The Icarus Agenda by Robert Ludlum

‘I’ve got a lot of others I can use.’

‘I’m sure you do. Then again I may have a surprise for you.’

‘Another one? What the hell is it?’

‘Wait till we get to your office.’

Dennison ordered his secretary to hold all calls except those on Priority Red. She nodded her head rapidly in obedient acknowledgment, but in a cowed voice explained, ‘You have more than a dozen messages now, sir. Nearly every one is an urgent callback.’

‘Are they Priority Red?’ The woman shook her head. ‘What did I just tell you?’ With these courteous words the chief of staff propelled the congressman into his office and slammed the door shut. ‘Now, what’s this surprise of yours?’

‘You know, Herbie, I really must give you some advice,’ replied Evan, walking casually over to the window where he had stood previously; he turned and looked at Dennison. ‘You can be rude to the help as much as you like or as long as they’ll take it, but don’t you ever again put your hand on a member of the House of Representatives and shove him into your office as if you were about to administer a strap.’

‘I didn’t shove you!’

‘I interpreted it that way and that’s all that matters. You have a heavy hand, Herbie. I’m sure my distinguished colleague from Kansas felt the same way when he decked you on your ass.’

Unexpectedly, Herbert Dennison paused, then laughed softly. The prolonged deep chuckle was reflective, neither angry nor antagonistic, more the sound of relief than anything else. He loosened his tie and casually sat down in a leather armchair in front of his desk. ‘Christ, I wish I were ten or twelve years younger, Kendrick, and I’d whip your tail—I could have done it even at that age. At sixty-three, however, you learn that caution is the better part of valour, or whatever it is. I don’t care to be decked again; it’s a little harder to get up these days.’

‘Then don’t ask for it, don’t provoke it. You’re a very provocative man.’

‘Sit down, Congressman—in my chair, at my desk. Go on, go ahead.’ Evan did so. ‘How does it feel? You get a tingling in your spine, a rush of blood to your head?’

‘Neither. It’s a place to work.’

‘Yeah, well, I guess we’re different. You see, down the hall is the most powerful man on earth, and he relies on me, and to tell you the truth, I’m no genius, either. I just keep the booby hatch running. I oil the machinery so the wheels turn, and the oil I use has a lot of acidity in it, just like me. But it’s the only lubricant I’ve got and it works.’

‘I suppose there’s a point to this,’ said Kendrick.

‘I suppose there is and I don’t think you’ll be offended. Since I’ve been here—since we’ve been here—everybody bows like gooks in front of me, saying all kinds of flattering things with big smiles—only with eyes that tell me they’d rather put a bullet in my head. I’ve been through it before; it doesn’t bother me. But here you show up and you tell me to go fuck off. Now, that’s really refreshing. I can deal with that. I mean I like your not liking me and my not liking you—does that make sense?’

‘In a perverse sort of way, I suppose. But then you’re a perverse man.’

‘Why? Because I’d rather talk straight than in circles? Pointless lip service and ass-kissing drivel only waste time. If I could get rid of both, we’d all accomplish ten times what we do now.’

‘Did you ever let anyone know that?’

‘I’ve tried, Congressman, so help me God I’ve tried. And you know something? Nobody believes me.’

‘Would you if you were they?’

‘Probably not, and maybe if they did the booby hatch would turn into a registered loony bin. Think about it, Kendrick. There’s more than one side to my perversity.’

‘I’m not qualified to comment on that, but this conversation makes things easier for me.’

‘Easier? Oh, that surprise you’re going to lay on me?’

‘Yes,’ agreed Evan. ‘You see, up to a point I’ll do what you want me to do—for a price. It’s my pact with the devil.’

‘You flatter me.’

‘I don’t mean to. I’m not given to ass-kissing drivel, either, because it wastes my time. As I read you, I’m “counterproductive” because I’ve made some noise about several things I feel pretty strongly about and what you’ve heard goes against your grain. Am I right, so far?’

‘Right on the tiny tin dime, kiddo. You may look different, but to me there’s a lot of that stringy, long-haired protest crap in you.’

‘And you think that if I’m given any kind of platform there might be more to come, and that really frosts your apricots. Right again?’

‘Right in the fly’s asshole. I don’t want anything or anyone to interrupt his voice, his comments. He’s taken us out of the pansy patch; we’re riding a strong Chinook wind and it feels good.’

‘I won’t try to follow that.’

‘You probably couldn’t—’

‘But basically you want two things from me,’ continued Evan rapidly. ‘The first is for me to say as little as possible and nothing at all that calls into question the wisdom emanating from this booby hatch of yours. Am I close?’

‘You couldn’t get closer without being arrested.’

‘And the second is in what you said before. You want me to fade—and fade fast. How am I doing?’

‘You’ve got the brass ring.’

‘All right, I’ll do both—up to a point. After this little ceremony next Tuesday, which neither of us wants but we lose to the man, my office will be flooded with demands from the media. Newspapers, radio, television, the weekly magazines—the whole ball of wax. I’m news and they want to sell their merchandise—’

‘You’re not telling me anything I don’t know or don’t like,’ interrupted Dennison.

‘I’ll turn everything down,’ said Kendrick flatly. ‘I won’t grant any interviews. I won’t speak publicly on any issue, and I’ll fade just as fast as I can.’

‘I’d kiss you right now except that you mentioned something kind of counterproductive, like “up to a point”. What the hell does that mean?’

‘It means that in the House I’ll vote to my conscience, and if I’m challenged on the floor I’ll give my reasons as dispassionately as I can. But that’s in the House; off the Hill I’m not available for comment.’

‘We get most of our PR flak off the Hill, not on it,’ said the White House chief of staff reflectively. ‘The Congressional Record and Cable’s C-Span cameras don’t put a dent in the Daily News and Dallas. Under the circumstances, thanks to that smooth son of a bitch Sam Winters, your offer is so irresistible I wonder what the price is. You have a price, I assume.’

‘I want to know who blew the whistle on me. Who leaked the Oman story so very, very professionally.’

‘You think I don’t?’ erupted Dennison, bouncing forward. ‘I’d have the bastards deep-sixed fifty miles off Newport News in torpedo cans!’

‘Then help me find out. That’s my price, take it or take me replaying the Foxley show all over the country, calling you and your crowd exactly what I honestly think you are. A

bunch of bumbling Neanderthals faced with a complicated world you can’t understand.’

‘You’re the fucking expert?’

‘Hell, no. I just know that you’re not. I watch and I listen and see you cutting off so many people who could help you because there’s a zig or a zag in their stripes that doesn’t conform to your preconceived pattern. And I learned something this afternoon; I saw it, heard it. The President of the United States talked to Samuel Winters, a man you disapprove of, but when you explained why you didn’t like him, that he withheld endorsements that could help you with Congress, Langford Jennings said something that impressed the hell out of me. He said to you that if this Sam Winters disagreed with some policy or other, it did not make him an enemy.’

‘The President frequently doesn’t understand who his enemies are. He spots ideological allies quickly and sticks by them—sometimes too long, frankly—but often he’s too generous to detect those who would erode what he stands for.’

‘That’s about the weakest and most presumptuous argument I’ve ever heard, Herbie. What are you shielding your man from? Diverse opinions?’

‘Let’s go back to your big surprise, Congressman. I like the topic better.’

‘I’m sure you do.’

‘What do you know that we don’t that can help us find out who leaked the Oman story.’

‘Essentially what I learned from Frank Swann. As head of the OHIO-Four-Zero unit, he was the liaison to the secretaries of Defense and State as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, all of whom knew about me. He told me to rule them out as possible leaks, however—’