Brooks?' he asked his chief of staff, without looking up.
'Things appear to be going well. As you predicted, the interdiction of Chinese arms into Pakistan has resulted in a distinct advantage for the Indian forces. General Brooks estimates that it will probably take another few weeks before we see the full effect, but I think we can look forward to a swift resolution of the conflict and, more importantly, to India's support on your next bid to become Secretary-General. I think Ambassador Gandhi will find it difficult indeed to vote against you under the circumstances.'
'Good. And our relations with Ambassador Fahd? Anything new there?'
'No. You're scheduled to have lunch with him tomorrow, so you should get a clear reading on his thoughts then. So far there has been no indication that he holds you personally responsible for General Brooks' actions. I think your support for Ambassador Lee's motion to prohibit U.N. forces from entering Chinese territory helped delineate you from Brooks in the minds of most of the Security Council.'
Moore didn't respond; he was distracted from the conversation by one of the documents in the stack of papers. Poupardin knew the look and waited silently as Moore examined it. After a moment, Moore began to glance through the rest of the accumulated stack, and picked up the conversation exactly where it had left off. 'Yes,' he smiled, 'that couldn't have worked better if I had planned it.'
'A few more fortuitous circumstances like that and you might have gotten China's support without having to… '
'Fortune is a very uncertain ally, Gerard,' Moore chided. 'Besides, we do not have the luxury of waiting for fortune to strike. Mark my words, if a new Secretary-General is not chosen within the next six months, I'm convinced that the Security Council will vote to do away with the position altogether and have the responsibilities permanently rotate among the Council members. We must make our own fortunes.' Poupardin nodded in agreement. 'What about the Chinese situation?' Moore asked.
'You're scheduled for dinner with the new Chinese ambassador tomorrow night. I've prepared a briefing packet for you.' Poupardin handed the packet to Moore. 'I don't think you'll find anything outrageous there. Our intelligence on him indicates he's basically a reasonable man. He doesn't expect any promises. His main criterion in selecting a new Secretary-General is simply that the candidate be willing to give a fair hearing to China's position.'
'Well, I think I can convince him that I'll be all ears,' Moore smiled.
'Of course,' Poupardin continued, 'since he's not asking for anything, we can't really count on his support. But if you can convince him that you'd be the kind of Secretary-General who's willing to listen, I think you can at least count on him not to oppose you.'
'Excellent,' Moore said, as he put the papers back in a pile on his desk. 'Then I'd say we made a pretty good trade for Ambassador Lee.'
'Yes, sir.'
'What about Kruszkegin?'
'We're watching his schedule closely for the right opportunity.'
'Be sure you clear it with me before you authorize any specific action. We can't afford any mistakes.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Well, if there is no more pressing news,' Moore said, as he opened his briefcase, 'I picked up a few video disks for you while I was in Paris. They came very highly rated.'
'These look great,' Poupardin said, as he took the disks from Moore and eagerly examined the photo collage on the cover of one of the disks. 'We can watch these when you come over tonight.'
'It sounds like fun, Gerard, but I promised Suzanne and Betty I'd take them to dinner when I got back,' Moore said, referring to his wife and daughter. Poupardin was obviously disappointed. 'I'm sorry, Gerard,' he said, and then looking at his watch, added, 'I suppose we have a few minutes right now, if you'd like.'
Poupardin smiled and went to lock the door.
January 8,2021
Ambassador Lee's replacement was a much younger man in his early fifties. His stamina for the responsibilities of his new office would soon be tested. As the Security Council reconvened they tasted the first bitter fruits of General Brooks' ultimatum and the resulting blockade at the Pakistan-China border. Forced to take up fixed positions to enforce the blockade, U.N. troops had quickly become the targets of sniper fire and guerrilla attacks by Pakistani forces. The Pakistani government officially condemned the attacks, stating that the attackers were independents, not associated with the Pakistani army. They also took the opportunity to reiterate their position that since the blockade was not in the host country's interest, the U.N. forces were not acting within their charter or in accordance with the original invitation from Pakistan for the placement of troops within its borders. They went on to explain that since all available Pakistani forces were engaged elsewhere, there was really very little they could do about the guerrilla attacks.
Far worse than all of this, however, were the threats of a rogue Pakistani militia called the Pakistani Guard. According to the reports, the Guard, fearing that the war would soon swing in India's favor, had planted nuclear devices in eight major Indian cities. Though it seemed unlikely that the Guard could have acquired nuclear weapons, the magnitude of the threat compelled the Security Council to take them seriously. The Guard's demands were straightforward enough. First, all U.N. and Indian forces must leave Pakistan, and second, for good measure, India must surrender the long-disputed Jammu-Kashmir province to Pakistani control. Prime Minister Rajiv Advani would consider neither demand, and thus far was satisfied to hurl insults and counter threats.
Chapter 28
The Power Within Him – The Power Within Us All
January 20,2021 – Israel
It was just after dawn. Robert Milner acted as navigator while Decker Hawthorne drove the rented jeep through the mountain pass on their way to meet Christopher. In the jeep Decker had brought food, bottled water, and a first aid kit. His thoughts alternated between worry about the condition in which they would find Christopher and anticipation of what Robert Milner had told him in the lobby of the Ramada Renaissance forty days earlier. The barren countryside brought back memories of Decker's own wilderness experience eighteen years earlier, when he and Tom Donafin had made their way through Lebanon toward Israel before being rescued by Jon Hansen. He recalled the powerful shift of his emotions in that moment as he lay on the ground, tangled in barbed wire, with three rifles pointed at his head, expecting to be shot; and then suddenly recognizing the U.N. emblems on the soldiers' helmets, and realizing that he and Tom were safe.
In the past, when Decker recalled that moment, he thought of it as just another case of being in the right place at the right time. Now he could not help but believe it was much more. Had it not happened, he would not have met Ton Hansen and he surely would never have become his press secretary. And had Decker not worked for Hansen, who later became Secretary-General, then Christopher would not have had the opportunities he did to work in the U.N. and later to head a major U.N. agency, and then to become a U.N. ambassador serving on the Security Council. Surely this was more than chance.
It occurred to him that this chain of events had not just started on that road in Lebanon. There was the destruction of the Wailing Wall, and then he and Tom were taken hostage; and before that, there were the events which had allowed him to go to Turin, Italy, in the first place. If he had not gone to Turin, he certainly never would have been called by Professor Harry Goodman on that cold November night back in 1988, to come and see what Goodman had discovered on the Shroud.
As he continued to think through the chain of circumstances that had brought him to this point, he tried to find the single weakest link in the chain, the seemingly least important event which, had it not occurred, would have averted any of the later events.
'Some things we must assign to fate,' Robert Milner said, breaking the silence. It was as though he had been
