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Dale crosses his leg, tries to ignore his full bladder. “Mr. President, if I can—”
“Same thing happened when I was in the Army,” he says, looking back down at the cards. “We have the best soldiers in the world, Dale, everyone knows that. But what happens if all of their communications systems, firing software, and logistics programs disappear? You think they can fight and win like they’ve gone back in time to being an army from 1945?”
Dale doesn’t know what to say.
The president says quietly, like he’s talking to himself, “Like the poet once said, ‘the center cannot hold.’ You see what I mean, about my parents and the Army? The center isn’t holding, and sometimes I think I’m the only one who can see that.”
A heavy pause, and the president says, “Ah, got you,” and then scoops up the cards, carefully puts them back in a little cardboard box, and focuses on Dale.
That look … he feels like squirming under this man’s attention.
“Here you are,” Barrett says. “For two reasons. One, you did a hell of a job raising funds and asking your fellow technocrats to join you, giving me a good push to win the White House. That was always my future, to be sitting in this office, making the tough decisions that need to be made. Decisions never even considered by any prior president. I’m in your debt for that, which is why I allowed you to come by today.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“And the second thing … I understand you come bearing a message from the government of China?”
“Yes, sir, I was asked, as a favor—”
Barrett shakes his head, opens the top drawer of his desk, drops in the deck of cards and pushes the drawer back.
“Dale, shut your trap,” he says, voice still sounding calm and reasonable. “I know why you’re here, and the message you’re bringing. You’ve been doing business for decades with the Chinese, and now a crisis is emerging because of the foolishness they’ve done for years in cyberspace and beyond. They’ve dispatched you here as a messenger. Correct?”
“Well, yes sir,” Dale says, desperately trying to salvage the situation. “I’ve worked alongside the Chinese for many years, and above all, they desire stability and—”
“And that’s your message, isn’t it, Dale? Please beg President Barrett to be a good boy, stand down, and let’s work things out.”
Dale squeezes his legs tighter.God, please don’t let me piss myself in the Oval Office.
The president smiles. “Screw that, and screw you, Dale. You can leave. If there’s anything to be discussed, I want to talk to the puppet master, not the puppet. So tell whoever’s waiting for your call that President Keegan Barrett will only talk to therezidenthere at the Chinese Embassy.”
“The who? Aren’t they all residents?”
“Therezident,spelled with az,not ans,” Barrett says. “They’ll know what that means, you can be sure of it. Now leave, before I ask the IRS and the SEC to investigate your ass. And ruin you. That would make me smile, and trust me, smiles are currently rare around here.”
Dale nearly stumbles out of his chair, goes nearly blindly to the door, opens it, and there’s the same aide.
“Help you, Mr. Loomis?”
A bathroom is what he needs, but instead he says, “Please, show me the quickest way out of here, please?”
“This way,” the aide says. When he’s out on the driveway near the West Wing, he starts walking faster, fearing both the pressure in his lower gut and what kind of response he’s going to get when he calls the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
Nothing good, he’s sure, and whatever the secret crisis is out there, it’s going to get worse.
He urgently texts his Uber driver to pick him up at the near White House gate. As he passes through the Secret Service checkpoint, something warm and wet suddenly spreads through his pants.
Dale looks down in horror, realizing that with all these people around, some staring at him, he’s just wet himself in public.
CHAPTER 65
SOMEWHERE IN SOUTH AFRICA
BENJAMIN LUCAS WHISPERS, “You … why … I saw you get shot, Lin. In the apartment.”
That smile that’s haunted him for years breaks out as she comes over and gently kisses him on the lips.
His mind is racing, but one thought above all comes to him.
