Executive orders - Tom Clancy [468]
This was called realpolitik, Scott Adler thought. Something similar had resulted in an event called the Holocaust, an event his father had survived, with a number tattooed on his forearm to prove it. Even his own country officially had a one-China policy, though the unspoken codicil was that the PRC would not attack the ROC-and if it did, then America might just react. Or might not.
Adler was a career diplomat, a graduate of Cornell and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He loved his country. He was often an instrument of his country's policy, and now found himself to be his country's very voice of international affairs. But what he often had to say was not terribly just, and at moments like this, he wondered if he might himself be doing the same things that had been done sixty years earlier by other Fletcher grads, well-educated and well-meaning, who, after it was all over, wondered how the hell they'd been so blind as not to have seen it coming.
We have fragments-and actually some rather large pieces from the missile that were lodged in the wing. It is definitely of PRC origin, the ROC Defense Minister said. We will allow your technical people to look them over and make your own tests to confirm matters.
Thank you. I will discuss that with my government.
So. This was the Foreign Minister. They allow a direct flight from Beijing to Taipei. They do not object privately to the dispatch of an aircraft carrier. They disclaim any responsibility for the Airbus incident. I confess I see no rationale for this behavior.
I am gratified that they express interest only in the restoration of regional stability.
How good of them, Defense said. After they deliberately upset it.
This has caused us great economic harm. Again, foreign investors get nervous, and with the flight of their capital, we face some minor embarrassments. Was that their plan, do you suppose?
Minister, if that were the case, why did they ask me to fly here directly?
Some manner of subterfuge, obviously, the Foreign Minister answered, before Defense could say anything.
But if so, what for? Adler wanted to know. Hell, they were Chinese. Maybe they could figure it out.
We are secure here. We know that, even if foreign investors do not. Even so, the situation is not an entirely happy one. It is rather like living in a castle with a moat. Across the moat is a lion. The lion would kill and eat us if he had the chance. He cannot leap the moat, and he knows that, but he keeps trying to do so, even with that knowledge. I hope you can understand our concern.
I do, sir, SecState assured him. If the PRC reduces the level of its activity, will you do the same? Even if they couldn't figure out what the PRC was up to, perhaps they could de-stress the situation anyway.
In principle, yes. Exactly how, is a technical question for my colleague here. You will not find us unreasonable.
And the entire trip had been staged for that simple statement. Now Adler had to fly back to Beijing to deliver it. Matchmaker, matchmaker
HOPKINS HAD ITS own day-care center, staffed by permanent people and always some students from the university doing lab work for their child-care major. Sally walked in, looked around and was pleased by the multicolored environment. Behind her were four agents, all male, because there weren't any unassigned women. One carried a FAG bag. Nearby was a trio of plainclothes officers of the Baltimore City Police, who exchanged credentials with the USSS to confirm identity, and so another day started for SURGEON and SANDBOX. Katie had enjoyed the helicopter ride. Today she'd make some new friends, but tonight, her mother knew, she'd ask where Miss Marlene was. How did one explain death to a not-yet-three-year-old?
THE CROWD APPLAUDED with something more than the usual warmth. Ryan could feel it. Here he was, not yet three days after an