The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [37]
Ryan shook his head. It was more than amazing. The question of the two Germanys had been the centerpiece of East-West conflict since before his birth, had appeared to be the one unchanging thing in the world, the subject of enough white papers and Special National Intelligence Estimates and news stories to fill the entire Pentagon with pulp. All the effort, all the examination of minutiae, the petty disputes - gone. Soon to be forgotten. Even scholarly historians would never have the energy to look at all the data that had been thought important - crucial, vital, worthy of men's lives - and was now little more than a vast footnote to the end of the Second World War. This base had been one such item. Designed to house the aircraft whose task it was to clear the skies of Russian planes and crush a Soviet attack, it was now an expensive anachronism whose residential apartments would soon house German families. Ryan wondered what they'd do with the aircraft shelters like that one there Wine cellars, maybe. The wine was pretty good.
"Halt!" Ryan stopped cold in his tracks and turned to see where the sound had come from. It was an Air Force security policeman - woman. Girl, actually, Ryan saw, though her M-16 rifle neither knew nor cared about plumbing fixtures.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"ID, please." The young lady was quite attractive, and quite professional. She also had a backup in the trees. Ryan handed over his CIA credentials.
"I've never seen one of these, sir."
"I came in last night on the VC-10. I'm staying over at the Inn, room 109. You can check with Colonel Parker's office."
"We're on security alert, sir," she said next, reaching for her radio.
"Just do your job, miss - excuse me, Sergeant Wilson. My plane doesn't leave till ten." Jack leaned against a tree to stretch. It was too nice a morning to get excited about anything, even if there were two armed people who didn't know who the hell he was.
"Roger." Sergeant Becky Wilson switched off her radio. "The Colonel's looking for you, sir."
"On the way back, I turn left at the Burger King?"
"That's right, sir." She handed his ID back with a smile.
"Thanks, sarge. Sorry to bother you."
"You want a ride back, sir? The colonel's waiting."
"I'd rather walk. He can wait, he's early." Ryan walked away from a buck-sergeant who now had to ponder the importance of a man who kept her base commander sitting on the front step of the Cannon. It took ten brisk minutes, but Ryan's directional sense had not left him, despite the unfamiliar surroundings and a six-hour time differential.
"Morning, sir!" Ryan said as he vaulted the wall into the parking lot.
"I set up a little breakfast with COMUSAFE staff. We'd like your views on what's happening in Europe."
Jack laughed. "Great! I'm interested in hearing yours." Ryan walked off toward his room to dress. What makes them think I know anything more than they do? By the time his plane left, he'd learned four things he hadn't known. Soviet forces withdrawing from what had formerly been called East Germany were decidedly unhappy with the fact that there was no place for them to withdraw to. Elements of the former East German army were even less happy about their enforced retirement than Washington actually knew; they probably had allies among ex-members of the already de-established Stasi. Finally, though an even dozen members of the Red Army Faction had been apprehended in Eastern Germany, at least that many others had gotten the message and vanished before they, too, could be swept up by the Bundes Kriminal Amt, the German federal police. That explained the security alert at Ramstein, Ryan was told.