The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [463]
"I have a question," Jack said to him. "How was it the yield estimates were so far off? That almost made us think the Russians did it."
"It was a parking lot," Lowell replied. "It was made of macadam, a mixture of gravel and asphalt. The energy from the bomb liberated various complex hydrocarbons from the upper layer of the pavement and ignited it - like a great big fuel-air explosive bomb. The water vapor there - from the snow that flashed away - caused another reaction that released more energy. What resulted was a flame-front double the diameter of the nuclear fireball. Add to that the fact that snow cover reflected a lot of the energy, and you got a huge augmentation of the apparent energy released. It would have fooled anybody. Then afterwards, the pavement had another effect. It radiated residual heat very rapidly. The short version is, the energy signature was much larger than the actual yield justified. Now, you want the real bad news?" Lowell asked.
"Okay."
"The bomb was a fizzle."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean it should have been much larger, and we don't know why. The bomb residue was lousy with tritium. The design yield was at least ten times what it actually delivered."
"You mean?"
"Yeah, if this thing had worked "
"We were lucky, weren't we?"
"If you want to call that luck, yeah."
Somehow Jack slept for most of the flight.
The aircraft landed the next morning at Beersheba. Israeli military personnel met the aircraft and convoyed everyone to Jerusalem. The press had found out some of what was happening, but not enough to be a bother, not on a secure Israeli Air Force Base. That would come later. Prince Ali bin Sheik was waiting outside the VIP building.
"Your Highness." Jack nodded to him. "Thank you for coming."
"How could I not?" Ali handed over a newspaper.
Jack scanned the headline. "I didn't think that would stay secret very long."
"It's true, then?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you stopped it?"
"Stopped it?" Ryan shrugged. "I just wouldn't - it was a lie, Ali. I was lucky I guessed - no, that's not true. I didn't know that until later. It's just that I couldn't put my name to it, that's all. Your Highness, that's not important now. There are some things I have to do. Sir, will you help us?"
"With anything, my friend."
"Ivan Emmettovich!" Golovko called. And to Ali, "Your Royal Highness."
"Sergey Nikolay'ch. Avi." The Russian walked up with Avi Ben Jakob at his side.
"Jack," John Clark said. "You guys want to get to a better spot? One mortar round sure would waste a lot of top spooks, y'know?"
"Come with me," Avi said, who led them inside. Golovko briefed them on what he had.
"The man is still alive?" Ben Jakob asked.
"Suffering all the pains of hell, but yes, for another few days."
"I cannot go to Damascus," Avi said.
"You never told us you lost a nuke," Ryan said.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. The press doesn't have that yet, but they will in another day or two. Avi, you never told us there was something lost out there! Do you know what that might have meant to us?" Ryan asked.
"We assumed that it had broken up. We tried to search for it, but -"
"Geology," Dr Lowell said. "The Golan Heights are volcanic, lots of basaltic rock, makes for a high background count, and that means it's hard to track in on a hot spot - but you still should have told us. We have some tricks at Livermore we might have used, stuff not too many people know about."
"I am sorry, but it is done," General Ben Jakob said. "You fly to Damascus, then?"
They used Prince Ali's plane for that, a personal Boeing 727 whose flight crew, Jack learned, was exclusively composed of former drivers from the President's Wing. It was nice to travel first class. The mission was covert, and the Syrians cooperated. Representatives from the U.S., Soviet, and Saudi embassies attended a brief meeting at the Syrian Foreign Ministry, and then they went off to the hospital.
He'd been a powerful