because of the changes, the fact that something like this wasn't really possible
anymore.'
'Listen, man, as long as those goddamned things exist, it's possible.'
'You advocating disarmament?' van Damm asked.
Ryan looked up again. The giddiness was gone now. 'I got the stars out of my
eyes a long time ago. What I'm saying is, if it's possible, you damned well
think about it. He didn't. He didn't even look at the wargames we ran. He was
just so sure it would never happen. Well, it did, didn't it?'
'How did Liz do?'
'Don't ask. The Boss needed good advice, and he didn't get any from her.'
'And you?'
'He didn't listen to me, and that's partly my fault, I guess.'
'Hey, it's over.'
Jack nodded again. 'Yeah.'
'Ryan, call for you.'
Jack took the phone. 'Ryan here. Yeah, okay. Go slower.' He listened for several
minutes, making notes. 'Thanks, John.'
'What was that?'
'A confession. Is the helicopter ready?'
'At the pad. On the other side,' one of the Secret Service men said.
The helicopter was a VH-60. Ryan climbed aboard and strapped in, along with van
Damm and three agents. The chopper lifted off at once. The sky was clearing. The
wind was still lively, but there were stars to be seen in the west.
'Where's the Vice President?' van Damm asked.
'Kneecap,' an agent replied. 'He stays up six more hours till we're sure this is
over.'
Jack didn't even hear. He had his ear-protectors in, and took the chance to lean
back and stare into space. The helicopter even had a bar, he saw. What a nice
way to travel.
***
'They wanted to start a nuclear war?' Chavez asked.
'That's what they said.' Clark washed his hands. It wasn't that bad. He'd only
broken four of Qati's fingers. It was the way you worked the broken bones that
really mattered. Ghosn – they now knew his name – had taken a little more, but
both stories were almost identical.
'I heard it, too, man, but – '
'Yeah. Ambitious fuckers, weren't they?' Clark put some ice cubes into a bag and
walked back to rest it on Qati's hand. He had his information now, and he was
not a sadist. The sensible thing, he thought, was to toss their asses out of the
airplane here and now, but that wasn't his job either. Both terrorists were
manacled to their seats. Clark took a chair in the back so that he could keep an
eye on both. Their luggage was there also. He decided to rummage through it now