Executive orders - Tom Clancy [144]
In America, a generation earlier, it would have been called a happening. People showed up and acted out because it was an expected thing. A literal sea of people filled the square-it had a name, but nobody seemed to know it-and even those who couldn't see oh, a new camera gave the answer to the question. Big-screen TVs showed everyone what was happening. Jack wondered if they'd do an instant replay. Two lines of generals marched behind the gun carriage, and were keeping step, Ryan saw.
How much farther you think they'll walk?
Hard to say, Mr. President.
It's Bert, right? the President asked.
Yes, sir.
Bert, I can call in one of my NIOs to tell me he doesn't know.
Vasco blinked, as expected. Then he decided, what the hell? Eight out of ten, they bug out.
Those are betting odds. Tell me why.
Iraq has nothing to fall back on. You don't run a dictatorship by committee, at least not for long. Not one of those people has the stones to take over on his own. If they stay put and the government changes, it won't change into something nice for them. They'll end up like the Shah's general staff did, backs to a wall, looking at guns. Maybe they'll try to fight it out, but I doubt it. They must have money salted away somewhere. Drinking daiquiris on a beach may not be as much fun as being a general, but it beats the hell out of looking at flowers from the wrong side. They have families to worry about, too.
So we should plan on a completely new regime in Iraq? Jack asked.
Vasco nodded. Yes, sir.
Iran?
I wouldn't bet against it, Vasco answered, but we just don't have good enough information to make any kind of prediction. I wish I could tell you more, sir, but you don't pay me to speculate.
That's good enough for now. Actually it wasn't, but Vasco had given Ryan the best he had. There's not a thing we can do, is there? This one was for the Foleys.
Not really, Ed replied. I suppose we could get someone over there, maybe fly one of our people up from the Kingdom, but the problem then is, whom does he try to meet? We have no way of knowing who's in command there.
If anyone, Mary Pat added, looking at the marching men. None of them took the lead.
WHAT DO YOU mean? the buyer asked.
You didn't pay me on time, the dealer explained with a belch after draining his first beer. I had another buyer.
I was only two days late, the buyer protested. There was an administrative problem getting the funds transferred.
You have the money now?
Yes!
Then I will find you some monkeys. The dealer lifted his hand, snapped his fingers, and caught the attention of the bar boy. An English planter could not have done it better, in this same bar, fifty years earlier. It isn't all that hard, you know. A week? Less?
But CDC wants them at once. The aircraft is already on the way.
I will do my best. Please explain to your client that if they want their consignment on time, then they should pay their bills on time as well. Thank you, he added for the bar boy. One for my friend, too, if you please. He could afford that, what with the payment he'd just accepted.
How long?
I told you. A week. Perhaps less. Why was the chap so excited over a few days?
The buyer had no choice, at least not in Kenya. He decided to drink his beer down and speak of other things. Then he'd make a telephone call to Tanzania. After all, the African green monkey was abundant throughout Africa. It wasn't as though there were a shortage of the things, he told himself. Two hours later, he learned something different. There was a shortage, though it would last only a few days, as long as it took for the trappers to find a few more troops of the long-tailed pests.
VASCO HANDLED THE translation in addition to his commentary duties. 'Our wise and beloved leader who has given our country so much '
Like population control the hard way, Ed Foley snorted.
The soldiers, all guardsmen, moved the coffin into the prepared tomb, and with