The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [458]
"Hello, Ryan," the President said from his chair. "Hi, Arnie."
"Bad day, Bob," van Damm offered.
"Very." The man had aged. It seemed a cliche, but it was true. His skin was sallow, the eyes sitting at the bottom of dark-rimmed wells. Though he was normally a carefully groomed man, Fowler's hair was askew. "Ryan, you have them?"
"Yes, sir, two of our field officers grabbed them in Mexico City. Their names are Ismael Qati and Ibrahim Ghosn. You know who Qati is. We've been after that guy for a long time. He had a piece of the Beirut bombing, two aircraft incidents, lots of other things, mainly to do with Israel. Ghosn is one of his people, evidently an engineer by profession. They were somehow able to fabricate the weapon."
"Whose sponsorship?" the President asked.
"We - our man, that is - had to sweat that out of them. Sir, that's a technical violation -"
Fowler's eyes flared into life. "I forgive them! Get on with it."
"Sir, they say the, uh, operation was bankrolled and supported by the Ayatolla Mahmoud Haji Daryaei."
"Iran." Not a question, a statement. Fowler's eyes became more animated.
"Correct. As you know, Iran isn't exactly pleased with how our actions in the Gulf worked out, and - sir, according to our people, this is what they said:
"It was a two-part plan. Part one was the bomb in Denver. Part two was an incident in Berlin. They had another guy working with them, Gunther Bock, former Red Army Faction guy, his wife was arrested by the Germans last year and she later hanged herself. The objective, Mr President, was to drive us and the Russians into a nuclear exchange - or at the least to so screw up our relations that the situation in the Gulf would revert to chaos. That would serve Iranian interests - or so Daryaei supposedly thinks."
"How did they get the weapon?"
"They say it's Israeli - was Israeli," Ryan corrected himself. "Evidently it got lost in 1973. We have to check that with the Israelis, but it makes sense. The plutonium came from Savannah River, and it's probably part of the big MUF they had some years back. We've long suspected that the first generation of Israeli nukes was fabricated from material obtained over here."
Fowler stood. "You're telling me that this fucking mullah did this - and killing a hundred thousand Americans wasn't enough! He wanted to start a nuclear war, too!"
"That is the information, sir."
"Where is he?"
"As a matter of fact, Mr President, we know quite a lot about him. He has supported several terrorist groups as you know. He was the loudest Islamic voice against the Vatican Treaty, but he lost a lot of prestige when it started working, and that did not improve his disposition very much. Daryaei lives in Qum in Iran. His political faction is losing some of its power, and there's already been an attempt on his life."
"Is their story plausible?"
"Yes, Mr President, it is."
"You think Daryaei capable of such a thing?"
"On the record, sir, I would have to say that he is. Yes."
"He lives in Qum?"
"Correct. It's a city with a religious history, very important to the Shi'a branch of Islam. I don't know the exact population, certainly more than a hundred thousand."
"Where in Qum does he live?"
"That's the problem. He moves around a lot. He was nearly killed last year, and he learned from that. Never sleeps in the same place twice, so we hear. He stays in the same part of the city, but I can't give you a location better than plus or minus a mile or so."
"He did this?"
"So it would seem, Mr President. That's our best data."
"But you can't localize him better than a mile."
"Yes, sir."
Fowler contemplated that for a few seconds