“Mr. President?” Vasco said.
“Yeah, Bert–by the way, good call. You weren’t exactly right on timing, but damned if you weren’t right enough.”
“Thanks. Mr. President, on the consolidation issue, that’s about people, right?”
“Sure.” Ryan and the rest nodded. Consolidating a government meant little more than that the people got used to the new system of rule and accepted it.
“Sir, if you look at the number of people in Iraq who have to get used to this new government, compare that number to the population of the Gulf states. It’s a big jump in terms of distance and territory, but not in terms of population,” Vasco said, reminding them that although Saudi Arabia was larger than all of America east of the Mississippi, it had fewer people than the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
“They’re not going to do anything right away,” Adler objected.
“They might. Depends on what you mean by ‘right away,’ Mr. Secretary.”
“Iran has too many internal problems,” Goodley started to say.
Vasco had come to like presidential access and atten-
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tion, and decided to seize the floor. “Don’t underestimate the religious dimension,” he warned. “That is a unifying factor which could erase or at least suppress their internal problems. Their flag says it. The name of the country says it. People all over the world like a winner. Daryaei sure looks like a winner now, doesn’t he? One other thing.”
“What’s that, Bert?” Adler asked.
“You notice the flag? The two stars are pretty small,” Vasco said pensively.
“So?” This was Goodley. Ryan looked back at the.TV and the announcer. The flag was still there behind him and–
“So, there’s plenty of room for more.”
IT WAS A moment such as he had dreamed of, but the culmination of such a dream is always better than its contemplation, because now the cheers were real, striking his ears from the outside, not the inside. Mahmoud Haji Daryaei had flown in before dawn, and with the rising of the sun he’d walked into the central mosque, removing his shoes, washing his hands and forearms, because a man was supposed to be clean before his God. Humbly, he’d listened to the incantation from the minaret, calling the faithful to prayer, and this day people didn’t roll back over and try to capture a few more hours of sleep. Today they flocked to the mosque from blocks around in a gesture of devotion that moved their visitor to his core. Daryaei took no special place, but he appreciated the singularity of the moment, and tears streamed down his dark, deeply lined cheeks at the overwhelming emotion of the moment. He had fulfilled the first of his tasks. He had fulfilled the wishes of the Prophet Mohammed. He had restored a measure of unity to the Faith, the first step in his holy quest. In the reverent hush following the conclusion of morning prayers, he rose and walked out into the street, and there he was recognized. To the despairing panic of his security guards, he walked along the street, returning the greetings of people at first stupefied and then ecstatic to see the former enemy of their country walking among them as a guest.
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There were no cameras to record this. It was not a moment to be polluted by publicity, and though there was danger, he accepted it. What he was doing would tell him much. It would tell him of the power of his Faith, and the renewed faith of these people, and it would tell him whether or not he had Allah’s blessing on his quest, for Daryaei truly was a humble man, doing what he had to do, not for himself, but for his God. Why else, he often asked himself, would he have chosen a life of danger and denial? Soon the sidewalk traffic turned into a crowd, and from a crowd to a mob. People he’d never met appointed themselves to be his guardians, forcing a path for him through the bodies and the cheers as his aged legs made their way while his now-serene dark eyes swept left and right, wondering if danger would come, but finding only joy that reflected his own. He gazed and gestured to the crowd as a grandfather might greet his progeny, not smiling, but composed, accepting their love and respect, and with his benign eyes promising greater things, because great deeds had to be followed by greater ones, and the moment was right.
“SO, WHAT SORT of man is he?” Movie Star asked. His flight to Frankfurt had been followed by one to Athens, and from there to Beirut, and from there to Tehran. He knew Daryaei only by reputation.
“He knows power,” Badrayn answered, listening to the demonstrations outside. There was something about peace, he imagined. The war between Iraq and Iran had lasted close to a decade. Children had been sent off to die. Rockets had blasted the cities of both countries. The human cost would never be fully assessed, and though the war had ended years before, now it was truly ended–a thing of the heart rather than of law, perhaps. Or maybe a thing of God’s law, which was different from that of man. The resulting euphoria was something he’d once felt himself. But now he knew better. Feelings like that were weapons of statecraft, things to be used. Outside were people who a short time before had chafed at what they had and what they did not have, who questioned the wis-
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dom of their leader, who bridled–as much as one could in so tightly controlled a society as this one was–at the freedoms they lacked. That was gone now, and it would remain gone for–how long? That was the question, and that was why such moments had to be properly used. And Daryaei knew all of those things.
“So,” Badrayn said, turning off the outside noise of the faithful, “what have you learned?”
“The most interesting things I learned from watching television. President Ryan is doing well, but he has difficulties. The government is not yet fully functional. The lower house of their parliament has not yet been replaced–the elections for that will begin to take place next month. Ryan is popular. The Americans love to poll one another,” he explained. “They call people on the telephone and ask questions–only a few thousand, often not that many, and from this they report to one another what everyone thinks.”
“The result?” Badrayn asked.
“A large majority seems to approve what he is doing– but he isn’t really doing anything except to continue. He hasn’t even chosen a Vice President yet.”
Badrayn knew that, but not the reason. “Why?” he asked.
Movie Star grinned. “I asked that question myself. The full parliament must approve such a thing, and the full parliament has not yet been reestablished. It will not be so for some time. Moreover, there is the problem with the former Vice President, that Kealty fellow, who claims that he is the President–and this Ryan has not imprisoned him. Their legal system doesn’t deal with treason effectively.”
“And if we were able to kill Ryan . . . ?”
Movie Star shook his head. “Very difficult. I took an afternoon to walk around Washington. Security at the palace is very strict. It is not open to public tours. The street in front of the building is closed. I sat on a bench for an hour, reading, and watched for signs around the place. Riflemen on all the buildings. I suppose we would have a chance on one of his official trips, but that would
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require extensive planning for which we lack the necessary time. And so, that leaves us with–” “His children,” Badrayn observed.
JESUS, I HARDLY see them anymore, Jack thought. He’d just gotten off the elevator, accompanied by Jeff Raman, and checked his watch. Just after midnight. Damn. He’d managed to sit through a hurried dinner with them and Cathy before hustling back downstairs for his reading and meetings, and now . . . everyone was asleep.
The upstairs corridor was a lonely place, too wide for the intimacy of a real home. Three agents were in view, “standing post,” as they called it, and the warrant officer with “the Football” full of its nucleaf codes. It was quiet because of the time of night, and the overall impression was rather like that of an upscale funeral home, not a house with a family in it. No clutter, no toys lying on the rug, no empty glasses in front of a TV. Too neat, too tidy, too cold. Always somebody around. Raman traded looks with the other agents, whose nods meant “Okay, everything clear.” Nobody with guns around, Ryan thought. Super.
The bedrooms were too far apart up here. He turned left, heading for Katie’s room first. Opening the door, he saw his youngest, recently graduated from crib to bed, lying on her side, a fuzzy brown teddy bear next to her. She still wore sleepers with feet on them. Jack could remember when Sally had worn the same, and how cute children looked that way, like little packages. But Sally now looked forward to the day she’d buy things from Victoria’s Secret, and Little Jack–he had taken to objecting to that label of late–now insisted on boxer shorts because that was the new “in” thing for boys of his age group, and they had to be pulled down low, because the “in” thing was to risk having them fall off. Well, he still had a toddler. Jack approached the bed, an’d stood there for a minute, just looking at Katie and quietly enjoying the status of fatherhood. He looked around, and again the room was unnaturally neat. Everything was picked up.