“What do you want?” James’s intonation was precise and his voice even, but Eric didn’t let it fool him.
“Something vague, but in writing. The vaguer the better. Something like, ‘In the interests of operational security and in view of the threat of enemy intelligence-gathering attempts aimed at compromising our integrity, all investigations are to be restricted to those with a need to know, and normal committee oversight will be suspended until such time as the immediate threat recedes.’ Just keep it vague. Then if I have to take the stand, I’ve simply misunderstood your intent. I’m obeying an order by a superior, you didn’t intend your orders to breach the law. Nobody needs to get burned.”
James snorted abruptly, startling Eric. “Is that all?”
Eric shrugged. “That’s how it’s done. That’s what kept the shit in check during Iran-Contra. Or did you expect me to fall on my sword when all I need is a note signed by teacher to say I’m an overachiever?”
“Bah.” James glanced away, but not before Eric noticed a twinkle of crocodilian amusement in his eye. “I thought you were an Air Force officer, not a politician.”
“You don’t get above captain if you’re politically challenged, sir. With all due respect, it makes life easier for me if I can advise you—where appropriate—of steps I can take to do my job better. That’s one of them. Off the record, of course.”
“I’ll get you your fig leaf, then. Signed on the Oval Office blotter, if that makes you feel better. Now, talk to me.” James leaned back, making a steeple of his fingertips.
Eric relaxed infinitesimally. “Someone sent Mike back to us. He didn’t come by himself; his leg’s busted up. That tells us something about what sort of operation we’re fighting.”
“Go on…”
“I haven’t debriefed him yet. But at a guess, what we’ve already done has hurt their operations on the east coast, and sending agents through after them is going to scare the shit out of them. They’re going to have to negotiate or escalate. Leaving aside the business with GREENSLEEVES and the nuke, we’re going to have to negotiate or escalate, too. Now, it’s not for me to advise on policy, but I suspect we’re going to find that Mike was sent back by someone who stands to gain from negotiating with us. Call them faction ‘A’. The red-on-red action suggests there’s a rival faction, call them ‘B’. So we really need to keep a lid on this, because if the ‘B’ faction figures that the ‘A’ faction want to negotiate, they may try to torpedo things by escalating. And if GREENSLEEVES wasn’t bluffing about the nuke, we could be in a world of hurt.”
Dr. James nodded minutely. “Your advice?”
“We have to find that nuke, or rule it out. And we have to keep them talking while JAUNT BLUE get their shit together. Right now, we’re fumbling around in the dark—but so are they. All they know is, we’ve whacked a bunch of their operations and figured out how to get an agent across. And if they’re in trouble internally, presumably they’d love to get us off their backs while they clean up their own mess. They probably think we don’t know about the nukes, and we can be pretty sure that they don’t know about JAUNT BLUE. Everything we know about them suggests they just don’t think in those terms, otherwise they’d be crawling all over us.”
“So. You propose that we debrief Agent Fleming, then use him to establish a back channel to the leadership of Group ‘A,’ with the goal of stalling them with the promise of negotiations while we clean up the missing nuke and get some results from JAUNT BLUE. Is that a fair summary?”
Eric blinked, then rubbed his forehead. “You put it better than I did,” he said ruefully. “Long day.”
“Going to be longer,” James said laconically. He leaned back and stared at the ceiling air vents for a while, until Eric began to think he was planning on taking a nap: but just as he was about to stand up and leave, James sat up abruptly and looked at him. “Your analysis is valid, but incomplete because there are some facts you are unaware of.”
Uh? “Obviously,” Eric said cautiously. “Should I be?”
“I think so.” James stared at him, his expression deceptively mild. “Same rules as the Fleming debriefing. This goes nowhere near a computer or a telephone. You follow?”
Eric nodded.
“Number one. Obviously, I do not want—nobody wants—to see a terrorist nuke detonated in an American city. Even if it’s in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, that would be very bad. But you need to understand this: if the worst happens, if that bomb goes off, a use will be found for it. The bloody shirt will be waved. Do you understand?”
Eric licked his suddenly dry lips. “Who’s the fall guy?”
“The Boy Wonder’s got a hard-on for Mr. Hussein, and PNAC will fall in line, but—” Dr. James shook his head. “I’m not sure who, Colonel. All I can tell you is, it will be someone who we can hammer for it. The hammer is ready, and if the United States doesn’t wield it from time to time the other players may begin to wonder if we’re still willing. So if JAUNT BLUE is ready, the target might be the Clan. And if JAUNT BLUE isn’t ready, we’ll hit someone else, someone we can reach and need to nail flat. North Korea, Iraq, Iran, whoever. But. Whatever else happens, if there’s a hard outcome, it will be used to strengthen our hand. We’ll have carte blanche.” He stared at Eric. “The code name for this plan—and I stress, it’s a contingency plan, a political spin to put on a disaster—is MARINUS BERLIN.”
“Jesus.” Eric looked away. “That’s disgusting.”
“Yes. I know. But what else can we do?”
“Find the bomb.”
“Yes!” James’s frustration boiled over in Eric’s: “If you’ve got some kind of magic superpowers that let you stare through concrete walls and pinpoint missing nukes, then I’d like to hear about them, Colonel. Failing that, if you have any better ideas, I’m sure Daddy Warbucks would like to know what else to fricking do if terrorists nuke one of our cities?”
Shit. “I’m sorry. Like I said, we’re looking. I’ll see if I can scare up some backup when we get back, okay?”
“You’d better. Because falling on our swords is not on the agenda for this administration, son. We’re not going to hand the country to the other team just because some assholes from another dimension fuck with us, any more than we did when bin Laden got uppity and bit the feeding hand.” James paused. “I shouldn’t have blown up then. Forget I said anything, it’s not your fault. There’s a lot at stake here that you aren’t in on: the big picture is really scary. All the oil in fairyland, for starters.”
“All the what?”
Dr. James looked as if he’d bitten a lemon while expecting an orange. “Oil, son. Makes the world go round. You know what the business with al-Qaeda is about? Oil. We’re in Saudi Arabia because of the oiclass="underline" bin Laden wants us out of Saudi. We’re going to go into Iraq because of the oil. Oil is leverage. Oil lets us put the Chinks and Europeans in their place. And we’re running short of it, in case you hadn’t noticed, there’s this thing called peak oil coming and we’ve got analysts scratching their heads to figure out how we’re going to field it. We’re not going to run out, but demand is going to exceed supply and the price is going to start climbing in a few years. Our planetary preeminence relies on us having cheap oil for our industries, while everyone else pays through the nose for it. But we can’t guarantee to keep prices low if we’re having to send our boys out to sit in the desert and keep the wells pumping. So it was looking bad until six months ago, but now there’s a new factor in the equation…”