Ultimatum (53 page)

Engers turned to O’Lachlan and Lacey. “He says, when they came to us. It’s the past tense. He didn’t use that anywhere else.”

Lacey shrugged. “It’s a translation. Could be wrong. You know Chinese tenses.”

“They streamed this live with a translation,” said Engers. “This was meant to be heard outside China. Dave, can you go back and play it again?”

Odgers played it again.

“Can you take the translator’s voice off?” asked O’Lachlan.

“I can try,” said Odgers. “Give me a few minutes.”

Odgers set to work. O’Lachlan picked up a phone. “Sally? Can you come into the edit suite?”

Sally Lu came in. A few minutes later, Odgers had taken most of the translator’s voice off the file. He played it. He turned up the volume to make Wen’s voice louder.

“It’s past tense,” said Sally.

“They came?”

“They came, we said. That’s what the grammar’s saying. Its distinctly past.”

“It’s probably a mistake,” said Lacey.

“Wen’s mistake?” Engers shook her head. “Wen wouldn’t make a mistake like that.”

“So what are you saying?”

 “I think what Eleanor’s saying,” said O’Lachlan, “is that despite everything President Benton said in San Diego about being committed to Kyoto, President Wen would like us to know that we’ve been talking to them.”

~ * ~

Saturday, September 10

Oval Office, The White House

If there was any doubt about what President Wen had intended to say, the official translation of the speech removed it. Benton knew that Wen was trying to put him under pressure, but he didn’t know if Wen realized just how much pressure he had created. The Chinese president probably had no idea what it was to be on the receiving end of a free press in full cry or what impact it could have on the political process in a democratic country.

It was in full cry now. The memory of the Miami scenario in March was dragged up, and suddenly everyone was making the connection between it and the discussions that had apparently been taking place with China. Benton’s legislative program was clearly going to stop cold, and if the major budget bills hadn’t passed before the August recess the country would have been facing a government shutdown at the end of September. The markets were in turmoil, falling on rumors of a rift between the world’s two great economic powers, rising on speculation that an agreement between them was in prospect. The right-wing press was going wild with conspiracy theories about a Democratic plot to sell out the United States to China. Every Republican pressure group from the NRA to the Sisters of the Stars and Stripes was going wild. A bunch of right-wing lawyers were talking about launching a suit against anyone in the administration who could be shown to have engaged in covert negotiations with the Chinese government. The mood was so crazy that some mainstream journalists were actually taking that seriously. John Eales had the results of snap polling. Mistrust of the president was back on the agenda.

Kay Wilson, Don Bales, Cee Amadi, and a dozen other key legislators had been in the Oval Office or on the phone to tell Joe Benton about the confusion and sheer bewilderment in Democratic ranks. Within the next week there would almost certainly be a Republican move to launch a Senate inquiry. Kay Wilson wasn’t sure enough Democrats would stand firm to block it.

Bob Colvin and Henry Schulz, chair of the Federal Reserve, were communicating heavily to try to calm the markets. Their message was that, as far as they were aware, nothing had changed in the U.S. or global economies as a result of President Wen’s speech. At the White House, Jodie Ames’s line was that the administration didn’t provide commentary on remarks made by other leaders. If people wanted to ask President Wen what he meant, they should go talk to President Wen. But they didn’t want to ask President Wen what he meant. They wanted to ask President Benton what he had been doing. Had there been negotiations with the Chinese over cuts in carbon emissions or had there not? When? Where? How deep were the cuts? How far had the talks got? What did this mean for Kyoto? In the press briefing room, Adam Gehrig took a battering that made his first outings back in January look like a walk in the park. His stonewalling only convinced his interrogators that there was more to be told.

Congressional leaders and other respected Democratic figures, privately and publicly, were calling for the president to respond. Benton’s staff was divided. Some wanted an immediate statement, others thought a statement would just whip up the storm. Benton himself knew that he had to speak. With every day that passed, he felt that his silence became less comprehensible to the country. Yet still he held back, despite the temptation to come out quickly and say something. He had to do better than that. He had to do more than merely provide an explanation of what had happened. That would hand the initiative back to his critics. He had to say what was going to happen next, outline a plan and put momentum behind it. That was what he was trying to figure out. Eales, Rubin and Hoffman were working round the clock with their teams and other officials to put options together for the actions he might need to take.

In the midst of all this, other key members of the administration had to be brought up to speed with what had been happening. Benton felt a certain degree of discomfort at confessing a covert operation of this importance from which he had chosen to exclude them. In the case of Angela Chavez, the feeling went beyond discomfort. As he outlined the full extent of the negotiations, he saw at firsthand her personal sense of betrayal. His assurance that her role in driving New Foundation had been invaluable didn’t assuage her hurt. He had promised Angela Chavez that she would be an active part of the administration. Joe Benton knew what she must be thinking now. Week after week, while all of this had been happening, he had sat at their private Wednesday lunches, face to face with her, and hadn’t said a word. He didn’t know whether their relationship could ever recover. He met with other officials who now needed to know. Bob Colvin and Henry Schulz. Jay MacMahon, his defense secretary. Alan Ball briefed Lou Berkowitz, the director of National Intelligence, Stuart Cohen, CIA director, and Paul Enderlich, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president also made time to see Andrea Powers. Andrea had been supportive of his Thousand Cuts speech, she only wished he had told her about it beforehand. She too felt Kyoto 4 had to be different from the three treaties that had preceded it. After the speech she had told him that she felt it positioned her to go in and make that happen.

Now she sat down in the Oval Office and told him she couldn’t see how it was possible for her to stay in his cabinet.

This was the second time, thought Benton, she had sat in the Oval Office and said that. But this time, she didn’t seem mad. She seemed calm, cool, detached. Like someone who had already, mentally, left her job.

“I guess you’d like my interpretation of what President Wen said in his speech,” he said.

Powers nodded fatalistically. “Mr. President, I’d just like to know what’s been going on. I just want some honesty. It’s clear there’s been a dialogue between you and President Wen on environmental issues, and I’m assuming some other people have known about it, but you’ve kept me out of that loop. That’s your right, of course, but I don’t think I can serve in those circumstances.”

“I understand,” said the president.

There was silence.

“You don’t have to tell me,” said Powers. “I’ll just quit now, if you’ll accept my resignation.”

“Andrea, let’s take it a step at a time.”

Powers waited.

“There has been something going on. I wouldn’t exactly call it a dialogue between myself and President Wen.”

“For how long?”

 “Actually, it goes back to the last six months of President Gartner.” Powers stared at him.

The President shrugged. “It was a very small group of people who knew, on both sides. It’s nothing personal, Andrea, there were good reasons for it. It’s possible that I should have involved you, and I certainly did consider it. It was a tough call. But to be honest, I don’t believe there would have been an additional contribution you could have made that wasn’t already represented in the group, and it would have distracted you from the excellent work you’ve been doing in driving compliance with our existing obligations. That’s been incredibly important.”

“Doesn’t feel like it.”

“Well, it has been. And it’s going to be even more important as we go forward. We need to be scrupulous in compliance if we’re going to bring anyone with us on this. As far as keeping you out of the group who were involved, I’ve explained why I did it, but I do apologize, on a personal level, for any hurt that’s caused.” Joe Benton paused for a moment. “You’ve got to understand, the conversation we’re having today could easily have been different. I could have been sitting here telling you that you’re going into the Kyoto process backed by an agreement between us and the Chinese government for extraordinary, radical action, and sanctions to be applied to any other state that didn’t comply. I
should
have been telling you that. We were
that
close.”

Powers was silent.

“I’m going to tell you exactly what’s been happening.” The president told her going through it in a fair depth of detail. “Now, you can say I was wrong to have done it like that, but it was my judgment, and I guess we’re going to see now whether a more public process will work, although you may well say the chances are low because the Chinese are angry and that’s my fault. And if that’s the case, the buck stops with me and I accept it.”

Powers frowned, trying to absorb everything she had been told.

“You’re sure the predictions are right?” she asked.

“The range is right. Dr. Richards is going to be presenting the latest data, taking account of the summer findings, in about a month. But the range is right.”

Powers was silent.

“All right, Andrea, tell me this. You think if I put all this stuff on the table now—in the Kyoto process—you think if I put all this stuff on the table we’ve got a chance of getting the deal we need?”

“Can I ask you a question first? Why do you think the Chinese government didn’t cut a deal in Oslo?”

“That’s an excellent question. I really don’t know. I’m waiting for someone to tell me.”

“You think they might think there’s more credit for them in cutting it as part of the Kyoto process?”

The president shrugged.

Powers thought about it. “If they don’t want to do it, they won’t do it under any conditions.”

“That’s what I think.” Benton looked at her. “You still want to quit?”

Powers shook her head regretfully. “Mr. President, I don’t see how I can continue after I’ve been undermined like this.”

“By who? Me? You’ve got my full support, you know you have.”

“I haven’t got any credibility left.”

“Nor will anyone else who comes in to replace you. It’s the credibility of your office that’s been undermined. You can rebuild it.”

Powers gazed at the president skeptically. “With respect, sir, it’s me who’s been undermined, not the office.”

“All right, it’s both of you. Come on, are you in or not? There’s work to be done here, Andrea. Serious work. That’s what you joined the administration for, isn’t it? You won’t have a chance to do it outside.”

Powers smiled sadly. “Mr. President, I have a powerful sense of deja vu right now.”

“Well, I guess there’s only so many arguments a president has at his disposal.”

Powers threw back her head and closed her eyes for a moment. She took a deep breath. “Mr. President, if I’m going to stay, I’m going to have to ask you for a promise. You may think it’s out of line, and if so, I apologize and I’ll leave. On this issue, I have to be in the loop. I need to know everything.”