'Why are you answering this line?'
'It's a long story,' Hood said.
'What is your situation?'
'A helluva lot better than Mr. Fenwick's,' Battat said.
'We just took down the Harpooner and recovered his secure phone. This number was the first one that came up on the Harpooner's instant-dial menu.'
Washington, D.C. Tuesday, 4:41 a.m.
Paul Hood stepped to a corner of the room to finish speaking with Battat. It was important that he get all the information he could about the Harpooner and what had happened. While Hood did that. President Lawrence stood. He glanced over at his wife, who was standing by the door. He gave her a little smile. Just a small one to show that he was okay and that she had done the right thing. Then Lawrence turned to Fenwick. The NSA chief was still standing beside him. His arms were stiff at his side and his expression was defiant. The other men remained seated around the table. Everyone was watching Lawrence and Fenwick.
'Why did the Harpooner have your direct number and the Hephaestus access code?' the president asked. There was a new confidence in his voice.
'I can't answer that,' Fenwick said.
'Were you working with Iran to orchestrate a takeover of Azerbaijani oil deposits?' the president asked.
'I was not.'
'Were you working with anyone to organize a takeover of the Oval Office?' the president asked.
'No, sir,' Fenwick replied.
'I'm as puzzled as you are.'
'Do you still believe that Mr. Hood is a liar?'
'I believe that he's misinformed. I have no explanation for what is going on,' Fenwick said. The president sat back down.
'None at all.'
'No, Mr. President.' The president looked across the table.
'General Burg, I'm going to get the secretary of state and our UN ambassador working on this right away. How would you feel about coordinating a midlevel alert for the region?' Burg looked at his colleagues in turn. No one voiced a protest. The general looked at the president.
'Given the confusion about just who we should be fighting, I'm very comfortable with yellow status.' The president nodded. He looked at his watch.
'We'll reconvene in the Oval Office at six-thirty. That will give me time to work with the press secretary to get something on the morning news shows. I want to be able to put people at ease about our troops and about the status of our oil supply.' He regarded vice president Cotten and Gable.
'I'm going to ask the attorney general to look into the rest of this situation as quietly as possible. I want him to ascertain whether treasonable acts have been committed. Do any of you have any thoughts?' There was something challenging in the president's voice. Hood had just finished up with Battat and turned back to the table. He remained in the corner, however. Everyone else was still. The vice president leaned forward and folded his hands on the table. He said nothing. Gable did not move. Fenwick's deputy, Don Roedner, was staring at the conference table.
'No suggestions at all?' the president pressed. The heavy silence lasted a moment longer. Then the vice president said, 'There will not be an investigation.'
'Why not?' asked the president.
'Because you will have three letters of resignation on your desk by the end of the morning,' Gotten replied.
'Mr. Fenwick's, Mr. Gable's, and Mr. Roedner's. In exchange for those resignations, there will be no charges, no prosecution, and no explanation other than that members of the administration had a difference of policy opinion.' Fenwick's forehead flushed.
'Three letters, Mr. Vice President?'
'That's correct, Mr. Fenwick,' Cotten replied. The vice president did not look at the NSA chief.
'In exchange for complete amnesty.' Hood did not miss the subtext. Nor, he was sure, did the president. The vice president was in on this, too. He was asking the others to take a fall for him--though not a big one. Quitting an administration, high-ranking officials often tumbled upward in the private sector. The president shook his head.
'I have here a group of administration officials who apparently conspired with an international terrorist to steal oil from one nation, give it to another, reap foreign policy benefits, and in the process steal the office of president of the United States. And you sit there arrogantly declaring that these men will be given de facto amnesty. And that one of them, it appears, will remain in office, in line for the presidency.' Cotten regarded Lawrence.
'I do declare that, yes,' he said.
'The alternative is an international incident in which the United States will be seen as having betrayed Azerbaijan. A series of investigations and trials that will ghost this administration and become its sole legacy. Plus a president who was unaware of what was going on among his closest advisers. A president who his own wife thought might be suffering from a mental or emotional breakdown. That will not boost public confidence in his abilities.'
'Everyone gets off,' the president said angrily.
'I'm supposed to agree to that?'
'Everyone gets off,' the vice president repeated calmly.
