information on Serrador’s death or outside confimation of his involvement with Martha’s murder. But he said he’d keep working on both. Hood thanked Herbert and asked him to send all of the latest data to the President. Then he headed out to the White House.
The drive was relaxed at this hour and he made the trip in just under a half hour. Hood turned off Constitution Avenue, turned onto 17th Street, and made a right onto the one way E Street.
He made a left and stopped at the Southwest Appointment Gate. He was passed and, after parking, he entered the White House through the West Wing. He walked down the spacious corridors.
Whatever his state of mind, whatever the crisis, whatever his levels of cynicism. Hood never failed to be moved and awed by the power and history of the White House. It was a nexus for the past and future. Two of the Founding Fathers had lived here.
Lincoln had preserved and solidified the nation from here. World War II had been won from here. The decision to conquer the moon was made here. Given the right mix of wisdom, courage, and savvy, this pulpit could drive the nation-and thus, the world-to accomplish anything. When he was here, it was difficult for Hood to dwell on the failings of any of our nation’s leaders. There was only the fire of hope fueled by the mighty bellows of power.
Hood rode the main access elevator down to the situation room on the first sublevel. Beneath this level were three other subbasements. These included a war room, a medical room, a safe room for the first family and staff, and a galley. Hood was greeted by a sharp young guard who checked his palm print on a horizontal laser scanner. When the device chimed, Hood was allowed to pass through the metal detector. A Presidential aide greeted him and took him to the wood-paneled situation room.
Steve Burkow was already there. So were the imposing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Kenneth VanZandt, Carol banning-sitting in for Secretary of State Av Lincoln, who was in Japan-and CIA Director Marius Fox.
Fox was a man in his late forties. He was of medium height and build, with close-cropped brown hair and well-tailored suits. There was always a brightly colored handkerchief in his breast pocket, though it never managed to outshine his brown eyes. He was a man who truly enjoyed his work.
But he’s new at the job.
Hood thought cynically. It would be interesting to see how long it took for the bureaucracy and the pressures of the job to wear him down.
There was a long, rectangular mahogany table in the center of the brightly lit room. An STU-3 secure telephone and a computer monitor were positioned at each of the ten stations, with slide-out keyboards underneath the table. The computer setup was selfcontained. Software from outside, even from the Department of Defense or State Department, was debugged before it was allowed into the system. On the ivory-colored walls were detailed color maps showing the location of U.s. and foreign distroops, as well as flags denoting trouble spots. Red flags for ongoing problems and green for latent. There were no flags in Spain and a single green one offshore. Apparently, the change in Administration policy did not include sending American land troops to the region. The offshore marker was most likely for a carrier to airlift U.s. officials if it became necessary.
No one had had a chance to do more than say hello to Hood before the President arrived.
President Michael Lawrence stood a broadshouldered six-foot-four. He both looked and sounded presidential. Whatever combination of the three Cs- charisma, charm, and calm-created that impression, Lawrence had them. His longish silver hair was swept back dramatically and his voice still resonated as though he were Mark Antony on the steps of the Roman Senate. But President Lawrence also looked a great deal wearier than he had when he took office. The eyes were puffier, the cheeks more drawn. The hair looked silver because it was more white than gray. That was common among U.s.
presidents, though it wasn’t just the pressures of the office which aged them tremendously-it was the fact that lives were deeply and permanently affected by every decision they made. It was also the steady flow of early morning and late night crises, the exhausting travel abroad, and what Liz Gordon once described as “the posterity effect” His: the pressure of wanting to secure a positive review in the history books while pleasing the people you were elected to serve. That was a tremendous emotional and intellectual burden that very few people had to deal with.
The President thanked everyone for coming and sat down.
As he poured himself coffee, he offered his con dolences to Hood on the death of Martha Mackall.
The President commented on the loss of a young and talented diplomat, and said that he had already assigned someone the job of organizing a quiet memorial tribute to her. Hood thanked him.
President Lawrence was very good and also very sincere when it came to human touches like that.
Then he turned abruptly to the business at hand.
The President was also very good when it came to shifting gears.
“I just got off the phone with the Vice-President and with the Spanish ambassador, Sefior Garcfa Abril,” the President said. He took a sip of the black coffee. ” “As some of you know, the situation in Spain is very confused from a military standpoint. The police have been putting down some riots while ignoring others. Carol, you want to quickly address that?” Lanning nodded. She consulted her notes. “The police and the army have been ignoring riots by Castilians against other groups,” she said.
“Churches all across the nation are being forced to cope with literally thousands of people coming to them for sanctuary.” “Are they providing it?” Burkow asked.
“They were,” she replied, rifling through her papers, “until the crowds became too great in some locations-like Parroquia Maria Reina in Barcelona and Iglesia del Sefior in Seville. Now they’ve literally locked the doors and are refusing to admit anyone else. In a few cases the local police have been called in to remove people from churches-a move, I should add, which is being privately denounced by the Vatican although they’re going to urge ‘restraint and compassion” in a public statement later today.” “Thank you,” the President said. “There seem to be three entirely separate factions running Spain at the moment. According to Ambassador Abril-who has always been very frank with me-the representatives in parliament are working their districts very hard, asking them to stay out of the fighting and to continue doing their jobs. They’re promising the people anything in exchange for their support after the crisis. They’re hoping to come out of this with blocs of voters to use as leverage in forming a new government.” “You mean, forming a new government within the present system?” Lanning asked. “Or are they talking about creating a new government with a different system?” “I’m getting to that,” the President said. “The prime minister has virtually no support-in the parliament or among the people. He’s expected to resign within a day or two. Abril says that the king, who is at his residence in Barcelona, will be able to count on the support of the church and most of the population apart from the Castilians.” “Which is somewhat less than a majority,” Burkow pointed out.
“About forty-five percent of the people,” the President said. “Which puts the king in a very shaky position.
We’re told that his palace in Madrid is thick with soldiers, though no one’s sure whether the troops are there to protect the place or to keep him from coming back.” “Or both,” Lanning remarked. “Just like the Win ter Palace when Czar Nicholas was forced to abdicate.” “Quite possibly,” the President said. “But it gets worse. Paul-Bob Herbert and Mike Rodgers have sent over the latest data on the military. You want to address that?” Hood folded his hands on the table.
“There’s a general who appears to be running this show-Rafael Amadori. According to our intelligence, he orchestrated the destruction of the yacht in the Bay of Biscay, which killed several leading businessmen who were also planning to bring down the government. He also appears to have been responsible for the death of Deputy Serrador. That’s the man who my political chief Martha Mackall was on her way to see when she was killed this morning.” Hood’s voice dropped along with his eyes. “We have reason to believe that Serrador set her up with the help of the party on the yacht.” “Bob Herbert said he’s working to confirm that,” the President said. ” The problem is, even if we found out that part of the government was involved in a conspiracy, the rest of the lawfully elected government may not be around to hear our complaint. Now the policy of the United States, and of this Administration, has always been not to interfere in the internal affairs of a nation. The exceptions, like Panama, like Grenada, involved issues of national security. The problem here, and what General VanZandt is especially concerned about, is that Spain is a NATO ally. The outcome of the current strife will probably cause a reshaping of the government-but we can’t afford to have a tyrant running the nation. We left Franco alone because he didn’t have designs on other nations.” “That’s only because he saw from the sidelines what we did to Mussolini and Hitler,” Burkow pointed out.