Debt Of Honor by Clancy, Tom

soon. Anyway, their speed of advance is thirty-two, and their course is still a

little fuzzy, but homeward bound, sure as hell.” Jones paused. “We’re start-

ing to play with their heads, eh?”

Mancuso allowed himself a smile for once. “Always.

44

… from one who knows

the score..,

“Does it have to be this way?” Durling asked.

“We’ve run the simulation twenty times,” Ryan said, flipping through

the data yet again. “It’s a matter of certainty. Sir, we have to take them all

the way out.

The President looked at the satellite overheads again. “We’re still not one

hundred percent sure, are we?”

Jack shook his head. “Nothing is ever that sure, no. Our data looks pretty

good-the overheads, 1 mean. The Russians have developed data, too, and

they have as much reason to want to be right as we do. There are ten birds

here. They’re dug in deep, and the site seems to have been selected deliber-

ately for relative immunity from attack. Those are all positive indicators.

This is not a deception operation. The next question is making sure that we

can hit them all. And we have to do it quickly.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re moving ships back toward the coast that are marginally

capable of detecting the aircraft.”

“No other way?”

“No, Mr. President. If this is going to work, it has to be tonight.” And the

night, Ryan saw, checking his watch, had already started on the far side of

the world.

“We protest in the strongest terms the American attack on our country,” the

Ambassador began. “We have refrained at all times from doing such things,

and we expected a similar courtesy from the United States.”

“Mr. Ambassador, I am not consulted on military operations. Have

American forces struck your mainland?” Adler asked by way of reply.

“You know quite well what they have done, and you must also know that

il is a precursor move to a full attack. It is important that you understand,”

the diplomat went on, “that such an attack could result in the gravest possi-

ble consequences.” He let that phrase hang in the air like a cloud of lethal

gas. Adler took a moment before responding.

“I would remind you first of all that we did not begin this conflict. I

would further remind you that your country made a deliberate attack to crip-

ple our economy-”

“As you have done!” the Ambassador shot back, showing real anger that

might have been a cover for something else.

“Excuse me, sir, but I believe it is my turn to speak.” Adler waited pa-

tiently for the Ambassador to calm down; it was plain that neither one had

gotten a full night’s sleep. “I would further remind you that your country

has killed American servicemen, and if you expected us to refrain from cor-

responding moves, then you were possibly mistaken in that expectation.”

“We have never attacked vital American interests.”

“The freedom and security of American citizens is ultimately my coun-

try’s only vital interest, sir.”

The acrimonious change in atmosphere could hardly have been more ob-

vious, as was the reason for it. America was making a move of some sort,

and the move would clearly not be a subtle one. The people on both sides of

the table, again on the top floor of the State Department, might well have

been carved from stone. No one wanted to concede anything, not even a

blink, at the formal sessions. Heads might have turned fractionally when the

leaders of the respective delegations took their turns to speak, but no more

than that. The absence of facial expressions would have done professional

gamblers proud-but that was precisely the game being played, even with-

out cards or dice. The discussions never got as far before the first recess as a

return to the possession of the Marianas.

“Christ, Scott,” Cook said, walking through the doors to the terrace.

From the circles under his eyes, the chief negotiator, he saw, had been up

most of the night, probably at the White House. The primary season would

be driving this mess now. The media were harping on the crippled ships at

Pearl Harbor, and TV coverage was also coming from Saipan and Guam

now, people speaking with obscured faces and disguised voices-on one

hand about how they wanted to be American citizens, and on the other how

much they feared being on those islands if a real counterattack developed.

The ambivalence was exactly the sort of thing to confuse the public, and

opinion polls were divided, though with a majority expressing outrage at

what had been done, and a slightly smaller majority expressing the wish for

a diplomatic solution. If possible. A plurality of 46 percent, the Washington

Post/ABC poll had stated this morning, didn’t see much hope of that. The

wild ciml. lu>wcvcr, was the Japanese possession of nuclear arms, which had

been announced by neither country, in both cases for fear of panicking the

respective populations. Everyone in these sessions had really hoped for a

peaceful settlement, but much of that hope had just evaporated, and in a pe-

riod of a mere two hours.

“It’s being politically driven now,” Adler explained, looking away to let

out his own tension with a long breath. “It had to happen, Chris.”

‘ ‘What about their nukes?”

The Deputy Secretary of State shrugged uneasily. “We don’t think

they’re that crazy.”

“We don’t think they are? What genius came up with that assessment?”

Cook demanded.

“Ryan, who else?” Adler paused. “He’s running this. He thinks the next

smart move is to blockade-well, declare a maritime exclusion zone, like

the Brits did down at the Falklands. Cut off their oil,” Adler explained.

“Nineteen forty-one all over again? I thought that bonehead was a histo-

rian! That’s what started a world war, in case anybody forgot!”

“The threat of it-well, if Koga has the guts to speak out, we think their

government’ll come apart. So,” Scott went on, “find out what the other

side-I mean, what sort of strength the opposition really has.”

“It’s a dangerous game we’re playing, man.”

“Sure enough,” Adler agreed, looking right in the man’s eyes.

Cook turned and walked to the other side of the terrace. Before, it had

seemed a normal part of the proceedings to Adler, part of the rubric of seri-

ous negotiations, and how stupid that had been, for the real proceedings to be

handled over coffee and tea and cookies because the real negotiators didn’t

want to risk making statements that . . . well, those were the rules, he re-

minded himself. And the other side had made very skillful use of them. He

watched the two men talk. The Japanese Ambassador looked far more un-

easy than his principal subordinate. What are you really thinking? Adler

would have killed to know that. It was too easy to think of the man as a

personal enemy now, which would be a mistake. He was a professional,

serving his country as he was paid and sworn to do. Their eyes met briefly,

both of them deliberately looking away from Nagumo and Cook, and the

professional impassivity broke for a moment, just an instant really, as both

men reali/rd that it was war they were talking about, life and death, issues

imposed on them by others. It was a strange moment of comradeship as both

men wondered how things had broken down so badly and how grossly their

professional skills were being misused by others.

“That would be a very foolish move,” Nagumo said pleasantly, forcing a

smile.

“If you have a pipeline to Koga, you better start using it.”

“I have, but it’s loo soon for that, Christopher. We need something back.

Don’t your people understand that?”

“Durling can’t get reelected if he trades away thirty-some-thousand U.S.

citizens.” It really was that simple. “If it means killing a few thousand of

your people, he’ll do that. And he probably thinks that threatening your

economy directly is a cheap way out.”

‘ ‘That would change if your people knew-”

“And how will your citizens react when they find it out?” Cook knew

Japan well enough to understand that the ordinary men and women on the

street regarded nuclear arms with revulsion. Interestingly, Americans had

come to the same view. Maybe sense was breaking out, the diplomat

thought, but not quickly enough, and not in this context.

“They will understand that those weapons are vital to our new interests,”

Nagumo answered quickly, surprising the American.’ ‘But you are right, it is

also vital that they never be used, and we must forestall your efforts to stran-

gle our economy. People will die if that happens.”

“People are dying now, Seiji, from what your boss said earlier.” With

that, the two men headed back to their respective leaders.

“Well?” Adler asked

“He says he’s been in contact with Koga.”

That part of it was so obvious that the FBI hadn’t thought of it, and then