The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'Yeah,' Adler said with a grin. 'This is the one, Jack. It was a good idea you
had.'
'Not just mine. I'll never get any credit for it anyway. Nobody'll ever know.'
'We'll know. Let's get to work.'
'Let me know how they react. Good luck, man.'
'I think mazeltov is the proper expression.' Adler took Ryan's hand. 'Good
flight.'
The embassy limo took Ryan directly to the aircraft, whose engines were already
turning. It had priority clearance to taxi, and was airborne in less than five
minutes from the time he boarded. The VC-20B headed south, down the dagger-shape
that was Israel, then east over the Gulf of Aqaba and into Saudi airspace.
As was his custom, Ryan stared out the window. His mind went over what he was
supposed to do, but that had been rehearsed for over a week, and his brain could
do that quietly while Ryan stared. The air was clear, the sky virtually
cloudless as they flew over what was to all appearances a barren wasteland of
sand and rock. What color there was came from stunted bushes too small to pick
out individually, and had the general effect of an unshaven face. Jack knew that
much of Israel looked exactly the same, as did the Sinai, where all those tank
battles had been fought, and he found himself wondering why men chose to die for
land like this. But they had, for almost as long as man had existed on the
planet. Man's first organized wars had been fought here, and they hadn't
stopped. At least not yet.
Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, is roughly in the center of the country,
which is as large as all of America east of the Mississippi. The executive
aircraft made a relatively fast descent, allowed by the modest amount of air
traffic here, and the air was agreeably smooth as the pilot brought the aircraft
low into the Riyadh International. In another few minutes, the Gulfstream taxied
towards the cargo terminal, and the attendant opened the forward door.
After two hours' exposure to air conditioning, Jack felt as though he'd stepped
into a blast furnace. The shade temperature was over 110, and there was no
shade. Worse, the sun reflected off the pavement as though from a mirror, so
intensely that Ryan's face stung from it. There to greet him was the deputy
chief of mission at the embassy, and the usual security people. In a moment, he
was sweating inside yet another embassy limo.
'Good flight?' the DCM asked.
'Not bad. Everything ready here?'
'Yes, sir.'
It was nice to be called 'sir,' Jack thought. 'Well, let's get on with it.'
'My instructions are to accompany you as far as the door.'
'That's right.'
'You might be interested to know that we haven't had any press inquiries. D.C.
has kept this one pretty quiet.'
'That'll change in about five hours.'
Riyadh was a clean city, though quite different from Western metropolises. The
contrast with Israeli towns was remarkable. Nearly everything was new. Only two
hours away, but that was by air. This place had never been the crossroads
Palestine had been. The ancient trading routes had given the brutal heat of