Acts of War

SIXTEEN

Paul Hood was preoccupied with Mike Rodgers's plight when he received a call from Deputy Chief of Staff Stephanie Klaw at the White House. Hood was being ordered to report to the Situation Room by one o'clock to discuss the crisis on the Euphrates. He left at once, telling his assistant Bugs Benet to notify him immediately if there were any developments in Turkey. In the absence of both Hood and Mike Rodgers, Martha Mackall would be in charge of Op-Center. Bob Herbert wouldn't be happy about that. She was the kind of career politician he disliked and distrusted. But he'd have to live with it. Martha knew her way around the corridors of power both domestically and abroad.

At this time of day it would take an hour for him to drive from Op-Center headquarters at Andrews Air Force Base to the White House. Op-Center usually had a helicopter at its disposal for quick, fifteen minute trips into the capital. However, there had been trouble with the rotor heads in other Sikorsky CH53E Super Stallions and the entire government fleet had been grounded. That was fine with Hood. He preferred to drive.

Hood hopped right onto Pennsylvania Avenue, which was located just a short distance northeast of the base. Though most government officials had private cars and drivers to take them around the city, Hood eschewed the privilege. He'd also refused it when he was Mayor of Los Angeles. The idea of being chauffeured was just too ostentatious for him. Security didn't concern Hood. No one wanted to kill him. Or if they did, he'd rather have someone try to do him harm instead of going after his wife or children or mother. Besides, driving himself, he could still conduct business by phone. He also had the opportunity to listen to music and think. And what he was thinking about now was Mike Rodgers.

Hood and his second-in-command were very different types of men. Mike was a benevolent autocrat. Hood was a thinking-man's bureaucrat. Mike was a career soldier. Hood had never even fired a gun. Mike was a fighter by nature. Hood was a diplomat by temperament. Mike quoted Lord Byron and Erich Fromm and William Tecumseh Sherman. Hood occasionally remembered lyrics from Hal David and Alfred E. Neuman's quotes from his son's copies of Mad magazine. Mike was an intense introvert. Hood was a guarded extrovert. The two men often disagreed, sometimes passionately. But it was because they disagreed, it was because Mike Rodgers had the courage to say what was on his mind, that Hood trusted and respected him. Hood also liked the man. He truly did.

Hood maneuvered patiently through the thick lunch-time traffic. His suit jacket was folded across the seat and his cellular phone lay on top of it. He wanted it to ring. God, how he wanted to know what was going on. At the same time, he dreaded finding out.

Hood stayed in his lane in the slow-moving traffic. As he did, he ruminated over the fact that death was an inescapable part of intelligence work. This was something Bob Herbert had pounded into him during the early days of Op-Center. Undercover operatives in domestic as well as foreign situations were frequently discovered, tortured, and killed. And sometimes the reverse was true. Often, operatives had to kill to keep from being discovered.

Then there was Striker, the military wing of Op-Center. Elite teams lost members on secret missions. Op-Center's own Striker had lost two so far. Bass Moore in North Korea and Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Squires in Russia. Sometimes officers were murdered at home and sometimes they were ambushed abroad. Hood's own life had been in jeopardy recently when he and French undercover operatives had helped to break up a ring of neo-Nazis in Europe.

But while death was an understood risk, it was brutal on the survivors. Several Strikers had suffered serious reactive depression due to the death of Commander Squires. For several weeks they had been unable to perform even simple duties. Not only had the survivors shared the lives and dreams of their dead coworkers, they also felt that they'd failed the victims in some way. Was the intelligence as reliable as it should have been? Were our backup plans and exit strategy sufficiently well thought out? Did we take reasonable precautions? Merciless, unforgiving guilt was also the price of doing business.

Hood reached the White House at exactly 12:55, though it took him a few minutes to park and get through the security check. Upon finally being admitted, he was met by the slender, gray-haired Stephanie Klaw. Side by side, they walked briskly down the corridor.

"They've just started the meeting," Stephanie said, her voice as soft as the green carpet underfoot. "I gather, Mr. Hood, that you're still motoring around Washington by yourself?"

"I am."

"You really ought to get a driver," she said. "I assure you, the General Accounting Office will not think that you're taking advantage of your position."

"You know I don't believe in them, Mrs. Klaw."

"I am very much aware of that," she said. "And part of me thinks that's charming. But you know, Mr. Hood, those drivers know the traffic patterns and how to maneuver through them. They also have these really loud sirens to help them get around. Besides, using drivers helps keep the unemployment statistics down. And we like it here when those figures look good."

Hood looked at her. The handsome, wrinkled face was deadpan. He could tell that Mrs. Klaw wasn't making fun of him, but of everyone else who took government limousines.

"How would you like to become my driver?" he asked.

"No, thank you," she replied. "I'm Type A when I get behind a wheel. I'd abuse the siren."

Paul smiled slightly. "Mrs. Kiaw, you've been the one bright spot in my morning. Thanks."

"You're welcome," she said. "Your lack of pretension is always a bright spot in mine."

They stopped at an elevator. Mrs. Klaw wore a card on a chain around her neck. It had a magnetic stripe on the back and a photo ID on the front. She inserted it into a slot to the left of the door. The door opened and Hood stepped in. Mrs. Klaw leaned in and pressed a red button. The button read her thumbprint and turned green. She kept her finger on the button.

"Please don't make the President cross," she said.

"I'll try not to."

"And do your best to keep the others from fighting with Mr. Burkow," she added. "He's in a mood over all of this and you know how that affects the President." She leaned closer to Hood. "He's got to defend his man."

"I'm all for loyalty," Hood said noncommittally as she lifted her thumb and the door shut. The ultra-hawkish National Security Advisor was not an easy man with whom to keep the peace.

The only noise in the wood-paneled elevator was the soft whir of the ceiling ventilator. Hood turned his face up to the cool air. After a quick ride he reached the White House sublevel. This was the technological heart of the White House where conferences were held and grounds security was maintained. The door opened on a small office. An armed Marine was waiting for him. Hood presented his ID to the guard. After examining it, the Marine thanked him and stepped aside. Hood walked over to the room's only other occupant, the President's Executive Secretary. She was seated at a small desk outside the Situation Room. She E-mailed the President that Hood had arrived, and he was told to go right in.

The brightly lighted Situation Room consisted of a long mahogany table in the center with comfortable leather-cushioned chairs around it. There was a new STU-5 secure phone, a pitcher of water, and a computer monitor at each station, with slide-out keyboards underneath. On the walls were detailed video maps showing the location of U.S. and foreign troops, as well as flags indicating trouble spots. Red flags marked present armed conflict, while green flags marked latent danger spots. Hood noticed that there was already a red flag on the Turkey-Syria border. Tucked in the far corner of the room was a table with two male secretaries. One took minutes on a Powerbook. The other sat by a computer and was responsible for bringing up any maps or data which might be required.

The heavy, six-paneled door clicked shut by itself. Above the highly polished table, two gold ceiling fans with brown blades turned slowly. Hood gave a general nod to everyone around the table as he arrived, saving a fast smile for his friend Secretary of State Av Lincoln. Lincoln winked back. Then Hood nodded directly at President Michael Lawrence.

"Good afternoon, sir," Hood said.

"Afternoon, Paul," the tall former Minnesota Governor said. "Av was just bringing us up to date."

The President was clearly in a high-energy state. During his three years in office, the President had not enjoyed any headline-making foreign policy successes. Though that would not be enough to lose him the next election, he was a born competitor who was frustrated at not having found the right combination of military strength, economic muscle, and charisma to dominate international affairs.

"Before you continue, Av," the President said, holding up a hand, "Paul — what's the latest on General Rodgers?"

"There's been no change in the situation," Hood said as he made his way to the empty leather chair in the middle of the table. "The Regional Op-Center is headed deeper into Turkey, to the spot from which General Rodgers telephoned." He glanced at his watch. "They should be arriving within the half hour."

"Will the ROC mount a rescue attempt?" asked National Security Advisor Burkow.

Hood sat down. "We're empowered to evacuate our personnel from unstable situations," he said carefully. "However, we have no idea whether that's feasible at this point."

"Anything's feasible if you want to pay the price," Burkow remarked. "Your people are authorized to use deadly force to rescue hostages. We've got thirty-seven hundred troops at the Incirlik Air-Base, which is right around the corner."

"There are two Strikers onboard," Hood replied. "But as I said, I have no idea what's feasible at this point."

"I want to be notified personally of any developments," the President said, "wherever you are."

"Of course, sir," Hood said. He wondered what the President meant by that last comment.

"Av," the President went on, "would you please continue your briefing?"

"Yes, sir," said Secretary of State Av Lincoln.

The powerfully built former major league baseball star looked at his notepad. He had made a successful transition into politics, and had been one of the earliest supporters of the candidacy of Michael Lawrence. He was one of the few insiders Paul Hood trusted completely.

"Paul," said Lincoln, "I was just telling the others about the Turkish mobilization. My office has been in constant contact with Ambassador Robert Macaluso at our embassy in Ankara, as well as with the U.S. Consulates General in Istanbul and Izmir and the consulate in Adana. We've also been talking with Ambassador Kande at the Turkish Chancery in Washington. All of them have confirmed the following information.

"At 12:30 p.m. our time, Turkey mobilized over a half-million men in their Land Forces and Air Force and put one hundred thousand men on high alert in the Naval Forces, which includes the Naval Air and Naval Infantry. That's nearly all of their total military power."

"Including reserves?" the President asked.

"No, sir," said Defense Secretary Colon. "They can dig up another twenty thousand troops if they have to, then dip into the nineteen-to-forty-nine-year-old work force for another fifty thousand trainees if necessary."

"We've been told that the land and air forces are going to take up positions down the Euphrates. and along the Syrian border," Lincoln went on. "The sea forces are being concentrated on the Aegean and the Mediterranean. We've been assured by Ankara that the naval troops in the Mediterranean will go no further south than the southern tip of the Gulf of Alexandretta."

Hood looked at the map on his computer screen. The gulf ended about twenty-five miles north of Syria.

"The Turkish forces in the Aegean are to make sure the Greeks stay out of this," Lincoln said. "We haven't heard anything definitive yet from Damascus, though the President, his three Vice Presidents, and the Council of Ministers are meeting right now. Ambassador Moualem at the chancery here in Washington says there will be an appropriate response from Syria."

"Meaning?" asked the President.

"Some kind of mobilization," said General Ken Vanzandt, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Syria's got its highest concentration of soldiers in bases along the Orontes in the west, along the Euphrates in central Syria, and in the east near the Iraqi and Turkish borders. The Syrian President will probably send half of those troops north, maybe one hundred thousand troops."

"How far north will they go?" the. President asked.

"All the way," said Vanzandt. "To within slingshot distance of Turkey. Since losing the Golan Heights to Israel in 1967, the Syrians have been pretty aggressive about defending their territory."

"'It's interesting that Turkey mobilized nearly six hundred thousand men," said Secretary of Defense Ernie Colon. "That's almost three times the total manpower available to the Syrian Army, the Syrian Navy, the Syrian Air Force, and the Syrian Air Defense Forces combined. Turkey's obviously saying, 'We'll take you on one-to-one. And if any other nations join in, we've got something left over for them too.' "

"That sounds good on the surface," said General Vanzandt. "But the Turks are facing a big problem. They have to fight this kind of terrorism, that's a given. But even if the Syrian military weren't a factor, a Turkish attack against the Kurds is a dangerous proposition. We know that the Kurds have been trying to smooth out their differences. Whether they caused the dam attack or not, it's certain to encourage and solidify the different Kurdish elements. A counterattack by Turkey will inspire even greater unity. There are fourteen to fifteen million Kurds among Turkey's fifty-nine million people, and they're ready to blow."

"Who can blame them?" asked Lincoln. "They've been shot at, gassed in their homes, and executed without trials."

"Hold it right there, Av," said Burkow. "Many of those Kurds are terrorists."

"And many are not," Lincoln 'replied.

Burkow ignored him. "Larry, what was that business in the Syrian Navy last month?"

CIA director Larry Rachlin folded his hands on the table. "The Syrians did an A-one job keeping this out of the press," he said, "but a Kurdish mole assassinated a general and two aides. When the mole was captured, another Kurdish mole took the general's wife and two daughters hostage and demanded his release. Instead, they sent him his colleague's head. Literally. There was a rescue attempt. By the time it was finished, the general's wife, daughters, and the second Kurd were dead along with two Syrian rescuers."

"If it's the Turks who are terrorizing the Kurds," said the President, "why did this mole turn on the Syrians?"

"Because," said Rachlin, "the Syrian President has come to the conclusion, correctly, that his armed forces are full of Kurdish moles. Some of them in very high places. He's vowed to flush them all out."

Lincoln sat back with disgust. "Steve, Larry, what's the point of all this?"

"The point is that we can't start bleeding all over for the Kurds," Burkow said. "We've been good to them in the past. But they're becoming increasingly militant, they're ruthless, and they've got God-knows-how-many moles in the Turkish military as well. If we get mixed up in this those Turkish moles may start turning on NATO assets."

"Actually, things could be a whole lot worse than that," Vanzandt said. "The Kurds have a lot of sympathizers among the Islamic fundamentalist parties in Turkey. Individually or together, those Kurds and their sympathizers could very well take advantage of the confusion of war to try and throw out the secular rulers in both governments."

"Out of chaos comes more chaos," Lincoln said.

"You got it," said Vanzandt. "Out with flawed democracy, in with religious oppression."

"Out with the U.S.," Defense Secretary Colon said.

"Out isn't the word for it," CIA Director Rachlin added. "Steve's right on the money. They'll start hunting us down not only in Turkey but in Greece. Remember all those Afghan freedom fighters we helped to arm and train to fight the Soviets? A lot of those people have thrown in with the Islamic fundamentalists. Many of them are being directed by Sheik Safar al-Awdah, a Syrian who is one of the most radical clerics in the region."

"God, I'd like to see someone drop-kick that son of a bitch," Steve Burkow said. "His radio speeches have sent a lot of people on one-way bus trips into Israel with bombs tied to their legs."

"His following in Turkey and Saudi Arabia in particular are very strong," Rachlin went on, "and it's gotten stronger in Turkey since Islamic Party Leader Necmettin Erbakan became Prime Minister of Turkey in the summer of 1996. Ironically, not all of the radicalism has to do with religion. Some of it has to do with the economy. In the 1980s, when Turkey went from being a relatively closed market to being a global one, only a handful of people got rich. The rest stayed poor or got poorer. Those kinds of people are easy converts to anything new."

"The fundamentalists and the big urban underclass are natural allies," said Av Lincoln. "Both are minorities and both want things the wealthy, secular leaders have."

"Larry," the President said, "you mentioned Saudi Arabia. What will the rest of the region do if things escalate between Turkey and Syria?"

"Israel is the big question," said Rachlin. "They take their military cooperation agreement with Turkey very, very seriously. Israel's been flying training missions out of Akinci Air Base west of Ankara for two years now. They've also been slowly upgrading Turkey's 164 Phantom F-4s to the more sophisticated Phantom 2000s."

"Mind you," Colon pointed out, "Israel didn't just do that out of the goodness of their hearts. They were paid six hundred million dollars to do that."

"That's right," Rachlin agreed. "But in the event of war, Israel will still continue to provide spare parts, possibly ammunition, and certainly intelligence to Turkey. It's the same kind of arrangement Israel signed with Jordan back in 1994. There will probably be no direct military intervention unless Israel is attacked. However, if Israel permits Turkey to fly from its territory for a two-sided slam at Syria, you can be pretty sure that Damascus will attack Israel."

"For the record," said Vanzandt, "that 'bracketing the enemy' idea works both ways. Syria and Greece have been talking about forging a military relationship so that either of them could hit Turkey from two directions."

"Talk about a marriage made in Hell," said Lincoln. "Greece and Syria have virtually no other common ground."

"Which should tell you how much they both hate Turkey," Burkow pointed out.

"What about the other nations in the region?" asked the President.

"Iran will certainly intensify efforts to promote their puppet parties in Ankara," Colon said, "calling for general strikes and marches, but they'll stay out of this militarily. They don't need to become involved."

"Unless Armenia gets pulled in," Lincoln said.

"Right," said Colon, "which we'll get to in a second. Iraq will almost certainly use the excuse of troop movements to attack Kurds operating on their border with Syria. And once Iraq is mobilized, there's always the possibility that they'll do something to provoke Kuwait or Saudi Arabia or even their old enemy Iran. But as Av said, the big question we have is about Armenia."

The Secretary of State nodded. "Armenia is almost entirely Armenian Orthodox. If the government there fears that Turkey is going to go Islamic, they may have no choice but to jump into any conflict to protect their Own border. If that happens, Azerbaijan, which is mostly Muslim, will almost certainly use that as an excuse to try and reclaim the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which they lost to Armenia in skirmishes in 1994."

"And which Turkey has publicly stated belongs to Azerbaijan," Colon said. "That creates tension within Turkey for those who support their religious brethren in Armenia. On top of everything else, we could have civil war in Turkey over events in two neighboring countries."

"This might be a good time to push the expansion of NATO," Lincoln pointed out. "Bring Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic into the fold to keep them stabilized. Use them as a breakwater."

"We'll never be able to make that happen in time," Burkow said.

Lincoln smiled. "Then it's best to start right away."

The President shook his head. "Av, I don't want us distracted by that now. Those countries will side with us and we'll support them. My concern is stopping this situation before it gets that far."

"Fine," Lincoln said, raising his hands slightly. "Just a precaution."

Hood looked at the new map which the Situation Room secretary had just put up on the screens. Armenia was situated with Turkey on its western border and Azerbaijan to the east. The Nagorno Karabakh region in Azerbaijan was claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"Obviously," said Lincoln, "the greatest danger isn't that Azerbaijan and Aremenia will go to war. The two of them put together are about half the size of Texas with a combined population of Greater Los Angeles. The danger is that Iran, located directly below them, and Russia, situated directly above them, will start moving troops to protect their own borders. Iran would love to get their hands on that region. It's rich in oil, natural gas, copper, farmland, and other resources. And the hard-liners in Russia would love to get it back."

"There are also devout Christians in Armenia," said Vanzandt, "and Iran would love to clean them out. Without Armenia to serve as a counterbalance to the mostly Muslim population of Azerbaijan, the entire region becomes a de facto part of Islamic Iran."

"Maybe," said Lincoln. "There are other hair triggers as well. For example, the fifteen million Azeris in the northern provinces of Iran. If they decide to secede, Iran will fight to hold them. And the five million ethnic Caucasians in Turkey will surely fight with their Iranian kin. That puts Iran and Turkey at war with one another. And if the Caucasians fight for independence, chances are good the North Caucasus will be ripped apart by other groups looking to resolve ages-old strife. The Ossetians and Ingush, the Ossetians and the Georgians, the Abkhazians and the Georgians, the Checkens and the Cossacks, the Chechens and the Laks, the Azeris and the Lezgins."

"What's frustrating," said Colon, "'is that both Bob Herbert's team at Op-Center and Grady Reynolds's team at the CIA agree with my own people. Damascus probably had nothing to do with blowing up the dam. They'd have to be insane to cut off more than half their own water supply."

"Maybe they want to generate international sympathy," Burkow said. "Videos and photographs of thirsty babies and dying old people would give Syria an instant image-remake. It would help to turn United States sympathy and foreign aid away from Turkey and Israel to them."

"It would also cause the much larger and better-armed Turkish Army to come marching down their throats," Colon replied. "This dam incident is an act of war. In such a war, the U.S. military and our financial institutions would be obliged by NATO treaty to support Turkey. Israel would also support the Turks, especially if it gave them a chance to hit Syria."

"Only if Syria rises to the challenge of war," Burkow said. "Turkey might mass an army on the Syrian border. So might Syria. But if Syria chooses not to reply, there'll be no war."

"And the Arab world would consider them dishonored," Colon said. "No, Steve, that's just too Machiavellian. This makes more sense if it's the work of Syrian Kurds."

"Why would the Kurds seek to cause an international confrontation?" asked the President. "They've been desperate enough to attack host nations. But would they do something on this scale?"

"We've been expecting the different Kurdish nationals to unite for some time," said Larry Rachlin. "Otherwise, they run the risk of getting picked off separately. This could be that unification."

"Kurdistan in diaspora," said Lincoln.

"Exactly," said Rachlin.

"The truth is, Steve," said Lincoln, "General Vanzandt is right to worry about what the Kurds might do. As things stand, they're among the most persecuted people on Earth. Distributed throughout Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, they're actively oppressed by all three governments. Until 1991, they weren't even allowed to use their own language in Turkey. Under pressure from the other NATO nations, Ankara reluctantly granted them that but nor more. Over twenty thousand Turks have been killed since the rebels started fighting for sovereignty in 1984, and the Kurds are still banned from forming groups of any sort. I'm not just talking about political parties, but even choral clubs or literary societies. If there were a war, the Kurds would inevitably be part of the fighting, and then they'd also be part of the peace process. It's the only way they can ever hope to get autonomy. "

The President turned to Vanzandt. "We have to support the Turks. And we also have got to prevent this thing from turning the other way, into Greece and Bulgaria."

Agreed," said Vanzandt.

"So we've got to try and contain this before the Syrians and Turks go at it," said the President. "Av, what are the chances that the Turks will enter Syria to hunt the bombers?"

"Well, Ankara is pretty upset," Lincoln said, "but I don't think they'll go over the border. At least, not in force."

"Why not?" said Vanzandt. "They've ignored national sovereignty before. In 1996 they mounted some pretty bloody cross-border air attacks on Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq."

"We've always believed that Turkey was acting with Iraqi approval in that case," said CIA Director Rachlin. "Since the U.S. wouldn't let Saddam attack the Kurds, he let the Turks do it."

"Anyway," said Lincoln, "there's another reason the Turks are wary of going against Syria. Back in 1987, Turkey discovered that Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish guerrilla leader, was living in Damascus. He was sitting in his apartment and ordering attacks on villages in Turkey. Ankara asked Damascus to let a strike team in so they could take him. All Syria had to do was stay out of the way. But Syria didn't want to stir things up with the Syrian Kurds, so they refused. The Turks came very close to ordering a strike team into Damascus."

"Why didn't they?" the President asked.

"They were afraid that Syria had tipped Ocalan off,"' Lincoln said. "The Turks didn't want to raid the building and not find him there. It would have been politically embarrassing, to say the least."

"I'd say that this dam blast is a helluva lot more provocative than what was happening in 1987," Vanzandt remarked.

"It is," said Lincoln, "but the problem is the same. What if it turns out that Turkish Kurds did the hands-on work, not the Syrian Kurds? Turkey attacks Syria looking for enemies there, and it turns out their own Kurds were responsible. Syria's stock rises in the international forum and Turkey's plummets. Turkey won't risk that kind of an ambush."

"You've got to remember, Mr. President," said Defense Secretary Colon, "this explosion hurts Damascus as much as it does Ankara. My feeling is that it's the unified Kurds who have turned up the heat. They're trying to trigger a war between Turkey and Syria by forcing Turkey to enter Syria looking for terrorists. And the Kurds will keep applying pressure until they get a major incursion."

"Why?" asked the President. "Because they think they'll get a homeland as part of the peace process?"

Colon and Lincoln both nodded.

Hood was looking up at one of the maps. "I don't understand," he said. "What does Syria gain by preventing Turkey from finding Kurdish terrorists? Damascus has got to ensure the security of their other water sources, especially the Orontes River in the west. It looks like it comes right through Turkey into Syria and Lebanon."

"It does," said Lincoln.

"So if Turkey wants to stop the Kurds," Hood went on, "and Syria needs to stop the Kurds, why won't they join forces? This isn't like the Ocalan affair. Syria doesn't risk stirring up the Kurds. It looks like they're already on the warpath."

"Syria can't join forces with Turkey," said Vanzandt, "because of the Turkish military cooperation pact with Israel. Syria would sooner support Kurdish political goals to stop them from blowing up other dams rather than join the Turks and eradicate the Kurds."

"Syria would back one enemy rather than support the friend of another enemy," Colon said. "That's Middle Eastern politics for you."

"But Syria would have to give up some of its own land to give the Kurds a homeland," the President said.

"Ah, but would they?" asked Av Lincoln. "Suppose the Kurds eventually get what they want, a homeland straddling parts of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. Do you think for a moment that Syria will stay out of there? They don't play by any rules. They'll use terrorism to exert de facto control over what used to be their territory, and also absorb some of the former Turkish lands into Greater Syria. That's exactly what they've done with Lebanon."

"General Vanzandt, gentlemen," the President said, "we've got to find some way of guaranteeing the security of those other water sources and also of helping the Turks find the terrorists. What are your suggestions?"

"Larry and Paul, we can talk about internal operations against the terrorists later," said General Vanzandt. "Present the President with some suggestions."

Hood and Rachlin both nodded.

"As for the water," Vanzandt went on, "if we move the Eisenhower Carrier Battle Group from Naples to the eastern Mediterranean, we can watch the Orontes while at the same time keeping the seaways secure for Turkish exports. We want to make sure the Greeks don't jump into this."

"That leaves everyone happy," said Steve Burkow, "unless the Syrians suddenly decide in their paranoid way that this is all a United States plot to cut off their water supply. Which, if you ask me, wouldn't be the world's worst idea. That would put Damascus out of the terrorism business right quick."

"And kill how many innocent people?" Lincoln asked.

"Not many more than Syrian-backed terrorists will kill worldwide over the next few years," Burkow replied. He typed his password on the computer and brought up a file. "We were talking about Sheik al-Awdah before," Burkow said as he looked at the screen. "In yesterday's radio speech from Palmyra, Syria, he said, 'We call upon God Almighty to destroy the American economy and society, to transform its states into nations and turn them against one another. To turn its brothers against one another as penance for infidelic evil.' Now, to my ears that's a declaration of war. You know how many sickeroos out there are going to hear this and try to make that happen?"

"That doesn't justify blind, preventative strikes," the President pointed out. "We aren't terrorists."

"I know that, sir," Burkow said. "But I'm tired of playing by rules that no one else in the world seems to acknowledge. We pour tens of billions of dollars into the Chinese economy and they use that money to develop and sell military nuclear technology to terrorists. Why do we allow it? Because we don't want American businesses to suffer by being shut out of China—"

"The issue isn't China," Lincoln said.

"The issue is a chronic goddamn double standard," Burkow shot back. "We look the other way when Iran ships weapons to Muslim terrorists around the world. Why? Because some of those terrorists are bombing other countries. In a perverse way, that gives us allies in the fight against terrorism. We don't have to endure all kinds of criticism for defending ourselves if other nations are defending themselves too. All I'm saying is we've got an opportunity here to hold Syria's feet to the fire. If we cut off their water, we choke their economy. We do that and Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist camps in Syria and even our Kurdish terrorists get squeezed."

"Kill the body and you kill the disease," Lincoln replied. "Come on, Steve,"

"You also keep the disease from spreading to other bodies," Burkow answered. "If we were to make an object lesson of Syria, I guarantee you Iran and Iraq and Libya would pull in their claws and count their blessings."

"Or redouble their efforts to destroy us," Lincoln said.

"If they did," Burkow replied, "we would turn Tehran and Baghdad and Tripoli into craters wide enough to be photographed from space."

There was a short, uncomfortable silence. Visions of Dr. Strangelove flashed through Hood's mind.

"What if we were to turn that around?" Lincoln asked. "What if we were to hold out a helping hand instead of a fist?"

"What kind of hand?" the President asked.

"What would really get Syria's attention isn't just a flow of water but a flow of money," said Lincoln "Their economy is in the gutter. They're turning out roughly the same amount of goods as they were fifteen years ago when the population was twenty-five percent smaller. They've gotten mired in an unsuccessful attempt to match Israel's military strength, there's been a big falloff in Arab aid, and they've got insufficient foreign exchange earnings to buy what they need to spur industry and agriculture. They have nearly six billion dollars in external debt."

"My heart grieves," Burkow said. "Seems to me they've got enough money to underwrite terrorism."

"Largely because that's the only kind of pressure they can apply on rich nations," Lincoln said. "Suppose we give Syria the carrot before they sponsor further acts of terrorism. Specifically, we give them U.S. guaranteed credit at the Import Export Bank."

"We can't do that!" Burkow shouted. "For one thing, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have to okay any knockdown of debt burdens."

"Donor countries can also write off loans to heavily indebted nations," Hood pointed out.

"Only if the borrowing countries adopt strict market reforms which are monitored by the bank and the fund," Burkow shot back.

"There are ways around that," Hood replied. "We can let them sell off gold deposits."

"And end up buying them ourselves and thereby sponsoring the terrorists who are going to blow our asses up," Burkow said. "No, thanks." He looked back at Av Lincoln. "As long as Syria's on top of the list of terrorist nations, we are forbidden by law from giving them financial aid."

"Nuking capital cities strikes you as lawful?" Hood asked.

"In self-defense, yes," Burkow replied with disgust.

"The State Department's annual report on terrorism hasn't had Syria directly involved in a terrorist attack since 1986," said Lincoln, "when Hafez al-Assad's air force intelligence chief organized the bombing of an El Al airliner from London."

"Directly involved." Burkow laughed. "Oh, that's rich, Mr. Secretary. The Syrians are as guilty of terrorism as John Wilkes Booth was of showing Abraham Lincoln. And not only of terrorism, but of running drug-processing plants for cocaine paste and morphine in the Bekaa Valley, of producing high-quality counterfeit hundred-dollar bills—"

"The issue is terrorism, Steve," Lincoln said. "Not cocaine paste. Not China. Not nuclear war. Stopping terrorism."

"The issue," Burkow shouted back, "is giving financial aid to an enemy of this country! You don't want to waste them, that's one thing. But it doesn't mean we have to reward them."

"A token twenty- or, thirty-million-dollar loan guarantee as, say, drought relief doesn't constitute aid and it isn't a reward," Lincoln said. "It's merely an incentive to whet their appetites for future cooperation. And coming now, a gesture like that might also help prevent a war."

"Av, Steve," said the President, "all I'm interested in right now is containing and defusing this particular situation." The President looked at Hood. "Paul, I may want you to handle this. Who's your Middle East advisor?"

Hood was caught by surprise. "Locally, I've got Warner Bicking."

"The Kid from Georgetown," Rachlin said. "He was on the U.S. boxing team in the '88 summer Olympics. Got involved in that tiff over the Iraqi fighter who wanted to defect."

Hood slipped Rachlin an annoyed look. "Warner is a good and trusted colleague."

"He's a loose cannon," Rachlin said to the President. "He critiqued George Bush's policy on asylum on network TV while wearing red trunks and boxing gloves. The press called him 'the flyweight diplomat.' Made a joke of the entire affair."

"I want a heavy hitter, Paul," the President said.

"Warner's a good man," Hood said to the President. "But we've also used Professor Ahmed Nasr to work on many of our white papers."

"I know that name."

"You met him at the dinner for the Sheik of Dubai, Mr. President," Hood said. "Dr. Nasr was the one who left after dessert to help your son with his paper on pan-Turkism."

"I remember him now." The President smiled. "What's his background?"

"He used to be with the National Center for Middle East Studies in Cairo," Hood said. "Now he's with the Institute for Peace."

"How would he play in Syria?"

"He'd be very welcome there," said Hood, still confused. "He's a devout Muslim and a pacifist. He also has a reputation for honesty."

"Hell," said Larry Rachlin, "I'm starting to lean toward Steve on this one. Mr. President, do we really want an Egyptian Boy Scout talking restraint with a terrorist state?"

"We do when everyone else is running off half-cocked," the President said. He glanced at Burkow, but didn't rebuke him. Hood knew that he wouldn't. The men had been friends for too long and been through too many personal and professional crises together. Besides, Hood knew that the President welcomed Burkow saying the things that he, as the Commander-in-Chief, could not. "Paul," the President went on, "I'd like you to go to Damascus with Professor Nasr."

Hood recoiled slightly. Larry Rachlin and Steve Burkow both sat up straight. Lincoln smiled.

"Mr. President, I'm not a diplomat," Hood protested.

"Sure you are," said Lincoln. "Will Rogers said that diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock. You can do that."

"You can also talk to the Syrians about intelligence and about banking," the President said. "That's exactly the kind of diplomacy I need right now."

"Until we find a rock," Burkow muttered.

"Frankly, Paul," the President continued. "I also can't afford to send anyone at cabinet level. If I do, the Turks will feel slighted. Personally, I'm as tired of being pushed around as Steve and Larry are. But we've got to try the low-key route. Mrs. Klaw will see that you have the appropriate policy papers to read on the flight. Where is Mr. Nasr?"

"In London, sir," Hood said. "He's speaking at some kind of symposium."

"You can pick him up there," the President said. "Dr. Nasr can fine-tune and help sell whatever you think will work. You can take that kid from GU if you'd like. This will also put you on the scene in case you need to help negotiate for the release of General Rodgers. Ambassador Haveles in Damascus will see to all the security arrangements."

Hood thought about missing his daughter's piccolo solo tonight at school. He thought about how his wife would fear for him going into that part of the world at this particular time. And. he thought about both the challenge and pressure of being part of history, of helping to save lives instead of risking them.

"I'll be on a plane this afternoon, sir," Hood said.

"Thanks, Paul." The President looked at his watch. "It's one-thirty-two. General Vanzandt, Steve, we'll have the Joint Chiefs and Security Council meet in the Oval Office. at three o'clock. You want to move the battle group, General?"

"I think it would be prudent, sir," Vanzandt said.

"Then do it," said the President. "I also want options in the event of increased hostilities. We've got to keep this from spreading."

"Yes, sir," General Vanzandt said

The President rose, signaling the end of the meeting. He walked out with Burkow and General Vanzandt on either side, followed by Rachlin and Colon. Secretary of Defense Colon threw Hood a friendly salute as he left.

As Hood sat alone at the conference table, collecting his thoughts, Av Lincoln walked over.

"The first time I ever pitched in the Major Leagues," the Secretary of State told him, "it wasn't because I was ready for the job. It was because three other starters were sick, injured, or suspended. I was eighteen years old and scared spitless, but I won the game. You're smart, you're dedicated, you're loyal, and you've got a conscience, Paul. You're going to bat this assignment out of the ballpark."

Hood rose. He shook Lincoln's hand. "Thanks, Av. I hope I don't dazzle everyone so much that you're out of a job."

Lincoln smiled as they left the Situation Room together. "Considering the stakes, Paul, I hope you do."