‘Damn, it’s good to meet you, Evan! May I call you Evan, Mr. Congressman?’
‘Of course, Mr. President.’
Jennings came around the desk in the Oval Office to shake hands, gripping Kendrick’s left arm as their hands clasped. ‘I’ve just finished reading all that secret stuff about what you did, and I tell you, I’m so proud—’
‘There were a lot of others involved, sir. Without them I’d have been killed.’
‘I understand that. Sit down, Evan, sit, sit!’ The President returned to his chair; Herbert Dennison remained standing. ‘What you did, Evan, as a single individual, will be a textbook lesson for generations of young people in America. You took the whip in your hands and made the damn thing snap.’
‘Not by myself, sir. There’s a long list of people who risked their lives to help me—and several lost their lives. As I said, I’d be dead if it weren’t for them. There were at least a dozen Omanis, from the young sultan down, and an Israeli commando unit that found me when I literally had only a few hours to live. My execution was already scheduled—’
‘Yes, I understand all that, Evan,’ interrupted Langford Jennings, nodding and frowning compassionately. ‘I also understand that our friends in Israel insist that there must be no hint of their involvement, and our intelligence community here in Washington refuses to risk exposing our personnel in the Persian Gulf
The Gulf of Oman, Mr. President.’
‘I’m on your side,’ said Jennings, grinning his famous self-deprecating grin that had charmed a nation. ‘I’m not sure I know one from the other but I’ll learn tonight. As my hatchet cartoonists would balloon it, my wife won’t give me my cookies and milk till I get it all straight.’
‘That would be unfair, sir. It’s a geographically complex part of the world for someone not familiar with it.’
‘Yes, well, somehow I think even I might master it with a couple of grammar school maps.’
‘I never meant to imply—’
‘It’s okay, Evan, it’s my fault. I slip now and then. The main issue here is what do we do with you. What do we do, given the restrictions placed on us for the sake of protecting the lives of agents and subagents who are working for us in an explosive part of the globe?’
‘I’d say those necessary restrictions call for keeping everything quiet, classified—’
‘It’s a little late for that, Evan,’ broke in Jennings. ‘National security alibis can only go so far. Beyond a certain point you arouse too much curiosity; that’s when things can get sticky—and dangerous.’
‘Also,’ added Herbert Dennison, gruffly breaking his silence, ‘as I mentioned to you, Congressman, the President can’t simply ignore you. It wouldn’t be the generous or patriotic thing to do. Now, the way I see it—and the President agrees with me—we’ll schedule a short photo session here in the Oval Office, where you’ll be congratulated by the President, along with a series of shots showing you both in what’ll look like confidential conversation. That’ll be consistent with the intelligence greyout required by our counter-terrorist services. The country will understand that. You don’t tip off your tactics to those Arab scumballs.’
‘Without a lot of Arabs I wouldn’t have got anywhere, and you goddamned well know it,’ said Kendrick, his angry eyes rigid on the chief of staff.
‘Oh, we know it, Evan,’ interrupted Jennings, his own eyes obviously amused by what he observed. ‘At least I know it. By the way, Herb, I had a call from Sam Winters this afternoon and I think he has a hell of an idea that wouldn’t violate any of our security concerns, and, as a matter of fact, could explain them.’
‘Samuel Winters is not necessarily a friend,’ countered Dennison. ‘He’s withheld a number of policy endorsements we could have used with Congress.’
‘Then he didn’t agree with us. Does that make him an enemy? Hell, if it does, you’d better send half the marine guards up to our family quarters. Come on, Herb, Sam Winters has been an adviser to presidents of both parties for as long as I can remember. Only a damn fool wouldn’t accept calls from him.’
‘He should have been routed through me.’
‘You see, Evan?’ said the President, his head askew, grinning mischievously. ‘I can play in the sandbox but I can’t choose my friends.’
That’s hardly what I—’
‘It certainly is what you meant, Herb, and that’s okay with me. You get things done around here—which you constantly remind me of, and that’s okay, too.’
‘What did Mr. Winters—Professor Winters—suggest?’ asked Dennison, the academic title spoken sarcastically.
‘Well, he’s a “professor”, Herb, but he’s not your average run-of-the-mill teacher, is he? I mean, if he wanted to, I suppose he could buy a couple of pretty decent universities. Certainly the one I got out of could be his for a sum he wouldn’t miss.’
‘What was his idea?’ pressed the chief of staff anxiously.
‘That I award my friend, Evan, here, the Medal of Freedom.’ The President turned to Kendrick. ‘That’s the civilian equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor, Evan.’
‘I know that, sir. I neither deserve it nor want it.’
‘Well, Sam made a couple of things clear to me and I think he’s right. To begin with, you do deserve it, and whether you want it or not, I’d look like a mean chintzy bastard not awarding it to you. And that, fellas, I will not accept. Is that clear, Herb?’
‘Yes, Mr. President,’ said Dennison, his voice choked. ‘However, you should know that although Representative Kendrick is standing unopposed for re-election to guarantee you a congressional seat, he intends to resign his office in the near future. There’s no point, since he has his own objections, in focusing more attention on him.’
‘The point, Herb, is that I won’t be a chintzy bastard. Anyway, he looks as if he could be my younger brother—we could get mileage out of that. Sam Winters brought it to my attention. The image of a go-getting American family, he called it. Not bad, wouldn’t you say?’
‘It’s not necessary, Mr. President,’ rejoined Dennison, now frustrated, his hoarse voice conveying the fact that he could not push much farther. ‘The Congressman’s fears are valid.
He thinks there could be reprisals against friends of his in the Arab world.’
The President leaned back in his chair, his eyes fixed blankly on his chief of staff. ‘That doesn’t wash with me. This is a dangerous world, and we’ll only make it more dangerous by knuckling under to such speculative crap. But in that vein I’ll explain to the country—from a position of strength, not fear—that I won’t permit full disclosure of the Oman operation for reasons of counter-terrorist strategy. You were right about that part, Herb. Actually, Sam Winters said it to me first. Also, I will not look like a chintzy bastard. It simply isn’t me. Understood, Herb?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Evan,’ said Jennings, the infectious grin again creasing his face. ‘You’re my kind of man. What you did was terrific—what I read about it—and this President won’t stint! By the way, Sam Winters mentioned that I should say we worked together. What the hell, my people worked with you, and that’s the gospel truth.’
‘Mr. President—’
‘Schedule it, Herb. I looked at my calendar, if that doesn’t offend you. Next Tuesday, ten o’clock in the morning. That way we’ll hit all the TV stations’ nightly news, and Tuesday’s a good night.’
‘But Mr. President—’ began a flustered Dennison.
‘Also, Herb, I want the Marine Band. In the Blue Room. I’ll be damned if I’ll be a chintzy bastard! It’s not me!’
A furious Herbert Dennison walked back to his office with Kendrick in tow for the purpose of carrying out the presidential order: Work out the details for the award ceremony in the Blue Room on the following Tuesday. With the Marine Band. So intense was the chief of staff’s anger that his large, firm jaw was locked in silence.
‘I’m really on your case, aren’t I, Herbie?’ said Evan, noting the bull-like quality of Dennison’s stride.
‘You’re on my case and my name isn’t Herbie.’
‘Oh, I don’t know. You looked like a Herbie back there. The man cut you down, didn’t he?’
‘There are times when the President is inclined to listen to the wrong people.’
Kendrick looked over at the chief of staff as they marched down the wide hallway. Dennison ignored the tentative greetings of numerous White House personnel heading in the opposite direction, several of whom stared wide-eyed at Evan, obviously recognizing him. ‘I don’t get it,’ said Kendrick. ‘Our mutual dislike aside, what’s your problem? I’m the one being stuck where I don’t want to be, not you. Why are you howling?’
‘Because you talk too goddamned much. I watched you on the Foxley show and that little display in your office the next morning. You’re counterproductive.’
‘You like that word, don’t you?’