Dead or Alive - Tom Clancy [97]
“D.C.’s a mess,” Jack offered, wondering what it might break loose.
Van Damm wasn’t buying: “Usually is.”
“Makes you wonder what people were thinking in 1914, how the country was going to hell in a basket back then—but nobody remembers that now. Is that because somebody fixed it, or was it because none of it really mattered?”
“The first Wilson administration,” Arnie responded. “War breaking out in Europe, but nobody saw how badly it would all turn out yet. Took another year before reality sank in, and by then it was too late for anyone to figure a way out of it. Henry Ford tried, but he got laughed out of town.”
“Is that because the problem was too big, or the people were too small and too dumb?” Jack wondered.
“They didn’t see it coming,” the senior Ryan said. “They were too busy dealing with the day-to-day stuff to step back and see the big historic trends.”
“Like all politicians?”
“Professional politicians tend to focus on the small issues rather than the large ones, yes,”Arnie agreed. “They try to maintain continuity because it’s easier to keep the train on the same tracks. Trouble is, what do you do when the tracks come unglued around the next turn? That’s why it’s a hard job, even for smart men.”
“And nobody saw terrorism coming, either.”
“No, Jack, we didn’t, at least not entirely,” the former President admitted. “Some did. Hell, with a better intelligence service we might have, but that damage was done thirty years ago, and nobody ever really made it right.”
“What does work?” Jack asked. “What would have made the difference?” It was a sufficiently general question that it might generate a truthful answer.
“Signals intelligence—we’re still the best at that, probably—but there’s no substitute for HUMINT—real field spooks, talking to real people and finding out what they really think.”
“And killing some?” Jack asked, just to see what would result.
“There’s not much of that,” his father responded. “At least, not outside Hollywood.”
“Not what it says in the papers.”
“They still report Elvis sightings, too,” Arnie replied.
“Heck, maybe it would be good if James Bond were real, but he isn’t,” the former President observed. It might have been the undoing of the Kennedy administration, which had started to buy in to the 007 fiction, except for an idiot named Oswald. So did history take its major turns at accidents, assassins, and bad luck? Maybe a decent conspiracy was possible once, but not anymore. Too many lawyers, too many reporters, too many bloggers and Handycams and digital cameras.
“How do we fix it?”
That caused Jack Senior’s head to look up—rather sadly, his son thought. “I tried once, remember?”
“So then why is Arnie here?”
“Since when did you become so curious?”
“It’s my job to look into stuff and figure it all out.”
“The family curse,” van Damm observed.
That’s when Sally walked in. “Well, look who showed up.”
“Finished dissecting your cadaver yet?” Junior asked.
“The hard part’s putting it back together and having it walk back out the door,” Olivia Barbara Ryan shot back. “It beats handling money—dirty stuff, money, full of germs.”
“Not when you do it by computer. Nice and clean that way.”
“How’s my number-one girl?” the former President asked.
“Well, I got the lettuce. Organic. The only way to go. Mom told me to tell you it’s time for you to grill the steaks.”
Sally didn’t approve of steak, but it remained the one thing her father knew how to cook, along with burgers. Since it wasn’t summer, he had to do it on a gas grill in the kitchen instead of outside over charcoal. It was enough to get her father to stand up and head toward the kitchen, leaving Junior and Arnie together.
“So, Mr. van Damm, is he going to do it?”
“I think he has to, whether he accepts it yet or not. The country needs him to do it. And it’s Arnie now, Jack.”
Jack sighed. “That’s one family business in which I have no interest. It doesn’t pay enough for all the heartbreak that comes along with it.”
“Maybe so, but how do you say no to your country?”
“I’ve