The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

emotions, but now the reverse seemed to be true. Fowler sat rock-steady in his
chair, surveying the room with calm eyes.
'The world will learn a lesson from this,' Fowler said. 'I'll make sure that
nobody ever does this again.'
Another phone line went off. 'Mr President, FBI, sir.'
'Yes?'
'Mr President, this is Murray, we've just had a flash from the Bundeskriminalamt
– that's the German Federal Criminal Police – that they've found the body of one
Günther Bock in eastern Berlin, dressed in the uniform of a Russian army
colonel. There were nine others similarly dressed, one of whom is believed to be
a former colonel in the Stasi. The data we got from Qati and the other one is
confirmed on that side, sir.'
'Murray, I want an opinion. Are you confident in the confessions?'
'Sir, generally speaking, when we bag these guys they sing like canaries. It's
not the Mafia, there's no law of omertà.'
'Thank you, Mr Murray.' Fowler looked up at Ryan. 'Well?'
'Sounds like we got good stuff from them.'
'So, we agree for once.' Fowler punched his SAC button. 'General Fremont?'
'Yes, Mr President?'
'How quickly can you re-target a missile? I want to attack a city in Iran.'
'What?'
'I'll let Deputy Director Ryan explain.'
***
'Those sons-of -bitches.' Fremont spoke for everyone in the room.
'Yes, General, and I intend to get the man who did this, and get him in a way
that will send a message that nobody will ever forget. The leader of Iran has
committed an act of war against the United States of America. I intend to reply
exactly in proportion to his act. I want a missile targeted on Qum. How long
will that take?'
'Ten minutes at least, sir, let me, uh, check with my operations people.'
CINC-SAC flipped off his microphone switch. 'Christ.'
'Pete,' the Deputy Chief of Staff (operations) said, 'the man is right. That
fucker almost killed us all – us and the Russians! For profit, for political
profit!'
'I don't like it.'
'You have to retarget the bird. I suggest a Minuteman-III out of Minot. The
three RVs'll flatten the place. I'll need ten minutes.'
Fremont nodded.
***
'Mr President, you can wait.'
'No, I'm not going to wait. Ryan, you know what they did, you know why they did
it. It was an act of war – '
'An act of terrorism, sir.'
'State-sponsored terrorism is war – your own position paper from six years ago
said that!'
Jack had not known that Fowler'd read it, and being hoist on his own petard came
as a surprise. 'Well, yes, sir, I did say that, but – '