“Of course they were,” Patrick smiled. “This would be the uniform and insignia he wore before becoming marshal of France, perhaps at the time he turned cannon on royalists who were besieging the National Convention.”
“Then those are priceless, er, artifacts. They should go to the museum at Les Invalides,” she suggested.
“Not quite yet,” Lang said, drawing the attention of the other two. “Such a donation would surely make the press, and the last thing we-or I-want is to tip the Chinese to the fact that box does not contain Alexander’s relics. I’d much rather let them think what duPaar wants is beyond their reach.”
Patrick puffed his cheeks, expelling his breath in a gust. “But these items are valuable, too valuable for us to keep ourselves.”
“No need,” Lang said. “When the president for life of Haiti sees he won’t be getting what he wants, I’d guess the Chinese will be leaving the country. Once they’re out, you can put the whole story on the front page for all I care.”
“But what stops the Chinese from making another, er, deal, from coming back if they ever find Alexander?” Patrick wanted to know.
“Hopefully, good intelligence and the United States Navy.”
Presidential palace
Petionville, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Five days later
Tonight Undersecretary Chin Diem was in no mood to enjoy the view of the city below. Failure seemed a small enough price to pay to assure he would never see the madman du-Paar or this pestilence-ridden tropical hell again. But would that be worth the price of failure at home?
He turned from the window as duPaar and his bodyguard entered.
The president for life plopped down behind the desk. “You have something for me?”
“Mr. President…,” Diem began. “I fear I have bad news, a temporary delay.”
DuPaar leaned across the desk, scowling. “Explain.”
“The container we believe holds the remains of Alexander is in the hands of the Americans.”
The following pause was so long, Diem thought the man had not heard. “We tracked them to a church in Paris when-”
“You do not have them and have no certain prospect of obtaining them.” DuPaar spoke so softly the secretary had to lean forward to hear. “I ask for the relics of Alexander. You bring me excuses instead.”
“I’m sure-”
The president for life’s voice escalated from a whisper to a near scream, spittle flying from his mouth. “Do you take me for a fool? Do you think I will accept failure as fulfilling our bargain? Just what do you think?”
“I would think, Mr. President,” Diem began in his most reasonable voice, “that the word of the People’s Republic-”
DuPaar was back to a near whisper again. “Idiot! Do you not understand? Alexander was the world’s greatest warrior. The country who possesses his remains cannot be defeated in battle. It is a fact Ptolemy knew and Perdiccas found out to his dismay when half his army drowned in the Nile.” He sneered. “The People’s Republic does not keep its word!”
He paused as if catching his breath.
“I am sure we, the People’s Republic, will be able-”
DuPaar leaned across the desk. “The People’s Republic will do nothing! Nothing other than getting out of Haiti!”
“But, Mr. President-”
“ Out!” DuPaar was pointing to the door. “Out of this place, out of Haiti. You will leave here immediately. All Chinese troops will be off Haitian soil in ten days or I will go before the UN, appeal to the United States to free us of this invasion…”
Diem had served in the diplomatic corps of his country for over fifteen years, but he had never seen a display like this. “Invasion? But you invited-”
“I invited a peaceful trade mission! Now I learn you have occupied the north coast of my country with military! I will invite the United States to send troops!”
Diem had never dealt with a man quite so crazy before. Admittedly, the North Korean dictator had been nuts, but not as bad as this. With as much dignity as he could muster, he marched toward the door the bodyguard was holding open.
If he was deaf, how had he known to do that?
The White House
Five days later
The president looked up from his desk as Chief of Staff Jack Roberts entered the Oval Office. “You said you had news for me?”
Without waiting to be asked, Roberts slouched into a chair. “Yeah, I do, boss. Two days ago the techies maneuvered one of our Misty-2 satellites into a new orbit.”
The president picked up a pen and was rolling it between his hands. “That’s the one that can see through clouds and is supposed to look like space junk?”
“Yep.”
“OK, so it’s in a new orbit. I assume it can now see the Caribbean. Don’t make me pry the info out of you, Jack.”
Roberts grinned. “No need. The spy in the sky has confirmed the Chinese are leaving Haiti. Their withdrawal should be complete within the week.”
The president leaned back in his chair and grinned right back, showing teeth famous worldwide. “Perfect! That should be shortly after I meet with the president of the People’s Republic. Set up a major news conference immediately afterward. I want all the networks’ big guns there when I announce this administration discovered the secret presence of Chinese military in Haiti and, through diplomacy alone, had them peacefully withdrawn. That should boost our polls before the midterm elections.”
The chief of staff stood. “Not to mention taking off the front page the fact your economic programs haven’t succeeded yet. And you did it without lifting your little finger.”
“No need to tell that part.” The president’s chair snapped upright and he put down the pen with which he had been toying. “I’d rather be lucky than good any day. Oh yeah, there’s one more thing.”
“And that would be?”
“Those people the FBI was protecting, the former Agency people. Did the Bureau ever find them?”
“I don’t think so, no. You want me to call off the dogs?”
The president nodded. “It would seem now we don’t care what they know or might say.”
Roberts cocked his head. “Should we tell them we no longer want to detain them?”
The president frowned, bringing his eyebrows together. “ Detain is an ugly word. I would not want anyone to think this administration is in the business of ‘detaining’ innocent citizens. Simply tell the people over at the Hoover Building we have no further interest in them.”
From the New York Times TOMB OF ALEXANDER FOUND? ALEXANDRIA. One of history’s most enduring mysteries may be on the verge of solution by an Italian-led team of archaeologists. Dr. Antonio Rossi, curator of Rome’s Archaeological Museum, and Dr. Zahi Hawass, general secretary of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced yesterday that a heretofore-unknown chamber had recently been discovered off what had been known as the Alabaster Tomb, a location earlier archaeologists had discarded as the site of the final resting place of Alexander the Great. Modern electronic equipment led Dr. Rossi and his crew to reevaluate the site and they discovered part of the tomb had been sealed off, probably by scholars attached to the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. “When he was forced out of Egypt,” Dr. Rossi speculated, “Napoleon intended to return. He did not want his enemies to get the credit for discovering what had been lost for two thousand years, so he tried to cover his tracks.” Rossi explained that using careful archaeological methods of excavation, his team could still be weeks away from determining if this is really the place Alexander was buried. “We will never know for certain if this is Alexander’s tomb,” Rossi said, “unless we actually find the body, in this case, a mummy.” Alexander, known as “the Great,” was king of Macedonia, and died near the ancient city of Babylon in 323 BC.
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