The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [242]
It was a very clever challenge, Goodley thought. He wondered next if he'd perhaps misjudged the DDCI.
"Will Russell cooperate?"
"Yes, Ismael, he will." Bock said, sipping at a beer. He'd gotten a case of a good German export brew for Fromm, and kept a few for himself. "He thinks we'll be setting off a large conventional bomb to eliminate television coverage of the game."
"Clever, but not actually intelligent." Qati observed. He wanted a beer himself, but could not ask. Besides, he told himself, it would probably upset his stomach, and he'd actually enjoyed three consecutive days of relative health.
"His outlook is limited to tactical matters, yes. On tactical matters he is quite useful, however. His assistance will be crucial to that phase of the operation."
"Fromm is working out well."
"As I thought he would. It really is a pity that he will not see it to fruition. The same with the machinists?"
"Unfortunately, yes." Qati frowned. Not a man who blanched at the sight of blood, neither was he one to kill unnecessarily. He'd had to kill people for reasons of security before, though never this many. It was almost becoming a habit. But, he asked himself, why worry about a few when you plan to kill so many more?
"Have you planned for the consequences of failure or discovery?" Bock asked.
"Yes, I have," Qati replied with a sly smile, followed by an explanation.
"That is ingenious. Good to plan for every contingency."
"I thought you'd like it."
CHAPTER 21
Connectivity
It took two weeks, but something finally came back. A KGB officer in the employ of CIA nosed around and heard something: there might be an ongoing operation about nuclear weapons in Germany. Something being run out of Moscow Center. Golovko himself was overseeing things. People working in KGB Station Berlin were cut out of it. End of report.
"Well?" Ryan asked Goodley. "What do you think?"
"It fits the SPINNAKER report. If the story about a flukey inventory of tactical nukes is correct, it certainly makes sense that it would have something to do with the pull-backs of their forward-deployed forces. Things get lost in transit all the time. I lost two boxes of books when I moved down here myself."
"I'd like to think that people take closer care of nuclear weapons than that," Ryan said dryly, noting that Goodley still had a hell of a lot to learn. "What else?"
"I've been looking for data to counter the report. The Soviet reason for their inability to deactivate the SS-18s on schedule is that the factory they built for the purpose is inadequate. Our on-site inspectors can't decide if it's true or not - engineering question. I find it hard to believe that if the Russians actually built the thing - and, hell, they've been building SS-18s for quite a while, haven't they? - they should be able to design a place to dismantle them safely. They say the problem is in the fueling systems, and the wording of the treaty documents. The -18 uses storable liquids and has a pressurized body - that is, the missile structure depends on pressurization to remain rigid. They can de-fuel in the silos, but then they can't extract the birds without damaging them, and the treaty requires that they be taken intact to the disposal facility. But the disposal facility isn't designed right for de-fueling, they say. Something about a design flaw and possible environmental contamination. The storable liquids are nasty, they say, and you have to take all sorts of precautions to keep from poisoning people, and the facility is only three kilometers from a city, etc., etc." Goodley paused. "The explanation is plausible, but you have to wonder how people could have screwed up so badly."
"Structural problem," Jack said.