with this idea and then find it’s not legal or constitutional. You can’t expect the President to make a speech about this tonight without doing the staff work first!”
“Mr. President, I’ve already got my staff doing the basic legal research,” Chamberlain said. “They’ll have their results to me this afternoon in plenty of time to brief you before your speech to the American people at nine P.M. So far there’s nothing we can’t address. The union or civil service status of the volunteers and draftees is a prime concern, but that’s not a barricade. Vicki is overreacting, and as usual she’s erring on the side of extreme caution, which is precisely what we don’t need at this time. What we need is bold, decisive, determined action.”
The President looked over at Collins, who was silently reading the edited speech, shaking her head, a grim expression on her face. “Victoria?”
“I can’t even begin to list the holes in this proposal, Mr. President,” she responded. “Who will assume legal responsibility for the volunteers? How do we work this program into the departments’ budgets? How do we handle information and operational security issues…?”
“That’s all flak, Mr. President,” Chamberlain said. “It’s details. My staff hasn’t uncovered any major glitches in the idea so far. Once the department and congressional staffs jump on this I’m sure they’ll uncover problems, but I’m also sure there won’t be anything that can’t be solved. More important, sir, it shows you doing something positive and proactive. Extreme times call for extreme measures.”
The President finished reading the speech, thought about it for a few moments, then nodded. “Victoria, give this to Communications and have them polish it up and put it out to the staff. I want comments and changes forwarded by four P.M. this afternoon.”
“Do you want the press and Congress to get a whiff?”
“Yes,” the President replied immediately. “The more eyes looking at this proposal, the better. Might as well have as many folks as possible vet this idea—might save our staffs a lot of legwork.”
“Do you want this idea to come from the White House or the office of the national security adviser?” Collins asked. “Since you haven’t had time to think about it, it might be better to give credit for the proposal to Mr. Chamberlain at first.”
“His office and mine are the same,” the President said. “I’ll give credit but take responsibility for the proposal. It’s a good idea, Robert. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Chamberlain said.
“Try to give us more of a heads-up next time, but with this Kingman City crisis, everyone is on the run.”
“Yes, Mr. President.”
Collins shot Chamberlain an evil glare as she departed the Oval Office. The President read the edited speech over once more, then commented, “I see you scheduled yourself to view some kind of demonstration over at Andrews Air Force Base. What else are you working on, Robert?”
“A demonstration of that manned robotic exoskeleton technology that did that rescue out at Kingman City at Andrews Air Force Base this morning,” Chamberlain replied. “I’m going to propose that we build a unit of those things and put them to work hunting down terrorists.”
“Sounds good.”
“I’m also going to propose that we build a joint task force—the military and the FBI, working together, to hunt down terrorists,” Chamberlain went on. “I want this task force to have the mobility and lethality of a special- ops unit, the striking power of a Marine expeditionary unit, and the legal and investigative capability of the FBI; it should be able to operate worldwide.”
“You don’t believe in thinking small or forming a consensus with your fellow advisers, do you, Robert?” the President commented with a chuckle. “All right, you’re authorized to put together such a task force under the National Security Council’s authority and discretionary budget. Don’t have them do a thing without my express written authorization—they can form, organize, and train together, but they can’t do anything in the field yet. You’re in for an uphill battle on this volunteer program idea, and even more of a turf war over this joint civil-military task force idea. But if anyone can get these programs approved, it’s you.”
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
“Who are you going to propose to lead this joint task force?”
“My aide, Army Command Sergeant Major Raymond Jefferson.”
“Not an officer?”
“Jefferson is the best of the best in special-operations fieldwork, Mr. President,” Chamberlain said. “He’s led both Ranger and Delta Force teams in missions all around the world for almost twenty years. He’s tough, he’s got lots of special-ops experience, and he’s itching to get out of Washington and back into the real world.”
“Who will command?”
“I picked an intelligence agent from the FBI, and I thought of using the officer that developed that manned robot contraption as a cocommander. I’ll meet with both of them this morning at the demonstration.”
“Putting the FBI and the military together like this will be like mixing gasoline and air: Do it right and it produces horsepower; do it wrong, and it…”
“Creates a big explosion. I know, sir,” Chamberlain said. “I’ll make it work.”
“Keep me advised, Robert. And thanks for the hard work.”
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
Just before he reached the door, the President called out, “Robert?”
“Yes, Mr. President?”
“What is it with you and Victoria?” he asked. “You know she doesn’t like being called ‘Vicki’ but you do it anyway, and it just creates tension. You two seem to be butting heads constantly, and I’m starting to feel more like a referee than the chief executive. What’s up with that?”
“I don’t like it when folks slam ideas before they’ve had a chance to study them, that’s all, sir—especially my ideas,” Chamberlain replied. “Victoria Collins is a political animal. She’s not interested in real solutions, just political expediency.”
“Maybe she’s just giving advice. That’s what she gets paid for.”
“She gets paid to run the White House staff,” Chamberlain said. “She acts as an adviser, yes, but her primary job is to get things done. When I get a directive from the President of the United States, it’s an order, not a suggestion. You directed the White House staff to lay the groundwork for you to ask for a congressional declaration of war on terrorism. It didn’t mean list all the ways it can’t or shouldn’t be done, but to do it.”
“Is that the way you did things at TransGlobal Energy, Robert?”
“Actually, sir, that’s what I learned at TGE—unfortunately, I learned it too late,” Chamberlain admitted. “I learned there are those who lead, those who follow, and those who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. I thought Harold Chester Kingman was a leader, and I was happy and proud to be his lieutenant. I found out soon enough that he is a morally bankrupt, totally corrupt, completely uncaring, and utterly emotionless bag of shit. I became his fall guy and was disgraced simply because I made the mistake of following him when I should have been voicing my opinions and standing up for what I believed to be right.”
“You’re referring to the Russian oil deal?”
“Yes, sir. Kingman had an opportunity to unite TGE with one of the world’s largest oil producers and build an alliance that would span half the globe. I believe he could have been instrumental in uniting Russia and the U.S. politically and economically too, similar to the alliance between the U.S. and Japan, for which we would have been recognized for decades. Instead, he turned the deal upside down. He fired the entire Russian board and top officers of the company, then dared to threaten the Russian government by withholding their own oil and natural gas if they didn’t cooperate with the takeover. When I stepped out of line and argued against the move, I was fired as well.”
“That was years ago. You still sound upset.”
“It was a harsh lesson, sir,” Chamberlain said stonily. “Harold Kingman just doesn’t fire someone—he destroys them, just to make sure they don’t rise up against him some time in the future. I lost millions in stock options. I paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight off corruption, embezzlement, fraud, and conspiracy charges that were all frivolous and unproven, and now I’m having to pay thousands more to keep my countersuits alive against TGE’s constant delays, countersuits, and slanderous attacks in the media. In the meantime, my wife left me—amid allegations of adultery, all of which were not true and completely baseless—my kids disowned me, and I became a pariah in the eyes of every corporation in the world.”
“I know the story, Robert—but what does it have to do with Victoria Collins?”
