'I'm hoping your country can do more to keep the Canadians fired up against the United States,' Jake said.
'Believe me, Mr. President, we're doing everything we can, this being in our interest as well,' Lord Halifax replied. 'The naval situation in the Atlantic remaining complex, however, we cannot do as much as we would wish. And events on the Continent naturally influence other commitments of scarce resources.'
Jake had no trouble translating that into plain English. The Germans were pushing England and France back. The limeys didn't have so much to spare for adventures on this side of the Atlantic as they'd had when things were going better closer to home.
'What the damnyankees aren't using up there, they're shooting at us,' Featherston said. 'If we go under, they aim everything at you. How long do you think you'll last if they do?' They had a generation earlier, and the United Kingdom didn't last long. Chances were it wouldn't now, either.
And Lord Halifax couldn't shoot that one back at him. The USA could go after Britain in a big way if the CSA went under-could and would. But if Britain went down, Germany wouldn't care about the Confederacy. The Confederate States were no threat to the Kaiser, not till they got a uranium bomb. When they did, the whole goddamn world needed to watch out.
'I said we were doing everything we could, Mr President, and I assure you I meant it most sincerely,' the British ambassador said. 'We appreciate the CSA's importance to the overall strategic picture, believe you me we do. Our task would become much more difficult if the United States was prosecuting the Atlantic war with all their energy and resources.'
You are tying the damnyankees down for us. Again, Halifax's words were pretty straightforward. He had to figure Jake could see that much for himself. And Jake could.
He leaned forward across his desk toward the limey. 'Fair enough,' he said, his rasping voice and harsh, half-educated accent contrasting sharply with Halifax's soft, elegant tones. 'Now we come down to it. If you need us in the war, if you need us to lick the USA for you, why the hell won't you tell us what all you know about uranium bombs? We've got our own project going-you can bet your bottom dollar on that. But if you give us a hand, it helps you and us both. Sooner we start blowing the damnyankees sky-high, the happier everybody'll be. Except them, I mean.'
Halifax's bony face never showed much; he would have made a dangerous poker player. But his eyebrows rose a fraction now. Maybe he hadn't expected Jake to be so direct. If he hadn't, he didn't know the President of the Confederate States as well as he thought he did.
'Uranium is an extremely delicate subject,' he said at last.
'Tell me about it!' Featherston exclaimed. 'Even so, you think the United States aren't working on a bomb of their own? Suppose they get it before we do. They'll blast Richmond off the map, and New Orleans, and Atlanta-'
'Assuming Atlanta hasn't fallen by then,' Halifax said.
Fuck you, Charlie. Featherston almost said it, and diplomacy be damned. At the last instant, he bit his tongue. What he did say was, 'Yeah, well, suppose they knock us out of the war. Then what? How long before London goes up in smoke? About as long as it takes to get a bomb across the ocean.'
Lord Halifax looked physically ill. 'The United States aren't our only worry on that score,' he choked out.
'I know. Damn Germans started this whole mess. Somebody should've strangled that Einstein bastard when he was a baby.' Jake scowled. 'Too late to get all hot and bothered about it now. Look, I don't even know how far along you guys are. Maybe we're ahead of you.'
The British ambassador winced, ever so slightly. Ah, that got him, Jake thought with an internal grin. The mere idea that backward half-colonials across the sea could get ahead of the high and mighty lords of creation on their own foggy island had to rankle.
To make sure it did, Jake added, 'After all, we're a long ways ahead of you when it comes to rockets. Ask the Yankees if you don't believe me.'
Halifax winced again, more obviously this time. Jake Featherston's internal grin got wider. 'Quite,' Halifax muttered: a one-word admission of pain.
'Reckon we can work a swap?' Jake asked. 'We'll tell you what we know. We're not afraid of our allies. If you want to shoot rockets at the Germans, more power to you. Blow 'em to hell and gone. I won't shed a tear, and you can bet your…backside on that.'
'An interesting proposal,' the ambassador said. 'I am not authorized to agree to it, but I shall put it to the Prime Minister. If he deems it feasible, we can proceed from there.'
'How long will that take?'
'My dear sir!' Lord Halifax spread his hands. 'That's in Winston's court, I'm afraid, not mine. I will say he is not a man in the habit of brooking delay.'
Featherston wondered if they really did speak the same language. He thought he understood what the British ambassador meant, but he wasn't sure. Hoping he did, he answered, 'He'd better not wait around. You're in trouble, and so are we. The more we can help each other, the better our chances, right?'
'One could hardly disagree,' Halifax said.
'Fair enough.' But Jake wasn't smiling. He was scowling. 'Thing you've got to remember is, this cuts both ways. You want what we know about rockets-any fool can see you do. You want to get, but you don't want to give. And I'm here to tell you, your Lordship, sir, that ain't gonna fly.'
Lord Halifax was a diplomat. If Featherston's bluntness offended him, he didn't let on. 'I assure you, Mr. President, I intend to make your views plain to the Prime Minister. What happens after that is up to him.'
Jake knew perfectly well he would have the hide of any Confederate ambassador who exceeded his authority. In fairness, he couldn't blame Winston Churchill for feeling the same way. But his definition of fairness was simple. If he got what he wanted, that was fair. Anything less, and the other side was holding out on him.
Most of the time, he admired Churchill. Like him, the Prime Minister had spent much too long as a voice crying in the wilderness. In a way, Churchill had a tougher job than he did. Britain needed to worry about fighting both the USA and the German Empire.
But Britain hadn't been invaded the last time around. She hadn't been disarmed and had to start over. All she'd lost was Ireland-and the way the Irish felt about their longtime overlords meant she might be better off without it. With Ireland gone, the British didn't have to worry about keeping the lid on a country where a third of the population hated the guts of the other two-thirds. Ireland was under British control now, to keep the USA from using it as a forward base, but military occupation had a whole different set of rules. The limeys weren't as tough on the micks as the Freedom Party was on Confederate Negroes, but they didn't take any crap, either.
'Tell him not to wait around, that's all,' Jake said. 'For his sake and ours.'
'Winston is a great many things, but not a ditherer. He may from time to time find himself mistaken. He hardly ever finds himself unsure,' Halifax said. 'I do not know what his answer will be. I am confident you will have it in short order.'
'Good. Anything else?' Jake was no ditherer, either.
'The United States are making a good deal of propaganda capital from that camp they captured in Texas,' Lord Halifax said. 'Did you have to be quite so open in your destruction of the colored populace?'
'You know what, Your Excellency? I don't give a shit how much the damnyankees squawk about that.' Jake wasn't being truthful, but he didn't care. He had to make the limey understand. 'What we do inside our own country is nobody's business but ours. We've had a nigger problem for hundreds of years-even before we broke away from England. Now I'm finally doing something about it, and I really don't care who doesn't like that. We're going to come out of this war nigger-free, or as close to nigger-free as I can make us.'
'Your solution is…heroic,' Halifax said.
Jake liked that better than the British ambassador probably intended. He felt like a hero for reducing the CSA's colored population. 'I keep my campaign promises, by God,' he said.
'No one has ever doubted your determination.' Lord Halifax got to his feet. 'If you will excuse me…' He left the President's office.
When Lulu looked in after Halifax was gone, Jake Featherston asked, 'Who's next?'
'Mr. Goldman, sir.'
'Send him in, send him in.'
Saul Goldman had grown bald and pudgy in the twenty-odd years Jake had known him. That had nothing to
