Control: Out of the Box (The Girl in the Box Book 38)

by Robert J. Crane

  “Not so well lately, sir,” Jaime said, settling down on one of the chairs in front of the fireplace opposite the president. “I can't speak for everyone, but – oh, well, actually, I probably can.” He leaned in seriously. “We're concerned about your radical shift on China, Mr. President.”

  Jaime had known Gondry for quite some time. Had seen the man through two campaigns now – the first as VP, now this one as president. He'd had a lot of access to him over the years. Things he knew about Richard Gondry: the man was smart, in his way. He knew people some – their quirks, their foibles. He knew facts in his area of expertise better, though.

  But he also had a little bit of an ego, and though Chapman had seldom seen it before, he recognized it clearly now. Gondry's face reddened a few degrees, and the man drew a hard breath. “What China is getting now is no less and no more than what it deserves.”

  Jaime, fresh off his confrontation with Sienna Nealon, didn't feel much like backing down and playing nice, either. “There are certain moves that are considered fair in diplomacy. Reciprocal moves, you might say. What China did was...unkind. What you have done in return ups the stakes to incredibly dramatic levels.”

  Gondry shifted in his chair, straightening against the back. “They have kidnapped people off our very soil, Jaime.”

  “Their own citizens, mostly,” Jaime said. “I'm not saying it's right. But a lot of my peers in industry are getting very nervous at this escalation.”

  Gondry stared back at him, steely-eyed. “They were trying to build an army, Jaime. Genetically modify people to build an army. With folks who'd left China. You get this, right?”

  “I understand, sir,” Jaime said coolly. “Terrible, no doubt. But that's supposition.”

  Gondry leaned forward. “That's not supposition. Their diplomat admitted as much to Agent Nealon.”

  “Sir,” Jaime said, smiling and shaking his head, “surely you can't take everything she tells you at face value.”

  Gondry's face became stiff like a statue. “Why not?”

  Jaime stumbled on that for a second. “Sir, less than a year ago she was the bane of your existence. You remember that? Because I do. Discussions long into the night about what a terror she was, about how she was a blemish on your presidency, how her being free and moving about the world was a refutation of law and order principles–”

  “I'm not so old that I forget things that dramatic,” Gondry said, but there was enough anger buried beneath the surface that Jaime wondered if he'd struck a nerve. Probably best to back off it and let the president vent. “But the woman saved us from a nuclear holocaust. You think my presidency looked blemished while she was running around as a fugitive, imagine how it would have looked with half the country on fire!”

  Jaime faked a little chuckle to break the tension. “I'd hardly call the Midwest half the country.”

  Gondry just stared him down coldly. “Everyone remembers the one that got loose and headed for Minneapolis and Chicago. No one seems to recall they actually launched enough missiles to destroy every major city, Jaime.” The president thrust himself up, out of the chair, pacing toward his desk and the windows beyond. “Maybe it's easy for you to joke about that. Maybe it holds an air of unreality for you, having watched it on TV or your phone or somesuch.” Gondry halted at the curtains, peering out through white, lacy sheers across the White House lawn. “I watched downstairs as it happened live. Watched them shoot those missiles. Because of...” Gondry's head bowed. “They call the president the most powerful man in the world, Jaime.” He turned to look at Chapman. “You know what I did when they launched twelve missiles – a hundred and forty-four total MIRV nuclear devices at our nation?” His face was pale, voice scratchy but strong. “The so-called most powerful man in the world was dragged bodily down into a basement bunker, locked in, listening on the phone and watching on TV as the real most powerful person in the world took her friends and fixed the damned problem I made with my arrogance.”

  Chapman found himself staring at the aging president. A nervous feeling twisted in his guts, snaking around to become...disdain. “Your loyalty is making you blind to her faults. She may have done a few things–”

  “Saved the world in ways that no one else ever could,” Gondry mused, facing the window. “How is it you can't find it in yourself to admit that, Jaime?” The president turned on him, and the weakness was written all over the lines of his face. “It doesn't require you to believe she's a perfect woman. You credit her for the good and weigh the bad, forgetting neither.”

  “She's nothing but trouble,” Jaime said, thrusting off the arms of the chair to stand. “You're not seeing her with clear eyes, and it's costing this country–”

  “How much money do you stand to lose because I decided to buck up against China?”

  Chapman saw red. “You don't do these kind of things in international diplomacy, sir. You don't slap your allies.”

  “If you think China's our ally in any way other than ones that are convenient for them, son...you're 'round the bend.”

  “I'm not your son,” Chapman said, feeling a mean-spirited grin overtake him. This was a doddering old man. “Thankfully.”

  The president's eyebrows rose. “Let me ask you a question I think we both know the answer to, Jaime. When was the last time you had to face a mistake that could kill you? That had real-world consequences for your life that couldn't be fixed by money?”

  “What the hell does this matter?”

  “You and I are powerful men,” Gondry said, and the ghost of a smile slid across his lips. “We control the fates of others. We can do things that make their lives easier or harder. Why, if you had it in mind to do so, you could almost make someone disappear, couldn't you?”

  “Like a presidential campaign?” Jaime asked, feeling that cold fury wash over him. “Wouldn't it be something if it simply...disappeared from search results? That what you're talking about?”

  Gondry nodded slowly. “I have similar powers. I can send the FBI after someone for blocking commerce, for instance. Can bring in the regulators to hammer them for being a monopoly. Break up their company. Shatter their...life's work.”

  Chapman felt a cold chill run down his spine. “That'd be...unwise.”

  “Perhaps,” Gondry said, and Chapman realized for the first time that the old man had never even raised his voice. “The things you and I can do...to others...we do at a distance. We make a mistake, I'm rushed to a bunker to wait out the end of the world. You probably have something similar–”

  “Better, I'm sure.”

  “–And we wait. We can escape the worst of the consequences we bring down,” Gondry said. “That's our power. Hers, though...” Now he turned to face the window again. “...She has to stand and face her mistakes.”

  “You're obsessed with Sienna Nealon,” Chapman said.

  “Mistakes that could kill her at any time,” Gondry said. “While you and I hide in safety.” He turned to look at Chapman. “Can you imagine the guts it takes to live your life walking that kind of edge? When was the last time you made a mistake that could kill you, Jaime?”

  “Isn't that kind of the point of being us?” Jaime said, feeling a cold fire burning in his stomach where that clammy, crawling feeling had lit it. He hated feeling afraid, and nobody had tried to pressure him like this in a long time. Maybe the president was just responding to his own threat, but he'd come back with the force of a cannon and Chapman hated it, hated it, hated it.

  “To be disconnected from the consequences of our choices puts us outside the realm of the common person,” Gondry said. “Makes us lose...perspective.”

  “Here's my perspective,” Chapman said. “I see you making a huge diplomatic mistake by confronting China over something that doesn't need to be handled this aggressively. There are subtler moves you could make. You're destroying our relations over a trivial matter.”

  “To you, it's trivial,” Gondry said. “To others...it was their lives. They killed an FBI a
gent.”

  “Cops die all the time,” Chapman said. “So do soldiers. That's what they signed up for. Cry me a river.”

  Gondry just stared at him. “I don't think we're going to come to a meeting of the minds on this. Why don't you go ahead and see yourself out?”

  “So you're not going to change your mind?” Chapman felt his fists ball up almost of their own accord. “You were working on a dozen initiatives, sir. Things that could make a real difference.”

  “They're all pushed to the sideline now,” Gondry said. “China is the greatest geopolitical threat of our time. They have shown a clear willingness to do terrible things, imprison countless people – literally countless, as in we don't know how many – in order to control their population. The human rights crisis of our time, and they just tried to export the franchise to our shores.” Gondry nodded to his window, whatever the hell that meant. “For better or worse, my presidency just gained focus. We're going to fight this enemy on every front, for good or ill. And we're going to ferret out those in our own government – this Network – that might be involved in giving aid and comfort to that enemy. Whatever it takes.”

  “That's madness, sir,” Chapman said, voice rising again. “You're destroying the status quo to no effect. This isn't a war we should be fighting. And it's not one we can win. You need to focus on the domestic agenda, sir. That's what your base wants. Progress in those areas. They don't care about the internal affairs of China.”

  “Even when they cross the sea and come to us?” Gondry asked, looking sideways at him. “Even when they violate our domestic security you don't care?”

  “No,” Jaime said. “We have our own problems. We have our own causes to advance. There are things we can do here, and in our sphere of influence to make things better right now. China will change over time. There's no need to stake your reputation, to put all your political capital on this one issue, sir. It's unwinnable, and I won't stand by and watch you wreck your presidency over it.” He stood as tall as he could. “You need to change your mind. Right now.”

  “I'm afraid today I'm going to have to show you the limits of your power, Jaime,” Gondry said. “This is as far you go with all your money and technology. Because the chair I sit in,” and he nodded at the desk of the Oval Office, “gives me the right to decide America's foreign policy. I have to see to the well-being of over three hundred million people – not just a certain segment of the population who sees things differently than I do.”

  “You're making a terrible mistake.”

  Gondry still stared out the window, but cocked his head slightly. “Well...I can only hope it's not as grand or far-reaching as the last one, then. But I suppose if it is, I have hope that having Sienna Nealon with me,” and here he looked at Chapman, and again, Chapman felt that cold chill, “I at least have a chance of weathering it and coming out the other side. Good day, Jaime.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Chapman

  CHAPMAN: Gondry is off the damned reservation. He is whole hog, he is all in on Sienna EFFING Nealon.

  He finished typing that the moment after clearing security out of the West Wing, hit send and fumed as he climbed back in the limo.

  “How'd your meeting go, boss?” Chase Blanton asked.

  Chapman stared at her. “How much do you hate Sienna Nealon?”

  Blanton's jaw tightened. “A lot. Why?”

  Chapman snapped his head around and looked at Tyler Bowen. “How much do you hate her?”

  Bowen's eyes narrowed as he thought about it. “More than Chase, I think. On a scale of 10, it's like 6, 7. Enough that I'd like to push her in front of a train, but only if she didn't see me coming.”

  Chapman took that information in, then turned to Frost. “And you?”

  “Oh, we're at a solid 10,” Captain Frost said, nodding his square jaw. “If I can get away with it, I'd put her down for sure. Came close before, in fact. Guess that makes me one of the only people to come close.”

  Chapman looked back to Chase. “Number scale. How much would you like to kill Sienna Nealon?”

  Chase stared at him. “Like them, if I could get away with it, maybe. But I don't really want to go to meta prison, y'know?”

  Chapman nodded. All this was fitting into the equation. “What about the others?”

  Chase laughed, joined by Tyler. “Veronika, Kristina, and Phinneus have played assassin before. You pay them enough, they'll do it even though they don't hate her.”

  “Phinneus is really good at shooting people,” Tyler said. “I hear. Never seen it myself. Kinda want to, though.”

  “You need to be a little careful about this, though,” Chase said. “She's dangerous.”

  “You're right, of course.” Chapman felt a cold, slithering smile cross his face as he turned his attention to his phone. “I think the key move here is to make sure she doesn't see it coming.” He licked his lips, trying to decide how to approach the subject he needed to raise to the Network. “Also...there might be one other thing that needs to be done...”

  CHALKE: What does that even mean?

  BYRD: crazy u guys why would u trust her shes nuts lololololol

  JOHANNSEN: That's disheartening.

  CHAPMAN: He's going to lead us into war with China. He's absolutely set on it.

  KORY: ...What?

  CHAPMAN: It's true. I just had a long chat with him and he's set on this. China's the hill he wants to die on.

  CHALKE: ...Shit.

  KORY: No no no no no! There's so much we could be doing that's not related to China in the least!

  Chapman nodded. They all knew the list. So many policies that could make a difference right now, and he was hung up on some 7,000 miles away.

  JOHANNSEN: He's going to lose in November. He's going to go down to Mitchell and we're going to have at least four years, maybe even eight years, of absolute despair and terror and uselessness.

  CHALKE: This sucks.

  KORY: Ugh. I just feel sick to my stomach. This was...everything.

  BYRD: sorry u guys this blows

  FLANAGAN: Same.

  CHALKE: Have you heard Charlotte Mitchell speak? I listened to the primary debates with her once and almost threw up in my mouth. Thrice.

  KORY: Yep. Hate her.

  JOHANNSEN: She's so damned homespun and backwoods and...inelegant.

  BYRD: but imagine the ratings for the years of that shitshow lol from governor of north carolina bfe to president she culdnt run a dog show lolololol

  Look at all that despair. Chapman just smiled, because they were right where he wanted them.

  CHAPMAN: Okay, I get it, we've taken a hit. But come on – the purpose of this group is to exert influence.

  CHALKE: Yes, and we've exerted to the max, and everything is hitting the fan. What's your point?

  CHAPMAN: No, we've exerted all our soft power. We're spent on it, even if we called in favors from outsiders we have markers with, I agree. And we have no influence over Mitchell, so if things go south in November, I agree we also are screwed, and out of power for 4-8 years.

  Defining the terms of the problem was so crucial here. If he could do this correctly, he could steer the consensus.

  And he meant to steer it. Right where he wanted them to go.

  KORY: Yep. Worst case scenario, and we're headed right for it, full speed ahead.

  CHAPMAN: Agreed. It'd be the end of all things, I think. Our agenda would suffer so much damage in the intervening years that...well, I find it intolerable. Anyone else?

  JOHANNSEN: Heartily, yes.

  CHALKE: Yep.

  KORY: For sure.

  FLANAGAN: Yes.

  BYRD: yep yep yep

  CHAPMAN: So if we see the alternative in November as unacceptable, and Gondry is leading us toward that disaster, the only remaining answer seems as obvious as it is frightening, doesn't it?

  CHALKE: Whoa.

  KORY: lol did you just...?

  CHAPMAN: Hear me out. Or think it through – Sarah
Barbour is committed to the same causes as we are. Behind the scenes buzz is that she's reading the tea leaves on China like we are. She was supposed to run this time, once Harmon was out. She's reliable. She's next in line.

  Jaime took a long breath, waiting to see if anyone would follow the bait he'd laid out.

  JOHANNSEN: She could reverse course on this mess without it seeming too ridiculous. Get back on track, focus on the things that will turn out the base and get them excited to show up in November. Not this stupid warmongering stuff.

  CHAPMAN: Exactly. She's our reset button before this thing heads too deep into the black hole.

  CHALKE: I like Barbour. Less a fan of Gondry lately. He just hasn't been listening. This Nealon fixation explains a lot. I'm for the change if we can manage the downside risk. So long as it doesn't connect back to us in any way, basically.

  KORY: Agree. I'm all for the chaos of kicking things over if it moves our agenda forward and we're not hit by the backlash. I always thought Gondry was kind of a retrograde idiot anyway, too old to really understand things. We've had to cover for him a lot and put out a lot of spin to paper over his Boomer dumbassery. Barbour's slick, smart, young, hip, and she understands the way things move. I'd vote for her in a heartbeat. Like...now. So I'm all about this.

  BYRD: lol sure y not

  FLANAGAN: Seems the sensible move.

  JOHANNSEN: I've always been in favor of a revolution. Within certain bounds. Barbour is it for me. Nearly a perfect candidate. We sung her praises to the heavens when she was nominated to take the VP slot, and seeing her ascend to the Oval would be a capstone on my career.

  Chapman smiled. They were all on board, then.

  CHAPMAN: So we're at a consensus. The next stage is to plan things out. It needs to be deniable, though. Something that will take heat off us.

  CHALKE: About that...

  Chapman paused. If the FBI Director had a suggestion, he was all ears.

  CHALKE: ...There's already a sniper on the loose in DC. If we happened to be able to use that means, seems like it would dovetail nicely into already present fears in the zeitgeist. Then we'd just need a patsy.