by Tom Clancy
“This is very unsettling, if not especially surprising,” the Prince said over the encrypted line.
“There was no stopping it. I know how it looks to you, Your Highness,” the President said tiredly. He could have indulged in coffee, but he did want to get some sleep tonight.
“We are going to place our military at a higher state of readiness.”
“Is there anything you want us to do?” Ryan asked.
“For the moment, just to know that your support has not changed.”
“It hasn’t. I’ve told you before. Our security commitment to the Kingdom remains the same. If you want us to do something to demonstrate that, we’re ready to take whatever steps seem reasonable and appropriate. Do you—”
“No, Mr. President, we have no formal requests at this time.” That statement was delivered in a tone that made Jack’s eyes flicker off the speakerphone and to his visitors.
“In that case, might I suggest that you have some of your people discuss options with some of mine?”
“It must be kept quiet. My government has no wish to inflame the situation.”
“We’ll do what we can. You can start talking to Admiral Jackson—he’s J-3 in the—”
“Yes, Mr. President, I met him in the East Room. I will have our working-level people contact him later today.”
“Okay. If you need me, Ali, I’m always at the end of the phone.”
“Thank you, Jack. I hope you will sleep well.” You’ll need it. We all will. And the line went dead. Ryan killed the button on the phone to make sure.
“Opinions?”
“Ali wants us to do something, but the King hasn’t decided yet,” Adler said.
“They’ll try to establish contacts with the UIR.” Vasco took up the conversation. “Their first instinct will be to get a dialogue going, try to do a little business. The Saudis will take the lead. Figure Kuwait and the rest of the lesser states will let them handle the contacts, but we’ll be hearing from them soon, probably through channels.”
“We have a good ambassador in Kuwait?” the President asked.
“Will Bach,” Adler said, with an emphatic nod. “Career FSO. Good man. Not real imaginative, but a good plugger, knows the language and culture, lots of friends in their royal family. Good commercial guy. He’s been pretty effective as a middleman between our businesspeople and their government.”
“Good deputy chief of mission to back him up,” Vasco went on, “and the attaches there are tops, all spooks, good ones.”
“Okay, Bert.” Ryan took off his reading glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Tell me what happens next.”
“The whole south side of the Gulf is scared shitless. This is their nightmare come true.”
Ryan nodded and shifted his gaze. “Ben, I want CIA’s assessment of the UIR’s intentions, and I want you to call Robby and see what kind of options we have. Get Tony Bretano into the loop. He wanted to be SecDef, and I want him to start thinking about the non-admin part of the job.”
“Langley doesn’t have much of a clue,” Adler pointed out. “Not their fault, but that’s how it is.” And so their assessment would present a range of potential options, from theater nuclear war—Iran might have nukes, after all—to the Second Coming, and three or four options in between, each with its theoretical justification. That way, as usual, the President had the chance to choose the wrong one, and it wouldn’t be anyone’s fault but his own.
“Yeah, I know. Scott, let’s see if we can establish some contacts with the UIR, too.”
“Extend the olive branch?”
“You got it,” the President agreed. “Everyone figure they need time to consolidate before they do anything radical?” There were nods with the President’s assessment, but not from everyone.
“Mr. President?” Vasco said.
“Yeah, Bert—by the way, good call. You weren’t exactly right on timing, but damned if you weren’t right enough.”
“Thanks. Mr. President, on the consolidation issue, that’s about people, right?”
“Sure.” Ryan and the rest nodded. Consolidating a government meant little more than that the people got used to the new system of rule and accepted it.
“Sir, if you look at the number of people in Iraq who have to get used to this new government, compare that number to the population of the Gulf states. It’s a big jump in terms of distance and territory, but not in terms of population,” Vasco said, reminding them that although Saudi Arabia was larger than all of America east of the Mississippi, it had fewer people than the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
“They’re not going to do anything right away,” Adler objected.
“They might. Depends on what you mean by ‘right away,’ Mr. Secretary.”
“Iran has too many internal problems,” Goodley started to say.
Vasco had come to like presidential access and attention, and decided to seize the floor. “Don’t underestimate the religious dimension,” he warned. “That is a unifying factor which could erase or at least suppress their internal problems. Their flag says it. The name of the country says it. People all over the world like a winner. Daryaei sure looks like a winner now, doesn’t he? One other thing.”
“What’s that, Bert?” Adler asked.
“You notice the flag? The two stars are pretty small,” Vasco said pensively.
“So?” This was Goodley. Ryan looked back at the TV and the announcer. The flag was still there behind him and—
“So, there’s plenty of room for more.”
IT WAS A moment such as he had dreamed of, but the culmination of such a dream is always better than its contemplation, because now the cheers were real, striking his ears from the outside, not the inside. Mahmoud Haji Daryaei had flown in before dawn, and with the rising of the sun he’d walked into the central mosque, removing his shoes, washing his hands and forearms, because a man was supposed to be clean before his God. Humbly, he’d listened to the incantation from the minaret, calling the faithful to prayer, and this day people didn’t roll back over and try to capture a few more hours of sleep. Today they flocked to the mosque from blocks around in a gesture of devotion that moved their visitor to his core. Daryaei took no special place, but he appreciated the singularity of the moment, and tears streamed down his dark, deeply lined cheeks at the overwhelming emotion of the moment. He had fulfilled the first of his tasks. He had fulfilled the wishes of the Prophet Mohammed. He had restored a measure of unity to the Faith, the first step in his holy quest. In the reverent hush following the conclusion of morning prayers, he rose and walked out into the street, and there he was recognized. To the despairing panic of his security guards, he walked along the street, returning the greetings of people at first stupefied and then ecstatic to see the former enemy of their country walking among them as a guest.
There were no cameras to record this. It was not a moment to be polluted by publicity, and though there was danger, he accepted it. What he was doing would tell him much. It would tell him of the power of his Faith, and the renewed faith of these people, and it would tell him whether or not he had Allah’s blessing on his quest, for Daryaei truly was a humble man, doing what he had to do, not for himself, but for his God. Why else, he often asked himself, would he have chosen a life of danger and denial? Soon the sidewalk traffic turned into a crowd, and from a crowd to a mob. People he’d never met appointed themselves to be his guardians, forcing a path for him through the bodies and the cheers as his aged legs made their way while his now-serene dark eyes swept left and right, wondering if danger would come, but finding only joy that reflected his own. He gazed and gestured to the crowd as a grandfather might greet his progeny, not smiling, but composed, accepting their love and respect, and with his benign eyes promising greater things, because great deeds had to be followed by greater ones, and the moment was right.
“SO, WHAT SORT of man is he?” Movie Star asked. His flight to Frankfurt had been followed by one to Athens, and from there to Beirut, and from the
re to Tehran. He knew Daryaei only by reputation.
“He knows power,” Badrayn answered, listening to the demonstrations outside. There was something about peace, he imagined. The war between Iraq and Iran had lasted close to a decade. Children had been sent off to die. Rockets had blasted the cities of both countries. The human cost would never be fully assessed, and though the war had ended years before, now it was truly ended—a thing of the heart rather than of law, perhaps. Or maybe a thing of God’s law, which was different from that of man. The resulting euphoria was something he’d once felt himself. But now he knew better. Feelings like that were weapons of statecraft, things to be used. Outside were people who a short time before had chafed at what they had and what they did not have, who questioned the wisdom of their leader, who bridled—as much as one could in so tightly controlled a society as this one was—at the freedoms they lacked. That was gone now, and it would remain gone for—how long? That was the question, and that was why such moments had to be properly used. And Daryaei knew all of those things.
“So,” Badrayn said, turning off the outside noise of the faithful, “what have you learned?”
“The most interesting things I learned from watching television. President Ryan is doing well, but he has difficulties. The government is not yet fully functional. The lower house of their parliament has not yet been replaced—the elections for that will begin to take place next month. Ryan is popular. The Americans love to poll one another,” he explained. “They call people on the telephone and ask questions—only a few thousand, often not that many, and from this they report to one another what everyone thinks.”
“The result?” Badrayn asked.
“A large majority seems to approve what he is doing—but he isn’t really doing anything except to continue. He hasn’t even chosen a Vice President yet.”
Badrayn knew that, but not the reason. “Why?” he asked.
Movie Star grinned. “I asked that question myself. The full parliament must approve such a thing, and the full parliament has not yet been reestablished. It will not be so for some time. Moreover, there is the problem with the former Vice President, that Kealty fellow, who claims that he is the President—and this Ryan has not imprisoned him. Their legal system doesn’t deal with treason effectively.”
“And if we were able to kill Ryan ... ?”
Movie Star shook his head. “Very difficult. I took an afternoon to walk around Washington. Security at the palace is very strict. It is not open to public tours. The street in front of the building is closed. I sat on a bench for an hour, reading, and watched for signs around the place. Riflemen on all the buildings. I suppose we would have a chance on one of his official trips, but that would require extensive planning for which we lack the necessary time. And so, that leaves us with—”
“His children,” Badrayn observed.
JESUS, I HARDLY see them anymore, Jack thought. He’d just gotten off the elevator, accompanied by Jeff Raman, and checked his watch. Just after midnight. Damn. He’d managed to sit through a hurried dinner with them and Cathy before hustling back downstairs for his reading and meetings, and now ... everyone was asleep.
The upstairs corridor was a lonely place, too wide for the intimacy of a real home. Three agents were in view, “standing post,” as they called it, and the warrant officer with “the Football” full of its nuclear codes. It was quiet because of the time of night, and the overall impression was rather like that of an upscale funeral home, not a house with a family in it. No clutter, no toys lying on the rug, no empty glasses in front of a TV. Too neat, too tidy, too cold. Always somebody around. Raman traded looks with the other agents, whose nods meant “Okay, everything clear.” Nobody with guns around, Ryan thought. Super.
The bedrooms were too far apart up here. He turned left, heading for Katie’s room first. Opening the door, he saw his youngest, recently graduated from crib to bed, lying on her side, a fuzzy brown teddy bear next to her. She still wore sleepers with feet on them. Jack could remember when Sally had worn the same, and how cute children looked that way, like little packages. But Sally now looked forward to the day she’d buy things from Victoria’s Secret, and Little Jack—he had taken to objecting to that label of late—now insisted on boxer shorts because that was the new “in” thing for boys of his age group, and they had to be pulled down low, because the “in” thing was to risk having them fall off. Well, he still had a toddler. Jack approached the bed, and stood there for a minute, just looking at Katie and quietly enjoying the status of fatherhood. He looked around, and again the room was unnaturally neat. Everything was picked up. Not a loose item on the floor. Her clothing for the coming day was neatly laid out on a wooden valet. Even the white socks were folded next to the diminutive sneakers with cartoon animals on them. Was this a way for a child to live? It seemed like a Shirley Temple movie from when his mom and dad were kids—some upper-class thing that he’d always wondered about: Did people really live that way?
Not real people, just royalty, and the family of the man sentenced to the presidency. Jack smiled, shook his head, and left the room. Agent Raman closed the door for him, not even letting POTUS do that. Somewhere else in the building, Ryan was sure, an electronic status board showed that the door had been opened and closed, probably sensors told that someone had entered the room, and probably someone had asked over the radio link the Service people used to be told that SWORDSMAN was tucking SANDBOX in.
He stuck his head in Sally’s room. His elder daughter was similarly asleep, doubtless dreaming of some boy or other in her class—Kenny or something, wasn’t it? Somebody who was way cool. Little Jack’s bedroom floor was actually polluted by the presence of a comic book, but his white shirt was pressed and hanging on another valet, and someone had shined his shoes.
Another day shot to hell, the President thought. He turned to his bodyguard. “Night, Jeff.”
“Good night, sir,” Agent Raman said outside the door to the master bedroom. Ryan nodded his farewell to the man, and Raman waited for the door to shut. Then he looked left and right at the other Detail agents. His right hand brushed against the service pistol under his jacket, and his eyes smiled in a private way, knowing what might so easily have been. Word had not come back. Well, his contact was doubtless being careful, as well he should. Aref Raman had the duty tonight as supervisor for the Detail. He walked up the corridor, nodding to the agents on post, asked one innocuous question, then headed down the elevator to the State Floor, and outside to get some air, stretch, and look at the perimeter guard posts, where, also, everything was quiet. There were some protesters in Lafayette Park across the street, this time of night huddled together, many of them smoking—exactly what he didn’t know but had suspicions. Maybe hashish? he wondered with a cryptic smile. Wouldn’t that be funny. Beyond that there were only the traffic sounds, a distant siren to the east, and people standing at their posts, trying to stay alert by talking about basketball, or hockey, or spring training for baseball, eyes sweeping outward, looking for dangers in the shadows of the city. The wrong place to look, Raman thought, turning back to head for the command post.
“IS IT POSSIBLE to kidnap them?”
“The two older ones, no, too inconvenient, too difficult, but the youngest, that is possible. It could be both dangerous and costly,” Movie Star warned.
Badrayn nodded. That meant picking especially reliable people. Daryaei had such people. That was obvious from what had taken place in Iraq. He looked over the diagrams in silence for a few minutes while his guest stood to look out the window. The demonstration was still under way. Now they were shouting “Death to America!” The crowds and the cheerleaders who organized them had long experience with that particular mantra. Then his intelligence man came back.
“What exactly,” Movie Star asked, “is the mission, Ali?”
“The strategic mission would be to prevent America from interfering with us.” Badrayn looked up. Us now meant whatever Daryaei wanted it to mean.
SOHAILA, DR. MACGREGOR thought, looking over his notes. She was ill, but she had stabilized. Her temperature had abated a whole degree. She was occasionally alert. He’d thought jet lag at first, until there had been blood in her vomit and stool, but that had stopped ... Food poisoning? That had seemed the likely diagnosis. She’d probably eaten the same things as the rest of her family, but it could have been one bad piece of meat, or maybe she’d done what every child did, and swallowed the wrong thing. It happened literally every week in every doctor’s office in the world, and was particularly common among the Western community in Khartoum. But she was from Iraq, too, just as Patient Saleh was. He’d rerun the antibody tests on the latter, and there was no doubt. The bodyguard fellow was gravely ill, and unless his immune system rallied itself—
Children, MacGregor remembered, somewhat startled by the connection, have powerful immune systems, rather more so than adults had. Though every parent knew that every child could come down with a disease and high fever in a matter of hours, the reason was simply that children, as they grew, were exposed to all manner of ailments for the first time. Each organism attacked the child, and in each child the immune system fought back, generating antibodies which would forever defeat that particular enemy (measles, mumps, and all the rest) whenever it again appeared—and rapidly defeating it the first time in nearly all cases, which was why a child could spike a high fever one day and be out playing the next, another characteristic of childhood that first terrified and then vexed parents. The so-called childhood diseases were those defeated in childhood. An adult exposed to them for the first time was in far greater distress—mumps could render a healthy man impotent; chicken pox, a childhood annoyance, could kill adults; measles had killed off whole peoples. Why? Because for all its apparent frailty, the human child was one of the toughest organisms known to exist. Vaccines for the childhood diseases had been developed not to save the many, but the few who for whatever reason—probably genetic, but that was still being investigated—were unusually vulnerable. Even polio, a devastating neuro-muscular disease, had done permanent harm to only a fraction of its victims—but they were mostly children, and adults protected children with a ferocity usually associated with the animal kingdom—and properly so, MacGrcgor thought, because the human psyche was programmed to be solicitous to children—which was why so much scientific effort had been devoted to childhood disease over the years.... Where was this line of thought taking him? the doctor wondered. So often his brain went off on its own, as though wandering in a library of thoughts, searching for the right reference, the right connection ...