End Game (37 page)

‘Okay, Marty. I understand.’

No matter how stridently he said it, Perez felt, he couldn’t say it strongly enough. ‘This is the endgame. This is the door to Armageddon and it’s starting to open.’

‘Marty,’ said Oakley, ‘when I hear you put it like that, I think what you’re describing is a form of war.’

‘Yes! I think that’s a perfectly legitimate comparison.’

‘Well, if what you say is true, I don’t know how else you could look at it. If an act of war is anything that strikes consciously and severely and with destructive intent at a vital interest of our country, then that’s what this is. I can’t think of anything more vital than our economy. And what you’ve just said here, Marty, is that these actions destroy our economy. That’s as much a form of war as if they sent over a bunch of bombers and knocked out our electricity transmission grid. Except if they sent over a bunch of bombers we’d know it for what it is.’

‘It’s Pearl Harbor for the twenty-first century,’ said Ed Abrahams.

‘And cheap, too. How much did we spend in Iraq? Upwards of one and a half trillion before we made it out of there. How much did these guys lose on Fidelian? They only owned twenty-five per cent. A few tens of billions? And like you said, Marty, these guys hardly need to make any more losses. Just make the threat, and every so often maybe set off one of those bombs you were talking about.’

‘And the only person who can tell us it’s not what you’re talking about, John, that it isn’t some premeditated act of aggression, is Zhang.’

‘Exactly. It’s like I said to Livingstone. If they don’t come out with a statement, then we’ll know they’ve caused it.’

Gary Rose frowned. ‘Let’s not go too fast here. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a country being accused of starting a war by failing to say something. Let’s not talk ourselves into anything. We should be careful with the terminology.’

‘Mr President,’ said Devlin, ‘can I play devil’s advocate here? Like Gary said, we’re talking ourselves into a position where we’re seeing the Chinese silence as an act of aggression. I think we need to ask ourselves how they see it.’

Oakley laughed. ‘Right. Bob may not be here, but Mrs Livingstone is in the building.’

‘John, this is important. Go on, Roberta.’

‘Let’s say they didn’t do anything,’ said Devlin. ‘Let’s say there was no political interference in the process of Fidelian going bust.’

‘Why not just say it?’

‘Because why should they? I guess it is like Bob Livingstone said. It’s our problem, not theirs.’

Knowles shook his head. That might have been acceptable first time around, but with what was happening in the markets, and after Peskarov’s statement, that was no longer acceptable. ‘I agree with John, it’s an aggressive stance. And with due respect to what Gary said – because he’s right, we need to be careful with the words – by an aggressive act I mean one that’s not the act of a friendly nation. It’s the act of a hostile nation. I’m saying not even neutral. Hostile.’

‘What if it’s an internal thing?’ said Devlin. ‘What if it’s something we can’t see that’s motivating him?’

The president looked questioningly at Rose.

‘It’s always possible. When it comes to the big issues in the regime, you can never be sure if it’s the party or the army that’s in charge. Their head of the army holds as much implicit power as anyone in the regime. Could he have constrained Zhang from acting to save Fidelian? Depending on the dynamics of the day, and other events that were happening, you’d have to say yes.’

‘So it could be the army driving this?’ said Oakley. ‘That makes it even more of a war.’

Rose didn’t respond to that. But he repeated the argument he had made to the National Security Council almost a month earlier. ‘The dynamics of what’s happening within the Chinese regime, as far as this goes, are irrelevant. They have to be irrelevant. We can’t ever get into a position where we tolerate this kind of action, with this kind of impact, for the domestic purposes of a foreign leader. Bottom line, whether it’s Fan or whether it’s Zhang, or someone else in there, they don’t fight turf wars with our economy. Period.’

‘So what do we do?’ said the president.

‘They need to understand that whatever they think, for whatever reason they’re doing this, we’re under attack here. They need to understand very clearly that whether intentionally or not, they’re the ones who are attacking us. Now what they choose to do about that is up to them.’

‘And by the way,’ added Oakley, ‘there are two of our guys in Sudan they’d better help us to get out.’

‘If they’ve done this to send us a signal that they’ve got some kind of power over us because of their ownership of stock in our companies, then they need to understand this is not a form of power they can safely exercise. And if they haven’t done it, and they just think they can make us twist a little by staying silent, then they need to understand that right there is a hostile act. And if they didn’t do anything to Fidelian on purpose, but they’ve simply seen the effect now and they think they can use the threat whenever they want, then like Marty said, they’ve got to understand they can’t do that either. They need to know they’re playing with fire.’

‘Roberta,’ said the president, ‘you were playing devil’s advocate. Do you want to keep playing it or do you agree with that?’

Devlin shook her head. ‘I’m with Gary. Whatever motivated Zhang at the start, I agree this has gone too far now for him to stay quiet.’

‘We can’t afford to show any weakness here,’ said Rose. ‘We can’t give the slightest hint we’re going to back down on anything because of this. We need to get a lot tougher. The world needs to see us coming right back at them so no one goes away with the idea that this is a trick they can pull on us again. Before you know it you’ll get Peskarov turning around and doing the same kind of thing.’

‘What do you propose?’

‘First, there’s Sudan. It’s time to come out and announce publicly that we know our guys are in Sudan, who have no right to be holding them, and we expect the Chinese government to help get them released. We can’t hold them technically accountable but in effect that’s what we’ll be doing. A friendly nation would exercise its influence in that regard. And then there’s the South Africa resolution. The Brits are going to get that on the table before Christmas and we need to back it. If we don’t, it’s like we’ll trade democracy in a country of fifty million people for our two guys.’

‘That’s what I’ve been saying all the time,’ said Oakley. ‘It’s blackmail.’

‘Exactly. We don’t do that. We get our two guys
and
we back democracy in South Africa. Neither of those things is negotiable. Now, we do this publicly so we send a strong message to everyone who’s watching that the United States won’t back down on its people and on its principles. In private, we need a letter to Zhang. We state very clearly the gravity of what’s happening and what we need from him, the kind of public statement that we need, and our expectation that he’ll do it. This isn’t a matter of negotiation. This is what has to happen.’

‘I like that,’ said the president, glancing at Ed Abrahams.

‘This is straight down the line,’ said Rose. ‘You’ve brought us to the edge, here’s what you’ve got to do to bring us back. We expect to see you do it. Period. Now, the other thing is, could we also talk about taking steps to restrict ownership by sovereign investment funds? Could we reclassify them as some kind of foreign-government-owned entities and put some kind of restrictions on them from a national security perspective?’

‘I’d be very cautious before we do anything like that,’ said Marty Perez.

‘Well, Marty,’ said the president, ‘I think we need to think about things like that. What if we don’t resolve this quickly? What if we can’t take the political out of the economic as quick as we’d like, if that fear you’re talking about continues? What measures do we take?’

Perez’s expression was troubled. ‘I don’t know what that would look like. It would be extreme.’

‘You’re the one who said the market can’t panic enough. If we’re going to stop that, we may have to do things we’ve never thought about before. Talk to Susan and Ron. Figure it out.’

Perez nodded silently, his brow furrowed, his mind already working. The president watched him for a moment, then turned back to the others. ‘Okay, so we make a public statement on Sudan and our expectations that our friends in Beijing are going to help us get our guys out. We give the go-ahead to the Brits on their resolution. And in private we send a letter to Zhang laying out what we’re expecting in terms of calming the markets. Is that right?’

There were nods.

‘And the statement, is that me? Do I make that statement myself?’

‘Definitely,’ said Abrahams.

‘Why don’t we see if we can get a bunch of other countries with sovereign investment funds to make a statement like Peskarov as well? The Saudis, the Qataris, whatever. Let’s up the ante. Let’s make sure Zhang sees how isolated he’s going to be. Let’s see if that’ll get him talking.’

‘That’s a good idea.’

‘Roberta, draw me up a list. I’ll talk to the leaders of those countries.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘So how does this work? Roberta, you set up the calls with those other leaders. Gary, you draft me the letter for Zhang and brief Josh on the statement?’

Rose nodded.

‘When do we do it?’

‘As soon as we can.’

42

ELLA AND BEN
were asleep when Marion got home. She tried to remember how many nights in a row that had happened now. Was it three? She tried never to let it go past three. The worst thing about being UN ambassador wasn’t exchanging body blows in the Security Council, it was the hospitality schedule that went with it. If she didn’t make an effort, she knew, she could easily end up not seeing the kids all week.

‘You okay?’ said Dave.

She nodded.

‘You want something?’

Marion thought about it. She wasn’t hungry. A dinner for the Nato ambassadors had seen to that.

‘A little decisiveness, please, Madam Ambassador.’

‘You know, I might have a glass of white wine.’

Dave smiled. ‘Go and make yourself comfortable and I’ll see what I can do.’

Marion went into the living room and kicked off her shoes. She closed her eyes. A couple of minutes later Dave came in carrying a glass.

‘Nothing for you?’

He shook his head and sat down beside her. She took a sip. ‘Pinot gris,’ he said, watching her. Dave was something of a wine buff. ‘Californian. What do you think?’

‘I like it.’

He took the glass from her for a second and tasted it. ‘Yeah, I like it too. Crisp, but it’s got a little pepper in it.’

She took another sip.

‘I believe our net worth halved again today, by the way,’ said Dave.

Marion looked at him.

‘I just thought you might be interested. Not that I have any doubt in the administration in which my wife plays such a prominent role, but it would be nice if there was something to suggest they have any idea what they’re doing right now.’

‘Is that how it seems?’

‘Umm … Yes. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who thinks so.’

Marion savored the wine, closing her eyes again. ‘I’m not on the financial side, by the way. Just in case you were wondering.’ She took another sip. The wine was good and crisp, as Dave said. ‘I did something a little naughty today.’

Dave looked at her with interest.

‘TS. I had a talk with the British ambassador.’

‘Sir Antony?’

‘The same. I told him we didn’t think it was the right moment to push the South Africa resolution.’

Dave laughed. ‘Who did you say “we” was? Was that … you and me?’

‘I suspect he might have inferred it was the government of the United States.’

‘Would that have been a reasonable inference?’

‘Yes.’

‘And I’m assuming this isn’t something you were asked to tell him.’

‘Correct,’ said Marion briskly, raising her glass to her lips again.

Dave laughed. ‘Well, that’s a hell of a thing to do.’

‘Correct again.’ Marion held the glass out. ‘This is almost empty.’

‘Are you trying to drink yourself into a stupor to forget what you said?’

‘Possibly.’

Dave got up and came back with the bottle. ‘Thought I might save myself another trip.’

‘A little more will be enough.’

‘We’ll see,’ murmured Dave. He poured.

‘You sure you won’t have one?’

‘You know, why not?’ He got himself a glass. He poured the wine and took a sip, working it around in his mouth. ‘This is good. I’m going to get some more.’

Marion settled back on the sofa, legs folded, and gazed at him. ‘What do you think?’

‘Of what you did? What does it take to get the sack in your job?’

‘I didn’t plan it. It pretty much just came out.’

‘Oh, that’s much better. That’s a good thing to happen for a diplomat.’

‘Dave, the Brits are determined to bring this to a vote before Christmas. Seale was talking about who might vote with us and who might not and I said to him, you know, we’re going to get vetoed on this. And he said, sure. And it didn’t seem to worry him. He seemed to take our support for granted without having thought through any of the implications from our perspective. I think it was that, it was the way he just seemed to brush it aside in that flippant British way of his. So I said to him maybe the United Kingdom has nothing to lose by forcing a veto on this but the United States does. The United States has a lot to lose. And then I said we didn’t think this was the time for it.’

‘And his response?’

Marion smiled a little as she remembered his face. ‘I think it would be fair to say he was startled.’

‘Startled?’

‘Alright, shocked.’

‘What did he say then?’

Marion sighed. ‘All this stuff about it’s a point of principle, how this kind of thing is the thin edge of the wedge, as he likes to say. Then he talked about the way they’d supported us over Uganda and how we’d gone in there without even waiting for them to get a response together about whether they wanted to join us, how bad that made them look, blah blah blah. Other stuff they’d done for us, going all the way back to Iraq.’ Marion smiled. ‘I didn’t tell him that maybe it would have turned out better for everyone if they hadn’t supported us on that one.’