“Hello, Ed. Nice to see you, too.” Her tone was cool. “I’m just here as a spouse. Dan can stand up for himself.”
“Of course.” Szerenci turned to him. “Sorry we had to meet like this.” They shook hands. “Congratulations, by the way, on winning the Medal.”
Dan never knew what to say to this. The Medal of Honor wasn’t “won,” but awarded, usually because you’d died performing some heroic act. Or, if not, by all rights should have. In his case, several other people had, and he wore it for them. But it felt graceless to correct a well-wisher, and explaining came across as either evasive or falsely modest. So he just nodded awkwardly. “Bravo Zulu to you, too, Doctor. National security adviser, huh? That’s really something.”
“Come on, Dan. Make it Ed. Actually, you should have seen the other names being considered. The president made the only smart choice.”
Dan glanced toward the elevator, feeling surreal here in the dusty echoing labyrinth. Szerenci smiled at Blair and pressed the Call button. One of his escorts stepped into the elevator, looked around, stepped out. Szerenci turned to Blair again, as if debating asking her to step aside, but she slid past. “You can take the next one,” she told them, and pressed the Close button. “Dan, good luck. See you upstairs.” She blew a kiss off the back of her fist as the doors began to seal.
But the steel tip of Szerenci’s umbrella shot out, and they opened again. “I have no secrets,” he said casually.
The car was large enough that his security team could board too. They took positions at either side of the door and faced it, backs to their principal, expressionless visages dimly reflected in the stainless wall.
Szerenci took off his glasses and polished them with a handkerchief. “First, if there’s any help I can offer today, please turn to me, Dan. Blair and I are on opposite sides of the aisle, but you and I, we’re both executive branch. In fact, if you have no objection, I’d like to sit with you while you testify.”
Dan gave him a quizzical side-glance. What was going on? But having a high figure in the current administration in his corner couldn’t hurt. “I appreciate that… Ed. Thanks.”
“This subcommittee usually oversees counterterrorism initiatives, and works to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. I’m not sure what they have in mind calling you. But I wanted to lend what support I could.” He lowered his voice, though his words were already almost lost in the hum of the elevator motors. “For old times’ sake. And because, as the CO of Savo Island, you’ll be in the front line of any conflict. Frankly, we need an immediate, crash upgrade to our antiballistic capabilities.”
Dan frowned down at him. “I’m hearing — around the building — that we’re looking at an increase in tension. In the Pacific.”
Szerenci shook his head in wonder. “Increase in tension — is that what they’re calling it? We’re on the brink of war. Outside capital’s fleeing the country. But I believe we’re ready.”
Dan looked at the ceiling. It was stainless too, and a blurred image of himself peered back down. First Niles, now Szerenci, and even more direly phrased. “War, huh? I’ve seen some of it, since we were at George Washington. It’s not like the mutual-attrition equations you taught us.”
Szerenci cocked his head, gaze sharp. “Force is always the ultimate arbiter. ‘Only the dead have seen the end of war.’”
“No argument there, sir. And I respect the need for intellectual rigor. But some conflicts are different. Not so-called limited intervention, when we can pull out when we’ve had enough. We fight China, it’ll be like World War I.”
“Your illusions are almost amusing,” Szerenci said coldly. “But very well, let’s take your example. If not for that conflict, Germany would dominate the world. As it was, Britain and France waited too long.”
“Germany chose that war. Not the Allies.”
Szerenci waved a hand tiredly. “Who chooses a war? That’s like saying you choose to lose a poker hand. There’s always risk in the great-power game. We have no choice but to play.”
The elevator came to a stop on the main floor. But instead of letting the doors open, Szerenci put that umbrella tip on the Close button. And held it there.
Blair said, “Imperial Germany could’ve been incorporated into a world trade system. If the situation had been handled better, not just from the point of view of each threatened nation. Isn’t that what we should be doing with China?”
Szerenci snorted. “What have we been doing, since Nixon? But they’ve got to want to be integrated. Instead, the more powerful they get, the bigger their ambitions. And now this new guy—”
“General Zhang,” said Dan.
“Yeah, another Tojo — he’s whipping them up. I’m going to tell you something classified now.”
“I’m not asking for classified information.”
“You’ll understand why.” He lowered his voice still more. “Someone’s been probing us for a massive cyberattack.”
“We’ve heard something about that,” Blair said, though Dan wasn’t sure who “we” was there — SAIC, or her former compatriots at Defense, or the banking community her stepdad was so tight with.
“Have you? I’m talking about major, ongoing probes of our most sensitive systems. We’ve traced the hackers, and they’re out of the Second Department — Zhang’s old outfit.
“So here’s our reasoning, in the administration. Emotion must play no part. We look only at what the numbers tell us. Comparing growth rates, they’ll outproduce us in five to ten years. You won’t quote me on this, to anyone. But war now could be better than later, with a more powerful adversary that’s already rolled up our weaker allies.”
Dan took a deep breath. He’d forgotten how icy cold Szerenci could be. He could discuss megadeaths as if they were acey-deucey points, dissect and anticipate catastrophe and holocaust almost with relish. “Do we want to roll those dice?” he asked, trying to keep his tone neutral, as if they were back in class.
“It’s the only rational way to deal with a rising adversary that won’t comply with international rules.”
“But what’s the endgame? You can’t occupy China, the way we occupied Japan—”
The door jerked, shuddering as if desperate to open; Szererenci jabbed the Close button again. “We won’t need to. Defeat in war will trigger political change.”
Blair shook her head. “How do you figure that?”
The national security adviser smiled. “Historical precedent. Russia, 1905, 1917. Germany, 1918. Argentina, 1983.”
Dan said, “And why are you telling us? Why are you even here, Ed?”
“Because — as I said — ships like yours will be in our front line. If you look good, even if for what I might consider the wrong reasons, that helps us toward the supplemental appropriation.” He winked, and dropped his umbrella tip from the panel.
The doors whisked open, and they walked out into wide, brightly lit corridors, into a dazzling flicker of camera flashes, men and women jostling in to shout questions. Szerenci’s boys shouldered through the scrum with professional ease, until they reached the hearing room.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Committee on Armed Services
Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee
Washington, DC, Wednesday, June 10