• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1364 0

know, the President admitted, though he knew that the schedule was set months in advance, and that most of the program would have to be adhered to regardless of his wishes. As each day passed, it amazed him more and more that people sought after this job-the job had so many extraneous duties that it could scarcely be done. But the extraneous duties in a real sense were the job. It just went round and round. Then a staffer appeared with soft drinks for the President and First Lady, summoned by another who'd heard what Cathy had said. The paper napkins were monogrammed-stamped, whatever the process was called-with the image of the White House, and under it the words, THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE. Husband and wife both noticed that at the same moment, then allowed their eyes to meet.

Remember the first time we took Sally to Disney World? Cathy asked.

Jack knew what his wife meant. Just after their daughter's third birthday, not long before their trip to England and the beginning of a journey which, it seemed, would never end. Sally had fixed on the castle in the center of the Magic Kingdom, always looking to see it no matter where they were at the time. She'd called it Mickey's House. Well, they had their own castle now. For a while, anyway. But the rent was pretty high. Cathy wandered over to where Robby and Sissy Jackson were speaking with the Prince of Wales. Jack found his chief of staff.

How's the hand? Arnie asked.

No complaints.

You're lucky you're not campaigning. Lots of people think a friendly handshake is a knuckle-buster-man-to-man and all that. At least these people know better. Van Damm sipped at his Perrier and surveyed the room. The reception was going well. Various chiefs of state and ambassadors and others were engaged in friendly conversation. There were a few discreet laughs at the exchange of jokes and pleasantries. The mood of the day had changed.

So, how many exams did I pass and fail? Ryan asked quietly.

Honest answer? No telling. They all looked for something different. Remember that. And some of them really didn't give a damn, having come for their own domestic political reasons, but even under these circumstances it was impolitic to say so.

Kinda figured that out on my own, Arnie. Now I circulate, right?

Hit India, van Damm advised. Adler thinks it's important.

Roger. At least he remembered what she looked like. So many of the faces in the line had turned immediately into blurs, just as happened at an over-large party of any sort. It made Ryan feel like a fraud. Politicians were supposed to have a photographic memory for names and faces. He did not, and wondered if there were some sort of training method to acquire one. Jack handed his glass off to an attendant, wiped his hands with one of the special napkins, and headed off to see India. Russia stopped him first.

Mr. Ambassador, Jack said. Valeriy Bogdanovich Lermonsov had been through the receiving line, but there hadn't been time then for whatever he wanted to say. They shook hands again anyway. Lermonsov was a career diplomat, popular in the local community of his peers. There was talk that he'd been KGB for years, but that was hardly something Ryan could hold against him.

My government wishes to ask if an invitation to Moscow could be entertained.

I have no objection to it, Mr. Ambassador, but we were just over a few months ago and my time has many demands on it right now.

I have no doubt of that, but my government wishes to discuss several questions of mutual interest. That code phrase made Ryan turn his body fully to face the Russian.

Oh?

I feared that your schedule would be a problem, Mr. President. Might you then receive a personal representative for a quiet discussion of issues?

That could only be one person, Jack knew. Sergey Nikolay'ch?

Would you receive him? the Ambassador persisted.

Ryan had a brief moment of, if not panic, then disquiet. Sergey Golovko was the chairman of the RVS-the reborn, downsized, but still formidable KGB. He also was one of the few people in the Russian government who had both brains and the trust