Executive orders - Tom Clancy [338]
I got a call from NBC, asking about a little job we did in the Atlantic.
What did you say?
What do you think, Skipper? Zip. In addition to the honor of the situation, there was also the fact that Jones did most of his work with the Navy. But-
Yeah, but somebody is gonna talk. Somebody always does.
They know too much already. The Today Show is doing a live shot from Norfolk, the Eight-Ten Dock. You can guess what they're saying.
Mancuso thought about flipping his office TV on, but it was still too early for the NBC morning news show-no. He did flip it on and selected CNN. They were doing sports now, and the top of the hour was coming.
Next they might ask about another job we did, the one involving a swimmer.
Open line, Dr. Jones, COMSUBPAC warned.
I didn't say where, Skipper. It's just something you'll want to think about.
Yeah, Mancuso agreed.
Maybe you can tell me one thing.
What's that, Ron?
What's the big deal? I mean, sure, I won't talk and neither will you, but somebody will, sure as hell. Too good a sea story not to tell. But what's the big deal, Bart? Didn't we do the right thing?
I think so, the admiral replied. But I guess people just like a story.
You know, I hope Ryan runs. I'll vote for him. Pretty cool stuff, bagging the head of the KGB and-
Ron!
Skipper, I'm just repeating what they're saying on TV, right? I have no personal knowledge of that at all. Damn, Jonesy thought, what a sea story this one is. And it's all true.
At the other end of the line the Breaking News graphic came up on Mancuso's TV screen.
YES, I AM Nikolay Gerasimov, the face said on screens all over the world. There were at least twenty reporters clustered on the other side of the stone fence, and the hard part was hearing one of the shouted questions.
Is it true that you were-
Are you-
Were you-
Is it true that-
Silence, please. He held up his hand. It took fifteen seconds or so. Yes, I was at one time the chairman of KGB. Your President Ryan induced me to defect, and I have lived in America ever since, along with my family.
How did he get you to defect? a reporter shouted.
You must understand that the intelligence business is, as you say, rough. Mr. Ryan plays the game well. At the time there was ongoing power struggle. CIA opposed my faction in favor of Andrey Il'ych Narmonov. So, he came to Moscow under cover of advisor to START talks. He claimed that he wanted to give me information to make the meeting happen, yes? Gerasimov had decided that downgrading his English skills would make him seem more credible to the cameras and microphones. Actually, you can say he trap me with accusation that I was going to create, how you say, treason? Not true, but effective, and so I decide to come to America with my family. I come by airplane. My family come by submarine.
What? Submarine?
Yes, was submarine Dallas. He paused and smiled rather grimly. Why are you so hard on President Ryan? He serve his country well. A master spy, Gerasimov said admiringly.
WELL, THERE GOES that story. Bob Holtzman muted his television and turned to his managing editor.
Sorry, Bob. The editor handed the copy back. It was to have run in three days. Holtzman had done a masterful job of assembling his information, and then taken the time to integrate it all into a cohesive and flattering picture of the man whose office was only five blocks from his own. It was about spin, that most favored of Washington words. Somebody had changed the spin, and that was that. Once the initial story went out, it was impossible even for an experienced journalist like Holtzman to change it, especially if his own paper didn't support him.
Bob, the editor said with a measure of embarrassment, your take on this is different than mine. What if this guy's a cowboy? I mean, okay, getting the submarine was one thing, Cold War and all that, but tampering with internal Soviet politics-isn't that close to an act of war?
That's not what it was really about. He was trying to get an agent out, code name CARDINAL. Gerasimov and Aleksandrov were using that spy