"Not, he decides whatever WARBUCKS wants him to?"
Smith gave him an old-fashioned look. "That's not for you or me to comment on, Mister Fleming. Either way, though, the narcoterrorism angle and the stolen nukes will make great headline copy if-when-it leaks out in public. We can call them Taliban 2.0, now with nukes: It'll play well in Peoria, and the paranoia aspect-bad guys who can click their heels and vanish into thin air-is going to keep everyone on their toes. Bottom line is, those guys picked the wrong administration to mess with." Smith glanced sidelong at Mike. "But I'm a lot less happy about Dr. James's habit of going outside the chain of command."
Mike nerved himself. "Aren't you a bit worried that the doctor may be completely misreading how these people will react? They're not narcoterrorists and they're not hicks, they've got their own way of doing things-"
"It doesn't matter how they respond," said the colonel. "They're roadkill, son. A decision has been made, at the highest level. We don't negotiate in good faith with nuclear terrorists: We lie to them and then we kill them. The oil is a side issue. If you've got a problem with that, tell me now; I'll find you a desk to fly where I can keep an eye on you and you don't have to do anything objectionable." The final word came out with an ironic drawl and a raised eyebrow.
For a bleak, clear moment Mike could see it all bearing down on him: a continent of lies and weasel-worded justifications, lies on both sides-Olga couldn't have been as ignorant as she'd professed, not if six of the things were missing-and onrushing bloody-handed strife. From the administration on down, policy set by the realpolitik dictates of securing the nation's borders and energy supplies… up against an adversary who had stolen nuclear weapons and dealt with enemies by tit-for-tat revenge slaying.
"I'm on board," he said, holding his misgivings close to his chest. "I just hope those missing nukes show up."
"So do I." The colonel grimaced. "And so do the people we've got looking for them."
BEGIN RECORDING: "My lord Gruen, his lordship Oliver, Earl Hjorth."
(Sound of door closing.)
"Ah, Oliver."
My lord Baron! If you would care to take a seat?… We are awaiting her grace, and Baron Schwartzwasser. I think then we may proceed…"
(Eighteen minutes pass. More people arrive.)
"… Let us begin." (Clears throat.) "I declare this session open. My lord Gruen, you requested this meeting, I believe to discuss the recent incident in the northwest?"
"Yes, yes I did! Thank you, my lord. I have reports-"
"-It's insupportable!"
"My lady? Do you have something you feel you must contribute, or can we hear Lord Gruen's report first?"
"It's insupportable!" (Vile muttered imprecations.) "Ignore me. I am just an old grandmother…"
"Hardly that, my lady. Lord Gruen?"
"I am inclined to agree with her grace, as it happens: Her description of it is succinct. Here are the facts of the matter. The Pervert's army split into three columns, which dispersed and harried our estates grievously. His grace Duke Lofstrom responded by dispersing small defensive forces among the noble households, but concentrating the main body of our Security corvée in the Anglische world as a flying column. He was most insistent that at some point the Pervert would bring his arms together to invest one of our great estates, in the hope of drawing us into a battle in which, outnumbered, we would fall.
"Despite our entreaties to defend our estates adequately and wipe out the attacking columns, he deliberately starved us of troops, claiming that he must needs give the Pervert a false, weak, picture of our strength of arms, and that in any case there were insufficient soldiers to defend all our households."
(Sound of paper shuffling.)
"Despite one's worst fears as to his motivation, I must concede that Isjlmeer and Nordtsman received no more succor than did Giraunt Dire and Hjalmar; the duke applied his neglect evenhandedly, failing to relieve his own party inasmuch as he also neglected our own. I do not, therefore, believe that there would be support for a move to relieve him in Committee, especially in view of the accuracy of his prediction. The Pervert did concentrate his forces to attack the Hjalmar Palace, evidently with treachery in mind, and in doing so he placed his army within reach of the duke's flying column. Unimpeachable sources tell me that the Pervert's forces had stolen machine guns, but were inadequately supplied and poorly deployed to resist the attack that Earl Riordan was preparing."
(Throat clearing.)
"Yes, my lord?"
"Are you then confirming that, that Angbard's strategy was sound?"
(Pause.)
"I would prefer to say that it wasn't obviously unsound, my lord. Clearly, his parsimony in the defense of our estates bled us grievously. But equally clearly, if he had committed troops to our defense, he would have been unable to concentrate the forces he needed for a counterattack, and he would have ceded the initiative to the Pervert. It is possible that a more aggressive strategy of engagement would have borne fruit earlier, but one cannot be certain."
"Oh." (Disappointed.)
"Indeed." (Drily.) "I am much more concerned by the unexpected outcome of the events at the fork in the Wergat. There is considerable confusion-the Anglischprache attack on the duke's forces, the duke's ictus, the exfiltration through the other Anglische realm with the connivance of the traitor family-and lastly, the, the atomic bomb. I was hoping my lord Hjorth might shed some light on that latter."
(Muttering.) "My lords, my lady. If I may speak?"
Her grace: "You may speak until the cows come home, and convince no one."
"Nevertheless, if I may speak?…"
(Conversation dies down.)
"Thank you. Of the duke's condition, I shall speak later: As your representative on the security committee I believe I may brief you on the subject. But to get back to the matter in hand, my sources tell me that when the traitor Matthias fled to the Anglischprache king-president's party nine months ago, he clearly gave them much more than anyone anticipated. Previous fugitives have been taken for madmen and incarcerated, or we have been able to hunt them down and deal with them-but Matthias appeared to vanish from the face of the earth. We now know that he flung himself on the mercy of the Drug Enforcement Agency, and by their offices, on a dark and sinister conspiracy of spies."
(Shocked muttering.)
"There is worse. As you know, with the aid of those of our younger generation who have enlisted and served in the American armies, we have gained some knowledge of, and eventually access to, their atomic bombs. The weight and complexity of these devices, and the secrecy that surrounds their activation, transport, and use, defied us for many years, but in the second year of Alexis's reign we finally infiltrated"(muttering)-"a master sergeant in the Marine Corps, yes-enlisted and received special training-man-portable devices, designed for smuggling, with which to sabotage the enemies of the Anglischprache empire overseas in time of war-the, ah, Soviet Union. And these devices were stored securely, they thought, but without doppelgangering, as is to be expected of the ignorant. It was a delicate but straightforward task to build a bunker from which a world-walker could enter the storage cells-the hardest part was obtaining a treaty right to the land from the Teppeheuan, and the maintenance schedule for the bombs. From then on, of the twelve weapons, we ensured that six were stored on our side at all times, and rotated back into the Pantex store when they were due to be repaired.
"Then Matthias stole one of them."
(More shocked muttering.)