Page 36 of Tom Clancy Line of Sight

The President sat back down, rubbing his face with frustration. “Hell, Arnie, I don’t know. That’s why I have all of you here. My gut tells me no, but I know we’re missing something. I can feel it. What did Twain say? History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes?”

He glanced around the room. “We need to keep a close eye on this situation. I’d like each of you to take another swipe at this stuff with your staffs and get back to me with your best ideas by the end of the week. I’m not in the mood for any surprises, Russian or otherwise. Understood?”

Heads nodded around the table as notes were taken on paper and tablets.

The President glanced back up at the map of Bosnia and its capital city. He knew his son was due to land in Sarajevo in the next several hours. He had to remind himself that Junior managed to survive a killer typhoon in Singapore last year.

But the fiery storm his son might be heading into now would be far more dangerous.

—

The President’s thoughts about his son were interrupted by his chief of staff. “You said you had another question about the Russians.”

“Yeah, but it’s not exactly connected. My PDB this morning contained secondary confirmation of the report we received a couple of weeks ago about the Syrian Army strike on Idlib with thermobaric munitions.”

“Deploying the new Starfire heavy flamethrower system,” the SecDef said, “122-millimeter thermobaric missiles fixed on the new T-14 Armata chassis.”

“Thermobarics? That’s some nasty stuff,” the DNI said. “Almost as destructive as a tactical nuclear strike, but without the radiation.”

“I thought the Syrian government had a ceasefire with Al-Nusra,” Arnie said. “Trying to stabilize the area.”

“There was a ceasefire,” Foley said. “Al-Nusra leadership got complacent, and the Syrians took advantage. Decapitated the entire senior council in one strike, including the emir.”

“Just like those bastards to break a truce,” the SecState said. He was a longtime opponent of the vicious Damascus regime.

“But damn smart,” the SecDef said. He turned to thePresident. “How does a Syrian Army operation tie into the Russians?”

“A Syrian operation, sure, but with Russian weapons, Russian training, and, I’d be willing to bet, Russian ‘advisers’ on the ground.”

“Without the Russians, Damascus would’ve fallen by now. They’re the reason a ceasefire with the opposition was even possible to begin with.”

“But you’re connecting what happened in Syria with what’s happening in Serbia,” Foley said, her face frowning with curiosity. “You think it’s two sides of the same coin?”

“If the Syria situation starts to spin out of control, our attention will be focused there, and not on the Balkans,” Ryan offered, tossing out a bread crumb. Foley picked it up.

“And if the Balkans heat up, we won’t be paying attention to Syria.”

SecDef Burgess added, “And it’s not as if there aren’t a hell of a lot of other things going on in the world right now.”

“I see it now,” Adler said. “The Russians are playing a little three-dimensional chess with us.”

Ryan sighed, exasperated. “I can’t shake the feeling there’s another pair of hands at work here.”

“Whose?” Foley asked.

“Cui bono?Who benefits?” Ryan asked, falling back on his Jesuit training.

“Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Russians... even the Chinese and the NorKs, if all of our attention is diverted away from the Pacific,” Burgess said.

“All true. But something tells me there’s a missing piece, something obvious and right in front of our noses, if we could just see it.” Ryan stood, buttoning his suit coat, signaling an endto the session. The others stood as well. He thanked them again for coming on such short notice as Arnie ushered them out the door.

“Anything I can do for you, boss?” Arnie asked.

“Maybe a couple aspirin, and a crystal ball, if you can find one.”

Arnie smiled. “Back in a jiff with the aspirin. And that crystal ball is still on back order.” He shut the door behind him.

Ryan reached for the phone to call his son but caught himself. It was six hours later over there and the kid was probably asleep.