Read Online The Machiavelli Covenant by Allan Folsom - Free Book Online
Authors: Allan Folsom
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was no "why?" just the gruff "when?"
"As soon as possible. Today, now, this morning. I'm going to Caroline's memorial service this afternoon. Afterward would be okay too. I'll buy you a drink, dinner if you like."
Now it came. "Why?"
"I'm trying to find out what congressional business Mike Parsons was working on at the time of his death."
"Look it up. It's in the public record."
"Some of it is, some of it isn't. I need some help getting more information."
"Rent yourself a high school teacher."
"Mr. Fadden, there might be a story here for you. I'm not sure. I'll explain when we're alone. Please."
There was a long silence and Marten was afraid Fadden was going to brush him off. Then the gruff voice snapped at him.
"You said you were a friend of Dan Ford."
"Yes."
"Good friend?"
"His best friend. I was staying at his apartment in Paris when he was murdered."
Again there was a silence and then Fadden simply said—"Okay."
15
• AIR FORCE ONE, ALOFT OVER SOUTHERN GERMANY. 2:15 P.M.
The television interview with chief CNN European correspondent Gabriella Roche had long been planned and President Harris sat with her for the first thirty minutes of the flight from Berlin to Rome. The flight had been delayed for thirty-seven minutes because of what Berlin air controllers called heavy traffic at Berlin's Tegel Airport but what Jake Lowe had quietly told President Harris was really nothing more than German chancellor Anna Bohlen's way of "busting your balls a little more. Letting you know her true feelings."
"I know her damn feelings, Jake, but we need her," Harris had said, "so I don't know what we can do about it but ignore it."
"Mr. President," Lowe responded quickly, "what if we needed her right now?"
"What do you mean, 'right now'?"
Lowe started to reply but then his ever-mindful-of-schedule chief of staff, Tom Curran, interrupted, tellinghim it was time to do the CNN/Gabriella Roche interview.
A half hour later the interview was over. Harris joked lightly with Roche and her camera crew then thanked them and went directly to his executive suite, where Jake Lowe was waiting. With him, in shirtsleeves, was the towering six-foot four-inch Dr. James Marshall, his national security adviser, who had flown into Berlin from Washington and joined them as they boarded the plane.
Harris closed the door, then took off his jacket and looked to Lowe. "What did you mean when you said 'what if we needed Chancellor Bohlen right now'?" He spoke as if their brief exchange had just happened and there had not been a television interview in between.
"I'll let Dr. Marshall tell you."
Marshall sat down across from the president. "These are some of the most disturbing times we've ever encountered in our history, maybe even more worrying than at the height of the Cold War. I've been increasingly concerned about our ability to act quickly and decisively in a major emergency."
"I'm not sure I follow you," Harris said.
"Suppose something happened in the next hours and we had to take immediate and significant action somewhere in the world. We would need the French and German votes backing us in the UN right then, and you know now, from personal experience, it's highly unlikely we would get them.
"Let's play a what-if, Mr. President. For the moment forget about the present big-picture politics in the Middle East. Forget about Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, even Iran. This is a deeper, simpler 'what-if.' Suppose al Qaeda or some other zealous group of jihadists, and thereare hundreds of them, were to strike Saudi Arabia at midnight tonight. With enough fanatical force, by dawn they could wipe out the entire Saudi royal family. The government would collapse and the fundamentalist movement would explode over the entire region. Moderates would fall by the wayside and be slaughtered or join in the religious fervor that would rage like a wildfire. Within hours Arabia would fall, then Kuwait, then Iraq and Iran, Syria and probably
"As soon as possible. Today, now, this morning. I'm going to Caroline's memorial service this afternoon. Afterward would be okay too. I'll buy you a drink, dinner if you like."
Now it came. "Why?"
"I'm trying to find out what congressional business Mike Parsons was working on at the time of his death."
"Look it up. It's in the public record."
"Some of it is, some of it isn't. I need some help getting more information."
"Rent yourself a high school teacher."
"Mr. Fadden, there might be a story here for you. I'm not sure. I'll explain when we're alone. Please."
There was a long silence and Marten was afraid Fadden was going to brush him off. Then the gruff voice snapped at him.
"You said you were a friend of Dan Ford."
"Yes."
"Good friend?"
"His best friend. I was staying at his apartment in Paris when he was murdered."
Again there was a silence and then Fadden simply said—"Okay."
15
• AIR FORCE ONE, ALOFT OVER SOUTHERN GERMANY. 2:15 P.M.
The television interview with chief CNN European correspondent Gabriella Roche had long been planned and President Harris sat with her for the first thirty minutes of the flight from Berlin to Rome. The flight had been delayed for thirty-seven minutes because of what Berlin air controllers called heavy traffic at Berlin's Tegel Airport but what Jake Lowe had quietly told President Harris was really nothing more than German chancellor Anna Bohlen's way of "busting your balls a little more. Letting you know her true feelings."
"I know her damn feelings, Jake, but we need her," Harris had said, "so I don't know what we can do about it but ignore it."
"Mr. President," Lowe responded quickly, "what if we needed her right now?"
"What do you mean, 'right now'?"
Lowe started to reply but then his ever-mindful-of-schedule chief of staff, Tom Curran, interrupted, tellinghim it was time to do the CNN/Gabriella Roche interview.
A half hour later the interview was over. Harris joked lightly with Roche and her camera crew then thanked them and went directly to his executive suite, where Jake Lowe was waiting. With him, in shirtsleeves, was the towering six-foot four-inch Dr. James Marshall, his national security adviser, who had flown into Berlin from Washington and joined them as they boarded the plane.
Harris closed the door, then took off his jacket and looked to Lowe. "What did you mean when you said 'what if we needed Chancellor Bohlen right now'?" He spoke as if their brief exchange had just happened and there had not been a television interview in between.
"I'll let Dr. Marshall tell you."
Marshall sat down across from the president. "These are some of the most disturbing times we've ever encountered in our history, maybe even more worrying than at the height of the Cold War. I've been increasingly concerned about our ability to act quickly and decisively in a major emergency."
"I'm not sure I follow you," Harris said.
"Suppose something happened in the next hours and we had to take immediate and significant action somewhere in the world. We would need the French and German votes backing us in the UN right then, and you know now, from personal experience, it's highly unlikely we would get them.
"Let's play a what-if, Mr. President. For the moment forget about the present big-picture politics in the Middle East. Forget about Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, even Iran. This is a deeper, simpler 'what-if.' Suppose al Qaeda or some other zealous group of jihadists, and thereare hundreds of them, were to strike Saudi Arabia at midnight tonight. With enough fanatical force, by dawn they could wipe out the entire Saudi royal family. The government would collapse and the fundamentalist movement would explode over the entire region. Moderates would fall by the wayside and be slaughtered or join in the religious fervor that would rage like a wildfire. Within hours Arabia would fall, then Kuwait, then Iraq and Iran, Syria and probably
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