The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [165]
I don't believe it. I've been through the archives. It's not consistent with everything we know about -"
"Consistency in a politician?" Ryan interrupted. "There's a revolutionary concept."
If you're saying that really happened - "
"It was a hypothetical," Jack said with a raised eyebrow. Hell, he thought, the information was all out there for anyone who wanted to pull it together. That it had never been done was just another manifestation of a wider and more troubling problem. But the part that worried him was right in this building. He'd leave history to historians until, someday, he decided to rejoin their professional ranks. And when will that be, Jack?
"Nobody'd ever believe it."
"Most people believe that Lyndon Johnson lost the New Hampshire primary to Eugene McCarthy because of the Tet Offensive, too. Welcome to the world of intelligence, Dr Goodley. You know what's the hard part of recognizing the truth?" Jack asked.
"What's that?"
"Knowing that something just bit you on the ass. It's not as easy as you think."
"And the breakup of the Warsaw Pact?"
"Case in point," Ryan agreed. "We had all kinds of indicators, and we all blew the call. Well, that's not true, exactly. A lot of the youngsters in the DI - Directorate of Intelligence." Jack explained unnecessarily, which struck Goodley as patronizing "- were making noise, but the section chiefs pooh-poohed it."
"And you, sir?"
"If the Director's agreeable, we can let you see some of that. Most of it, in fact. The majority of our agents and field officers got faked out of their jockstraps, too. We all could have done better, and that's as true of me as it is of anybody else. If I have a weakness, it's that I have too tactical a focus."
"Trees instead of the forest?"
"Yep," Ryan admitted. "That's the big trap here, but knowing about it doesn't always help a whole hell of a lot."
"I guess that's why they sent me over." Goodley observed.
Jack grinned. "Hell, that's not terribly different from how I got started here. Welcome aboard. Where do you want to start, Dr Goodley?"
Ben already had a good idea on that, of course. If Ryan could not see it coming, that was not his problem, was it?
"So, where do you get the computers?" Bock asked. Fromm was closeted away with his paper and pencils.
"Israel for a start, maybe Jordan or Turkey." Ghosn replied.
"This will be rather expensive." Fromm warned.
"I have already checked out the computer-controlled machine tools. Yes, they are expensive." But not that expensive. It occurred to Ghosn that he had access to hard-currency assets that might boggle the mind of this unbeliever. "We will see what your friend requires. Whatever it is, we will get it."
CHAPTER 13
Process
Why did I ever accept this job?
Roger Durling was a proud man. The upset winner of what was supposed to have been a secure Senate seat, then the youngest governor in the history of California, he knew pride to be a weakness, but he also knew that there was much to justify his.
I could have waited a few years, maybe returned to the Senate and earned my way into the White House, instead of cutting a deal, and delivering the election to Fowler in return for this.
"This' was Air Force Two, the radio callsign for whatever aircraft the Vice President rode on. The implicit contrast with 'Air Force One' made just one more joke that attached to what was putatively the second most important political post in the United States, though not as earthily apt as John Nance Garner's observation: "A pitcher of warm spit." The whole office of Vice President, Durling judged, was one