Tom Clansy - Hunt for Red October

Is that understood?" He looked around the table. "If they know we have her, they'll want her back. And they will know we have her from the crewmen who want to return home. In any case, big as this thing is, how could we hide her?" "We might be able to," Foster said neutrally, "but as you say, the crew is a complication. I presume we'll have the chance to look her over?" "You mean conduct a quarantine inspection, check her for seaworthiness, maybe make sure they're not smuggling drugs into the country?" The president grinned. "I think we might arrange that. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. There's a lot of ground to cover before we get to that point. What about our allies?" "The English just had one of their carriers over here. Could you use her, Dan?" General Hilton asked. "If they let us borrow her, yes. We just finished that ASW exercise south of Bermuda, and the Brits acquitted themselves well. We could use Invincible, the four escorts, and the three attack boats. The force is being recalled at high speed because of this." "Do they know of this development, Judge?" the president asked. "Not unless they've developed it themselves. This information is only a few hours old." Moore did not reveal that Sir Basil had his own ear in the Kremlin. Ryan didn't know much about it himself, had only heard some disconnected rumblings. "With your permission, I have asked Admiral Greer to be ready to fly to England to brief the prime minister." "Why not just send - " Judge Moore was shaking his head. "Mr. President, this information - let's say it's only delivered by hand." Eyebrows went up all around the table. "When is he leaving?" "This evening, if you wish. There are a couple of VIP flights leaving Andrews tonight. Congressional flights." It was the usual end-of-session junket season. Christmas in Europe, on fact-finding missions. "General, do we have anything quicker?" the president asked Hilton. "We can scratch up a VC-141. Lockheed JetStar, almost as fast as a -135, and we can have it up in half an hour." "Do it." "Yes, sir, I'll call them in right now." Hilton rose and walked to a phone in the corner. "Judge, tell Greer to pack his bags. I'll have a cover letter waiting for him on the plane to give to the prime minister. Admiral, you want the Invincible?" "Yes, sir." "I'll get her for you. Next, what do we tell our people at sea?" "If October just sails in, it won't be necessary, but if we have to communicate with her - " "Excuse me, Judge," Ryan said, "that is rather likely - that we'll have to. They'll probably have these attack boats on the coast before she gets here. If so, we'll have to warn her off if only to save the defecting officers. They are out to locate and sink her." "We haven't detected her. What makes you think they can?" Foster asked, miffed at the suggestion. 'They did build her, Admiral. So they might know things about her that will enable them to locate her more easily than us." "Makes sense," the president said. "That means somebody goes out to brief the fleet commanders. We can't broadcast this, can we, Judge?" "Mr. President, this source is too valuable to compromise in any way. That's all I can say here, sir." "Very well, somebody flies out. Next thing is, we'll have to talk to the Soviets about this. For the moment they can say that they're operating in home waters. When will they pass Iceland?" "Tomorrow night, unless they change course," Foster answered. "Okay, we give it a day, for them to call this off and for us to confirm this report. Judge, I want something to back up this fairy tale in twenty-four hours. If they haven't turned back by midnight tomorrow, I'll call Ambassador Arbatov into my office Friday morning." He turned to the chiefs. "Gentlemen, I want to see contingency plans for dealing with this situation by tomorrow afternoon. We will meet here tomorrow at two. One more thing: no leaks! This information does not go beyond this room without my personal approval. If this story breaks to the press, I'll have heads on my desk. Yes, General?" "Mr. President, in order to develop those plans," Hilton said after sitting back down, "we have to work through our field commanders and some of our own operations people. Certainly we'll need Admiral Blackburn." Blackburn was CINCLANT, commander in chief of the Atlantic. "Let me think that one over. I'll be back to you in an hour. How many people at the CIA know about this?" "Four, sir. Ritter, Greer, Ryan, and myself, sir. That's all." "Keep it that way." The president had been bedeviled by security leaks for months. "Yes, Mr. President." "Meeting is adjourned." The president stood. Moore walked around the table to keep him from leaving at once. Dr. Pelt stayed also as the rest filed out of the room. Ryan stood outside the door. "That was all right." General Maxwell grabbed his hand. He waited until everyone else was a few yards down the hall before going on. "I think you're crazy, son, but you sure put a burr under Dan Foster's saddle. No, even better: I think he got a hard-on." The little general chuckled. "And if we get the sub, maybe we can change the president's mind and arrange for the crew to disappear. The judge did that once, you know." It was a thought that chilled Ryan as he watched Maxwell swagger down the hall. "Jack, you want to come back in here a minute?" Moore's voice called. "You're an historian, right?" the president asked, reviewing his notes. Ryan hadn't even noticed him holding a pen. "Yes, Mr. President. That's what my graduate degree's in." Ryan shook his hand. "You have a fine sense of the dramatic, Jack. You would have made a decent trial lawyer." The president had made his reputation as a hard-driving state's attorney. He had survived an unsuccessful Mafia assassination attempt early in his career which hadn't hurt his political ambitions one bit. "Damned nice briefing." "Thank you, Mr. President." Ryan beamed. "The judge tells me you know the commander of that British task force." It was like a sandbag hitting his head. "Yes, sir. Admiral White. I've hunted with him, and our wives are good friends. They're close to the Royal Family." "Good. Somebody has to fly out to brief our fleet commander, then go on to talk to the Brits, if we get their carrier, as I expect we will. The judge says we ought to let Admiral Davenport go out with you. So, you fly out to Kennedy tonight, then on to Invincible." "Mr. President, I - " "Come now, Dr. Ryan," Pelt smiled thinly. "You are uniquely suited to this. You already have access to the intelligence, you know the British commander, and you're a naval intelligence specialist. You fit. Tell me, how eager do you think the navy is about getting this Red October?" "Of course they're interested in it, sir. To get a chance to look at it, better yet to run it, take it apart, and run it some more. It would be the intelligence coup of all time." "That's true. But maybe they're a little too eager." "I don't understand what you mean, sir," Ryan said, though he understood it just fine. Pelt was the president's favorite. He was not the Pentagon's favorite. "They might take a chance that we might not want them to take." "Dr. Pelt, if you're saying that a uniformed officer would - " "He's not saying that. At least not exactly. What he's saying is that it might be useful for me to have somebody out there who can give me an independent, civilian point of view." "Sir, you don't know me." "I've read a lot of your reports." The chief executive was smiling. It was said he could turn dazzling charm on and off like a spotlight. Ryan was being blinded, knew it, and couldn't do a thing about it. "I like your work. You have a good feel for things, for facts. Good judgment. Now, one reason I got to where I am is good judgment, too, and I think you can handle what I have in mind. The question is, will you do it, or won't you?" "Do what, exactly, sir?" "After you get out there, you stay put for a few days, and report directly to me. Not through channels, directly to me.Читать дальше