suits the United States," Thomas answered truthfully and without hesitation, all the while wondering whether Putin was about to accuse him of acting in the interests of a foreign power and worse still working with a foreign intelligence service.
The President placed his hands beneath his chin. He sat in silence for a few moments processing his thoughts while Thomas fought to control his heartbeat. Then he spoke.
"Russia shares a mutual desire with the Americans for a denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula," he started. "And if the 'bored kid' wants his place in history and is prepared to pay for it," he continued using the derogatory term he often used when referring to America's President, "then it is in Russia's interest to support a political-diplomatic settlement of the current situation." He paused for a moment and as he did so a relieved Thomas knew what he said next would be the price he was going to be expected to pay for the agreement.
"I will of course expect you to ensure that all our energy institutions are allowed access to this pipeline at a fair price," the Mayor said as he took a sip of black tea. "And I expect you to support the Russian-Korean railway and Port development in Rajin with a suitable investment and use Russian sub-contractors in the construction!" He continued with a list of what else Russia would expect, that included arms purchases by the new combined military and the FAPSI (Federal'naya Agenstvo Pravitel'stvennoy Svayazi i Informatsii) listening post at Ramona in the North was to remain operational.
"Make sure that you make this crystal clear to Mr. Ashley to pass on to the Hermits and to your American friend who likes to sit at the back of the classroom," he said in a manner that was non-negotiable; implying at the same time that he did indeed know about his meeting with the President by his making reference to the statement he had once given to the world's media from which the 'bored kid' insult came from.
"Yes, Mr. President," Thomas replied, still digesting the fact that TLH was about to go into the railway, port business, and the arms business.
"Good now let's have something to eat," he ordered, bringing Thomas back from his thoughts and shocking him in the process because it was the first time in over ten years he had ever invited him to dinner.
"Alina is making Tandir kabob," the President said, referring to his not so secret, rumored long-term companion and the famous Uzbek dish of her homeland.
14
Geneva
The Presidents of the six nations walked into the main conference room of the famous Montreux Palace Hotel to the flashing lights of the world's media.
The last six months of discussions had been momentous in all shapes and forms. The forty-fourth President of the United States of America's foreign policy, once seen as one crisis after another, was now going to be identified with the signing of Korean reunification document as a bringer of peace rather than a forgotten footnote.
For the photo call, as it had been agreed between the leaders of the countries that surrounded the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. President, as the perceived driving force behind the peace treaty, was allowed to take center stage between the soon to be former Presidents of the ROK and DPRK and the future President and Vice President of the Reunified Republics of Korea, with them taking up position on his left and right respectively. They were followed by the Presidents of the Russian Federation and The People's Republic of China on their lefts and the Prime Minister of Japan on the right before finally behind them the respective Foreign Ministers of the five parties and the United States of America Secretary of State behind them.
Watching from the sidelines were Thomas and Rob. It was not lost on either man that they had just assisted in the ending of the longest armistice in the history of the world by using commerce as the chosen instrument rather than weapons.
"I must confess, Tommy, I had my doubts," said Rob as he watched the President of the United States invite the two Koreans to shake hands in front of him to even more flashing lights.
"So did I," answered Thomas warmly to his friend as he reflected on the negotiations which had been difficult, to say the least.
"Never in million years is the President going to agree with this!" Jack Fielding had said when Thomas had first given him the list of demands that Russia wanted before the U.S. President promptly surprised him and the members of his Administration by doing just that without a debate. An action, Jack had immediately remarked was being equal in status as the moment "Nixon went to China," the famous metaphor that all diplomats used for an unexpected or uncharacteristic action by a politician.
Having agreed to the Russian set of demands, The President's next problem was China, who had always stated they needed the Korean peninsula free of external interference before they would support the idea of a unified Korean State.
In the end, for the Chinese it came down to a question of what was worth more to them. A choice between continuing to support a North Korea that accounted for forty percent of all China's foreign aid budget and required 50,000 tons of oil per month just so they could have them as a buffer state that was expensive and internationally embarrassing to support, or the combined trade and investment with Japan, South Korea, and the United States, which was worth billions.
In addition to consider whether it was an necessity to continue to argue against the presence of American troops in Korea or take the President's guarantee that all American Armed Forces would stay in existing positions in the South, thus maintaining the status quo. As was usual in all matters of international foreign policy, the Chinese decided to take the pragmatic view. Trade won.
Then there was South Korea, who had argued heavily in private talks with the U.S. that as they were facing a potential bill of one trillion U.S. dollars for the reunification, they should be given control of the new National Agency, that they should not be forced to buy new fighter jets and weapon systems from Russia, nor allow them to maintain military assets on the new state's soil. In the end, as in China's case, South Korea's final acceptance came down to two key outcomes.
Firstly, they knew that within the next forty years a unified Korea was going have an economy larger than that of Japan. Something that would be created by having access to cheap labor and the abundant natural resources in the Central Asia via the pipeline, together with the resources of mineral rich North combined with the South's existing technology and capital.
Secondly, once it was confirmed the continuing presence of the Americans would remain in the country to safeguard their new state from the increasingly right-wing ambitions of Japan, the people of South Korea quickly had fallen into line.
In the past, all previous attempts at reunification had failed because both the North and South had always viewed Japan with suspicion and had always argued about the presence of Japan alongside America at the negotiating table.
Previously the Japanese Prime Ministers had always had used the agenda of protecting Japan's access to materials as the stick, despite assurances from the four parties who supplied them over 70% of their gas supply through their natural resources giants that this wouldn't happen to block any deal.
This hadn't happened this time because the two Koreas used the fear of Japan's aggressive protectionism of 'right of Access' to make the agreement possible by forcing America to ride 'rough shot' over Japanese objections, in effect forcing the U.S. to choose sides.
In the past such an action by an American President would have be unthinkable. But that wasn't the case now because privately the current incumbent had wanted his legecy.
The look on the Japanese Prime Minister's face had said it all that day on the steps. He was pissed.
His media were already ripping him to sheds accusing him of being the only party to come out of the agreement with no political gain and worse still as an appeaser in the mold of Britain's Neville Chamberlain, the politician who became the synonym for weakness and cowardice for his failure to stand up to Adolf Hitler in 1938.
"Biggest deal of my life and I didn't make a sausage out of it," chuckled Rob drawing reference to
the fact that on behalf of the Administration with Langley's help he had brought together and then managed all the President's chosen commercial partners of TLH and more importantly kept them in line when it was felt they were getting too greedy using the National Security stick each time.
"I bet you're not short of job offers," said Thomas still was chuckling over the fact that neither, the Mayor nor the intelligence community of Russia still had a clue that his friend was a CIA Intelligence Officer. Something he knew by the simple fact that nearly all of the National Champions had asked Thomas for introductions to him. Something, in turn, he had only done when he had been instructed to do so by Putin.
As far as Russia's Special Services were concerned, Robin Ashley was a political lobbyist-cum-investment banker with offices in Hong Kong and Washington with an impressive set of contacts. Not to use him would be foolish.
In doing so, they didn't realize that each time they did they in effect were tipping a wink to the Americans as to what was Russia's Energy Security intentions were throughout the world.
"So what's next for the Fixer?" Thomas asked, using his nickname.
"Now that would be telling wouldn't it," Rob said to which Thomas laughed.
Both men had both learned a lot about each other over the last six months.
The Devil's Playground Page 17
