his sliver of a beard and his dark, probing eyes.
Farther back in the room sat a trio of her aides. The Secretary had forbidden them from making a transcript of this impromptu meeting, but she knew that her personal assistant had set up the digital recording system in her desk before she’d gone home for the night. No one else had access to it. I’ll be able to review what we say here but no one else will, she reassured herself. If necessary I can erase the record entirely.
The roar of the crowd sounded in the little radio like surf crashing on a rocky beach.
“They like what he has to say,” Zuri Coggins murmured to no one in particular.
The Secretary of State saw that although Coggins’ clothes might be wrinkled, the woman herself was still intense, still sharp, her eyes bright, her attention focused on the President’s words and the crowd’s reaction to them as she sat hunched slightly forward in the big leather chair.
“He hasn’t mentioned China,” muttered Michael Jamil.
The Secretary of State flared inwardly. There he goes with that China business again!
But she smiled cordially at Jamil and said mildly, “Let’s hear the rest of what he has to say before analyzing it.”
The President’s voice sounded strong, assured. “So I want the people of America—and our allies—to rest assured that we have a missile defense system that
Thunderous applause. It died slowly.
The President resumed. “And I want the people of the world to know that we have entered a new era, an era where the most terrifying weapons of war are no longer supreme. An era where we can defend ourselves and our allies against surprise attack.
“And finally, I offer this pledge: The United States will work with any nation that is willing to work toward peace with the mutual understanding that we promise to use our missile defenses to shield them as well as ourselves. Against the threat of rogue states or terrorists, we must all stand together to build a world of peace and safety. That is our goal and we will not settle for anything less. Thank you and good night.”
The cheering erupted before the President finished his last line and went on and on until at last the Secretary of State reached out and snapped the radio’s off switch.
For several moments no one said a word. The cheering from San Francisco seemed to reverberate in the spacious office.
“Well,” the Secretary of State said at last. “Any comments?”
Zuri Coggins immediately replied. “He’s offering to turn this near disaster into an opportunity for better international cooperation.”
“Like Kennedy did after the Cuban missile crisis,” said Jamil. “It led straight to the Limited Test Ban Treaty.”
General Higgins shook his head. “What he’s really saying is that we can shoot down attacking missiles. That changes the whole strategic picture.”
“Yes, it does,” State said softly, “doesn’t it.”
She looked past the general to her aides, seated on the other side of the room. They glanced at one another, but none of them offered a word of advice or analysis.
Turning her cobra smile to Jamil, the Secretary of State asked, “Do you still believe that China was behind this?”
Without a heartbeat’s hesitation, Jamil replied, “Yes, ma’am, I do. But we’ll never know, will we? Those rebel North Korean army officers know they’re as good as dead. They won’t let themselves be taken alive.”
“You think not?”
“I’m certain of it.”
“So Pyongyang can tell us the DPRK government had nothing to do with this, and Beijing can sit there and say nothing.”
“The real test,” Jamil said, “will be how Beijing reacts to the President’s initiative.”
“Share our missile defense system with them?” State scoffed at the idea.
“Promise to build a system that can protect them against rogue nations or terrorists with missiles.”
Coggins shook her head. “The Chinese will want to build their own defenses.”
“Good!” Jamil snapped. “Fine. Defensive systems don’t threaten anybody.”
General Higgins made a sour face. “You don’t understand, young man. They’ll use their defense system to protect themselves, but they’ll still have all their
“So can we,” Coggins said. Then she turned to Jamil. “Right?”
“Right.”
The Secretary of State pictured this same debate in the Senate. It’s going to come to the Senate, she realized. Sooner or later. The President proposes, but Congress disposes.
Jamil and Higgins were starting to raise their voices, so the Secretary of State said firmly, “We’ve all put in a long, hard day. Let’s go home and get some sleep.”
She got to her feet. Everyone else rose and bade her good night. She watched them leave and, once her office was cleared of them all, she picked up her phone and tapped the speed-dial button for the Secretary of Defense. She knew that no matter where Lionel Bakersfield was, her phone system would track him down. Glancing at the digital clock on her desk, she figured that Lonnie was probably working on his third martini by now. Good, she thought. He’ll do less talking and more listening.
General Higgins rode the elevator to his waiting staff car in the basement parking garage of the State Department building without offering a ride to Coggins or Jamil. The two of them got off the elevator at the lobby level and then walked down the building’s front steps side by side.
Zuri Coggins looked up and down the rain-slicked street. Not much traffic. No taxicabs.
Jamil pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket. “I hope they got the towers back online,” he said. “I left my car in Langley this morning.”
Coggins watched him as he pecked at the phone’s keypad. At last he gave up. “Guess not,” he said, more resigned than aggravated.
She gestured up the street and said, “Come on, let’s walk a bit. We’ll probably find a cab on the avenue.”
“And if we don’t?”
She chuckled at his oh so serious concern. “You like to look at all the aspects of a problem, don’t you?”
“Don’t you?”
Coggins tilted her head slightly and remembered from his dossier that Jamil was unmarried, just as she was. “Well, maybe as we walk along we’ll find a friendly bar. Or a restaurant.”
Jamil broke into a smile. “Come to think of it, I’m damned hungry.”
“Me too,” she said, as she started down the street alongside him.
For a moment Charley thought he was in heaven. He seemed to be floating, as if resting on a blessed cloud. Not a care in the world. Nothing hurt, but he didn’t feel numb, not really, more like he was just— floating.
He couldn’t see anything except an endless expanse of soft white. Not cottony clumps, like clouds: just flat, plain, eggshell white, kind of restful, really.
I must’ve died, he realized. There was no terror in the thought. In fact, he would have smiled if he could have. Died and now I’m in heaven. Or on my way, at least. Blissfully peaceful. Not a pain or a worry in the world.
Then he heard a soft beeping sound. Beep beep beep beep… Heaven don’t beep, Charley thought.
It all came back to him in a rush. The blizzard. Martha and the kids! The snow and the cold. And the wolves.
