The Devil's Handshake

54

Washington D.C.

The world was in melt down, markets had opened in panic with sell offs everywhere being registered across the board, worse still commodity prices had also risen in sharp razor-like peaks, added to that petrol stations and supermarkets were now starting to report long queues and stockpiling.

All sparked from the response by the Russians that they were sending their “peacekeeping” troops to the Mission in Lughaya.

For the President of the United States, it was about to get a lot worse.

“Mr. President the Russians appear to be making ready their mobile regiments in Teykovo.”

“I strongly recommend we do the same and move to DEFCON Three,” said the Air Force Chief of Staff as a response to the mobile nuclear missiles regiments of Russia departing their home base.

“What! Have they gone mad?” replied the Assistant to the President on National Security Affairs, in shock.

“Sir, they would do this if they believed there is a Danger of War,” offered the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs understanding instantly why.

“May I suggest that we stopping buzzing their troops with the F-15,” offered the Secretary of State trying to prevent the grandstanding blowing into a full-blown engagement.

“We will do both,” replied the President acknowledging his equally tired Secretary of State effort to try and strike a balance between the two options without appearing weak.

“We believe it’s time to invoke Title 12, Mr. President,” said the Secretary of the Treasury, crisply adding his thoughts and to the stress if not the temperature by referring to the law that gave the President in times of war the right to order the freezing assets of companies and nationals of an enemy nation.

“Jesus Christ! Freeze their assets! They will take that as an act of war!” blurted out the Secretary of State understanding the significance of his colleague’s recommendation.

“We are taking hits from Russians shorting our gold reserves,” said the Treasury Head, rebutting him. He refused to be bullied.

“We wait,” said the President, backing his Secretary of State.

“Sir—” replied the Treasury head ready for a fight, only be cut off by the President’s stare.

An hour later the Director of Communications of the White House went on television in response the White Press Corps to accuse the Russians of supporting genocide and comparing their actions to what they were doing in Syria in an attempt to rebuke the Russians claims that the United Nations Secretary General had acted outside his mandate.

Immediately the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs responded in kind by rebutting the comments from the White House by claiming that the Americans were operating outside the Mandate of the UN Resolution by refusing to recognize their requests to hand over security for the mission to Russian Armed Forces.

The result of which quickly had the two Ambassadors on the Security Council engaging in bitter diplomatic war of words over principle with the world as very worried and scared spectators, the financial markets responding accordingly.

Yet, by luck rather than design, both parties as of yet had still so far not fired a physical shot against each other.

In between this, the Russians or the President of Adwalland had not yet announced that they had the three CIA assets in custody. It was a problem that was resting heavily on the President’s mind for if and when they did he was sure the response of America’s allies would be less than supportive and result in a cold freeze on par with what he experienced the year previously over the illegal monitoring of their telephones.

Worse still, his political instincts were telling him that they would quickly lose any potential goodwill they were now receiving from the world’s media over their actions in regard to the rescue mission.

Despite all of that, it wasn’t until the Chief Agent of his Protection Detail gave him his body armor to put on as he left the Situation Room, and then informed him that because the country was at DEFCON 3 from this moment onwards the White House would be in lock down mode did it really strike home the enormity of what he had just ordered on behalf of his nation.

Taking stock, and in his thoughts as he walked through the White House, it wasn’t lost on him that none of his Administration team had said a word in greeting towards him; their grim faces told him the whole story as they observed the President in body armor over his suit, an increased security detail in a circle around him and Heckler and Koch MP5s on full display in his own house,

Entering his private office, he instantly switched on the television set to find a journalist from MGN, who was among the first of the world’s main media into Borama, reporting that the order had been restored to the city.

He switched to CNN. This time he found a journalist reporting that Russian Special Forces were parking up outside the Mission.

“Ladies and Gentleman, we are interrupting the broadcast as it appears something is happening at the White House.”

“Here we go,” thought the President, switching off the television screen knowing full well what they were about to refer to lock down that had been ordered by the Secret Service.

He closed his eyes, all he got, unfortunately, was only a few minutes of respite.

His Presidential Secretary, the last line of defense, interrupted his thoughts. Knowing she would not do it lightly despite the situation in the office, he pressed the phone with a sigh.

“Mr. President the Chief of Staff says he needs to speak to you urgently,” she offered down the phone.

“Send him in please.”

Within seconds the man entered to brief him on the call he had just received from Ambassador Jack Fielding. The President listened carefully then gave a singular nod of his head just as his Secretary interrupted again.

This time it was the Secretary of State, only in his case, the call he had received had come from Steve Krivets, the owner of MGN.

As his Chief of Staff and The Secretary of State discussed and compared the calls they had received they were interrupted one last time. This time by a simple knock on the door whereupon his secretary quietly informed him that she now had the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on the line asking for him.

Asking the Secretary of State to wait a moment, The President switched lines.

“David, what can I do for you?” he asked informally as was their way between each other.

“Barack, I just had a somewhat interesting call from Sir Thomas Litchfield, Chairman of TLH,” he said before continuing with the content of the call.

“I think we can say this guy is real,” he said to his Secretary of State and Chief of Staff when he disconnected the call from the Prime Minister.

“That’s some impressive clout!” said his Chief of Staff reflecting on and the fact one man had managed to get a back-channel message across to them from three different sources of the highest level.

“Not even John Scali achieved that,” said the President who being a keen student of the Kennedy Administration, had like his Chief of Staff grasped just what the Oligarch was doing.

It was at that moment he took a decision to back his gut.

“Call Jack Fielding and let him know we are prepared to accept the terms that they are offering.”

Thirty minutes later the President of the Russian Federation appeared on television to his country to confirm his signal within a softer speech.

“I am convinced that our two great nations with pride and noble purpose—” using Thomas’s code word ‘blagorodnyy purpose’ confirming his below the line approval of the idea put forward by his National Champion.

Twenty minutes later the President of the United States of America with his body armor off appeared before his country and confirmed he accepted the proposal by his use of the same line at the beginning of his speech in English and a response in kind with a speech that suggested that a way forward could be found by the two great nations.

An hour later with little fanfare or statement, the American Commander of the rescue mission walked out to a watching world media and handed over responsibility of the mission security to the Russian Commander. As the two veterans saluted each other, the world started to breathe again.

Over the following ten hours, as agreed, the Russians took the lead as the armed forces of both countries stood down and returned to peacetime footing.

As they did so the world, praised the statesmanship and common sense of both leaders and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

With the television screens off, the exhausted but much relieved President summoned the Director of the CIA to his office. Forty-five minutes later on being shown into his office, his President’s expression said it all.

“Director Young, I would like you to contact Ambassador Joe Fielding so you can make arrangements for the collection you’re missing agents,” he said.

“I assume that I can leave you to clean this mess up?” The President added, handing him the contact details of Fielding.

“Yes Mr. President,” answered the dumfounded Director.

“Good, you may go now,” said the President, dismissing him.

As Young exited from the office, he wondered just how in the hell Litchfield had pulled this off.

The answer to how Thomas managed to get the both leaders to back down came from the four most important phone calls of his life.

Yet despite believing otherwise the reasons as to why Thomas’s plan had been approved by the Mayor had nothing do with the commercial reasons that he offered up at the time.

The leader of Russia couldn’t have cared less about saving the Americans’ embarrassment over their failed coup d’état by handing over the three CIA assets Thomas’s people had caught below the line, or his request to ask the many National Champions of Russia to prevent the shorting of U.S. Stocks and attacks on the U.S. Economy.

“Sir, the Americans are perceiving this as an act of War,” Thomas had suggested to him.

The Mayor’s single overriding objective had been the political process and ensuring Russia didn’t lose face, but more importantly he didn’t.

Much like his predecessor in the 1960s, the Mayor couldn’t use his country’s diplomatic channels, as that would have meant breaking constitutional law.

The result of such an action would have given his former protégé and partner the extra weight he needed to have him removed just like Brezhnev had been able to do to Khrushchev once the Cuban crisis was over, ending right there and then his dream of a strong Russia leading the world into the twenty-first century.

“Use him to act as a go-between without breaking constitutional law,” thought the Mayor as Thomas continued with his explanation, which didn’t mean he shouldn’t cover his bases. Something he did by instructing Thomas to hand over the prisoners to the SVR commander in theatre if he didn’t get anywhere within twenty-four hours.

“Of course sir,” Thomas had answered hoping he had enough time and luck on his side.

The second call Thomas made was to Jack Fielding. It was to the point and insightful.

“The President will get the Russian financial community to stop the shorting of U.S. positions,” confirmed Jack. “He will also tell them to start supporting the Feds’ efforts to rebuild confidence in the U.S. dollar by purchasing U.S. positions.”

“Yes,” Thomas said firmly.

“And get you to hand over the CIA officers to avoid any potential leaks in Borama,” the Ambassador had continued.

“That’s correct!” Thomas had replied, telling Jack only some of the truth.

“In return, he asks that the United States hand over the responsibility of the Mission in Lughaya to Russia,” the Ambassador had stated. “As a direct result of this Statesmanship by the White House he will personally praise his leadership and quickly order Russian strategic forces to stand down first so to ensure that the United States doesn’t lose any face over the hand-over and then take the lead over the next ten hours as America stands down theirs in response in each case.”

“Yes!” Thomas had answered for the third time. It was essential Jack got this right.

“Finally, he will support U.S. Corporations in natural resources joint ventures by underwriting the United States sides of the deal in Adwalland through TLH?” the Ambassador had asked.

If anybody else had made this call the respected diplomat would have thought he or she were crazy.

“That’s it in a nutshell,” Thomas had answered not bothering to tell him that it was actually going to cost him, personally, three billion U.S. dollars, not the Russian government.

“I will call White House and pass it on, but you will need a few other advocates, Thomas, I won’t be enough and there isn’t much time,” the former Ambassador had advised whilst looking at his television screen showing the Fifth Fleet exiting the Arabian Gulf. The fact that the Russians were to going assist in the shoring up of the commercial positions of the United States and then give the Americans the credit for acting as the peacemaker in exchange for the handover of something the world would be telling his country’s many Ambassadors to do so to avert the crisis was a lot to absorb.

Experience told him this offer had nothing to do with the agents or commercial benefits; they were all window dressing. This was all about pride and having the excuse to not to go to war.

It was at that moment Jack knew that he had been right to work for Litchfield; he really was the real-politic deal.

“I am on it, as we speak,” Thomas had said.

Thomas’s next call was to Steve Krivets.

“Fuck me, Thomas, this is turning into a real fucking shit storm!” Steve had expressed while he watched Jessica Austin report on the fact that the White House was now in lockdown, and speculating on unconfirmed reports that an attempt had just been made on The President life by the Russians.

“I know, but I have something that I think will help! But we don’t have much time, so fucking listen!” Thomas had ordered him. It was a language he had rarely used with his friend, but he needed to ram home the importance of what was going to ask him to do.

“I am on it!” the Mogul had answered, fully briefed and already thinking about the political capital he was going to get from the White House for his efforts in the brokering of this deal.

“The Governor of California here I come!” he had said as he dialed McGiven, all the while making a mental note as he watched Jessica on screen to invite her dinner for it was time to put away the starlets.

The last call Thomas made went to Angus, except in this case it was an instruction to call Rebecca and ask her to pass the content up the line and give to the Foreign Secretary and then ultimately the Prime Minister.

“Consider it good as done,” The former commanding officer had replied before adding his condolences over the death of the five Gurkhas.

“Those are my next five calls,” he said.