government had said that such things would not take place, that she was to be released from the hospital the first minute that it was safe to do so. MacGregor had hedged on that, but now he was certain that there would be no more complications. The doctor himself lifted her and placed her in the wheel-chair.
'When you feel better, will you come back to see me?' he asked, with a warm smile. She nodded. A bright child. Her English was good. A pretty child, with a charming smile despite her fatigue, glad to be going home.
'Doctor?' It was her father. He must have had a military background, so straight of back was he. What he was trying to say was evident on his face, before he could even think the words.
'I did very little. Your daughter is young and strong, and that is what saved her.'
'Even so, I will not forget this debt.' A firm handshake, and MacGregor remembered Kipling's line about East and West. Whatever this man was—the doctor had his suspicions—there was a commonality among all men.
'She will be weak for another fortnight or so. Let her eat whatever she wants, and best to let her sleep as long as possible.'
'It will be as you say,' Sohaila's father promised. 'You have my number, here and at home, if you have any questions at all.'
'And if you have any difficulties, with the government, for example, please let me know.' The measure of the man's gratitude came across. For what it was worth, MacGregor had a protector of sorts. It couldn't hurt, he decided, walking them to the door. Then it was back to his office.
'So,' the official said after listening to the report, 'everything is stabilized.'
'That is correct.'
'The staff have been checked?'
'Yes, and we will rerun the tests tomorrow to be sure. Both patient rooms will be fully disinfected today. All contaminated items are being burned right now.'
'The body?'
'Also bagged and to be burned, as you directed.'
'Excellent. Dr. MacGregor, you have done well, and I thank you for that. Now we can forget that this unhappy incident ever happened.'
'But how did the Ebola get here?' MacGregor demanded—plaintively, which was as far as he could go.
The official didn't know, and so he spoke confidently: 'That does not concern you, and it does not concern me. It will not be repeated. Of that I am certain.'
'As you say.' After a few more words, MacGregor hung the phone up and stared at the wall. One more fax to CDC, he decided. The government couldn't object to that. He had to tell them that the outbreak, such as it was, was closed out. And that was a relief, too. Better to go back to the normal practice of medicine, and diseases he could defeat.
IT TURNED OUT that Kuwait had been more forthcoming than Saudi on forwarding the substance of the meeting, perhaps because the Kuwaiti government really was a family business, and their establishment happened to be on a very dangerous street corner. Adler handed the transcript over. The President scanned it quickly.
'It reads like, 'Get lost. '
'You got it,' the Secretary of State agreed.
'Either Foreign Minister Sabah edited all the polite stuff out, or what he heard scared him. I'm betting on number two,' Bert Vasco decided.
'Ben?' Jack asked.
Dr. Goodley shook his head. 'We may have a problem here.'
' 'May'?' Vasco asked. 'This goes beyond 'may. '
'Okay, Bert, you're our champ prognosticator for the Persian Gulf,' the President observed. 'How about another forecast?'
'The culture over there is one of bargaining. There are elaborate verbal rituals for important meetings. 'Hi, how are you? can take an hour. If we're to believe that such things did not take place, there's a message in their absence. You said it, Mr. President: Get lost.' Though it was interesting, Vasco thought, that they'd begun by praying together. Perhaps that was a signal that had meant something to the Saudis but not the Kuwaitis? Even he didn't know every aspect of the local culture.
'Then why are the Saudis low-keying this?'
'You told me that Prince Ali gave you another impression?'
Ryan nodded. 'That's right. Go on.'
'The Kingdom is a little schizophrenic. They like us, and they trust us as strategic partners, but they also dislike us and distrust us as a culture. It's not even that simple, and it goes round and round, but they're afraid that too much exposure to the West will adversely affect their society. They're highly conservative on what we call social issues, like when our Army was over there in 91, and they requested that Army chaplains remove the religious insignia from their uniforms, and seeing women drive cars and carry guns drove them a little nuts. So, on one hand, they depend on us as guarantor of their security— Prince Ali keeps asking you about that, right? — but on the other hand they worry that in protecting them we might mess up their country. It keeps coming back to religion. They'd probably prefer to make a deal with Daryaei than to have to invite us back to guard their border, and so the majority of their government is going to run down that track in the knowledge that we will come in if asked. Kuwait's going to be a different story. If we ask to be allowed to stage an exercise, they'll say 'yes' in a heartbeat, even if the Saudis ask them not to. Good news, Daryaei knows that, and he can't move all that fast. If he starts moving troops south—'
'The Agency will give us warning,' Goodley said confidently. 'We know what to look for, and they're not sophisticated enough to hide it.'
'If we run troops into Kuwait now, it will be perceived as an aggressive act,' Adler warned. 'Better we should meet with Daryaei first and sound him out.'
'Just so we give him the right signal,' Vasco put in.
'Oh, we won't make that mistake, and I think he knows that the status of the Gulf countries is a top-drawer item with us. No mixed signals this time.' Ambassador April Glaspie had been accused of giving such a signal to Saddam Hussein in the summer of 1990—but she'd denied Hussein's account, and the latter wasn't all that reliable a source of information. Maybe it had been a linguistic nuance. Most likely of all, he'd heard exactly what he'd wanted to hear and not what had actually been said, a habit frequently shared by heads of state and children.
'How fast can you set it up?' the President asked.
'Pretty fast,' the Secretary of State replied.
'Do it,' Ryan ordered. 'All possible speed. Ben?'
'Yes, sir.'
'I talked with Robby Jackson already. Coordinate with him for a plan to get a modest security force rapid- deployed over there. Enough to show that we're interested, not enough to provoke them. Let's also call Kuwait and tell them that we're here if they need us, and that we can deploy to their country if they so request. Who's on-deck for this?'
'Twenty-fourth Mech, Fort Stewart, Georgia. I checked,' Goodley said, rather proud of himself. 'Their second brigade is on rotating alert-status now. Also a brigade of the 82nd at Fort Bragg. With the equipment warehoused in Kuwait, we can do the match-up and be rolling in as little as forty-eight hours. I'd also advise increasing the readiness state of the Maritime Pre-Positioning Ships at Diego Garcia. That we can do quietly.'
'Nice job, Ben. Call the SecDef and tell him I want it done—quietly.'
'Yes, Mr. President.'
'I'll tell Daryaei that we offer a friendly hand to the United Islamic Republic,' Adler said. 'Also that we're committed to peace and stability in that region, and that means territorial integrity. I wonder what he'll say…?'
Eyes turned to Bert Vasco, who was learning to curse his newly acquired status as resident genius. 'He might just have wanted to rattle their cage. I don't think he wants to rattle ours.'
'That's your first hedge,' Ryan observed.
'Not enough information,' Vasco replied. 'I don't see that he wants a conflict with us. That happened once, and everybody watched. Yes, he doesn't like us. Yes, he doesn't like the Saudis or any of the other states. But, no, he doesn't want to take us on. Maybe he could knock them all off. That's a military call, and I'm just an FSO. But not with us in the game, and he knows it. So, political pressure on Kuwait and the Kingdom, sure. Beyond that, however, I don't see enough to be worried about.'
