Abdullah shot a glance at his brother, and asked, “You gave the American woman reporter the accounting paper that Muhammad did for me from the files he found? It shows that this Conrad was just a paid puppet for the al Sauds.”
“She has it,” Ahmed assured him, “but I will get a copy to Russell as well.”
Although MacIntyre did not fully understand the last exchange between the brothers, their audience with Sheik Rashid seemed to be over. Abdullah bin Rashid stood, forcing the other three to rise as well, and then said, “I have already taken some decisions, before I had your informations. And I have asked Ahmed to develop for me a plan, a gate, to keep out what he calls the scorpions, the Chinese, the Iranians, and… the Americans. You have done this, Ahmed?” The younger Arab waved a folder that he had been carrying in his hand. Abdullah continued. “There will be fighting. We are about to become what you would call ‘proactive.’ But maybe we avoid the big fight.”
“Inshallah,” Brian Douglas prayed. “Inshallah.”
14
“Thank you so much, for the briefings and the tour of the ship— for everything, Mr. Secretary,” the Egyptian minister of defense said as he walked down the red carpet on the deck, toward the awaiting V-22 Osprey. “We are doing the right thing. And I know, when the time comes, my President will do the right thing, too. And you and I will be ready to carry out his instructions.” The Egyptian stopped and placed his hand on Secretary Conrad’s arm. “We cannot let these people in Islamyah think they can change regimes and replace rulers with religious fanatics and terrorists. We should never have let this happen. We should have acted sooner, but now, with your help, we can correct this mistake and restabilize the region. Inshallah.” He stood back, saluted the Secretary, and climbed into the big vertical-liftoff aircraft.
Conrad, wearing a Navy flight jacket, returned the salute and then walked back inside the ship before the big rotors started to turn, creating a strong prop wash across the entire carrier deck. The Secretary was escorted to the CIC and to a small conference room just off the floor of the war room. “Well, I thought that went well, Ron,” Conrad said as he shut the door.
Under Secretary of Defense Ronald Kashigian had been alone, waiting for his boss. “We’ll see. When he tells President Fouad that we’re going in to stop the chaos and to stop the Iranians, then we will know if we have Egyptian troops with us. Not before.”
“Ron, it’s critical that we have another Arab state going in with us. A big one, not some little pissant sandhill,” Conrad said as he sat down at the little table. “How’s the press play on the dogfight fuckup?”
Kashigian handed him a pile of printouts. “Actually, quite good. Not what we wanted.The Iranians all got shot down, amazingly. But I think it adds to the impression of instability in Islamyah. The Pilots’ Revolt, that’s how the Chicago Courier headlined it. What bothers me is how it got screwed up. I can’t believe that Islamyah’s air defense system was that good. All the intelligence briefings I got said—”
“Christ! How many times do I have to tell you that you can’t believe intelligence!” Conrad said, throwing the papers back at his subordinate. “But it worked, well enough. Now, what else can go wrong?”
“Well, let’s see. The Saud princes leave Los Angeles and Houston tonight and fly forward to Geneva. The rioting in the Shi’a neighborhoods in the Eastern Province in Islamyah should begin tonight, and then Tehran will hold a big rally tomorrow afternoon to protest the persecution of the Shi’a in Islamyah. They have stood down their air and naval forces to get them ready for the assault. Our fleet has just about left the Gulf, so you need to sign out the order to Adams formally modifying his mission from Bright Star to setting up a picket line to block the Chinese… ” Kashigian went down a timeline and checklist in a black leather folder. “Has the President signed the order yet to intercept the Chinese ships with the troops and the nukes?”
Conrad looked up with a disgusted grimace. “No, the President hasn’t signed the order yet,” he said, mimicking Kashigian. “Goddamn lawyers in the White House are debating whether it’s an act of war. Of course it’s an act of war! So what? I’ll order it myself if it comes to that. National Command Authority, right?”
“Yeah, but I thought we wanted to save that card in case you have to, shall we say, spontaneously decide to go in to Saudi to stop the Iranians, after their landings,” Kashigian said.
“Stop the Iranians from spreading across from the enclave they will have on the Gulf side, but also to stop the chaos in Jeddah and Riyadh, which will be threatening Westerners,” Conrad added.
“Right, although I don’t know how much evidence we will actually have of any chaos there to show anybody,” Kashigian admitted.
“Evidence? This is not a court of law!” Conrad pounded the table. “The press will report it, if we say it.”
The two men sat for a moment, looking at the map of the region on the wall in the small room. “What else…” Conrad thought out loud.
“There’s that guy MacIntyre from IAC, who has been snooping around,” the Under Secretary replied.
“Nah,” Conrad scoffed. “He’s a pipsqueak.”
“Our Special Forces will seize the oil infrastructure right away to prevent any destruction. We want to get the production up and going to us directly again as fast as possible. But that oughta work. Let’s see, what else? I’m not confident about this guy Adams in Fifth Fleet,” Kashigian suggested. “I’ve had Counterintelligence checking on him, too.”
“Oh, I know you aren’t happy with him, but I met with him on the plane. He’s fine. Good Navy officer. Wants to be a CinC someday. He’ll handle the Chinese,” the Secretary assured Kashigian.
“What if they don’t want to be handled?” the Under Secretary asked.
“They are in way over their head and they know it. The admiral, Tian-something, the Australian source, says that if it comes to a possible shooting war, they will back down because they don’t want to lose to us. Face, and all that. And right now they would lose. Maybe not in ten years, but, shit, they only just started with carriers a few years ago. They can’t take on the United States Navy. And besides,” Conrad said, stroking his chin, “remember, I have a surprise for them.”
“Let’s hope Tian-something is right, Mr. Secretary.” Kashigian smiled back. “I just don’t like to ever believe intelligence.”
“Fuck you,” said the Secretary of Defense.
“I have confirmation on almost all of it now, Ray, and it all checks out, from what Ahmed gave me,” Kate said into the cell phone. “I’m about to meet a guy from Dominion Commonwealth Partners who is going to give me more.” She sat in the rented Ford in the parking lot off the parkway, looking down at the Potomac.
“Who’s the guy?” Ray Keller, managing editor of the New York Journal, asked. He was in his office on the 42nd floor, looking out on Manhattan.
“When I went out to Tysons Corner to this hedge fund’s office, they sent out this flack to deal with me. I didn’t get past reception, but I gave the flack my card. Then, two hours later, he calls and says he couldn’t talk there, but he has the answers to the questions I faxed them. Said he would meet me after work at the Second Overlook and give me the files,” she said, scanning her notes on her PowerBook.