O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [71]
“Will that be all, sir?” Kendall asked.
“Do this again,” Horace said, pointing to his glass. “In fact, open the French stuff and do not disturb us for anyone.”
“Unless it’s the president,” Culpeper corrected.
“Our daughters do give us ultimate joy. Sometimes”—he inched into the meat of the subject—“the female lineage can create a nightmare in matters of family continuity.”
“Indeed,” Horace opined.
“That was a brilliant move you made last night. No one at the Mansion House could have predicted Amanda and Glen Constable. And no one failed to get your meaning.”
Horace did not want to give Amanda credit at this point.
“Too bad you couldn’t have hung on to the moment longer,” the secretary went on. “I was hoping you would not get wind of O’Hara being posted in Newport until I told you of it, but bad news travels fast.”
“Yes, it came in on the wings of a raven.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“Nothing,” Horace said.
“Horace, you belong to the most vocal group wanting to stand down the Marine Corps. You and Commodore Chester Harkleroad were leading the charge not to design space for Marines on the Vermont class.”
“Chrissake, I was only following the party line. It’s been GOP policy for over a decade. Right now I wish there was enough room on the Vermont to hold the entire Marine Corps and whip them down to Antarctica and put them on an iceberg.”
“They’d probably make paddles out of their rifles and seal fins and row the iceberg right back up to Hampton Roads.”
Out came Horace’s exclamatory finger. “Harkleroad smelled this. He knew that fucking Major Boone might try some three-card monte in shifting personnel around. Nathaniel, how long have you known about this dastardly plot?”
“A week. The paperwork was all tidied up in advance. Senator Davenport will push the O’Hara commission through unopposed, by voice vote.”
“You should have told me right off.”
“I wanted you to enjoy the Constitution affair.”
“Oh, I enjoyed it, all right. I was about to have the biggest orgasm of my life when I got kicked in the balls with the news.”
The brandy and bitters had gone to work, helping Culpeper’s stomach find its sea legs. The secretary dropped his eyebrows in that stern manner to make Horace brace himself.
“The navy has been in a state of nirvana. Congress has appropriated almost everything we’ve asked for. By the time my tenure in office is over, before the twentieth century, America will have a fleet second only to Great Britain.”
Culpeper held up his hand to stop Horace’s response.
“No one stands to benefit more than yourself,” the secretary added. “That is an incredible monopoly you’ve created. You nailed the Chesapeake.”
“What happened last night at the Mansion House was merely to stake our claim and keep any ambitious greedheads out of my territory. An actual Kerr and Constable merger will take some time. Everything depends on how soon Amanda makes a decision about Glen Constable. After that, there is always agony in working out the details. Amanda is involved in a petty schoolgirl romance with this O’Hara person. I was counting the minutes until his ship sailed. O’Hara in Newport with Amanda could be dangerous.”
Kendall was buzzed for refills from the Scotch bottle. Culpeper opined that the addition of ice to a drink was a civilized advancement. Otherwise, they were quiet for some time, but Horace was relaying that “we’ve been together for a long time, Nathaniel” and “we both owe each other a few.”
“I have a simple favor. I do not want that Marine in Newport.”
“The Battle of Trafalgar was less complicated,” Culpeper retorted.
“That one-armed yeggman, Major Ben Boone, is behind this.”
“Here’s how I see things. The Marine Corps is attempting to make the case for their continuation. Ben Boone is an important player. That’s why we keep him out of cabinet meetings, whenever possible. I had a quick and extremely reliable portrait of this O’Hara person drawn up. He’s the real thing, an extremely fine prospect. He has in brains what his father had in guts.”
“God Almighty, the next thing we’ll