The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [222]
The idea was to catch the President on a weekend. It almost had to be a weekend for everything else to work. Everything else. Bock knew that he was violating one of his most important operational precepts - simplicity. But for this to have a chance of working, he had to arrange more than one incident, and he had to do it on a weekend. But the American President was only in the White House about half the time on weekends, and his movements between Washington, Ohio, and other places were unpredictable. The simplest security measure available to the President of the United States was the one they used: his movement schedule, as well-known as it might have been, was irregular and its precise details were often closely held. Bock needed at least a week's lead-time to set up his other arrangements - and that was optimistic - but it would be nearly impossible to get that seven days. It would actually have been easier to plan a simple assassination with conventional weapons. A small aircraft, for example, might be armed with SA-7 missiles probably not. The President's helicopter undoubtedly had the best infrared jammers available
One chance. You get only one chance.
What if we are patient? What if we simply sit on the bomb for a year and bring it into the country for the next State of the Union speech ? Getting the bomb close enough to the Capitol Building to destroy it and everyone in it should not be hard. He'd heard - and would see tomorrow - that the Capitol was a building of classical construction - lots of stone, but little structural ironwork perhaps all they needed was patience.
But that wouldn't happen. Qati would not allow it. There was both the question of security, and the more important consideration that Qati thought himself a dying man, and dying men were not known for their patience.
And would it work in any case? How well did the Americans guard the areas where the President's presence was predictable well in advance? Were their radiological sensors in the area?
You'd put them there, wouldn't you.
Only one chance. You'll never be able to repeat this.
At least one week's advance notice, or you'll never achieve anything beyond mass-murder.
Must be a place without the likely presence of radiological sensors. That eliminated Washington.
Bock started walking away from the black iron fence. His face did not betray the anger he felt.
"Back to the hotel?" Russell asked.
"Yes, why not?" Both men were still tired from their traveling anyway.
"Good, wanted to catch the ballgame. You know, that's about the only thing Fowler and I see eye to eye on"
"Humph? What's that?"
"Football." Russell laughed. "You know? Football. Okay, I'll teach it t'ya."
Fifteen minutes later, they were in their rooms. Russell switched the TV to the local NEC channel.
"That was some drive, Tim. The Vikings had to convert six third downs, and two of them required measurements."
"And one was a bad spot," President Fowler said.
"Red didn't think so." Talbot chuckled.
"They're holding Tony Wills to barely three yards a carry, and one of those was his twenty-yard break on the reverse that caught the Chargers napping."
"A lot of work for three points, Tim, but they did get the three."
"And now the Chargers get their chance at offense. The Vikings defense is a little iffy, with two of their starters out with minor injuries. I bet they're sorry to miss this one."
The Chargers' quarterback took his first snap, faded back five steps and hurled the ball towards his flanker, slanting across the middle, but a hand tipped the ball, and it ended up in the surprised face of the Vikings' free safety, who pulled it in and fell at the forty.
Bock found the game exciting in a distant sort of way, but almost totally incomprehensible. Russell tried to explain, but it didn't really help very much. Gunther consoled himself with a beer, stretching out on the bed while his mind rolled