AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hayes knew Crown Prince Faisal and his cousin were close. That made the call difficult enough, but it was also difficult because Hayes was embarrassed; embarrassed that such an attack had occurred on American soil, just blocks from the White House, just minutes after the ambassador had sat in the Oval Office and delivered an ultimatum that if not heeded would put the tenuous American economy into a downward spiral. An ultimatum that certain hard-liners in Washington would deem an act of war.
The thought of that news alone becoming public caused the president to become momentarily nauseous. The conspiracy nuts and leftist anti-oil crowd would have a field day with that juicy connection. Saudi ambassador comes to White House, threatens oil embargo and then is killed in explosion after leaving meeting with the president. This would be next to impossible to contain. No matter how innocent he was there would always be those who would forever believe President Robert Hayes or someone in his administration had had a hand in the ambassador’s death.
Hayes, in his attempt to console the crown prince, stated over and over how sorry he was and that he would make sure the perpetrators were caught and brought to justice. Something in the crown prince’s voice told Hayes that the monarch did not believe him. As a final gesture, Hayes asked the crown prince if there was anything he could do to help ease the pain. Crown Prince Faisal made only one request, and it was one that given the current situation the president knew he could not refuse.
President Hayes slowly hung up the phone and with the expression of a beaten man said, “Inform Ambassador Brieseth at the UN that we will be voting for the French resolution this afternoon.”
Secretary of State Berg and Chief of Staff Jones were alone with the president in the Situation Room. Both shifted in their chairs uncomfortably and exchanged nervous looks. It was Jones’s job to speak first. She had known Hayes the longest and was his closest advisor.
In a soft voice Jones asked, “Robert, what did Faisal ask of you?”
“He does not want his cousin’s death to be in vain. He wants me to help make a Palestinian state a reality.”
Jones nodded thoughtfully. She did not want to face an oil embargo, but neither did she want to face the wrath of the Jewish lobby. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t do that, but don’t you think we should talk about it?”
Hayes simply shook his head. “There’s nothing left to talk about. I don’t trust the Palestinians any more than you do, but the truth is I don’t trust the Israelis either. If we don’t vote for this resolution we’ll once again look like we’re doing Israel’s bidding, and we can’t continue to look so one-sided in the eyes of the Arab world.”
The secretary of state cleared her throat and said, “Excuse me, Mr. President, but Israel is the only democracy in a region dominated by dictators, corruption and a very dangerous strain of religious zealotry.”
“I know all that, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’ll once again look like we’re favoring Israel. Add to that the fact that the Saudi ambassador delivered us an ultimatum and then his limousine was blown up….” Hayes paused in frustration and through gritted teeth said, “The Arab street will think we killed him. They’ll hit us with an oil embargo and consumer prices will skyrocket and our economy will go right into the tank. We are boxed in.”
“Sir,” cautioned Berg, “there are better ways to do this. I can guarantee you that Israel will defy the UN if the French march this resolution through the Security Council. This vote, sir, could very easily lead to open war.” Berg leaned forward, stressing her next point. “We need to get a cease-fire in place first, and then come up with a well-thought-out plan and timetable, or all of this will be a disaster.”
“How? The French have made it abundantly clear that they will not delay the vote.”
“For starters, let’s get Prime Minister Goldberg to pull his forces out of Hebron, and let’s get him to do it immediately! The Israeli ambassador is in the building. We can deliver a stern ultimatum and demand immediate action.”
“And what about the vote?” asked a skeptical Hayes.
“We’ll work on getting the French to delay it.”
Hayes lowered his head and thought about it for a moment. The idea of getting the Israelis to pull out of Hebron was appealing, but he’d learned long ago that getting the French to do anything was never easy. Halfheartedly he nodded his approval. “Let’s do what we can, but if nothing has changed by the time the vote comes up, we’re going to support it. I see no other choice.”
70
Kennedy looked at the fa
x and like Dumond before her, she tried to calculate the odds of another Peter Joussard receiving one million dollars from one of Prince Omar’s private Swiss bank accounts. It was Kennedy’s nature to be suspicious, and thus she was inclined to lean away from coincidence and toward conspiracy. When she discovered that half of the money had been deposited in the Caribbean account the same day the Palestinian ambassador to the UN was killed, she all but ruled out coincidence.
Standing near the Duty Desk of the Situation Room, Kennedy looked up from the fax and asked, “Are we doing anything else to confirm that this account belongs to Ambassador Joussard?”
“Marcus is looking into his personal finances right now,” answered Rapp.
Kennedy accepted the answer with a pensive nod and fought the urge to race into the conference room and tell the president. “And this John Doe”—Kennedy held up the photo taken from one of the surveillance cameras at Union Station—“anything else on him?”
Rapp shook his head in frustration.
“All right. Let’s go tell the president.”
Rapp reached out and grabbed her by the arm. “Hold on a second.” He didn’t like the idea of just dumping this stuff on the president without a game plan. Rapp knew what the president’s reaction would be. He’d want to get the FBI and every other law enforcement agency involved and in the process they’d stir up so much shit, and cause so much unneeded confusion, this guy they were looking for would disappear. Rapp had an idea for a gambit that would allow them to see things as they really were.
After making sure no one could hear them, Rapp drew close to his boss and said, “This is what we should do.”
Kennedy entered the conference room first and announced to the various staffers who were present, “Principals only, please.”
This was code for telling everyone who wasn’t at least a cabinet member that something of a very delicate nature was about to be discussed. The handful of aides that were present immediately exited the room, leaving the secretary of state, the national security advisor, the chief of staff, the president and Rapp and Kennedy. Neither Kennedy nor Rapp bothered to sit.
Kennedy spoke directly to the president. “Sir, we have a couple of very interesting developments.” Kennedy set the first piece of paper down. “This shot was taken from a surveillance camera at Penn Station in New York City the night that Ambassador Ali was assassinated and this shot”—Kennedy set down a second piece of paper—“was taken at Union Station approximately three hours later. The experts at Langley say this man is the same individual the British photographed meeting with Prince Omar. The same man who was picked up on surveillance cameras at JFK on Sunday.”
