Two Songs This Archangel Sings

'Ah. That might or might not be just, but it would certainly be a circumvention of the law. No?'

'No. Not if he received a presidential pardon in advance-something on the order of what Gerald Ford provided for Richard Nixon would seem appropriate. There were extenuating circumstances for everything he's done. He's killed, yes-but only in self-defense, or in defense of others.'

'He's killed for revenge.'

'That, too-which is why a presidential pardon is needed. But we know, and I'm sure Veil knows, that things aren't going to work out that way. I can't speak for Veil, but I'm certain that when he sees Orville Madison being dealt with appropriately, he'll come in peacefully and surrender himself to the authorities.'

'Oh, good,' Shannon said, lighting a second cigarette from the butt of his first. 'That's just what I need. With a little luck, Madison's trial will be over in a year or so, and then Kendry's trial can begin. Are you serious? My entire term would be dominated by headlines about Archangel and a defrocked, murderous secretary of state. Do you think I intend to allow myself to be mortally crippled by events before my tenure in office has barely begun?'

'I'm sure I don't know what you intend, sir.'

'Do you think I wanted to become president so that my administration could be blown out of the water before it had even set sail?' Shannon continued like a man whose carefully prepared speech had been interrupted. 'Do you think I will jeopardize this adminstration's place in history because of one man's mistake?'

'Mistake? You're talking about a man who's killed-'

'I know what I'm talking about, Frederickson. I'm talking about an entire administration imperiled because of a long-standing personal grudge between two men. I won't have it. What you propose is patently ridiculous. Frankly, I'm surprised at your naivete.'

'I wouldn't presume to try and guess why you wanted to become president,' I replied curtly, trying to suppress my anger. 'And if you'll pardon my continuing naivete, I don't understand what you mean when you say that you won't have it. You're responsible for Orville Madison-not for his actions, because you couldn't have known he was a lunatic, but for making certain he's sufficiently punished for those actions.'

'Mr. Madison has been totally neutralized, Frederickson.'

'What the hell does that mean?'

'It means he's lost all vestiges of power already. If you knew Orville Madison as well as I do-'

'How well do you know him?'

'Well, enough. As a matter of fact, our relationship goes back a good many years; I'm sure you'll be interested to know that it goes back to the war in Southeast Asia. I was a congressman then, without a great deal of seniority, but I was rewarded for certain good political deeds by being named to a very prestigious, select, secret Senate-House committee that monitored intelligence activities in Southeast Asia. That's how I met Madison, and he deeply impressed me. I knew he was ruthless, but certain kinds of jobs require ruthlessness; his was one of them. I respected him for his ability to get things done, and for his ability consistently to win skirmishes against other men who were every bit as ruthless as he was. I was one of the people who first heard about-and approved-the Archangel plan. I was also instrumental in cutting through about a thousand miles of red tape in order to get Colonel Po secretly into this country after the collapse of Saigon. I didn't know about the affair with the Hmong village, or about Madison's bit of business with Kendry. I never even knew why the plan had been abandoned. I'd like you to believe that.'

'I do believe you, Mr. President, and I appreciate your candor.' It was the truth; indeed, I considered it a remarkable admission.

'I thought you would. I'm telling you all this so that you can appreciate that I'm even more vulnerable to certain revelations than you thought I was. I might barely survive as a badly crippled president after the business about Orville Madison came out, but I would never survive being named as the man who helped bring Po into this country. I'd be forced to resign, and I don't intend to let that happen. For Mr. Madison, complete loss of power is a punishment worse than death. I suspect Veil Kendry might even agree with me.'

'Somehow, I doubt it. Madison has killed too many innocent people.'

'Madison is now secretary of state in name only. At the moment, he can't even get back into his office at Langley; they won't let him through the gate. Very soon, he is going to announce his immediate resignation, for reasons of health. Orville Madison is going to retire from public life, and I can assure you that he'll never be heard of-or bother anyone-again.'

'Where's he retiring to?'

'That will be a secret; after all, Madison wants assurances that he'll be protected from Veil Kendry in the future. Also, we don't want the Russians nibbling at him; he knows too much, obviously. Now he'll be under constant surveillance for the rest of his life, and he understands that.'

'It's not enough, sir. Why don't you just tell the whole story yourself, before anyone else has a chance to?'

'By 'anyone else,' you're referring to yourself and your brother?'

'I'm referring to anyone else. Just get it out in the open and behind you, and trust the American people to give you the chance to begin again.'

Kevin Shannon crossed his arms over his chest and sighed deeply. Somewhere in the darkness behind us, walkie-talkies crackled. 'Thank you very much, but I just won an election, and I don't feel like going through another campaign. There are too many other matters to which I want to devote my energies. Do you have any idea how many kinks a prolonged matter like this could put in the lives of you and your brother, Dr. Frederickson?'

It was time for yet another game of hardball, with a high slider aimed right at my head. I found I was more depressed than angry, and I said nothing.

'If you try to pursue this matter in the media or the courts,' Kevin Shannon continued evenly, 'you two could be tied up in knots for years. On the other hand, if we can find a way to work together to resolve our differences, I believe I can assure you that the two of you will be free of any further entanglements.'

'We've heard the same offer before,' I said tightly.

'Well, now you're hearing it from me,' Shannon replied, unperturbed. 'You can go back to your lives as they were before, resume your careers. The same general amnesty will apply to Veil Kendry.'

'You have that kind of power? You can just erase everything that's happened?'

'Not everything,' Shannon replied evenly. 'I have the power to make your troubles, and the troubles of Veil Kendry, go away. But you have the power to make my troubles go away in this Orville Madison affair. In effect, I'm saying that I'll wave my magic wand if you'll wave yours. Forget about going anywhere with what you know about Orville Madison, Operation Archangel, and Veil Kendry's most ingenious artwork. Just go home to New York City and go back to work. Nobody will bother you. In addition, I'll arrange for the two of you to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor; that should certainly enhance your respective careers.'

Suddenly I felt light-headed and slightly nauseated. 'What did you say?'

'The Congressional Medal of Honor; I'm prepared to nominate you and your brother.'

'For what?'

'Certainly not for your exploits of the past few weeks,' the president said with a nervous laugh. 'The medals will be awarded for heroic acts you and your brother performed in the service of your country a few years ago.'

Suddenly everything in the night seemed very still, except for the pounding of my heart inside my chest. 'What heroic acts would those be?' I asked in a voice that sounded like that of a stranger.

'What? You don't think that, as a member of the Senate, I had a review on what happened? Furthermore, when I became president-elect I was fully briefed by my Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Mr. Lippitt told me how instrumental the Fredericksons were in breaking up that global spy network.'

I hadn't realized I'd been holding my breath until my chest began to hurt. I slowly exhaled. Mr. Lippitt, I thought, had told Kevin Shannon a fairy tale, probably the same fairy tale he'd told to a great many other men in power since Valhalla. The three of us, with some unusual help, had managed to break up a global conspiracy, all right, but that conspiracy had been much more terrible than anything as tame as a spy network. Ironically, the horror that had been Valhalla was directly related to the kind of thinking Kevin Shannon was displaying. It made me feel even more nauseated and angry. For thousands of years, men like Kevin Shannon had been killing the world as fast as men of vision could breathe life back into it. The process went on.

'Sir, I most certainly mean to be disrespectful-and I know I'm speaking for Garth-when I suggest that you take your Congressional Medals of Honor and shove them up your presidential ass.'