The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [211]
"Yes, Jack?" Only one person had that direct line.
"What do you make of the SORGE stuff?"
"It's not surprising, unfortunately. You have to expect them to circle wagons."
"What do we do about it?" SWORDSMAN demanded.
"We say what we think, but we try not to make it worse than it already is," SecState replied, cautious as ever.
"Right," Ryan growled, even though it was exactly the good advice he'd expected from his SecState. Then he hung up. He reminded himself that Arnie had told him a long time ago that a president wasn't allowed to have a temper, but that was asking a hell of a lot, and at what point was he allowed to react the way a man needed to react? When was he supposed to stop acting like a goddamned robot?
"You want Callie to work up something for you in a hurry?" Arnie asked over the phone.
"No," Ryan replied, with a shake of the head. "I'll just wing it."
"That's a mistake," the Chief of Staff warned.
"Arnie, just let me be me once in a while, okay?"
"Okay, Jack," van Damm replied, and it was just as well the President didn't see his expression.
Don't make things worse than they already are, Ryan told himself at his desk. Yeah, sure, like that's possible …
"Hi, Pap," Robby Jackson was saying in his office at the northwest corner of the West Wing. "Robert, have you seen—"
"Yes, we've all seen it," the Vice President assured his father. "And what are y'all going to do about it?"
"Pap, we haven't figured that out yet. Remember that we have to do business with these people. The jobs of a lot of Americans depend on trade with China and—"
"Robert"—the Reverend Hosiah Jackson used Robby's proper name mainly when he was feeling rather stern—"those people murdered a man of God—no, excuse me, they murdered two men of God, doing their duty, trying to save the life of an innocent child, and one does not do business with murderers."
"I know that, and I don't like it any more than you do, and, trust me, Jack Ryan doesn't like it any more than you do, either. But when we make foreign policy for our country, we have to think things through, because if we screw it up, people can lose their lives."
"Lives have already been lost, Robert," Reverend Jackson pointed out.
"I know that. Look, Pap, I know more about this than you do, okay? I mean, we have ways of finding out stuff that doesn't make it on CNN," the Vice President told his father, with the latest SORGE report right in his hand. Part of him wished that he could show it to his father, because his father was easily smart enough to grasp the importance of the secret things that he and Ryan knew. But there was no way he could even approach discussing that sort of thing with anyone without a TS/SAR clearance, and that included his wife, just as it included Cathy Ryan. Hmm, Jackson thought—maybe that was something he should discuss with Jack. You had to be able to talk this stuff over with someone you trusted, just as a reality check on what was right and wrong. Their wives weren't security risks, were they?
"Like what?" his father asked, only halfway expecting an answer.
"Like I can't discuss some things with you, Pap, and you know that. I'm sorry. The rules apply to me just like they do to everybody else."
"So, what are we going to do about this?"
"We're going to let the Chinese know that we are pretty damned angry, and we expect them to clean their act up, and apologize, and—"
"Apologize!" Reverend Jackson shot back. "Robert, they murdered two people!"
"I know that, Pap, but we can't send the FBI over to arrest their government for this, can we? We're very powerful here, but we are not God, and as much as I'd like to hurl a thunderbolt at them, I can't."
"So, we're going to do what?"
"We haven't decided yet. I'll let you know when we figure it out," TOMCAT promised his father.
"Do that,"