by Tom Clancy
“I need a new Congress to work with me. The Senate will arrive first, because the governors will appoint replacements for the ninety-one men and women we lost last week. The House of Representatives, however, has always been the People’s House, and it’s your job to pick those, in a voting booth, exercising your rights.” Here we go, Jack.
“Therefore, to you, and to the fifty governors, I have a request. Please, do not send me politicians. We do not have the time to do the things that must be done through that process. I need people who do real things in the real world. I need people who do not want to live in Washington. I need people who will not try to work the system. I need people who will come here at great personal sacrifice to do an important job, and then return home to their normal lives.
“I want engineers who know how things are built. I want physicians who know how to make sick people well. I want cops who know what it means when your civil rights are violated by a criminal. I want farmers who grow real food on real farms. I want people who know what it’s like to have dirty hands, and pay a mortgage bill, and raise kids, and worry about the future. I want people who know they’re working for you and not themselves. That’s what I want. That’s what I need. I think that’s what a lot of you want, too.
“Once those people get here, it’s your job to keep an eye on them, to make sure they keep their word, to make sure they keep faith with you. This is your government. A lot of people have told you that, but I mean it. Tell your governors what you expect of them when they make their appointments to the Senate, and then you select the right people for the House. These are the people who decide how much of your money the government takes, and then how it is spent. It’s your money, not mine. It’s your country. We all work for you.
“For my part, I will pick the best Cabinet people I can find, people who know their business, people who have done real work and produced real results. Each of them will have the same orders from this office: to take charge of his or her department, to establish priorities, and to make every government agency run efficiently. That’s a big order, and one which you’ve all heard before. But this President didn’t run an election campaign to get here. I have no one to pay off, no rewards to deliver, no secret promises to keep. I will do my damnedest to execute my duties to the best of my ability. I may not always be right, but when I’m not, it’s your job, and that of the people you select to represent you, to tell me about it, and I’ll listen to them and to you.
“I will report to you regularly on what is going on, and what your government is doing.
“I want to thank you for listening to me. I will do my job. I need you to do yours.
“Thank you, and good night.”
Jack waited and counted to ten before he was sure the cameras were dead. Then he lifted the water glass and tried to drink from it, but his hand was shaking so badly that he nearly spilled it. Ryan stared at it in quiet rage. Why was he shaking now? The tense part was over, wasn’t it?
“Hey, you didn’t puke or anything,” Callie Weston said, suddenly standing next to him.
“Is that good?”
“Oh, yes, Mr. President. Vomiting on national television tends to upset people,” the speechwriter answered with a hooting laugh.
Andrea Price fantasized about drawing her automatic at that moment.
Arnie van Damm merely looked worried. He knew that he couldn’t turn Ryan away from his course. The usual strictures that Presidents listened to—if you want to get reelected, pay attention!—simply didn’t apply. How could he protect someone who didn’t care about the only thing that mattered?
“REMEMBER The Gong Show?” Ed Kealty asked.
“Who wrote this abortion manual?” his legal aide chimed in. Then all three men in the room returned their attention to the TV set. The picture changed from an external shot of the White House to the network studio.
“Well, that was a most interesting political statement,” Tom the anchor observed with the expressionless voice of a poker player. “I see that this time the President stayed with his prepared speech.”
“Interesting and dramatic,” John the commentator agreed. “This was not your usual presidential speech.”
“Why, John, does President Ryan insist so strongly on inexperienced people to assist him in running the government? Don’t we need experienced hands to put the system back together?” Tom asked.
“That’s a question many will ask, especially in this town—”
“You bet we will,” Kealty’s chief of staff observed.
“—and what’s most interesting about it is that he must know that, and even if he didn’t, Chief of Staff Arnold van Damm, as canny a political operator as this city has ever seen, must have made that very clear to Mr. Ryan.”
“What about his first Cabinet appointment, George Winston?”
“Winston heads the Columbus Group, a mutual-fund company which he founded. He’s enormously wealthy, as President Ryan told us, a self-made man. Well, we want a Treasury Secretary who knows money and the financial markets, and surely Mr. Winston does, but many will complain—”
“That he’s an insider.” Kealty smirked.
“—with too many contacts in the system,” John went on.
“How do you think official Washington will react to this speech?” Tom asked.
“WHAT OFFICIAL WASHINGTON?” Ryan growled. This was a first. The two books he’d published had been treated generally well by reviewers, but back then you had to wait a few weeks for people to make comments. It was probably a mistake to watch the instant analysis, but it was also impossible to avoid. The hardest part was keeping track of all the TVs that were running at the same time.
“Jack, ‘official Washington’ is fifty thousand lawyers and lobbyists,” Arnie pointed out. “They may not be elected or appointed, but they’re official as hell. So is the media.”
“So I see,” Ryan replied.
“—AND WE NEED experienced professionals to get the system put back together. That’s what they’ll say, and a lot of people in this town will agree.”
“What did you think of his revelation on the war and the crash?”
“What interested me the most was his ‘revelation’ that Prime Minister Koga was first kidnapped by his own countrymen and then rescued—by Americans. It would be interesting to learn more about that. The President is to be commended for his clear desire to settle things between our country and Japan, and I’d give him high marks for it. A photograph came to us along with the President’s speech.” The network picture changed, showing Ryan and Koga at the Capitol. “This is a truly moving moment captured by the White House photographer—”
“But the Capitol building is still ruined, John, and just as we need good architects and skilled workers to rebuild it, so, I think, we need something other than amateurs to restore the government.” Tom turned to stare right into the camera. “So that was the first official speech from President Ryan. We’ll have more news as it develops. Now we return you to our regularly scheduled programming.”
“That’s our theme, Ed.” The chief of staff rose and stretched. “That’s what we need to say, and that’s why you’ve decided to come back into the political arena, however damaging to your reputation it may be.”
“Start making your calls,” Edward J. Kealty ordered.
“MR. PRESIDENT.” The chief usher presented a silver tray with a drink on it. Ryan took it and sipped his sherry.
“Thanks.”
“Mr. President, finally—”
“Mary Pat, how long have we known each other?” It seemed to Ryan that he was always saying this.
“At least ten years,” Mrs. Foley replied.
“New presidential rule, executive order, even: after hours, when we’re serving drinks, my name is Jack.”
“Muy bien, jefe, ” Chavez observed, humorously but with a guarded look.
“Iraq?” Ryan asked curtly.
“Quiet but very tense,” Mary Pat replied. “We’re not he
aring much, but what we are getting is that the country’s under lock-down. The army is in the streets, and the people are in their homes watching TV. The funeral for our friend will be tomorrow. After that, we don’t know yet. We have one fairly well-placed agent in Iran, he’s on the political beat. The assassination came as a total surprise, and he’s not hearing anything, aside from the expected praise to Allah for taking our friend back.”
“Assuming God wants him. It was a beautiful job,” Clark said next, speaking from authority. “Fairly typical in a cultural sense. One martyr, sacrificing himself and all that. Getting him inside must have taken years, but our friend Daryaei is a patient sort. Well, you’ve met him. You tell us, Jack.”
“Angriest eyes I ever saw,” Ryan said quietly, sipping his drink. “That man knows how to hate.”
“He’s going to make a move, sure as hell.” Clark had a Wild Turkey and water. “The Saudis must be a little tense about this.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Mary Pat said. “Ed’s staying over for a few days, and that’s what he’s getting. They’ve increased the readiness state of their military.”
“And that’s all we’ve got,” President Ryan summarized.
“For all practical purposes, yes. We’re getting a lot of SigInt out of Iraq, and what we’re getting is predictable. The lid is screwed down tight, but the pot’s boiling underneath. It has to be. We’ve increased coverage with the satellites, of course—”
“Okay, Mary Pat, give me your speech,” Jack ordered. He didn’t want to hear about satellite photos right now.
“I want to increase my directorate.”
“How much?” Then he watched her take a deep breath. It was unusual to see Mary Patricia Foley tense about anything.
“Triple. We have a total of six hundred fifty-seven field officers. I want to jack that number up to two thousand over the next three years.” She delivered the words in a rush, watching Ryan’s face for a reaction.
“Approved, if you can figure a payroll-neutral way to bring it off.”
“That’s easy, Jack,” Clark observed with a chuckle. “Fire two thousand desk weenies, and you still save money.”
“They’re people with families, John,” the President told him.
“The Directorates of Intelligence and Administration are featherbedded all to hell and gone. You’ve been there. You know that. It’s worth doing just to ease the parking situation. Early retirement will handle most of it.”
Ryan thought that one over for a second. “I need somebody to swing the axe. MP, can you handle being under Ed again?”
“It’s the usual position, Jack,” Mrs. Foley replied with a twinkle in her fey blue eyes. “Ed’s better at administration than I am, but I was always better in the street.”
“Plan Blue?”
Clark answered that. “Yes, sir. I want us to go after cops, young detectives, regular blue-suits. You know why. They’re largely pre-trained. They have street smarts.”
Ryan nodded. “Okay. Mary Pat, next week I’m going to accept with regret the resignation letter of the DCI and appoint Ed in his place. Have him present me with a plan for increasing the DO and decreasing the DI and DA. I will approve that in due course.”
“Great!” Mrs. Foley toasted her Commander-in-Chief with her wineglass.
“There’s one other thing. John?”
“Yes, sir?”
“When Roger asked me to step up, I had a request for him.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m going to issue a presidential pardon for a gentleman named John T. Kelly. That will be done this year. You should have told me that Dad worked your case.”
For the first time in a very long time, Clark went pale as a ghost. “How did you know?”
“It was in Jim Greer’s personal files. They were sort of conveyed to me a few years ago. My father worked the case, I remember it well. All those women who were murdered. I remember how twisted he was about it, and how happy he was to put it behind him. He never really talked about that one, but I knew how he felt about it.” Jack looked down into his drink, swirling the ice around the glass. “If you want a good guess, I think he’d be happy about this, and I think he’d be happy to know you didn’t go down with the ship.”
“Jesus, Jack ... I mean ... Jesus.”
“You deserve to have your name back. I can’t condone the things you did. I’m not allowed to think that way now, am I? Maybe as a private citizen I could—but you deserve your name back, Mr. Kelly.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Chavez wondered what it was all about. He remembered that guy on Saipan, the retired Coast Guard chief, and a few words about killing people. Well, he knew Mr. C. didn’t faint at the thought, but this story must be a good one.
“Anything else?” Jack asked. “I’d like to get back to my family before all the kids go to bed.”
“Plan Blue is approved, then?”
“Yes, it is, MP. As soon as Ed writes up a plan for implementing it.”
“I’ll have him heading back as soon as they can light up his airplane,” MP promised.
“Fine.” Jack rose and headed for the door. His guests did the same.
“Mr. President?” It was Ding Chavez.
Ryan turned. “Yeah?”
“What’s going to happen with the primaries?”
“What do you mean?”
“I stopped over at school today, and Dr. Alpher told me that all of the serious candidates in both parties were killed last week, and the filing deadlines for all the primaries have passed. Nobody new can file. We have an election year, and nobody’s running. The press hasn’t said much about that yet.”
Even Agent Price blinked at that, but an instant later they all knew that it was true.
“PARIS?”
“Professor Rousseau at the Pasteur Institute thinks he’s developed a treatment. It’s experimental, but it’s the only chance she has.”
They spoke in the corridor outside Sister Jean Baptiste’s room, both wearing blue-plastic “space suits” and sweating inside of them despite the environmental-control packs that hung on the belts. Their patient was dying, and while that was bad enough, the manner of her protracted death would be horrid beyond words. Benedict Mkusa had been fortunate. For some reason or other, the Ebola had attacked his heart earlier than usual; it had been a rare act of mercy, which allowed the boy to expire much more quickly than usual. This patient wasn’t quite so lucky. Blood tests showed that her liver was being attacked, but slowly. Heart enzymes were actually normal. Ebola was advancing within her body at a rapid but uniform rate. Her gastrointestinal system was quite literally coming apart. The resulting bleeding, both from vomiting and diarrhea, was serious, and the pain from it was intense, but the woman’s body was fighting back as best it could in a valiant but doomed effort to save itself. The only reward for that struggle would be increasing pain, and already the morphine was losing its battle to stay ahead of the agony.
“But how would we—” She didn’t have to go on. Air Afrique had the only regular service to Paris, but neither that carrier nor any other would transport an Ebola patient, for the obvious reasons. All of this suited Dr. Moudi just fine.
“I can arrange transport. I come from a wealthy family. I can have a private jet come in and fly us to Paris. It’s easier to take all of the necessary precautions that way.”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to—” Maria Magdalena hesitated.
“I will not lie to you, Sister. She will probably die in any case, but if there is any chance, it is with Professor Rousseau. I studied under him, and if he says he has something, then he does. Let me call for the aircraft,” he insisted.
“I cannot say no to that, but I must—”
“I understand.”
THE AIRCRAFT IN question was a Gulfstream G-IV, and it was just landing at Rashid Airfield, located to the east of a wide meandering loop of the River Tigris, known locally as the Nahr Dulah. The registration code near the
aircraft’s tail denoted Swiss registry, where it was owned by a corporation that traded in various things and paid its taxes on time, which ended official interest on the part of the Swiss government. The flight in had been short and unremarkable, except perhaps for the time of day, and the routing, Beirut to Tehran to Baghdad.
His real name was Ali Badrayn, and while he’d lived and worked under several others names, he’d finally returned to his own because it was Iraqi in origin. His family had left Iraq for the supposed economic opportunity in Jordan, but then been caught up like everyone else in the region’s turmoil, a situation not exactly helped by their son’s decision to become part of the movement which would put an end to Israel. The threat perceived by the Jordanian king, and his subsequent expulsion of the threatening elements, had ruined Badrayn’s family, not that he’d especially cared at the time.
Badrayn cared now, somewhat. The life of a terrorist paled with the accumulating years, and though he was one of the best in that line of work, especially at gathering information, he had little to show for it beyond the undying enmity of the world’s most ruthless intelligence service. A little comfort and security would have been welcome. Perhaps this mission would allow that. His Iraqi identity and the activities of his life had garnered him contacts throughout the region. He’d provided information for Iraqi intelligence, and helped finger two people they had wished to eliminate, both successfully. That had given him entree, and that was why he’d come.
The aircraft finished its rollout, and the co-pilot came aft to lower the steps. A car pulled up. He entered it, and it pulled off.
“Peace be with you,” he told the other man in the back of the Mercedes.
“Peace?” The general snorted. “The whole world cries out that we have little enough of that.” Clearly the man hadn’t slept since the death of his president, Badrayn saw. His hands shook from all the coffee he’d drunk, or perhaps from the alcohol he’d used to counteract it. It would not be a pleasant thing to look into the coming week and wonder if one would live to see the end of it. On the one hand one needed to stay awake. On the other, one needed to escape. This general had a family and children in addition to his mistress. Well, they probably all did. Good.
