Executive orders - Tom Clancy [410]
Really? Well, I know you had a story working. He didn't add that he was sorry to have scooped the younger man, mainly because he wasn't.
Even more than I can write about.
Really? That got John Plumber's attention. Holtzman was one of the younger generation in relation to the TV correspondent, and one of the older generation for the newest class of reporters-which regarded Plumber as a fuddy-duddy even as they attended his seminars at Columbia University's journalism program.
Really, Bob assured him.
Like?
Like things that I can't write about, Holtzman repeated. Not for a long time, anyway. John, I've been on part of this story for years. I know the CIA officer who got Gerasimov's wife and daughter out. We have a little deal. In a couple years he tells me how it was done. The submarine story is true and-
I know. I've seen a photograph of Ryan on the boat. Why he doesn't let that one leak is beyond me.
He doesn't break the rules. Nobody ever explained to him that it's okay to do that-
He needs more time with Arnie-
As opposed to Ed.
Kealty knows how the game is played.
Yes, he does, John, maybe a little too well. You know, there's one thing I've never quite been able to figure out, Bob Holtzman remarked. What's that?
The game we're in, are we supposed to be spectators, referees, or players?
Bob, our job is to report the truth to our readers-well, viewers for me.
Whose facts, John? Holtzman asked.
A FLUSTERED AND angry President Jack Ryan Jack picked up the remote and muted the CNN reporter who'd zapped him with the China question. Angry, yes, flustered, n-
Also yes, van Damm said. You bungled the thing on China, and where Adler is-where is he, by the way?
The President checked his watch. He should be getting into Andrews in about ninety minutes. Probably over Canada now, I guess. He comes straight here, and then probably off again to China. What the hell are they up to?
You got me, the chief of staff admitted. But that's why you have a national security team.
I know as much as they do, and I don't know shit, Jack breathed, leaning back in his chair. We've got to increase our human-intelligence capability. The President can't be stuck here all the time not knowing what's going on. I can't make decisions without information, and all we have now are guesses-except for what Robby told us. That's a hard data-point, but it doesn't make sense, because it doesn't fit in with anything else.
You have to learn to wait, Mr. President. Even if the press doesn't, you do, and you have to learn to focus on what you can do when you can do it. Now, Arnie went on, we have the first set of House elections coming up next week. We have you scheduled to go out and make speeches. If you want the right kind of people in Congress, then that's what you have to go out and do. I have Callie preparing a couple of speeches for you.
What's the focus?
Tax policy, management improvement, integrity, all your favorites. We'll have the drafts to you tomorrow morning. Time to spend some more time out among the people. Let them love you some, and you can love them back some more. The chief of staff earned himself a wry look. I've told you before, you can't be trapped in here, and the radios on the airplane work just fine.
A change of scenery would be nice, POTUS admitted.
You know what would really be good now?
What's that?
Arnie grinned. A natural disaster, gives you the chance to fly out and look presidential, meet people, console them and promise federal disaster relief and-
God damn it! It was so loud the secretaries heard it through the three-inch door.
Arnie sighed. You gotta learn to take a joke, Jack. Put that temper of yours in a box and lock it the hell up. I just set you off for fun, and I'm on your side, remember? Arnie headed back to his office, and the President was alone again.
Yet another lesson in Presidency 101. Jack wondered when they would stop. Sooner or later he'd have to act presidential, wouldn't he? But he hadn't quite made it yet. Arnie hadn't said that, exactly,