Executive orders - Tom Clancy [599]
IS HE QUITE mad? the diplomat asked an Iranian colleague. It was the RVS officers who had the dangerous-or at least most sensitive-part of the intelligence mission.
You may not speak of our leader in that way, the foreign ministry official replied as they walked down the street.
Very well, does your learned holy man fully understand what happens when one employs weapons of mass destruction? the intelligence officer asked delicately. Of course he did not, they both knew. No nation-state had done such a thing in over fifty years.
He may have miscalculated, the Iranian allowed.
Indeed. The Russian let it go at that for the moment. He'd been working this mid-level diplomat for over a year. The world now knows that you have this capability. So clever of him to have flown on the very aircraft that made it possible. He is quite mad. You know that. Your country will be a pariah-
Not if we can-
No, not if you can. But what if you cannot? the Russian asked. Then the entire world will turn against you.
THIS IS TRUE? the cleric asked.
It is quite true, the man from Moscow assured him. President Ryan is a man of honor. He was our enemy for most of his life, and a dangerous enemy, but now, with peace between us, he turns into a friend. He is well respected by both the Israelis and the Saudis. The Prince Ali bin Sheik and he are very close. That is well known. This meeting was in Ashkhabad, capital of Turkmenistan, disagreeably close to the Iranian border, especially with the former Premier dead in a traffic accident-probably a creative one, Moscow knew-and elections pending. Ask yourself this: Why did President Ryan say those things about Islam? An attack on his country, an attack on his child, an attack on himself-but does he attack your religion, my friend? No, he does not. Who but an honorable man would say such things?
The man on the other side of the table nodded. This is possible. What do you ask of me?
A simple question. You are a man of God. Can you condone those acts committed by the UIR?
Indignation: The taking of innocent life is hateful to Allah. Everyone knows that.
The Russian nodded. Then you must decide for yourself which is more important to you, political power, or your faith.
But it wasn't quite that simple: What do you offer us? I have people who will soon look to me for their welfare. You may not use the Faith as a weapon against the Faithful.
Increased autonomy, free trade of your goods to the rest of the world, direct flights to foreign lands. We and the Americans will help you to arrange lines of credit with the Islamic states of the Gulf. They do not forget acts of friendship, he assured the next Premier of Turkmenistan.
How can a man faithful to God do such things?
My friend-he wasn't really, but that was what one said-how many men start to do something noble and then become corrupted? And then what do they stand for? Perhaps it is a lesson for you to remember. Power is a deadly thing, most deadly of all to those who hold it in their earthly hands. For yourself, you must decide. What sort of leader do you wish to be, and with what other leaders will you associate your country? Golovko leaned back and sipped at his tea. How wrong his country had been not to understand religion-and yet, how right was the result. This man had clung to his Islamic faith as an anchor against the previous regime, finding in it a continuity of belief and values which the political reality of his youth had lacked. Now that his character, known to all in the land, was carrying him to political power, would he remain what he had been, or would he become something else? He had to recognize that danger now. He hadn't thought it all the way through, Golovko saw. Political figures so rarely did. This one had to do so, and right now, and the chairman of the RVS watched him search his soul-something the Marxist doctrine of his youth had told him did not exist. It turned out to be better that it did. Our religion, our Faith, it is a thing of God, not of murder. The Prophet teaches