Executive orders - Tom Clancy [356]
So?
Badrayn laid out his papers on the desk, showing cities and routes and times. It was mere mechanics. Daryaei looked the plans over with a cursory eye, and while they seemed overly complex, that was not a major concern for him. He'd seen maps before. He looked up for the explanation that had to come with the paperwork.
The primary issue is time, Badrayn said. We want to have each traveler to his destination no more than thirty hours after departure. This one, for example, leaves Tehran at six A.M., and arrives in New York at two A.M. Tehran time, elapsed time twenty hours. The trade show he will attend-it is at the Jacob Javits Center in New York-will be open past ten in the evening. This one departs at 2:55 A.M., and ultimately arrives in Los Angeles twenty-three hours later-early afternoon, local time. His trade show will be open all day. That is the most lengthy in terms of distance and time, and his 'package' will still be more than eighty-five percent effective.
And security?
They are all fully briefed. I have selected intelligent, educated people. All they need do is be pleasant en route. After that, a little caution. Twenty at once, yes, that is troublesome, but those were your orders.
And the other group?
They will go out two days later via similar arrangements, Badrayn reported. That mission is far more dangerous.
I am aware of that. Are the people faithful?
They are that. Badrayn nodded, knowing that the question really asked if they were fools. The political risks concern me.
Why? The observation didn't surprise Daryaei, but he wanted the reason.
The obvious question of discovering who sent them, though their travel documents will be properly prepared, and the usual security measures put in place. No, I mean the American political context. An unhappy event to a politician can often create sympathy for him, and from that sympathy can come political support.
Indeed! It does not make him appear weak? That was rather much to swallow.
In our context, yes, but not necessarily in theirs.
Daryaei considered that and compared it with other analyses he'd ordered and reviewed. I have met Ryan. He is weak. He does not deal effectively with his political difficulties. He still has no true government behind him. Between the first mission and the second, we will break him-or at least we will distract him long enough to achieve our next goal. After that is accomplished, America becomes irrelevant.
Better the first mission only, Badrayn advised.
We must shake their people. If what you say of their government is true, we will do such harm as they have never known. We will shake their leader, we will shake his confidence, we will shake the confidence of the people in him.
He had to respond to that carefully. This was a Holy Man with a Holy Mission. He was not fully amenable to reason. And yet there was one other factor which he didn't know about. There had to be. Daryaei was more given to wishes than considered action-no, that wasn't true, was it? He united the two while giving another impression entirely. What the cleric did appreciate was that the American government was still vulnerable, since its lower house of parliament had not yet been replaced, a process just beginning.
Best of all merely to kill Ryan, if we could. An attack on children will inflame them. Americans are very sentimental about little ones.
The second mission goes on only after the first is known to be successful? Daryaei demanded.
Yes, that is true.
Then that is sufficient, he said, looking back down at the travel arrangements, and leaving Badrayn to his own thoughts.
There is a third element. There had to be.
HE SAYS HIS intentions are peaceful.
So did Hitler, Ali, the President reminded his friend. He checked his watch. It was after midnight