Further to Adam's Bomb Plans

Taken from alt.books.tom-clancy

Or. put it another way. If Al-Qeada had a nuke, would they be willing to spend approximately 10% of their entire net worth in order to nuke a US city? My guess is yes.

Eric Pinnell

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The trick is getting one. The Russians are not that dumb with nuclear weapons.
They treat political instruments with care. Then you have to make it work.
Harder than people think. In the 1970s, the United States Government did
something amazingly intelligent (for them). They gave the Soviets American PAL
(permissible action link—the safety system for a nuke) technology on the
theory that their nuclear weapons should be as safe as ours. They’re probably
big and clunky by out standards, but they probably work if you can get past the
PAL. That’s the hard part.

A friend who knows about these gadgets once told me that to defeat one you’d
better be very smart and very lucky. Oh, and after you fail the third time, the
weapon completely deactivates, and must be remanufactured. It’s designed to
kill tamperers. Not sure how, but several possibilities offer themselves. Feel
free to speculate.

In 1985 I was at a book-signing in San Francisco. Gary Larson was there (cool
guy—just the way you’d expect him to be), along with Tim Conway, and a few
other interesting people, like Douglas Adams of “Hitchhiker” fame, may the
Lord rest his soul.

Also there was the late Harry Blackstone, Jr., the magician. In the course of
our conversation I learned he had a “Q” clearance. Nuclear weapons
technology. In another uncharacteristically smart move, the government must
have decided to have him back-check the PALs. (I inferred this. He didn’t say
why he had the Q-card.) Smart move. At the book store he faked me out of my
jockstrap with some card tricks (I mean, DAMN, he was an artist!), and was an
impressive chap. He cracked locks and such for a living, but I bet he
couldn’t crack a PAL either. Or if he did, they fixed the goof.

TC

Something else for Adam to overcome as part of his nefarious plans. (BTW - the TC is Tom Clancy himself)