“Somehow, I doubt it. Madison has killed too many innocent people.”
“Madison is now secretary of state in name only. At the moment, he can’t even get back into his office at Langley; they won’t let him through the gate. Very soon, he is going to announce his immediate resignation, for reasons of health. Orville Madison is going to retire from public life, and I can assure you that he’ll never be heard of—or bother anyone—again.”
“Where’s he retiring to?”
“That will be a secret; after all, Madison wants assurances that he’ll be protected from Veil Kendry in the future. Also, we don’t want the Russians nibbling at him; he knows too much, obviously. Now he’ll be under constant surveillance for the rest of his life, and he understands that.”
“It’s not enough, sir. Why don’t you just tell the whole story yourself, before anyone else has a chance to?”
“By ‘anyone else,’ you’re referring to yourself and your brother?”
“I’m referring to anyone else. Just get it out in the open and behind you, and trust the American people to give you the chance to begin again.”
Kevin Shannon crossed his arms over his chest and sighed deeply. Somewhere in the darkness behind us, walkie-talkies crackled. “Thank you very much, but I just won an election, and I don’t feel like going through another campaign. There are too many other matters to which I want to devote my energies. Do you have any idea how many kinks a prolonged matter like this could put in the lives of you and your brother, Dr. Frederickson?”
It was time for yet another game of hardball, with a high slider aimed right at my head. I found I was more depressed than angry, and I said nothing.
“If you try to pursue this matter in the media or the courts,” Kevin Shannon continued evenly, “you two could be tied up in knots for years. On the other hand, if we can find a way to work together to resolve our differences, I believe I can assure you that the two of you will be free of any further entanglements.”
“We’ve heard the same offer before,” I said tightly.
“Well, now you’re hearing it from me,” Shannon replied, unperturbed. “You can go back to your lives as they were before, resume your careers. The same general amnesty will apply to Veil Kendry.”
“You have that kind of power? You can just erase everything that’s happened?”
“Not everything,” Shannon replied evenly. “I have the power to make your troubles, and the troubles of Veil Kendry, go away. But you have the power to make my troubles go away in this Orville Madison affair. In effect, I’m saying that I’ll wave my magic wand if you’ll wave yours. Forget about going anywhere with what you know about Orville Madison, Operation Archangel, and Veil Ken-dry’s most ingenious artwork. Just go home to New York City and go back to work. Nobody will bother you. In addition, I’ll arrange for the two of you to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor; that should certainly enhance your respective careers.”
Suddenly I felt light-headed and slightly nauseated. “What did you say?”
“The Congressional Medal of Honor; I’m prepared to nominate you and your brother.”
“For what?”
“Certainly not for your exploits of the past few weeks,” the president said with a nervous laugh. “The medals will be awarded for heroic acts you and your brother performed in the service of your country a few years ago.”
Suddenly everything in the night seemed very still, except for the pounding of my heart inside my chest. “What heroic acts would those be?” I asked in a voice that sounded like that of a stranger.
“What? You don’t think that, as a member of the Senate, I had a review on what happened? Furthermore, when I became president-elect I was fully briefed by my Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Mr. Lippitt told me how instrumental the Fredericksons were in breaking up that global spy network.”
I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath until my chest began to hurt. I slowly exhaled. Mr. Lippitt, I thought, had told Kevin Shannon a fairy tale, probably the same fairy tale he’d told to a great many other men in power since Valhalla. The three of us, with some unusual help, had managed to break up a global conspiracy, all right, but that conspiracy had been much more terrible than anything as tame as a spy network. Ironically, the horror that had been Valhalla was directly related to the kind of thinking Kevin Shannon was displaying. It made me feel even more nauseated and angry. For thousands of years, men like Kevin Shannon had been killing the world as fast as men of vision could breathe life back into it. The process went on.
“Sir, I most certainly mean to be disrespectful—and I know I’m speaking for Garth—when I suggest that you take your Congressional Medals of Honor and shove them up your presidential ass.”
Kevin Shannon didn’t much like that. He flushed angrily, quickly turned his face away. “There’s no need to be rude, Frederickson,” he said tightly.
“If you don’t want me to be rude, then stop being insulting.”
“I didn’t mean to be insulting.”
“But you were. You’ll force Madison to resign anyway, so that much will be accomplished no matter what Garth and I do or don’t do.” I paused, rose to my feet. “When you see that bastard Madison, tell him he’d better stock up on telegenic blue shirts, because he’s going to be seeing a lot of himself on television.”
“No, Frederickson; I won’t.”
I’d started to walk away. I stopped, turned back to face the other man. “You won’t what?”
“I won’t force Madison to resign,” Shannon said, his dark eyes suddenly seeming to glow with passion in the moonlight.
“I don’t understand. You’d keep a madman and a murderer in the most important post in your cabinet out of spite?!”
There was a long silence. Finally, Shannon said: “Sit down and listen, Frederickson. You may yet hear something that pleases you.”
“I doubt it very much,” I said, remaining on my feet. “But I’m listening.”
Shannon lit his third cigarette. “Has it occurred to you to ask why I nominated Orville Madison?” he asked quietly.
“You’ve already answered that question. You’ve known him a long time, and he impressed you with his ruthless efficiency. You’re buddies.”
“There are many men I’ve known for a long time, Frederickson, and many men I respect for their efficiency. I am not Mr. Madison’s ‘buddy’; we’ve known each other for years, yes, but we’ve never really been friends. Frankly, I’ve never much cared for the man personally. Yet, he is the man I chose to be my secretary of state. Would you like to know why?”
“Not nearly as much as I’d like to know how you could even consider keeping him on.”
“Because Madison has also known Arkady Ilyich Benko for more than twenty years, and they are ‘buddies.’”
That got a good two or three blinks out of me. Arkady Ilyich Benko was the mint-new Soviet premier, a warrior, bloodied but unbowed, who had emerged as premier after serving in the Directorate of the K.G.B. Orville Madison’s blood brother.
“I managed to surprise you, didn’t I, Frederickson?” Shannon continued in the same soft voice.
“It’s true?” I asked, feeling short of breath.
Shannon dismissed my question with a wave of his hand. “Like Madison, Benko was very active during the war in Viet Nam. They butted heads a number of times while they were there, and they continued to do so as each ascended to the top of his profession; but the confrontations began growing more symbolic, less vicious, as the years passed. Madison speaks fluent Russian, which I think you will agree would be an admirable achievement for any diplomat, but especially for a secretary of state; admirable and highly desirable. The two men genuinely like—and, even more important, genuinely respect—each other. They also trust each other; indeed, each trusts the other probably more than he trusts a good many of his compatriots. Arkady Ilyich Benko will release a thousand political prisoners from the Gulag, or allow a thousand Soviet Jews to emigrate, t
omorrow, simply as a gesture of good will, if Orville Madison asks him to. I mean that literally, and I am absolutely certain of the truth of the statement. Now talk to me about ‘justice.’ Which is more just? Should I use Orville Madison, and his unique personal relationship with the Soviet premier, to free thousands of political prisoners and perhaps create the best relations we’ve had with the Soviet Union since World War Two? Or should I destroy this tool—and with it the opportunity for real and lasting peace—because he went a little crazy and killed thirteen people? Surely, that many people die in automobile accidents every day; many times that number. Which should it be, Frederickson? Justice for thirteen people, or the very real possibility of a better world for five billion? Tell me what you would do.”
“All right, Mr. President, I will.” I paused, swallowed. My mouth was dry. I had no reason to doubt a word Kevin Shannon had said regarding the relationship between Madison and the Soviet premier, and he had painted an awesome and seductive picture of a world in which tensions between Russia and the United States were markedly reduced. But it was still only a picture, a dream, and the trail of death behind me was all too real. And Orville Madison was still a homicidal maniac, which made him, in the final analysis, beyond the control of anyone. “First, I’d take steps to provide justice in my own backyard before I worried about saving the world. Second, anyone who likes, respects, and trusts Orville Madison can’t be all good. Madison isn’t ultimately responsible for foreign policy, you are. I wouldn’t trust Benko, who helped put all those Gulag prisoners there in the first place. I’d clean house, prosecute Madison, and start over. That would make Benko respect me.”
“Which is why you’re not president, and I am,” Shannon said with another disdainful gesture of his hand. “If I’m going to have to put up with a media circus no matter what I do, then I might as well fight to keep the man I wanted in the first place, and try to head Veil Kendry and the Fredericksons off at the pass. The hell with you, Frederickson. Do your worst. I still believe Orville Madison will be the best secretary of state this nation has ever had, and that the world will be a much better place in four years than it is now.”
“We’ll demand a Senate hearing, Shannon.”
The president’s response was to laugh. “You’ll demand a Senate hearing? How far do you think you’ll get?”
“I guess we’ll just have to find out. Believe it or not, I really don’t want to go to the newspapers with this—not yet. Regardless of what I said to Andrews, I don’t think the media is the proper forum for this to be brought out; I don’t believe that would be in the best interests of the country.”
“I know you believe that,” Shannon said mildly, “because it’s so obviously true. I thought you’d back off on that.”
“Which makes you a good poker player—on the first hand. Now you’re forcing us to it.”
“No. You want a congressional hearing, you’ve got it. Indeed, I insist. It’s in the administration’s interests to have it on the record that you were invited to present your allegations in a proper, congressional forum before peddling them to the newspapers.”
“You know they’re not allegations.”
“What I know isn’t the point, is it? You can’t subpoena me, and I’m not about to help you sabotage what I believe to be a singular, once-in-a-generation opportunity to rechannel the world’s riches and energies from preparing for war to reaping the benefits of peace. But I still challenge you to do your worst. As a matter of fact, you and your brother will find an invitation waiting for you when you get back to your hotel room; I took the liberty of arranging a congressional hearing for you before I came here. I was hoping that the outcome of our meeting would be that you’d decline the invitation.”
“We’re not about to accept an invitation to any hearing which you’ve arranged.”
“Suit yourself. The fact that you received an invitation will still be a matter of record, and it’s the only invitation you’ll get. You can bet your pension on that.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said in a hollow voice. “You’re as mad as Madison. Americans have another Goddamn megalomaniac for their president.”
“Listen to me, you stubborn, sanctimonious, naive troublemaker!” Shannon snapped in a voice that suddenly vibrated with rage. He abruptly rose to his feet, and his right arm shot out, index finger pointing at the black wall. “You see that monument?! On it are the names of thousands of men who died in an insane war that was the most incredibly stupid act of political blindness, cultural ignorance, arrogance, and paranoia any country in the West has ever committed! It damn near gutted us, and it may still gut us if we can’t, finally, find a way to get it behind us! That is our legacy from Viet Nam—in the eyes of the world, and in our own hearts! I will not become just one more casualty of that stupid war! Do you hear me?! What I can accomplish is too important!”
President of the United States Kevin Shannon took a deep breath and slowly lowered his arm. When he spoke again, his voice was calmer. “I can rebuild America’s cities, which is precisely what I intend to do. You may be registered as an Independent, Frederickson, but I’m well aware of your political inclinations. You’ll love what you see, be proud of the accomplishments of the Shannon administration. You’ll see massive amounts of aid flowing to every area of this country that needs it—aid to farmers and migrant workers, to inner-city families and Appalachian families; you will see an economic policy that is fair to every segment of this society; you will see a tremendous easing of international tensions because the United States will take the lead in initiating a rational and consistent foreign policy based upon reality, not ideology; you will see the promotion of human rights and aspirations instead of corporate profits. You will see this nation literally rebuilt, Frederickson—physically and spiritually. America will become the kind of nation you and I know it can, and should, be. Like it or not, I am counting on the relationship between Madison and Benko to give me the freedom, and release the necessary funds that would otherwise go into the defense budget, to do these things. Do in me and my administration, and you know what you’re going to get?—precisely what you’ve had. Is that what you want, Frederickson? What action should you take that will provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people? Give me the freedom to deal with, and use, Orville Madison in my own way, and I believe I can give you a much better world. You can help me to build a truly moral nation. Take some time to think about it.”
“I don’t have to think about it,” I said, feeling a great wave of sadness wash across my heart. “I don’t believe nations are moral or immoral, responsible or irresponsible. Only human beings are those things. Populations that make up the tribal groups we call nations only follow the examples set by their tribal leaders—political, religious, and cultural. You will make a good political tribal leader only if you are moral and act in a moral manner. You’re a fool, Shannon, if you believe for an instant that you can build some kind of Golden Age for America on a rotten tin can of an idea—Orville Madison as secretary of state, for whatever reason—that is not only immoral, but reeks of death. You won’t be another casualty of the war if you do the right thing. Cut Madison loose, and stop obstructing justice. Be moral, Mr. President; be responsible. That will send one hell of a message to the Russians, and to the rest of the world, a message that we are a responsible nation of laws made up of basically moral people who care deeply about justice, no matter the short-term inconvenience and cost.”
Kevin Shannon said nothing. He stood staring at me for some time, the expression on his face stony and unreadable, almost blank. Then he deliberately reached down, picked up the silver flask with the emblazoned presidential seal, and slipped it back into the pocket of his cardigan sweater. He walked past me without a glance, went up the ramp, and disappeared from sight. Instantly, walkie-talkies crackled, and disembodied, electronic voices could be heard all over the park.
Feeling exhausted and lost, I slowly followed after him, trudged up the ramp. I felt light-hea
ded, and there was a sour, bitter taste at the back of my throat, as if I had been breathing poison air. I started back the way I had come, through a park that was already empty. After about twenty steps I turned off into some bushes, bent over, and was sick.
22.
As advertised, an invitation to present our testimony to a closed joint House-Senate committee was waiting for us when we got back to our hotel. There was also an ominous message for me to the effect that I should call the head of my department as soon as possible—ominous because I couldn’t understand how anyone at the university had known where to reach me. The invitation and the message had been placed on top of our backpacks, which had been set outside the locked doors of our hotel suite. We moved into a YMCA a few blocks away.
When I called the university the next morning to touch base with the head of my department, I learned that I had been summarily suspended from all teaching duties, without pay. The university couldn’t fire me outright, because I had tenure, and so there would be a hearing at some indeterminate time in the future. However, it was strongly hinted that I might consider resigning, since the charges of incompetence, unprofessionalism, and moral turpitude could prove to be very embarrassing to me.
When Garth called his precinct, he found that he too had been suspended without pay. Although he had been specifically assigned to the arson and murder cases connected with the burning of my apartment building, and had been authorized to accompany me to Albany as part of his investigation, he was now told that he had greatly exceeded his authority when he had accompanied me into the mountains to search for Gary Worde. Also, an NYPD investigation was under way to determine whether he might have aided and abetted me in certain criminal acts by suppressing evidence.
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