But it was his job to make the country and the world believe that normal was no longer good enough.
How well did people do, facing a threat still fifty years in the future? Did they say, not my problem, it’s going to happen after my time? In fifty years, he would be dead or over a hundred years old.
Tonight’s meeting was the merest beginning. The real work would start tomorrow, on the international front. He had to persuade every other country that cooperation was not a choice, it was a survival necessity. Sarah Mander and Nick Lopez were not typical. Regardless of their personal morality and mean prejudices, they had the intellect to see and grasp the large picture, the long term.
The lights in the office were low, and the reflection in the window was a pale ghost flickering across the room. He turned, slowly and wearily. It was Yasmin. He had been expecting her.
She stood for a few seconds in front of him, then said in a low, anguished voice, “You made me watch on purpose. You knew what you were going to do.”
“Yes, that’s quite true.” Finally, he was able to do what for so long he had been unable to do: act on impulse, without thinking. He reached out, pulled Yasmin forward, and allowed her to bury her face against his chest.
“That man, that bastard, that awful, perverted, two-faced, lying murderer.” Her voice sounded close to tears, but she went on, “He killed my brother. And you — you asked him, that man—”
“I did, didn’t I? I asked him to work with me. Work with me closely, become part of my inner circle, share my trust.”
“It was just awful. If it weren’t for him, Raymond would still be alive. And Auden, he thinks the sun rises and sets on that dreadful man, that fucking hypocrite. He was so excited, so delighted.”
“You told Auden about Lopez?”
“No. There was no point. Auden loves Lopez, he’d never believe me.”
“Good. You’re quite right about that. He wouldn’t believe you.”
“Why did you do it? I mean, why did you ask me to sit and watch that? You knew how I’d feel. You’re heartless.”
Saul held her by the shoulders and pushed her away from his chest, so that he could look into her eyes.
“I’m a politician, Yasmin. Isn’t that what you told me, you wanted to learn to do what I do? Well, this is one of the toughest lessons. Politics is the art of accommodation, the science of the possible. If I refuse to work with everyone I dislike, how far do you think I’ll get? You told me you wanted to find out if you had what it takes to go all the way. There’s only one way to find out a thing like that. Didn’t you realize it would get unpleasant?”
“Of course I did.” She was under control, tight control. “I knew there would be compromises and odd partnerships. Sleeping with the enemy. But that enemy, Nick Lopez.”
“You get to choose your friends, Yasmin. You don’t get to pick your enemies. Do you think I like Nick Lopez and Sarah Mander?”
“You seem to.”
“Then you have to give me credit for being a good politician. I don’t like them — but I recognize their abilities, and if they’ll give me their support for what I need to do, I want them on my side.”
“But if I stay with you, and work for you—”
“Then, yes, you’re quite right. You’ll probably have to work with Nick Lopez. It goes with the territory. You work with anyone. Can you do it, or can’t you? If you can’t, the sooner you realize that, the better for both of us.”
“You mean, if I can’t deal with Lopez, I’m fired?”
“I’ll say it again. I mean that you — and me — have to be able to work with anybody, anyone at all, if that’s what it takes to get the job done.”
“Oh, Saul. I don’t know if I can. He killed my brother.”
“No, he didn’t. Your brother stabbed Nick Lopez. I know what Lopez did to Raymond, but your brother is dead because of what he did.”
She was rummaging around in the pocket of her skirt.
“On the little table,” Saul said. “Next to the desk.”
“Thank you.” She went across, took a tissue, and blew her nose. “I’m sorry. It was such a shock, seeing Lopez. I had no idea who you were going to meet.”
“I knew that. I also know something else.”
“What?”
“That it will never get any worse for you than this. I could bring a thousand people into my office, and say I wanted you to work with them, and you’d never again have so strong an emotional reaction, so strong a reason to say no. Think of it this way, Yasmin. If you can handle Lopez, you can handle anyone at all.”
“If.”
“Can you?”
“I guess. The shock’s over now. If I see him again, it won’t be as bad. And I really don’t want to leave. I love this job.”
“So do I. Politics is an odd business. You know what they say about wrestling with pigs?”
She managed a faint smile. “You mean, ’Don’t do it, you get dirty, and the pigs like it.’ “
“That’s it. Well, it’s the same with politics. If you don’t like the game, you should never even consider it.”
“I do like it. Most of it. Almost all of it.”
“Even if you have to save the world?”
“I can stand that. I can stand anything.” Yasmin took a deep breath. “I can stand Nick Lopez.”
“That’s what I want to hear. I think we ought to call it a day now, before you have a chance to change your mind. I feel as though I’ve forgotten what a bed looks like. There’s nothing that won’t wait until tomorrow.”
“Oh, no.” Yasmin was reaching for her pocket again. “Auden or I were supposed to give this to you the second you got back, but we got sidetracked because of the meeting.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a message. From Tricia Goldsmith. She’ll be in Washington again, the day after tomorrow. She wants to know if you’re free for dinner.”
“Then I’d better call her, hadn’t I?”
“You’re not going to do it, are you? I mean, you’re not going to have dinner with her?”
“Yes, I am. If she wants to, I will certainly have dinner with her.” Saul waited just long enough, and added, “And so will you, if you are willing. You’ll come with me as my companion. I’m over her, Yasmin. I want you to see that for yourself.”
“She’ll flame out. So you did check what I told you about Crossley and Himmelfarb. And you told me you hadn’t.”
“I didn’t. And I don’t give a damn about Crossley, or Himmelfarb, or Crossley and Himmelfarb, or who did and didn’t say what and to whom when Tricia and I broke up before the election. That’s all history. I need to start running. The country, and for the next term. With what’s left in this term, I certainly can’t get more than a good start on what has to be done.”
“You should. Run again, I mean. Definitely.”
In spite of Saul’s declaration that they were leaving, they still stood in front of the window. He turned to her. “I’ll need a new campaign slogan.”
“You certainly will. The last one was lousy. You need something that reminds people that the President needs enormous powers if he’s to carry out the global job you’re tackling.”
“Do you have ideas? Practical ones?”
“I might.” Yasmin slipped her arm into Saul’s. “I’ll work on it. ’End White House impotence.’ What do you think of that?”
45
Helen cooked an outstanding dinner, venison and pork with broad beans and potatoes and spinach and applesauce. Joe brought over a special wine, “wine I paid money for.” It was like an evening on Catoctin Mountain before Supernova Alpha, made better for Art by Dana’s presence. But a couple of things spoiled it.
First, the window was in the wrong part of the room, so he couldn’t see his house. He kept glancing in that direction, as though the wall might have suddenly become transparent. Finally Dana leaned across, took his hand, and said, “I wanted to go with you, you know. But Helen hadn’t been told anyt
hing, and she saw your faces and the guns. I couldn’t leave her here. I had to stay and explain. When this is all over, I want you and me to go in your house and not come out for a week.”
The other worrying factor was Ed. He kept his rifle by his side all the time, even when they were eating dinner. Art didn’t ask, but he was willing to bet that the safety catch was not on.
The women were making a deliberate attempt to cheer everybody up. Helen said, “Why, now that you two are here I can give six-person dinner parties, something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’d have done it tonight if I’d known.”
“Anne-Marie’s up in Lantz with her cousin,” Joe said. “We’ll do it next week.”
The assumption was clear: Art had Dana with him, so there was no possible reason why he would ever want to go back “down there” as Helen put it, with a strong suggestion that Route I-270 led a traveler to the gates of hell. Or to Washington, which in her view was not much different.
“We won’t be here,” Art said. “Not next week.”
“Why ever not?”
“We have things to do. I promised to give a personal report.” He did not add “to the President,” but went on, “And I think those two idlers” — he pointed to Joe and Ed — “ought to go with us.”
“What the hell for?” Joe asked. “They’re all rogues down there.”
“And you’re not? You’re missing the point. Did you ever fly a C-5A?”
“Damn right. I could fly one with my eyes closed. A lovely plane, they don’t make anything like that these days.”
“Did you know that they’re in regular use again, because none of the new equipment works anymore? I think one of them has been converted to become Air Force One. With your background, you could probably get a job as a pilot tomorrow. And, Dana, tell them about the drivers in Washington.”
She inspected Joe and Ed carefully before she answered. “I’m not sure today’s drivers in D.C. would think you two were old enough to get a license. You look like teenagers compared with most of them.”
“And anybody who can drive without an AVC in the car is in demand,” Art added. “If you can drive a stick shift, or know how to install a carburetor in place of a chip-based fuel injection system—” He stopped. “No, Ed!”
Out of the corner of his eye he had noticed the gun barrel coming up, at the same time as he saw the dark face peering in at the window.
“Don’t shoot, it’s Seth.” He waved, to indicate that Seth should go around to the front door. “How the hell did he know where we were?”
He pulled the door open. “Where’s Guest?”
“He’s safe and sound,” Seth said, and then to Ed, “I’d rather you aimed that thing someplace other than my gut. I’m one of the good guys.”
The rifle was trained squarely on Seth’s navel. Ed lowered it to point at the floor. “Pardon me. You just don’t look like one of the good guys.”
Seth’s clothes and face were filthy, and mud coated his legs up past the knees. “That’s ’cause I’ve been far-tin’ an’ fandango-in’ around this place looking for you all. It don’t help none that it’s startin’ to rain out there. I didn’t see the light from this window ’til three minutes back. See, I could tell that Art had been in his house today, but he didn’t leave no word where he was goin’ when he left.”
“We didn’t want your friend Oliver dropping in.” Joe took one good look at Seth and poured not the wine he had paid money for, but a big shot of Ed’s moonshine. “Here.”
Seth took the glass, drained it in one gulp, and rolled his eyes. “Jeez. That don’t take prisoners, do it? Look, the main thing is, Guest came up with what we need.”
“The treatment?” Dana asked.
“You got it. We’ll be able to keep goin’ with the telomods. He worked up a wet chemistry method, and the test kits are in the car we came here in. He still hasn’t told me how to use any of this stuff, an’ I’m sure that’s gonna be his big bargainin’ chip. So the sooner we get back over to your house—”
“Hold it,” Ed interrupted in a strange, hoarse voice. He had been looking not at Seth in the doorway, but past him. “What’s that?”
He and Art crowded Seth backward. “That’s my house!” Art shouted. “It’s on fire.”
“An’ Guest’s inside — tied to the bed, he can’t get out.” Seth started as though he was going to run, then swung around. “You got a car or anythin’, ready to go? Otherwise, he’s a goner.”
“The tractor.” Ed turned as flames from the burning house roared to double their height. “In the barn — but it only carries one, and it’s not fast.”
“Forget it.” Seth was already on the move. “Come on.”
The fire was a beacon to draw them on, but it did nothing to light up the muddy road. Seth moved out ahead, with Dana not far behind. Art decided that if he was ever going to ruin his knee completely, this was the time. He ran full tilt along the dark path. Rain made the mud more than usually treacherous, but he had walked this way a hundred times. He had the advantage of knowing the twists and turns. By the time they reached the house he had passed Dana and was only a few yards behind Seth.
They skidded to a halt twenty yards short of the building. Orange flames were shooting from the roof and licking out of two of the windows. Art could feel the heat on his face.
“We can’t go in there,” he said. “We can’t do anything.”
Seth shook his head and ran forward. He got to within ten feet of the front door when a cloud of red-hot sparks gushed out over the transom. He turned and came reeling back, gasping for air.
The heat from the burning house was increasing. Raindrops turned to puffs of steam as they hit the slate roof. “The tank,” Art cried. “The propane will blow. We have to get away.”
He took Dana by the arm and started along the road. Joe, Ed, and Helen were approaching. He waved them away! As he did so Dana pulled free from his grasp and turned back.
“Come on, Seth,” she cried. “You can’t do anything.”
Seth had not run. He was a dark figure against the burning house. Flames were spewing out of the walls. As the front door cracked and burst open, Seth shook his head and ran to the car. There was no place to turn it without driving closer to the house. Art heard the engine race, then the car came zooming crazily backward, almost hit Dana, and veered at the last moment into a thicket of rhododendrons.
Art ran across to yank open the driver’s door. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Seth was panting, leaning over, pulling at something in the rear compartment. He emerged with his arms full of boxes and a batch of papers.
“The telomod kits.” He nodded toward the load of boxes. “I told you, we left them in the car. It was too close to the house. But this should be far enough—”
The explosion was a vivid flash of red and white. The sound was a flat, heavy thump. Moments later, burning debris from the house showered all around them. Art cowered back, shielding his face with his forearm. Seth dropped the papers that he was holding. A blast of hot air blew them along the ground. Dana, standing farther back, dived and managed to trap them on the muddy ground.
Art stared at the ruin of his house. The front wall tilted inward at a crazy angle. The chimney stood intact, but all around it roof slates were cracking in the heat. Each one as it split threw off random sputters of red sparks. Flames poured from the bedroom window, and the whole structure was beginning to settle. Nothing inside could possibly have survived.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Joe. “Come on. Let’s get back to Ed’s place. Don’t even think of trying to go in there. It’s not worth dying for objects.”
Joe hadn’t heard Seth’s shout before they started running to the burning house. Art turned to him. “You don’t understand, Joe. I’m not worried about my things — I’ve got spares at my house in Olney. But Oliver Guest was inside there.”
“Then I say it again. You don’t go in. That murdering sod’s the last
person to risk your life for.”
“He was tied up and helpless.”
“Good. He deserved to die like that. And good riddance.” Joe walked away.
Art went across to Dana and took her hand. In silence, the group moved slowly along the path. The rain fell steadily. By the time they reached Ed’s house they were soaked, and the fire behind them was beginning to burn lower. Art took a last look back. The cabin was settling in the downpour, in gouts of blue flame and dying spurts of red-hot ash.
They went inside. Without being asked, Ed poured drinks of moonshine for everyone. Seth set the test kit boxes carefully on a table at the entrance. Dana brushed mud from the batch of wet papers and took a casual look at the top sheet. After a moment she frowned and read more carefully. Finally she went across to where Seth was sitting.
“I thought you said Guest didn’t tell you how to use the test kits.”
“He didn’t.” Seth was drinking fast, and too much. “Unless we can figure it out for ourselves — pretty long shot — we’re nowhere.”
Dana held out a sheet. “But this is the description of how to use the test kit. You can see, the first test is described here, how to do it and how to interpret it. The other pages give the same thing for the other tests.”
“Gimme a look at that.” Seth grabbed the sheets in a filthy hand and bent over them. After a couple of minutes he scowled and shook his head. “Ain’t that the damnedest. You’re right, this is the whole shebang. He never told me he’d written it out.”
“I think he intended to use this when he bargained with us for his own future. Naturally, he wouldn’t say ahead of time that he’d documented everything. But there it is.”
Art had been listening in on the conversation. “Let me take a look.”
He skimmed the first couple of pages, not reading as carefully as Dana. Seth waited until he looked up, then said, “Well?”
“It’s the document we need. But this is all too pat.”
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