The Devil's Playground
Page 36
over the intelligence he had received from Thomas Litchfield earlier.
"Could this be the work of Parker and Young?" the Mayor suddenly asked, referring to the United States President and Secretary of State, leaving out the Japanese element of Thomas's hypothesis for the moment.
The questioning look from the Head of the SVR told the Mayor instantly that his spy chief didn't agree with this assessment.
"You do not agree Alexei Nikolai?" the Mayor asked
"Our intelligence is indicating that this is more likely to the work of the Japanese," Alexei Anynkov replied before explaining how the SVR had come by the intelligence.
The Mayor stewed on the information for a few moments by looking out the window of his private residence. His wife and their young children were playing with their dogs in the back garden. He sighed. It was Sunday, his family day. He looked at them longingly. But the affairs of the state always came first.
"It appears Fama is right," he concluded.
The problem with that conclusion though was that it appeared that although the SVR had managed to acquire some of the information behind Balysh concerning his Japanese business interests via the relationship his young wife enjoyed with the departed partner of TLH, they had completely missed the American connection. That worried him. He refocused his thoughts and looked at the Head of the FSB.
"What are the FSB sources indicating, Dmitri Arkady?" he asked Pavlov, who was in attendance because he also had jurisdiction on all matters relating to Russia's traditional borders of which all the former states of the Soviet Union were still included.
"We believe that the attacks are the work of the Chinese," he stated with authority and then proceeded to explain where the intelligence came from through a variety of code names just as his colleague from the SVR had done. Again the Mayor inwardly sighed.
"So in other words, we have no idea who is actually behind the attack!" he said, his face expressing his disaffection with the situation.
"Vladimir Vladimirovich, what we do know is that we have a major problem on our hands in relation to the economy," offered the Minister of the Economy. Being new in the job, he was determined to get his point of view across.
The Mayor waved his hand to indicate his displeasure. He didn't need the idiot to tell him that piece of news. What he needed was solid intelligence. And it appeared the combined Special Services of Russia were still none the wiser.
In the Situation Room, the famous conference room that sat ten floors below the swimming pool of the White House; the forty-fifth President of the United States of America, Daniel Parker, and his National Security Committee listened to the CIA Director Ali Mansoor outline the Agency's intelligence on the events unfolding in Turkmenistan.
The National Security Committee (NSC) comprised of the Vice-President, the Secretaries of State and Defense, and finally the National Security Advisor had been the creation of the previous President who had wanted the decision making process to become less formal in order to help him in formulating polices of principal rather than traditionally protecting positions of policy that each instrument of the United States government took. This was first time it had met under Parker's Presidency.
"So it's your Agency's belief that Putin is preparing another Crimea?" offered the President with his customary directness and Texan drawl.
The director nodded.
"Intelligence sources are indicating that ARCTIC TIGER is using the nationalization of the Litchfield assets as an excuse, just as he did in Crimea," he answered, using Putin's code name.
"By portraying a potential takeover as a threat to the national lifeblood and to Russia's traditional rights, he is using the same strategy he used then when the real excuse was to give Russia control over the Black Sea oil whilst dealing a crippling blow to the economy of Ukraine," Ali continued before pausing for a few seconds so to allow the map on the screen showing the various pipelines to change to support the CIA's briefing. "Such an act deprives not only China's but Japan's access to the possibility of developing these resources but more importantly gives them back to Russia, therefore making Turkmenistan, China, and Japan more vulnerable to Russian pressure," Ali finished.
"Mr. President," Young answered, taking over the meeting from his former colleague and subordinate from his time as Director of the CIA. "This is why I have instructed the State Department briefings to draw reference to this fact and made arrangements, pending your orders, to go public and warn Russia that annexation of energy resources in Central Asia will not be tolerated."
The President looked at his Secretary of State, forced on him by one of his main benefactors, Hank Dowling, he personally couldn't stand the man despite his language and their shared ideas with regard to Republicanism. As far as he was concerned Young represented all the things he hated most about the type of politicians on the Hill he had first come across when he entered the Congress twenty-three years before as a first term American-Mexican Congressman before becoming Governor of Texas. "Self-serving, patronizing, and underneath fundamentally at heart a racist." but that didn't mean he was wrong though. Being a Texan, Parker understood more than anybody the importance the control of natural resources was to a nation.
"Duly noted, David" the President responded, earning a disapproving look of contempt from the man because he knew damn well that he hated any disrespect to his rank and office. The use of Young's first name in formal meetings was one such method the President used to keep him in his place.
"So it looks like the Russian Bear is in a mood to act aggressively," the President said stating the obivious, a trait that the majority of the world's politicians did on fear of being off-message.
The President allowed his mind to drift a few seconds to reflect on the briefing. Hank Dowling had once told him that when Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, buried in the Treaty of Annexation-in Article 4, Section 3-was a single bland sentence that said international law would govern the drawing of boundaries through the adjacent Black and Azov Seas. At the time he didn't understand the significance of such a statement until his friend explained that Putin had acted in this manner because the Ukrainian government had announced an accord with an Exxon-led group of which CORETEXAS was one of them to extract oil and gas from the depths of Ukraine's Black Sea waters.
"I still don't get it?" Daniel had queried as they sat on his ranch sipping iced tea.
"Danny, our boys outbid his boys," Hank had answered, referring to the Lukoil bid, "That means from that moment on, Putin had to act dirty because he couldn't compete with us economically in any new off-shore fields around the world. The day he annexed Crimea, he put our deals with Ukrainians in limbo! The only trouble was that idiot in the White House, by doing nothing, left us as yellow as mustard but without the bite," he had said, insulting Parker's predecessor.
"But he did well for us in Adwalland," Parker had replied in an effort to defend the man's foreign policy, despite their domestic differences he admired.
"Even a blind hog can find an acorn once in a while!" Hank had replied with disgust. "He should have stood his ground and demanded the Russians leave Africa. Instead of that he gave us back half of something we already owned in full!" He was referring to the oil rights off Adwalland shores and how yet again the Russian had outplayed the Administration.
"But the next time he tries it, you'll be in the White House and you'll have that line in the treaty to grab him by the balls! If you win the election, of course!" Hank had added with a smile that seemed to imply to Daniel at the time that it was a foregone conclusion before he had continued with his lecture.
"You see, whatever happens in the future after Crimea, in Putin's own words, International Law is going to be a precept that governs Russia's actions. You'll be able to use his own 'treaty' as a stick to beat and force him into a corner," Hank had pronounced as he had lit up a rich Cuban cigar, one of his many illegal vices that Parker had chosen to ignore because he needed his money to get him to the White House.
The President's mind returned back to the present.
"The Russians' actions are illegal under international law," the President started, drawing on the advice of his friend. "So let's use that line in the Treaty of Annexation when he grabbed Crimea to force Putin into a corner." He said as he looked at the rather shocked faces of the NSS, none more so than David Young's.
Ali Mansoor walked into his office at Langley with his protection detail behind him to find Rob Ashley waiting for him. Although he respected the man's professionalism and undeniably extensive network of contacts around the world, he could be a royal pain in the ass when he got hold of a bone just like a dog. Nevermoreso when that 'bone' happened to be something that was about as political and by definition as "Hot Potato" as it got!
When Ali had read Ashley's report on what was happening in Japan concerning Hank Dowling and his links to Young and the fact that the Yazuka was acting as the broker, he had inwardly sighed. It meant, unfortunately, that the former Englishman was right with his synopsis and even though Ali owed his career and post to Young, that didn't mean he admired or respected the man as a person. As far as he was concerned what the Secretary of State was doing was without oversight, amoral, and most importantly, illegal!
Most men in the Agency