from Henry Kissinger: 'Even paranoids have enemies.' He sometimes wondered why the Russians didn't print that on their money, rather like America's Epluribus unum. The hell of it was, they had a lot of history to back that one up. And so, for that matter, did America.
'Keep talking.'
'We have their government intelligence organs thoroughly penetrated, also their military, but THISTLE is a commercial network, and I gather you have developed better data than I have. I'm not sure what that means.'
Which wasn't strictly true, but Scherenko was distinguishing between what he knew and what he thought; and, like a good spook, giving voice only to the former for now.
'So we both have a lot of work to do.'
Scherenko nodded. 'Feel free to come to the chancery.'
'Let me know when the communications gear gets to Moscow.' Clark could have gone on, but held back. He wouldn't be completely sure until he got the proper electronic acknowledgment. So strange, he thought, that he needed it, but if Scherenko was telling the truth about his degree of penetration in the Japanese government, then he could have been 'flipped' himself. And old habits died especially hard in this business. The one comforting thing was that his interlocutor knew that he was holding back, and didn't appear to mind for the moment.
'I will.'
It didn't take many people to crowd the Oval Office. The premier power room in what Ryan still hoped was the world's most powerful nation was smaller than the office he'd occupied during his return to the investment business—and in fact smaller than his corner office in the West Wing, Jack realized for the first time.
They were all tired. Brett Hanson was especially haggard. Only Arnie van Damm looked approximately normal, but, then, Arnie always looked as though he were coming off a bender. Buzz Fiedler looked to be in something close to despair. The Secretary of Defense was the worst of all, however. It was he who had supervised the downsizing of the American military, who had told Congress almost on a weekly basis that our capabilities were far in excess of our needs. Ryan remembered the testimony on TV, the internal memos that dated back several years, the almost desperate objections by the uniformed chiefs of staff which they had faithfully not leaked to the media. It wasn't hard to guess what SecDef was thinking now. This brilliant bureaucrat, so confident in his vision and his judgment, had just run hard into the flat, unforgiving wall called reality.
'The economic problem,' President Durling said, much to SecDef's relief.
'The hard part is the banks. They're going to be running scared until we rectify the DTC situation. So many banks now make trades that they don't know what their own reserves are. People are going to try to cash in their mutual-fund holdings controlled by those banks. The Fed Chairman has already started jawboning them.'
'Saying what?' Jack asked.
'Saying they had an unlimited line of credit. Saying that the money supply will be enough for their needs. Saying that they can loan all the money they want.'
'Inflationary,' van Damm observed. 'That's very dangerous.'
'Not really,' Ryan said. 'In the short term inflation is like a bad cold, you take aspirin and chicken soup for it. What happened Friday is like a heart attack. You treat that first. If the banks don't open for business as usual… Confidence is the big issue. Buzz is right.'
Not for the first time, Roger Durling blessed the fact that Ryan's first departure from government had taken him back into the financial sector.
'And the markets?' the President asked SecTreas.
'Closed. I've talked to all of the exchanges. Until the DTC records are re-created, there will be no organized trading.'
'What does that mean?' Hanson asked. Ryan noticed that the Defense Secretary wasn't saying anything. Ordinarily such a confident guy, too, Jack thought, quick to render an opinion. In other circumstances he would have found the man's newly found reticence very welcome indeed.
'You don't have to trade stocks on the floor of the NYSE,' Fiedler explained. 'You can do it in the country-club men's room if you want.'
'And people will,' Ryan added. 'Not many, but some.'
'Will it matter? What about foreign exchanges?' Durling asked. 'They trade our stocks all over the world.'
'Not enough liquidity overseas,' Fiedler answered. 'Oh, there's some, but the New York exchanges make the benchmarks that everybody uses, and without those nobody knows what the values are.'
'They have records of the tickers, don't they?' van Damm asked.
'Yes, but the records are compromised, and you don't gamble millions on faulty information. Okay, it's not really a bad thing that the information on DTC leaked. It gives us a cover story that we can use for a day or two,' Ryan thought. 'People can relate to the fact that a system fault had knocked stuff down. It'll hold them off from a total panic for a while. How long to fix the records?'
'They still don't know,' Fiedler admitted. 'They're still trying to assemble the records.'
'We probably have until Wednesday, then.' Ryan rubbed his eyes. He wanted to get up and pace, just get his blood circulating, but only the President did that in the Oval Office.
'I had a conference call with all the exchange heads. They're calling everyone in to work, like for a normal day. They have orders to shuffle around and look busy for the TV cameras.'
'Nice idea, Buzz,' the President managed to say first. Ryan gave SecTreas a thumbs-up.
'We have to come up with some sort of solution fast,' Fiedler went on.
'Jack's probably right. By late Wednesday it's a real panic, and I can't tell you what'll happen,' he ended soberly. But the news wasn't all that bad for this evening. There was a little breathing space, and there were other breaths to be taken.
'Next,' van Damm said, handling this one for the Boss, 'Ed Kealty is going to go quietly. He's working out a deal with Justice. So that political monkey is off our backs. Of course'—the Chief of Staff looked at the President —'then we have to fill that post soon.'
'It'll wait,' Durling said. 'Brett…India.'
'Ambassador Williams has been hearing some ominous things. The Navy's analysis is probably right. It appears that the Indians may be seriously contemplating a move on Sri Lanka.'
'Great timing,' Ryan heard, looking down, then he spoke. 'The Navy wants operational instructions. We have a two-carrier battle force maneuvering around. If it's time to bump heads, they need to know what they are free to do.' He had to say that because of his promise to Robby Jackson, but he knew what the answer would be. That pot wasn't boiling quite yet.
'We've got a lot on the plate. We'll defer that one for now,' the President said. 'Brett, have Dave Williams meet with their Prime Minister and make it clear to her that the United States does not look kindly upon aggressive acts anywhere in the world. No bluster. Just a clear statement, and have him wait for a reply.'
'We haven't talked to them that way in a long time,' Hanson warned.
'It's time to do so now, Brett,' Durling pointed out quietly.
'Yes, Mr. President.'
And now, Ryan thought, the one we've all been waiting for. Eyes turned to the Secretary of Defense. He spoke mechanically, hardly looking up from his notes.
'The two carriers will be back at Pearl Harbor by Friday. There are two graving docks for repairs, but to get the ships fully mission-capable will require months. The two submarines are dead, you know that. The Japanese fleet is retiring back to the Marianas. There has been no additional hostile contact of any kind between fleet units.
'We estimate about three divisions have been air-ferried to the Marianas. One on Saipan, most of two others on Guam. They have air facilities that we built and maintained…' His voice droned on, giving details that Ryan already knew, towards a conclusion that the National Security Advisor already feared.
Everything was too small in size. America's navy was half what it had been only ten years before. There remained the ability to sea-lift only one full division of troops capable of forced-entry assault. Only one, and that required moving all the Atlantic Fleet ships through Panama and recalling others from the oceans of the world as well. To land such troops required support, but the average U.S. Navy frigate had one 3-inch gun. Destroyers and cruisers had but two 5-inch guns each, a far cry from the assembled battleships and cruisers that had been necessary to take the Marianas back in 1944. Carriers, none immediately available, the closest two in the Indian
