"And may the Lord bless you, too." Hosiah Jackson watched the man walk off to his pickup truck, wondering if a soul had just been saved. If so, Skip would be pleased with the black friend he'd never met.

CHAPTER 32.

Coalition Collision It was a long drive from the airport to the Vatican, every yard of it covered by cameras in the high-speed motorcade, until finally the vehicles entered the Piazza San Pietro, St. Peter's Square. There, waiting, was a squad of Swiss Guards wearing the purple-and-gold uniforms designed by Michelangelo. Some of the Guards pulled the casket containing a Prince of the Church, martyred far away, and carried it through the towering bronze doors into the cavernous interior of the church, where the next day a Requiem Ma.s.s would be celebrated by the Pope himself.

But it wasn't about religion now, except to the public. For the President of the United States, it was about matters of state. It turned out that Tom Jefferson had been right after all. The power of government devolved directly from the people, and Ryan had to act now, in a way that the people would approve, because when you got down to it, the nation wasn't his. It was theirs.

And one thing made it worse. SORGE had coughed up another report that morning, and it was late coming in only because Mary Patricia Foley wanted to be doubly sure that the translation was right.

Also in the Oval Office were Ben Goodley, Arnie van Damm, and the Vice President. "Well?" Ryan asked them.

"c.o.c.ksuckers," Robby said, first of all. "If they really think this way, we shouldn't sell them s.h.i.t in a paper bag. Even at Top Gun after a long night of boilermakers, even Navy fighter pilots don't talk like this."

"It is callous," Ben Goodley agreed.

"They don't issue consciences to the political leaders, I guess," van Damm said, making it unanimous.

"How would your father react to information like this, Robby?" Ryan asked.

"His immediate response will be the same as mine: Nuke the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Then he'll remember what happens in a real war and settle down some. Jack, we have to punish them."

Ryan nodded. "Okay, but if we shut down trade to the PRC, the first people hurt are the poor schlubs in the factories, aren't they?"

"Sure, Jack, but who's holding them hostage, the good guys or the bad guys? Somebody can always say that, and if fear of hurting them prevents you from taking any action, then you're only making sure that things never get better for them. So, you can't allow yourself to be limited that way," TOMCAT concluded, "or you become the hostage."

Then the phone rang. Ryan got it, grumbling at the interruption.

"Secretary Adler for you, Mr. President. He says it's important."

Jack leaned across his desk and punched the blinking b.u.t.ton. "Yeah, Scott."

"I got the download. It's not unexpected, and people talk differently inside the office than outside, remember."

"That's great to hear, Scott, and if they talk about taking a few thousand Jews on a train excursion to Auschwitz, is that supposed to be funny, too?"

"Jack, I'm the Jew here, remember?"

Ryan let out a long breath and pushed another b.u.t.ton. "Okay, Scott, you're on speaker now. Talk," POTUS ordered.

"This is just the way the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds talk. Yes, they're arrogant, but we already knew that. Jack, if other countries knew how we talk inside the White House, we'd have a lot fewer allies and a lot more wars. Sometimes intelligence can be too good."

Adler really was a good SecState, Ryan thought. His job was to look for simple and safe ways out of problems, and he worked d.a.m.ned hard at it.

"Okay, suggestions?"

"I have Carl Hitch lay a note on them. We demand a statement of apology for this f.u.c.kup."

"And if they tell us to shove it?"

"Then we pull Rutledge and Hitch back for 'consultations,' and let them simmer for a while."

"The note, Scott?"

"Yes, Mr. President."

"Write it on asbestos paper and sign it in blood," Jack told him coldly.

"Yes, sir," SecState acknowledged, and the line went dead.

It was a lot later in the day in Moscow when Pavel Yefremov and Oleg Provalov came into Sergey Golovko's office.

"I'm sorry I couldn't have you in sooner," the SVR chairman told his guests. "We've been busy with problems-the Chinese and that shooting in Beijing." He'd been looking into it just like every other person in the world.

"Then you have another problem with them, Comrade Chairman."

"Oh?"

Yefremov handed over the decrypt. Golovko took it, thanking the man with his accustomed good manners, then settled back in his chair and started reading. In less than five seconds, his eyes widened.

"This is not possible," his voice whispered.

"Perhaps so, but it is difficult to explain otherwise."

"I was the target?"

"So it would appear," Provalov answered.

"But why?"

"That we do not know," Yefremov said, "and probably n.o.body in the city of Moscow knows. If the order was given through a Chinese intelligence officer, the order originated in Beijing, and the man who forwarded it probably doesn't know the reasoning behind it. Moreover, the operation is set up to be somewhat deniable, since we cannot even prove that this man is an intelligence officer, and not an a.s.sistant or what the Americans call a 'stringer.' In fact, their man was identified for us by an American," the FSS officer concluded.

Golovko's eyes came up. "How the h.e.l.l did that happen?"

Provalov explained. "A Chinese intelligence officer in Moscow is unlikely to be concerned by the presence of an American national, whereas any Russian citizen is a potential counterintelligence officer. Mishka was there and offered to help, and I permitted it. Which leads me to a question."

"What do you tell this American?" Golovko asked for him.

The lieutenant nodded. "Yes, Comrade Chairman. He knows a good deal about the murder investigation because I confided in him and he offered some helpful suggestions. He is a gifted police investigator. And he is no fool. When he asks how this case is going, what can I say?"

Golovko's initial response was as predictable as it was automatic: Say nothing. But he restrained himself. If Provalov said nothing, then the American would have to be a fool not to see the lie, and, as he said, the American was no fool. On the other hand, did it serve Golovko's-or Russia's-purposes for America to know that his life was in danger? That question was deep and confusing. While he pondered it, he'd have his bodyguard come in. He beeped his secretary.

"Yes, Comrade Chairman," Major Shelepin said, coming in the door.

"Something new for you to worry about, Anatoliy Ivan'ch," Golovko told him. It was more than that. The first sentence turned Shelepin pale.

It started in America with the unions. These affiliations of working people, which had lost power in the preceding decades, were in their way the most conservative organizations in America, for the simple reason that their loss of power had made them mindful of the importance of what power they retained. To hold on to that, they resisted any change that threatened the smallest ent.i.tlement of their humblest member.

China had long been a bete noir for the labor movement, for the simple reason that Chinese workers made less in a day than American union automobile workers made during their morning coffee break. That tilted the playing field in favor of the Asians, and that was something the AFL/CIO was not prepared to approve.

So much the better that the government that ruled those underpaid workers disregarded human rights. That just made them easier to oppose.

American labor unions are nothing if not organized, and so every single member of Congress started getting telephone calls. Most of them were taken by staffers, but those from senior union officials in a member's state or district usually made it all the way through, regardless of which side the individual member stood on. Attention was called to the barbaric action of that G.o.dless state which also, by the way, s.h.i.t on its workers and took American jobs through its unfair labor practices. The size of the trade surplus came up in every single telephone call, which would have made the members of Congress think that it was a carefully orchestrated phone campaign (which it was) had they compared notes on the telephone calls with one another (which they didn't).

Later in the day, demonstrations were held, and though they were about as spontaneous as those held in the People's Republic of China, they were covered by the local and/or national media, because it was a place to send cameras, and the newsies belonged to a union, too.

Behind the telephone calls and in front of the TV coverage of the demonstrations came the letters and e-mails, all of which were counted and cataloged by the members' staffers.

Some of them called the White House to let the President know what was happening on the Hill. Those calls all went to the office of Arnold van Damm, whose own staff kept a careful count of the calls, their position, and their degree of pa.s.sion, which was running pretty high.

On top of that came the notices from the religious communities, virtually all of which China had managed to offend at once.

The one unexpected but shrewd development of the day didn't involve a call or letter to anyone in the government. Chinese manufacturers located on the island of Taiwan all had lobbying and public-relations agencies in America. One of these came up with an idea that caught on as rapidly as the powder inside a rifle cartridge. By midday, three separate printers were turning out peel-off stickers with the flag of the Republic of China and the caption "We're the good guys." By the following morning, clerks at retail outlets all over America were affixing them to items of Taiwanese manufacture. The news media found out about it even before the process had begun, and thus aided the Republic of China industrialists by letting the public know of their "them not us" campaign even before it had properly begun.

The result was that the American public was reacquainted with the fact that there were indeed two countries called China, and that only one of them killed people of the clergy and then beat up on those who tried to say a few prayers on a public street. The other one even played Little League baseball.

It wasn't often that union leaders and the clergy both cried out so vociferously, and together they were being heard. Polling organizations scrambled to catch up, and were soon framing their questions in such a way that the answers were defined even before they were given.

The draft note arrived in the Beijing emba.s.sy early in the morning. When decrypted by an NS employee, it was shown to the emba.s.sy's senior watch officer, who managed not to throw up and decided to awaken Amba.s.sador Hitch at once. Half an hour later, Hitch was in the office, sleepy and crabby at being awakened two hours before his accustomed time. The content of the note wasn't contrived to brighten his day. He was soon on the phone to Foggy Bottom.

"Yes, that's what we want you to say," Scott Adler told him on the secure phone.

"They're not going to like it."

"That doesn't surprise me, Carl."

"Okay, just so you know," Hitch told the SecState.

"Carl, we do think about these things, but the President is seriously p.i.s.sed about-"

"Scott, I live here, y'know? I know what happened."

"What are they going to do?" EAGLE asked.

"Before or after they take my head off?" Hitch asked in return. "They'll tell me where to stick this note-a little more formally, of course."

"Well, make it clear to them that the American people demand some sort of amends. And that killing diplomats cannot be done with impunity."

"Okay, Scott. I know how to handle it. I'll get back to you later."

"I'll be awake," Adler promised, thinking of the long day in the office he was stuck with.

"See ya." Hitch broke the connection.

CHAPTER 33.

Square One You may not talk to us this way," Shen Tang observed.

"Minister, my country has principles which we do not violate. Some of those are respect for human rights, the right of free a.s.sembly, the right to worship G.o.d as one wishes, the right to speak freely. The government of the People's Republic has seen fit to violate those principles, hence America's response. Every other great power in the world recognizes those rights. China must as well."

"Must? You tell us what we must do?"

"Minister, if China wishes to be a member of the community of nations, then, yes."

"America will not dictate to us. You are not the rulers of the world!"

"We do not claim to be. But we can choose those nations with whom we have normal relations, and we would prefer them to recognize human rights as do all other civilized nations."

"Now you say we are uncivilized?" Shen demanded.

"I did not say that, Minister," Hitch responded, wishing he'd not let his tongue slip.

"America does not have the right to impose its wishes on us or any other nation. You come here and dictate trade terms to us, and now also you demand that we conduct our internal affairs so as to suit you. Enough! We will not kowtow to you. We are not your servants. I reject this note." Shen even tossed it back in Hitch's direction to give further emphasis to his words.

"That is your reply, then?" Hitch asked.

"That is the reply of the People's Republic of China," Shen answered imperiously.

"Very well, Minister. Thank you for the audience." Hitch bowed politely and withdrew. Remarkable, he thought, that normal-if not exactly friendly-relations could come unglued this fast. Only six weeks before, Shen had been over to the emba.s.sy for a cordial working dinner, and they'd toasted each other's country in the friendliest manner possible. But Kissinger had said it: Countries do not have friends; they have interests. And the PRC had just s.h.i.t on some of America's most closely felt principles. And that was that. He walked back out to his car for the drive to the emba.s.sy.

Cliff Rutledge was waiting there. Hitch waved him into his private office.

"Well?"

"Well, he told me to shove it up my a.s.s-in diplo-speak," Hitch told his visitor. "You might have a lively session this morning."

Rutledge had seen the note already, of course. "I'm surprised Scott let it go out that way."

"I gather things at home have gotten a little firm. We've seen CNN and all, but maybe it's even worse than it appears."

"Look, I don't condone anything the Chinese did, but all this over a couple of shot clergymen . . ."

"One was a diplomat, Cliff," Hitch reminded him. "If you got your a.s.s shot off, you'd want them to take it seriously in Washington, wouldn't you?"

The reprimand made Rutledge's eyes flare a little. "It's President Ryan who's driving this. He just doesn't understand how diplomacy works."

"Maybe, maybe not, but he is the President, and it's our job to represent him, remember?"