But in Washington as in Thebes, being too close to the wrong leader’s court meant you ran the risk of becoming tarnished, especially when the Pharaoh didn’t play ball (actually jackals and hounds in the Middle Kingdom) with the system.
And President Ryan didn’t. It was as though a foreigner had usurped the throne, not necessarily a bad man, but a different man who didn’t assemble people from the Establishment. They’d waited patiently for him to come to them, as all Presidents did, to seek their wisdom and counsel, to give access and get it in return, as courtiers had for centuries. They handled things for a busy chief, doling out justice, seeing to it that things were done in the same old way, which had to be the right way, since all of their number agreed with it while serving and being served by it.
But the old system hadn’t so much been destroyed as ignored, and that befuddled the thousands of members of the Great Network. They held their cocktail parties and discussed the new President over Perrier and pate, smiling tolerantly at his new ideas and waiting for him to see the light. But it had been quite a while now since that awful night, and it hadn’t happened yet. Networked people still working inside as appointees of the Fowler-Durling administration came to the parties and reported that they didn’t understand what was going on. Senior lobbyists tried to make appointments through the office of the President, only to be told that the President was extremely tied up, and didn’t have time.
Didn’t have time?
Didn’t have time for them?
It was as though Pharaoh had told all the nobles and courtiers to go home and tend their estates up and down the river kingdom, and that was no fun—to live in the provinces ... with the ... common folk?
Worse, the new Senate, or a large part of it, was following the President’s example. Worst of all, many, if not most, were curt with them. A new senator from Indiana was reported to have a kitchen timer on his desk and to twist it to a mere five minutes for lobbyists, and to none at all for people talking to him about the absurd ideas for rewriting the tax code. Worst of all, he even lacked the courtesy to have his executive secretary deflect appointment requests. He’d actually told the chief of a powerful Washington law firm—a man who’d only wanted to educate the newcomer from Peoria—that he would not listen to such people, ever. Told the man himself. In another context it would have been an amusing story. Such people occasionally came to Washington with such purity of purpose as to justify a white horse, but in due course they would learn that horses were out of date—and in most cases, they were merely doing it for show anyway.
But not this time. The story had spread. First reported in the local D.C. papers with whimsy, it had been picked up in Indianapolis as something genuinely new and decidedly “Hoosier,” and then respread through a couple of the news syndicates. This new senator had talked forcefully with his new colleagues, and won a few converts. Not all that many, but enough to be worrisome. Enough to give him a chairmanship of a powerful subcommittee, what was too bully a pulpit for one such as he, especially since he had a flair for the dramatic and an effective, if not exactly nice, turn of phrase that reporters couldn’t avoid quoting. Even reporters in the Great Network enjoyed reporting genuinely new things—which was what “news” meant, something everyone mainly forgot.
At the parties, people joked that it was a fad, like hula hoops, amusing to watch and soon to fade, but every so often one of them would worry. The tolerant smile would freeze on his or her face in mid-joke, and they’d wonder if something genuinely new might be happening.
No, nothing genuinely new ever happened here. Everybody knew that. The system had rules, and the rules had to be obeyed.
Even so, a few of them worried at their dinner parties in Georgetown. They had expensive houses to pay off, children to educate, and status to maintain. All had come from somewhere else, and none wanted to go back there.
It was just so outrageous. How did the newcomers expect to find out what they needed to, without lobbyists from the Network to guide and educate them—and didn’t they represent the people, too? Weren’t they paid to do exactly that? Didn’t they tell the elected representatives—worse, these new ones weren’t elected, they were all appointed, many of them by governors who, in their wish to get reelected themselves, had bowed to President Ryan’s impassioned but utterly unrealistic televised speech. As though some new religion had broken out.
At the parties in Chevy Chase, many of them worried that the new laws these new senators would pass would be ... laws, just like the ones produced by the system, at least in their power if not in their wisdom. These new people could actually pass new laws without being “helped.” That was so genuinely new an idea as to be ... frightening. But only if you really believed it.
And then there were the House races, just about to start around the country, the special elections required to repopulate the People’s House, as everyone liked to call it, which was Disneyland for lobbyists, so many meetings all in one convenient complex of buildings, 435 lawmakers and their staffs within a mere twenty acres. Polling data that had been reported mainly in local papers was now being picked up by the national media in shocked disbelief. There were people running who had never run for anything before; businessmen, community leaders who had never worked the system, lawyers, ministers, even some physicians. Some of them might win as they spewed forth neo-populist-type speeches about supporting the President and “restoring America”—a phrase that had gained wide currency. But America had never died, the Network people told themselves. They were still here, weren’t they?
It was all Ryan’s doing. He’d never been one of them. He’d actually said more than once that he didn’t like being President!
Didn’t like it?
How could any man “person” to the Network Establishment in the new age of enlightenment—not like having the ability to do so much, to pass out so many favors, to be courted and flattered like a king of old?
Didn’t like it?
Then he didn’t belong, did he?
They knew how to handle that. Someone had already started it. Leaks. Not just from inside. Those were little people with lesser agendas. There was more. There was the big picture, and for that, access still counted, because the Network had many voices, and there were still ears to listen. There would be no plan and no conspiracy per se. It would all happen naturally, or as naturally as anything happened here. In fact, it had already begun.
FOR BADRAYN, AGAIN, it was time on his computer. The task, he learned, was time-critical. Such things often were, but the reason was new in this case. The travel time itself had to be minimized, rather than arranged in such a way as to meet a specific deadline or rendezvous. The limiting factor here was the fact that Iran was still something of an outlaw country with surprisingly little in the way of air travel options.
Flights with convenient times were astoundingly limited:
KLM 534 to Amsterdam left just after one A.M., and arrived in Holland at 6:10 A.M. after an intermediary stop;
Lufthansa’s nonstop 601 left at 2:55, and got to Frankfurt at 5:50;
Austrian Airlines 774, leaving at 3:40 A.M., arrived in Vienna nonstop at 6:00 A.M.;
Air France 165 left at 5:25 A.M., arrived at Charles de Gaulle at nine A.M.;
British Airways 102 left at six A.M., stopping en route, arriving at Heathrow at 12:45 P.M.;
Aeroflot 516 left at three A.M. for Moscow, arrived there at 7:10.
Only one nonstop to Rome, no direct flights to Athens, not even a nonstop to Beirut! He could have his people connect through Dubai—remarkably, Emirates Airlines did fly out of Tehran into its own international hub, as did Kuwait’s flag carrier, but they, he thought, were not a very good idea.
Just a handful of flights to use, all of them easily observed by foreign intelligence services—if they were competent, as he had to assume they were, either they’d have their own people aboard the flights or the cabin staff would be briefed on what to look for and how to report it while the aircraft w
as still in the air. So, it wasn’t just time, was it?
The people he’d selected were good ones; educated for the most part, they knew how to dress respectably, how to carry on a conversation, or at least to deflect one politely—on international flights the easiest thing was to feign the need for sleep, which most often wasn’t feigned anyway. But only one mistake, and the consequences could be serious. He’d told them that, and all had listened.
Badrayn had never been given a mission like this one, and the intellectual challenge was noteworthy. Just a handful of really usable flights out, and the one to Moscow wasn’t all that attractive. The gateway cities of London, Frankfurt, Paris, Vienna, and Amsterdam would have to do and one flight each per day. The good news was that all five of them offered a wide choice of connections via American and other flag carriers. So one group would take 601 to Frankfurt, and there, some would disperse through Brussels (Sabena to New York-JFK) and Paris (Air France to Washington-Dulles; Delta to Atlanta ; American Airlines to Orlando; United to Chicago) via conveniently timed connecting flights, while others took Lufthansa to Los Angeles. The British Airways team had the most options of all. One would take Concorde Flight 3 into New York. The only trick was getting them through the first series of flights. After that, the whole massive system of international air travel would handle the dispersal.
Still, twenty people, twenty possible mistakes. Operational security was always a worry. He’d spent half his life trying to outfox the Israelis, and while his continued life was some testimony to his success—or lack of total failure, which was somewhat more honest the hoops he’d had to leap through had nearly driven him mad more than once. Well. At least he had the flights figured out. Tomorrow he would brief them in. He checked his watch. Tomorrow wasn’t all that far away.
NOT EVERY INSIDER agreed. Every group had its cynics and rebels, some good, some bad, some not even outcasts. Then there was also anger. The Network members, when thwarted by other members in one of their endeavors, often took a philosophical view of the matter—one could always get even later, and still stay friends—but not always. This was especially true of the media members who both were and were not part of it all. They were, in the sense that they did have their own personal relationships and friendships with the government in and out people; they could go to them for information and insights, and stories about their enemies. They were not, in that the insiders never really trusted them, because the media could be used and fooled—most often cajoled, which was easier for one side of the political spectrum than the other. But trust? Not exactly. Or more exactly, not at all.
Some of them even had principles.
“Arnie, we need to talk.”
“I think we do,” van Damm agreed, recognizing the voice that had come in on his direct line.
“Tonight?”
“Sure. Where?”
“My place?”
The chief of staff gave it a few seconds of consideration. “Why not?”
THE DELEGATION CAME just in time for evening prayers. The greetings were cordial and modest on both sides, and then all three of them entered the mosque and performed their daily ritual. Ordinarily, all would have felt purified by their devotions as they walked back out to the garden. But not this time. Only long practice in the concealment of emotions prevented overt displays of tension, but even that told much to all three, and especially to the one.
“Thank you for receiving us,” Prince Ali bin Sheik said first of all. He didn’t add that it had taken long enough.
“I am pleased to welcome you in peace,” Daryaei replied. “It is well that we should pray together.” He led them to a table prepared by his security people, where coffee was served, the strong, bitter brew favored in the Middle East. “The blessings of God on this meeting, my friends. How may I be of service?”
“We are here to discuss recent developments,” the Royal Prince observed after a sip. His eyes locked in on Daryaei. His Kuwaiti colleague, Mohammed Adman Sabah, his country’s foreign minister, remained quiet for the moment.
“What do you wish to know?” Daryaei asked.
“Your intentions,” Ali replied bluntly.
The spiritual head of the United Islamic Republic sighed. “There is much work to be done. All the years of war and suffering, all the lives lost to so many causes, the destruction to so much. Even this mosque”—he gestured to the obvious need for repairs—“is a symbol of it all, don’t you think?”
“There has been much cause for sorrow,” Ali agreed.
“My intentions? To restore. These unhappy people have been through so much. Such sacrifices—and for what? The secular ambitions of a godless man. The injustice of it all cried out to Allah, and Allah answered the cries. And now, perhaps, we can be one prosperous and godly people.” The again hung unspoken on the end of the statement.
“That is the task of years,” the Kuwaiti observed.
“Certainly it is,” Daryaei agreed. “But now with the embargo lifted, we have sufficient resources to see to the task, and the will to see it done. There will be a new beginning here.”
“In peace,” Ali added.
“Certainly in peace,” Daryaei agreed seriously.
“May we be of assistance? One of the Pillars of our Faith is charity, after all,” Foreign Minister Sabah observed.
A gracious nod. “Your kindness is noted with gratitude, Mohammed Adman. It is well that we should be guided by our Faith rather than worldly influences that have so sadly swept over this region in recent years, but for the moment, as you can see, the task is so vast that we can scarcely begin to determine what things need to be done, and in what order. Perhaps at a later time we might discuss that again.”
It wasn’t quite a flat rejection of aid, but close. The UIR wasn’t interested in doing business, just as Prince Ali had feared.
“At the next meeting of OPEC,” Ali offered, “we can discuss the rearrangement of production quotas so that you can share more fairly in the revenue we collect from our clients.”
“That would indeed be useful,” Daryaei agreed. “We do not ask for all that much. A minor adjustment,” he allowed.
“Then on that we are agreed?” Sabah asked.
“Certainly. That is a technical issue which we can delegate to our respective functionaries.”
Both visitors nodded, noting to themselves that the allocation of oil production quotas was the most rancorous of issues. If every country produced too much, then the world price would fall, and all would suffer. On the other hand, if production were overly restricted, the price would rise, damaging the economies of their client states, which would then reduce demand and revenues with it. The proper balance—hard to strike, like all economic issues—was the yearly subject of high-level diplomatic missions, each with its own economic model, no two ever the same, and considerable discord within the mainly Muslim association. This was going far too easily.
“Is there a message you wish to convey to our governments?” Sabah asked next.
“We desire only peace, peace so that we can accomplish our tasks of restoring our societies into one, as Allah intends it to be. There is nothing for you to fear from us.”
“SO WHAT DO you think?” Another training rotation was completed. Present at the final review of operations were some very senior Israeli officers, at least one of whom was a senior spook. Colonel Sean Magruder was a cavalryman, but in a real sense every senior officer was an intelligence consumer, and willing to shop at any source.
“I think the Saudis are very nervous, along with all their neighbors.”
“And you?” Magruder asked. He’d unconsciously adopted the informal and direct mode of address common in the country, especially its military.
Avi ben Jakob, still titularly a military officer—he was wearing a uniform now—was deputy chief of the Mossad. He wondered how far he could go, but with his job title, that was really for him to decide.
“We are not pleased at all by the development.”
&n
bsp; “Historically,” Colonel Magruder observed, “Israel has had a working relationship with Iran, even after the Shah fell. That goes all the way back to the Persian Empire. I believe your festival of Purim results from that period. Israeli air force pilots flew missions for the Iranians during the Iran-Iraq war and—”
“We had a large number of Jews then in Iran, and that was intended to get them out,” Jakob said quickly.
“And the arms-for-hostages mess that Reagan got into went through here, probably your agency,” Magruder added, just to show that he, too, was a player in the game.
“You are well informed.”
“That’s my job, part of it anyway. Sir, I am not making value judgments here. Getting your people out of Iran back then was, as we say at home, business, and all countries have to do business. I’m just asking what you think of the UIR.”
“We think Daryaei is the most dangerous man in the world.”
Magruder thought of the eyes-only brief he’d had earlier in the day about the Iranian troop movements into Iraq. “I agree.”
He’d come to like the Israelis. That hadn’t always been true. For years, the United States Army had cordially disliked the Jewish state, along with the other branches of the service, mainly because of the corporate arrogance adopted by the small nation’s senior military officers. But the IDF had learned humility in Lebanon, and learned to respect American arms as observers in the Persian Gulf War—after literally months of telling American officers that they needed advice on how to fight first the air war and then the ground war, they’d quickly taken to asking, politely, to look over some of the American plans because there might be some few minor things worthy of a little study.
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