Executive orders - Tom Clancy [99]
CIA nodded. Bert's right. Our friend was awfully good at identifying potential enemies and taking them out of play. We tried to help during and after the Persian Gulf War, but all we really managed to do was get people killed. For sure nobody over there trusts us.
Ryan sipped at his coffee and nodded. He'd made his own recommendations back in 1991, and they hadn't been exercised. Well, he'd still been a junior executive then.
Do we have any options to play? the President asked next.
Honestly, no, Vasco answered.
CIA agreed: No assets in place. What few people we have operating in that country are tasked to coverage of weapons development: nuclear, chemical, and so forth. Nobody on the political side. We actually have more people in Iran looking at the political side. We can rattle those bushes some, but not in Iraq.
Fabulous, Jack thought, a country may or may not go down in one of the most sensitive areas of the world, and the world's most powerful nation could do nothing more than watch television coverage of the event. So much for the power of the American presidency.
Arnie?
Yes, Mr. President, the chief of staff replied.
We bumped Mary Pat off the schedule a couple days ago. I want her in today if we can work the schedule.
I'll see what we can do on that, but-
But when something like this happens, the President of the United States is supposed to have more than his dick in his hand. Ryan paused. Is Iran going to make a move?
* * *
11 - POLITICS
PRINCE ALI BIN SHEIK HAD been ready to fly home on his personal aircraft, an aging but beautifully appointed Lockheed L-1011, when the call came in from the White House. The Saudi embassy was located close to the Kennedy Center, and the ride correspondingly short in his official limousine, accompanied by a security force almost as large as Ryan's and made up of American Diplomatic Protection Service personnel, plus the Prince's own detail, composed of former members of Britain's Special Air Service. The Saudis, as always, spent a lot of money and bought quality with it. Ali was no stranger to the White House, or to Scott Adler, who met him at the door and conducted him upstairs and east into the Oval Office.
Mr. President, His Royal Highness said, walking in from the secretaries' room.
Thank you for coming over on such short notice. Jack shook his hand and waved him to one of the room's two sofas. Some thoughtful person had started a fire in the fireplace. The White House photographer snapped a few shots, and was dismissed. I imagine you've seen the news this morning.
Ali managed a worried smile. What does one say? We will not mourn his passing, but the Kingdom has serious concerns.
Do you know anything we don't? Ryan asked.
The Prince shook his head. I was as surprised as everyone else.
The President grimaced. You know, with all the money we spend on- His visitor raised a tired hand.
Yes, I know. I will have the same conversation with my own ministers as soon as my airplane lands back home.
Iran.
Undoubtedly.
Will they move?
The Oval Office got quiet then, just the crackling of the seasoned oak in the fireplace as the three men, Ryan, Ali, and Adler, traded looks across the coffee table, the tray and cups on it untouched. The issue was, of course, oil. The Persian-sometimes called the Arabian-Gulf was a finger of water surrounded by, and in some places sitting atop, a sea of oil. Most of the world's known supply was there, divided mainly among the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran, along with the smaller United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar. Of these countries, Iran was by far the largest in terms of population. Next came Iraq. The nations of the Arabian Peninsula were richer, but the land atop their liquid wealth had never supported a large population, and there was the rub, first exposed in 1991, when Iraq had