A thing of state, p.44
A Thing of State, page 44
“I’m sorry,” she said simply. “I am sorry …” She smiled a sad little smile. “I still underestimate, sometimes … after all these years.”
They all nodded, too overcome themselves for the moment to say anything in response. The departing crowd made way for the State Department limousine as they were driven off. There were looks of pity, calls of support. They acknowledged them gravely, with little waves.
* * *
Within the hour they each received a call from the Oval Office. Its occupant sounded as though he had been relieved of a big burden. Characteristically, he defended his action with a blithe, self-confident disregard for what he might have done to their feelings and their reputations.
“After all,” he told Ray, “it isn’t as though I’m doing you any harm, right? You and Eulie have ample pensions after all your years in the service, and Jaime has his own millions plus his wife’s. You’ll all be okay, isn’t that right?”
For a moment, confronted by such serene gall, the Secretary literally did not know what to say. Then he decided to create a little uneasiness, if he could.
“Willie Wilson has invited us all to testify before Foreign Relations,” he said. “We may feel we must accept.”
It didn’t work, of course.
“By all means!” the President exclaimed heartily. “By all means! I don’t think it will do you much good, though. People aren’t going to be very interested. You won’t have to vacate for two weeks, but I have the new team all ready to go, and I’m going to announce them tomorrow. The focus from then on will be on them, as you know.”
“Mr. President,” Ray said dryly, “you take my breath away. You do think of everything.”
“Not everything,” the President said cheerfully. “But all the necessaries.”
* * *
Next morning, page 1:
President Fires Top Foreign Policy Team. Stanley, Montgomery Out at State, Serrano Gets Boot at NSC
And the same day, page 1:
President Hails Democracy Birth in Lolómé as Two Sides Bury Hatchet, Sign Peace Agreement
And the morning after, page 1:
President Names Chase Bank Biggie to Head State Department, Picks Feemahle Washington for Deputy. Basil Rifkin Named to NSC Post.
And three days after that, almost blanketed out of the news in the swirl of excitement and comment about the new foreign policy team, plus new crises—or extensions of the endless old ones—in several of the many lands where crises never end, in this case North Korea, Bosnia, Cuba, and Haiti—there appeared quietly on page 9 (or thereabouts):
Lolómé Council Drops Referendum, Declares Two Countries United. Sidi Accepts Call to Head New Government as “King Sidi III.” Says Great Lolómé Will “Never” Bow to International A-Check
And in the same editions—only this one where it had to be, on page l:
Poll Shows 57 Percent Favor Reelection of President. His Diplomacy in Lolómé Cited as Major Reason for Approval
“You see?” Senator Wilson remarked dryly. “You can’t win.”
“And nobody remembers,” the Secretary of State agreed glumly.
“Hell,” Willie Wilson said. “Nobody remembers and nobody cares.
“That’s the frightening thing. Nobody cares.”
* * *
Out on the restless Atlantic, the “tramp steamer” chugged on. In the heavily fortified, fortress-like basement of the willing embassy that had housed Boo Bourassa and his friends from the beginning, they continued to meet. In the State Department, Raymond Cass Stanley and Eula Lee Montgomery gathered, sorted, discarded, or filed the official papers and memories of forty years.
Five days before the end of his tenure, the Secretary was informed by Eldridge Barnes of the CIA that “our little toy boat” had reached dock in New York and was tied up there.
“It appears to be waiting for who-knows-what,” El said. “We’re still watching.”
He added incidentally that neither he nor Hugo Mallerbie could report any progress on Boo’s chummy gatherings.
“He’ll be missing them for the next few days,” the Secretary said. “He and Joanie left yesterday to go out west to Jackson Hole for a brief vacation. He wanted Mary and me and Bets and the kids to go with them, but it’s really impossible at this particular moment. But that would seem to indicate that he isn’t involved in anything pressing that demands his presence here.”
“Perhaps not,” Eldridge Barnes said thoughtfully. “Perhaps not. I’m a suspicious old son of a bitch, though. I wonder why he wants to be out of Washington at this particular time. I wonder why he didn’t want to go to New York.”
“I couldn’t say,” Ray Stanley said. “Don’t brood about it. See you at our farewell party here in the department, I trust.”
“I’ll be there,” El said. “I still wonder why Boo and Joanie won’t.”
But that, the Secretary thought, was just part of being CIA. It was your job to be suspicious of everybody and everything. El was very good at it.
Four days before the end of his tenure and three before the big send-off his colleagues in the department were planning for him and Eulie, he decided on a sudden impulse to call the embassy that El and Hugo had determined to be the meeting place of Boo and his friends. The country was one of the leading players in the difficult part of the world where “King Sidi III” now held a commanding position as head of the reunited state of Great Lolómé. (Still complete with A-bombs and missiles, the Secretary thought bleakly. Still looking for trouble. Nothing settled, nothing achieved. All that effort, all that sweat and strain and struggle, and … nothing.) It wouldn’t hurt to mend a few fences and massage a few egos in a country that might conceivably give Sidi some trouble someday.
He found the ambassador much friendlier than he had anticipated, cordial and talkative, in fact, downright chatty, as he rattled on about how things were very chaotic in the embassy right now, they’d called in the decorators to do over all the rooms and in consequence most of the top embassy people were leaving tomorrow for a two-week stay at home. Lower-level staff would remain to handle business.
“Have a good vacation,” Ray Stanley said, more out of courtesy than any real goodwill, so difficult was this erratic country for America to deal with. “Have a good vacation.”
“We will, Mr. Secretary,” the ambassador said, with a curious lightness of tone that Ray could not quite define. “We will.”
And with a formality that seemed a little forced, added, “Thank you for calling,” and rang off.
The Secretary of State looked thoughtful.
Forty years in diplomacy had made him conscious of tones and inflections and significant emphases.
The ambassador had sounded a little odd, not quite normal, perhaps even a bit nervous and excited, under the voluble flow.
Did it mean anything?
One never knew, these days.
Better safe than sorry.
He decided he would tell El and Hugo about it if he could remember to do so in the next two hectic, final days of closing out the office.
One didn’t want to become as suspicious as they were.
But, still—
July 1993-September 1994
About the Author
Allen Drury is a master of political fiction, #1 New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner, best known for the landmark novel Advise and Consent. A 1939 graduate of Stanford University, Allen Drury wrote for and became editor of two local California newspapers. While visiting Washington, DC, in 1943 he was hired by the United Press (UPI) and covered the Senate during the latter half of World War II. After the war he wrote for other prominent publications before joining the New York Times’ Washington Bureau, where he worked through most of the 1950s. After the success of Advise and Consent, he left journalism to write full time. He published twenty novels and five works of non-fiction, many of them best sellers. WordFire Press will be reissuing the majority of his works.
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A Shade of Difference
Other WordFire Press Titles by Allen Drury
Advise & Consent Series
Advise & Consent: Book I
A shade of Difference: Book II
Capable of Honor: Book III
Preserve and Protect: Book IV
Cone Nineveh, Come Tyre: Book V
The Egypt Series
A God Against the Gods: Book I
Return to Thebes: Book II
Our list of other WordFire Press authors and titles is always growing. To find out more and to see our selection of titles, visit us at:
wordfirepress.com
Allen Drury, A Thing of State
