Executive orders - Tom Clancy [161]
TONY BRETANO HAD flown in on a TRW-owned business jet. It turned out that he hadn't yet decided to accept the offer from the Lockheed-Martin board, and it was pleasing to Ryan that George Winston's information was incorrect. It showed that he wasn't privy to this particular piece of insider information, at least.
I've said 'no' before, Mr. President.
Twice. Ryan nodded. To head ARPA and to be Deputy Secretary for Technology. Your name came up for NRO also, but they never called you about it.
So I heard, Bretano acknowledged. He was a short man, evidently with short-man complex, judging by his combativeness. He spoke with the accent of someone from Manhattan's Little Italy, despite many years on the West Coast, and that also told Ryan something. He liked to proclaim who and what he was, this despite a pair of degrees from MIT, where he might as easily have adopted a Cambridge accent.
And you turned the jobs down because it's a great big clusterfuck over there across the river, right?
Too much tail and not enough teeth. If I ran my business that way, the stockholders would lynch me. The Defense bureaucracy-
So fix it for me, Jack suggested.
Can't be done.
Don't give me that, Bretano. Anything man can make, he can unmake. If you don't think you have the stuff to get the job done, fine, tell me that, and you can head back to the coast.
Wait a minute-
Ryan cut him off again.
No, you wait a minute. You saw what I said on TV, and I'm not going to repeat it. I need to clean up a few things, and I need the right people to do it, and if you don't have it, fine, I'll find somebody tough enough to-
Tough? Bretano nearly came off his seat. Tough? I got news for you, Mister President, my papa sold fruit from a cart on the corner. The world didn't give me shit! Then he stopped short when Ryan laughed, and thought a moment before going on. Not bad, he said more sedately, in the manner of the corporate chairman he was.
George Winston says you're feisty. We haven't had a halfway decent SecDef in ten years. Good. When I'm wrong, I need people to tell me so. But I don't think I'm wrong about you.
What do you want done?
When I pick up the phone, I want things to happen. I want to know that if I have to send kids into harm's way, they're properly equipped, properly trained, and properly supported. I want people to be afraid of what we can do. It makes life a lot easier for the State Department, the President explained. When I was a little kid in east Baltimore and I saw a cop walking up Monument Street, I knew two things. I knew it wasn't a good idea to mess with him, and I also knew I could trust him to help me if I needed it.
In other words, you want a product that we can deliver whenever we have to.
Correct.
We've drawn down a long way, Bretano said warily.
I want you to work with a good team-you pick it-to draw up a force structure that meets our needs. Then I want you to rebuild the Pentagon to deliver it.
How much time do I have?
I'll give you two weeks on the first part.
Not long enough.
Don't give me that. We study things so much I'm surprised the paper all those things are printed on hasn't consumed every tree in the country. Hell, I know what the threats are out there, remember? That used to be my business. A month ago we were in a shooting war, sucking air because we were out of assets to use. We got lucky. I don't want to depend on luck anymore. I want you to clear out the bureaucracy, so if we need to do something it gets done. In fact, I want things done before we have to do them. If we do the job right, nobody'll be crazy enough to take us on. Question is, are you willing to take it on, Dr. Bretano?
It'll be bloody.
My wife's a doc, Jack told him.
Half the job's getting good