Executive orders - Tom Clancy [460]
We have noted this with gratitude.
The bandits shot first. You also know that.
We are unclear on that issue. One of the reasons for my coming here is to ascertain the facts, Adler replied.
Ah.
Had he surprised them? SecState wondered. It was like a card game, though the difference was that you never really knew the value of the cards in your own hand. A flush still beat a straight, but the hole card was always down, even for its owner. In this case, he had lied, but while the other side might suspect the lie, they didn't know for sure, and that affected the game. If they thought he knew, they would say one thing. If they thought he didn't know, they'd say another. In this case, they thought he knew, but they weren't sure. He'd just told them otherwise, which could be a lie or the truth. Advantage, America. Adler had thought about this all the way over.
You have said publicly that the first shot was taken by the other side. Are you sure of this?
Completely, the Foreign Minister assured him.
Excuse me, but what if the shot were taken by one of your lost pilots? How would we ever know?
Our pilots were under strict orders not to fire except in self-defense.
That is both a reasonable and prudent guide for your personnel. But in the heat of battle-or if not battle, a somewhat tense situation, mistakes do happen. We have the problem ourselves. I find aviators to be impulsive, especially the young, proud ones.
Is not the same true of the other side as well? the Foreign Minister asked.
Certainly, Adler admitted. That is the problem, isn't it? Which is why, he went on, it is the business of people like ourselves to ensure that such situations do not arise.
But they always provoke us. They hope to garner your favor, and we find it troubling that this may have succeeded.
Excuse me?
Your President Ryan spoke of two Chinas. There is only one China, Secretary Adler. I'd thought that issue settled a long time ago.
That was a semantic error on the President's part, a linguistic nuance, Adler replied, dismissing the observation. The President has many qualities, but he has yet to learn the niceties of diplomatic exchange, and then a foolish reporter seized on the issue. Nothing more than that. There have been no changes in our policies toward this region. But Adler had deliberately not said our policies, and have been instead of are. There were times when he thought that he might have made a fortune for himself by drafting insurance policies.
Such linguistic errors can be seen as things other than errors, the Foreign Minister replied.
Have I not made our position clear on this issue? You will recall that he was responding to a most unfortunate incident in which American lives were lost, and in searching for words to use, he selected words which have one meaning in our language, and another in yours. This was going a lot easier than he'd expected.
Chinese lives were lost as well.
Zhang, Adler saw, was doing a lot of listening but wasn't uttering a single word. In the Western context, that made him an aide, a technical assistant, there to assist his minister on an issue of law or interpretation. He wasn't so sure that rule applied in this case. More likely, the reverse applied. If Zhang were what the American thought him to be, and if Zhang were smart enough to suspect that the American would be thinking along those lines-then why the hell was he here?
Yes, and various others, to little purpose and great sorrow. I hope you will understand that our President takes such things seriously.
Indeed, and I am remiss in not saying sooner that we view with horror the attack on his daughter. I trust you will convey to President Ryan our heartfelt sympathy at this inhuman act, and our pleasure that no harm has come to his child.
I thank you on his behalf, and I will pass your good wishes along. Twice in a row now the Foreign Minister had temporized. He had an opening. He reminded himself that his interlocutors thought themselves smarter and shrewder than everybody else. My President