complaint?”
“We receive hundreds of complaints every day from the Russians ranging from illegal fishing to playing music too loudly at our embassy parties,” Lewars said, again without looking up and without any change or inflection in his voice — but unseen was the sweat prickling out around his collar. “No matter how many trivial or just plain bogus complaints we get, the State Department fully investigates each and every one.”
“But you’re not denying an illegal overflight took place?”
“Every complaint filed by any person or nation is investigated. When the investigation is over we’ll reveal the results. Until then, we keep quiet about it. Thanks to you good folks in the media, sometimes mere accusations carry the weight of outright guilt if overpublicized. Don’t you agree?”
“Is it the Air Force’s new hypersonic bomber, General? Is the Pentagon overflying Russia with a new bomber?”
“We don’t comment on the movement of any military or government vehicles. Aircraft, spacecraft, and surface vessels of all kinds transit sovereign airspace all the time. The Russians send a dozen spy satellites a day over the United…”
“This is the second such complaint by the Russians this month,” the reporter insisted. “They claim they have proof we are conducting illegal espionage and harassment missions over their country.”
“I haven’t seen their proof or any formal diplomatic protests. Until I do, it’s speculation. Next.”
“General, rumor has been circulating for months about…”
“Wait one, folks,” Lewars interrupted, maintaining his stiff posture and manner and trying like hell to avoid appearing too exasperated. “I know I haven’t been in this job very long, but you should have all realized by now that I won’t answer questions based on speculation, rumor, hypothesis, or conjecture. Are there any questions I can answer on behalf of the President, Vice President, the Cabinet, or the executive branch of government regarding any of the topics that I’ve already briefed?” He waited a couple heartbeats; then: “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll be happy to take e-mailed questions and I’ll be available in the press room at the usual hours.” He quickly stepped off the dais as the television reporters moved to the front, ready to give on-air and taped on-camera summaries.
Lewars went to his office, answered a few phone calls, then went to the Oval Office, where the President was already meeting with the members of his national security staff: Vice President Hershel, Secretary of Defense Gardner, Secretary of State Carson, National Security Adviser Sparks, Joint Chiefs Chairman Glenbrook, and Director of Central Intelligence Gerald Vista. Chief of Staff Carl Minden looked up from his tablet PC computer as Lewars entered. “Thought you were going to lose it for a moment, Tony,” he commented.
“I never ‘lose it,’ Mr. Minden,” Lewars said sternly. “If the press corps wants to hear me say ‘I won’t speculate’ a dozen times during these briefings, fine with me. I tried to save them a little time, that’s all.” He turned to the President and added, “They definitely got a strong sniff of the spaceplane overflight, sir, and it won’t take long before the Russians’ claim is substantiated by tracking data from some other country. I need a cover, nonspecific but enough detail to keep their editors happy for a few days. I suggest we tell the press it was an unarmed classified military spacecraft, one of many that routinely transits Russian airspace in accordance with international aviation laws, and leave it at that.”
“We need a ruling from the White House counsel on exactly what the law says about spacecraft overflight,” Carl Minden said.
“An official ruling is fine, but I can tell you what the Outer Space Treaty says: no one can regulate space travel or access to Earth orbit,” National Security Adviser General Jonas Sparks said. “That’s been the case ever since Sputnik. Besides, we have dozens of Russian spy satellites overflying us every damned day.”
“True,” Secretary of State Mary Carson said. She turned to President Martindale and continued, “But sir, that only applies to spacecraft in Earth
“Hell, Doc, we flew spy planes across each other’s borders for decades,” Sparks said. “It was so commonplace, it became a game.”
“And we’re on the path to returning to the Cold War mentality that existed back then,” Carson retorted. “Sir, if we continue to allow General McLanahan and his spaceplanes to just flit across the planet like that without advising anyone, sooner or later someone’s going to mistake it for an intercontinental ballistic missile and fire a real missile. Overflying Russia with a satellite in a mostly fixed and predictable orbit is one thing — having an armed spaceplane suddenly appear on a Russian radar screen out of nowhere could trigger a hostile response. A simple courtesy message on the ‘hotline’ to Moscow or even to the Russian embassy in Washington would be sufficient.”
“Frankly, Mary, I don’t feel very courteous when it comes to the Russians,” the President said.
“I mean, sir, that a simple advisory might prevent an international diplomatic row, a retaliatory overflight, or at worse someone getting nervous and pushing the button to start another attack.”
“Okay, Mary, I get the message,” the President said. He turned to the Secretary of Defense: “Joe, get together with Mary and draft up a directive for General McLanahan and anyone else using the spaceplanes to notify the State Department to issue an advisory to the Russian foreign ministry in a timely manner. That should be sufficiently ambiguous to allow us some leeway in when to report.”
“Yes, Mr. President.” Gardner glanced at Carson’s exasperated expression but did not comment.
He could always count on Mary Carson to bring up all the negatives about each and every situation crossing his desk, Martindale thought — her comments always served to head off possible difficulties, even though he generally thought she pressed the panic button too often and too soon to suit him. “It’s not the Russians I’m concerned about right now, folks — it’s the Iranians,” the President said. “Gerald, what do you have?”
“Not much yet, sir,” Director of Central Intelligence Gerald Vista responded. “No one has heard from any of the clerics or most of the executive branch of the Iranian government for days.”
“My office has been trying repeatedly to get a statement from the Iranian U.N. ambassador, but he’s nowhere to be found,” Secretary of State Carson added, “and some of the NATO foreign ministries who still have diplomatic ties with Iran tell us the Iranian ambassadors and consuls have dropped out of sight.”
“Sounds like they’re lying low,” the President observed. “But is Buzhazi the reason, and if he’s powerful enough to scare government officials as far way as New York City, does he have a chance of succeeding in engineering a military coup?” He turned to Joint Chiefs chairman Glenbrook. “What about the Iranian army, General?”
“The latest we have is the regular armed forces are still in their garrisons, sir,” Glenbrook said. “We don’t know if they’re just staying in defensive positions, awaiting orders, or defying orders and not going out to hunt down Buzhazi and his insurgents. A few specialized units have mobilized — we think those units will try an assault on the Khomeini Library in Qom within forty-eight hours.”
“This has been a Pasdaran fight so far,” Vista said. “We haven’t seen any regular army involved. Maybe the Pasdaran has been weakened to the point where they can’t do the job.”
“Is it possible that we haven’t heard from the clerics or the president of Iran that were apparently in Qom… because they’re dead?” Vice President Maureen Hershel asked. She turned to a video teleconference unit on the credenza beside her. “General McLanahan?”
“Unfortunately General Briggs didn’t ask that question when he met up with General Buzhazi at the Khomeini Library in Qom, ma’am,” Patrick McLanahan said from the command center at Elliott Air Force Base in Nevada. Instead of a business suit and tie, he was wearing his trademark Dreamland black flight suit, a wireless earpiece stuck in his left ear, surrounded by his battle staff officers. He hadn’t officially taken over the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center yet, but he was clearly the man in charge. Maureen couldn’t help but smile. Patrick never looked comfortable wearing a business suit or attending meetings in the White House. He was back in his element, where he belonged. “General Briggs’s objective was to degrade the Pasdaran units surrounding the library and make contact with Buzhazi if possible, all without compromising his men or the Black Stallion spaceplane.”
“Is Buzhazi still in Qom?”
“It’s unclear, ma’am,” Patrick replied. “We should be getting a satellite image update soon. General Briggs estimated Buzhazi’s force inside the library at around a thousand men, well-equipped — apparently there was a large weapons cache inside the mosque and library. If they departed, it wouldn’t take them long.”
“You actually think Hesarak Buzhazi would slaughter a bunch of clerics and government officials inside one of the holiest sites in Iran?” the President asked incredulously.
