“Well,” he said, looking back and forth at them. “You two have been busy.” He came around the desk and extended his hand. “You must be Matt Connor.”
The president was sixty but could pass for someone at least ten years younger. His handshake felt firm, dry, and callused. The hype about him chopping his own firewood and clearing brush on his Colorado ranch might be true. Matt hardly knew what to say.
“Yes, sir,” he managed.
“Beth.” President Forrest gave her a peck on the cheek. He took both her hands in his and held her at arm's length, gazing at her with obvious affection. “You had us pretty worried.”
“Sorry to be so much trouble, Mr. President, but I appreciate your looking out for me.”
“It seems we picked the right man for the job,” President Forrest said, smiling at her, nodding at Matt.
Beth smiled back. “I’d have to agree with that.”
“John, I expect you have some preparations to attend to. We’ll be along shortly.”
Matt hoped that was a royal “we.” He wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible with as little ceremony as possible. In the short time he’d been a guest of the Graysons, he’d been exposed to enough Washington-type socializing to know he wasn’t good at it.
“Yes, sir,” John Bolling said. He nodded to Matt and Beth and eased out of the room.
“Please,” the president said. He waved them toward a pale yellow couch upholstered in silk brocade. “We have a few minutes.”
There was that “we” again. A few minutes before what? He glanced at Beth. They were both acting as if they knew something he didn’t. He and Beth took a seat on the couch, and the president pulled up a chair opposite.
“Matt, Admiral Jacobs has filled me in on everything you did. I don’t have to tell you what it means. We had no idea that the capability you destroyed existed, and even if we had, I’m not sure we could have stopped it without causing a war. Thanks to you, its use was prevented, and thanks to Beth, we now know how to counter it in the future. What you did should be on the front page of every newspaper in America, but for obvious reasons, it’ll have to be kept quiet.”
“That’s not a problem for me, Mr. President.”
“I didn’t think it would be, after talking with Admiral Jacobs and Senator Grayson. They’re both people whose opinions I respect, and they’re both very high on you.”
“That’s good to hear, sir.”
The president looked at him for a long minute.
“Admiral Jacobs tells me you’d like to have your Navy commission restored.”
“I appreciate the thought, Mr. President, but I’ve been out of the Navy for so long I wouldn’t be qualified for much of anything.”
“I understand that you’d no longer be qualified to go back on submarine service, but Admiral Jacobs thought you might be the perfect candidate for a Navy intel job we have in mind, for someone whose work takes him all over the world. Someone we could call on from time to time for special assignments.”
“You mean a spy, sir?”
The president paused, but only for a couple of seconds. “We think of it as more of a troubleshooting job. The way you handled this one, I think you’d be perfect for it. You’d be a commander in the naval reserve, activated when needed. Would you take the job as a personal favor to me?”
An involuntary grin spread across Matt’s face. He glanced at Beth, who was smiling at him.
“I’d be honored to do what I can, sir.”
President Forrest slapped his hands on his knees. “Good.” He walked around to his desk, opened one of the folders, and signed his name with a flourish. “I’ve dated your commission effective today.” He handed the document to Matt. “Congratulations, Commander.”
“Thank you, sir.”
The president looked at his watch. “And now we have something to attend to.”
He ushered them out the door and into the Roosevelt Room across the hall. Beth seemed to have some idea of what was going on, but she wouldn’t look at him.
A small group of people turned toward them and began to applaud. Matt assumed they were applauding the president. He turned to join in and was startled to see President Forrest facing him and applauding along with the others. Matt looked at the people, astonished. They were applauding him. He blinked, and the faces came into focus. Admiral Jacobs and his wife, Beth’s mother and father, Charlie Shen, Cliff Howard, Susan Elliott, and a half-dozen people he’d never seen before.
President Forrest held up his hands. “Thank you all very much for coming. It’s a pleasure to welcome you to the White House.
“As president, I’ve handed out lots of medals and awards, but it’s a curious fact that the most significant achievements can never be recognized publicly.
“We’re here to celebrate one of those achievements.
“Everyone in this room has played a role in it, and because it can never be made public, I thought it was important to get us all together so that I can thank each and every one of you personally. Thank you. This was a big one.
“But the person we all have to thank is the man whose boots were on the ground, the one who made it happen. I’ve anguished over a way to thank him, but I don’t know how.
“If he’d been in the military, he’d be a candidate for the Congressional Medal of Honor. But he wasn’t. He was a civilian. A lone American with a few stalwart companions, struggling to do the right thing against overwhelming odds.”
Turning, he said, “I can’t give you or your companions any medals, Matt, but as the elected leader of the people of America, what I can give you is the sincere thanks of a grateful nation.” He extended his hand.
Matt took the president’s hand numbly. The room erupted in applause. He vaguely heard the president say something about thanks for coming and enjoy the reception before he walked away, leaving him standing there. Beth took his arm and smiled at him as Admiral Jacobs approached.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he said out of the corner of his mouth.
“Because you wouldn’t have come.” She squeezed his arm and walked over to say hello to her parents.
Admiral Jacobs held out a naval officer’s sword. “I had a hell of a time getting this thing past security.”
Matt grinned at him. “What’s this?”
“I hear you lost yours.”
Matt pulled the sword out a few inches. “Onward and Upward” was engraved on the blade. He looked at Jake.
“How did you know?”
“Sam told me.”
“Thank you.” Matt looked down on the sword, sorry his father hadn’t lived to see this moment. “Now what’s this I hear about an intelligence job?”
“We’ll call on you from time to time to do a little troubleshooting. The president thinks you’re good at it.”
“Come on, Jake. That whole thing was a fluke.”
“Try convincing POTUS of that. He thinks you walk on water. Do a couple more assignments for him, the sky’s the limit. You’ll probably end up as SECNAV, like James Webb.”
“Sure.”
“No, it’s true. You know what they say about cream. By the way, Barbara says to say hello and to wish you the best.”
“How is she?”
“Married again. Some three-striper jet jockey she latched onto. The truth is, she’s miserable. Wishes now she’d stuck with you.”
“That sounds like Barb.”
Admiral Jacobs laughed. “It sure as hell as does. Another by-the-way. I’ve been dying to ask you, who gave you that gun you turned over to the sub driver? The one that’s supposed to be unable to be picked up by a metal detector?”
“Gray Wolf.”
“Who?”
“Another wise old man, like you. I didn’t want the bloody thing at first, but without it, we wouldn’t be standing here today. What about it?”
“He must be a wise old man.”
“Why?”
“The sub commander sent the gun to CINCPAC with
a note saying it couldn’t be picked up by a metal detector. CINCPAC got nervous about it and sent it to the FBI lab here in Washington. The FBI folks got really nervous until they tested it. They copied me on the report - the gun’s worthless. There’s no such thing as a weapon that can’t be detected and can still shoot. Those cartridges won’t show up, but they also can’t be fired. He might as well have given you a toy gun.”
Matt said, “You’re kidding me,” but knew he wasn’t.
Admiral Jacobs chuckled. “He knew you’d be getting into some tight spots. What he gave you was the confidence that you’d always have a way out.” He shook his head. “A magic weapon.”
“That son of a-”
“Don’t be too hard on him. It worked. The Xinhua news agency just put out a press release about the malfunction and destruction of a sea launch of a Chinese communications satellite. Happened on June 21. The launch platform and the command ship were so badly damaged in the explosion and fire that followed they had to be sunk. No mention of any other damage, but intel reports that a Chinese Luda III-class destroyer and two Romeo-class diesel subs have mysteriously dropped off the radar screen.”
“Any word on the destroyer captain?” Matt asked.
“None that I’ve heard,” Admiral Jacobs said. “Why?”
“It’s a long story I’ll tell you over a beer sometime.”
“She might know,” Jake said, nodding to Susan Elliott, who came walking up. “Matt wants to know what happened to the skipper of that destroyer that went down.”
“Captain Chen?”
“That’s him.”
She nodded. “Naval Academy grad. We’ve watched his career for years. He survived the sinking, but got booted out of the PLA Navy for losing his ship.”
“Bad luck,” Matt said.
“Even worse luck for some people in the party,” Susan Elliott said. “We just got a report that General First Class Lao Jianxing has been purged from the CCP. His son, Senior Colonel James Lao, was summarily executed for embezzling what was described as a ‘large’ amount of company funds to cover his ‘gambling losses’ in the U.S. stock market. Cold. The PLA sent the old man a bill for six cents for the bullet they used to execute his son.”
Matt thought it couldn’t happen to nicer guys, but said nothing. He was grateful that Beth was out of earshot. She’d have to know, but Matt thought he could tell her a little more gently than that.
“Well, we’ve got to be going.” Admiral Jacobs extended his hand. “Welcome back, buddy.”
Matt took his hand and looked into his mottled face. “Thanks, Jake,” was all he could manage to say.
“Don’t worry. You’ll earn your money.”
Beth and her father came over. Senator Grayson held out his hand. “Congratulations, Matt.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I just wanted to let you know, I got a call back from the IRS commissioner. He’s confirmed that the tax lien on your ship has been removed.”
“Thanks for following up,” Matt said. “That closes the loop.”
“Not quite. There’s still the little matter of a reward.”
Beth stood watching him with an amused expression. Her whole family had been hammering on him about the damned thing since he’d been back. He glanced at her and smiled.
“I told you, this one’s on the house.”
“Oh, go on, take it, junkman. Five mil is pocket change for him.”
“No, thanks.”
“Look, you don’t know the senator. It’s a point of honor. If he doesn’t give it to you, he’ll have to give it to someone else, some flaky charity or something.”
Matt could see that the Grayson family was going to be unyielding. He’d written Sarah Tyler a letter expressing his condolences over Jason’s death, but words alone would be cold comfort.
“All right.” He scribbled Sarah’s name and address on a slip of paper and handed it to Beth’s father. “If you’re determined to give it away, send a million of it to this lady. Jason Tyler’s widow.”
“Shall I tell her who it’s from?”
“Tell her it’s from the crew of CoMar Explorer.”
“That leaves $4 million.”
“Okay.” Matt wrote out another name and address. “Send it to this man. It’ll keep a ship running that employs some good men.”
“Gray Wolf?”
Matt smiled. “That’s not his real name, but he’ll get it, I assure you.”
“Any message?”
Matt hesitated, then said, “Tell him he was right. I was wrong.”
“About?”
“The Gray Wolf theory of preemption.”
Senator Grayson made a note and shrugged. “If you say so. Anything else?”
Matt paused. There was a lot he wanted to say to Gray Wolf. He didn’t know whether to thank him or curse him for giving him the loan, the Chinese lessons, the Stinger missiles, and the gun that wouldn’t shoot, but he knew what he did have to thank him for. He looked at Beth. Standing in the azure light of the Roosevelt Room, she looked as fresh and new as a spring morning. The whole world felt new, the way it had the day he’d graduated from Annapolis. Gray Wolf hadn’t intended it, but the old man had given him another chance at a life he’d thought was over, and a partner he thought he’d never find. He looked into Beth’s eyes and smiled.
“Just tell him thanks,” Matt said. “Thanks for everything.”
Copyright © 2017 by Maurice Medland. All rights reserved.
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