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.’
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.’
Dave laughed. ‘So what did you say then?’ He took another sip of the pinot gris.
‘Nothing. I’m not in a position to start negotiating with him. What I’d already said isn’t our government’s position. I didn’t want to compound it. I need a little deniability. A couple of remarks during a conversation – anyone can misinterpret that. A whole discussion about the pros and cons, a negotiation over the strategy, what we will support, what we won’t support – that’s a different story.’
‘Honey, you know, this is how wars start. One little misunderstanding …’
‘Dave, I don’t think we’re going to war with Great Britain. At least I haven’t heard of any planning for that contingency.’
Dave was serious again. ‘So what happens now?’
‘Well, I guess by now Sir Antony will have sent a report to London about this surprising change of direction by the US government and I would say in about …’ Marion paused and glanced at her watch, ‘six hours from now somewhere in Whitehall there’s going to be quite a lot of interest in this. A couple of hours after that, I suspect our ambassador in London is going to get a call. A couple of hours after that, I suspect Bob Livingstone is.’
‘And a couple of hours after that …’
Marion raised her glass. ‘I’m waiting for it.’
‘And you will say …?’
‘That’s a very good question, Mr Bartok. I’m not sure. What if I were to say that I didn’t say it – Seale misinterpreted or something like that – but actually, he has a very good point? A resolution wouldn’t be helpful, and the Brits must know it themselves or they wouldn’t have construed my perfectly innocent remarks in such a ridiculously slanted fashion. Obviously there’s some kind of Freudian diplomatic slip going on and they know themselves they shouldn’t be pushing the resolution.’ Marion paused. ‘What do you think?’
‘I think …’ Dave paused, nodding, then he shook his head. ‘No. That’s not going to work.’
‘No, I don’t think so either.’
‘Because we do want a resolution, don’t we?’
‘That’s the problem. We do want a resolution.’ Marion frowned. She put down her glass.
Dave watched her.
Her frown deepened. ‘Dave, I just don’t get what we’re doing. This is going to be another kick in the teeth for China – which achieves absolutely nothing in South Africa apart from strengthening Mthwesa, who we want to weaken – and I just don’t understand what the president thinks he’s going to get out of doing that. We kicked them over Uganda. Now we’re going to kick them over this. And we need them. We keep asking them for stuff and we keep kicking them.’
‘What are we asking them for?’
‘A statement over Fidelian and … there’s other stuff.’ Marion hadn’t told Dave that Dewy and Montez were thought to be in the Sudan. ‘There’s a number of things. We keep going to them and asking them for stuff, and then we keep hammering them.’
‘I’m not sure that getting rid of the LRA and calling for democracy in South Africa is hammering the Chinese,’ said Dave. ‘That’s a partial way of seeing it, don’t you think?’
Marion looked at him. ‘You’re right. It is. But right now, when we need their help – and believe me, we
need
their help – we have to see it like they do. Does it really matter if we don’t put a resolution down on the ANC before Christmas?’ Marion sighed. ‘We need to give them space. We need them to do a couple of things for us and instead of going back and asking over and over again, at the same time as we’re kicking them in the teeth, as they would see it, we need to step back and let them do it in their own way.’
‘Is there time for that?’
‘What’s the alternative? We don’t get anything if we don’t give them the time. TS – Knowles wanted to talk to Zhang and Zhang said he wasn’t available.’
Dave stared at her.
‘I don’t know what that means. No one knows what it means. But to me, it doesn’t mean, yes, let’s keep going harder. The White House perspective seems to be, if they won’t do what we want, they’re being obstructive. And if they’re being obstructive, then we need to keep hammering at them. But I think the more we keep hammering them, the more obstructive they’re going to be.’ Marion threw up her hands. ‘It’s crazy. It’s like two kids in a schoolyard. We need to change our way of doing things with them. The world’s changed. We’re not going to get what we want by confronting them. There are too many things we need from them. We need to start collaborating. Really. Not just with words.’
‘Yeah, but honey, they’re not a pleasant regime.’
‘You’re right. They’re dictatorial, they oppress human rights, they don’t have free speech.’
‘Or rule of law.’
‘Or rule of law.’
‘Or habeas corpus.’
‘Dave, we should have thought of that twenty years ago before we bound up our economy so tight with them. They’re not just another country any more. They’re part of us. We’re part of them. We’re like two …’ Marion paused, searching for a way to express it. ‘We’re like a pair of conjoined twins, we share the same blood vessels. The same blood. And we’re not going to get anywhere by hitting our conjoined twin on the head, because they’re just going to hit us back, and neither of us can ever get away from each other. We’ve got to stop hitting.’
Dave smiled.
‘What?’
‘It’s the image.’
‘Yeah. It’s like some kind of Greek tragedy. Two people tied eternally together but doomed to be always trying to get ahead of each other.’
‘I like the conjoined twins hitting each other on the head better.’
Marion shook her head, smiling in despair.
‘What if they don’t want to stop hitting?’ said Dave.
‘Someone has to stop. Someone has to stop first.’
‘What if I don’t like my conjoined twin? What if I don’t like the way he does things? Maybe if I keep hitting him a little longer he’ll stop doing those things and then I can stop hitting him.’
‘And maybe he’ll keep doing them even more just to show he can. We need to ask ourselves, how are we going to help him change? Hitting him on the head day after day is unlikely to do it.’
‘What if he won’t change?’
‘Something has to. Someone has to be first.’
Dave was silent.
Marion was reminded of what Joel Ehrenreich had said to her the last time he had been in this apartment. ‘Is Tom Knowles the man to do it?’ she asked rhetorically.
‘Is Zhang?’ said Dave.
‘That’s a fair question.’ Marion was silent for a moment. ‘You know, I’m starting to think what Joel said in his book is right.’
‘He’s got the diagnosis. I’m not sure he’s got the solution. It’s easy to say our global problems are shared problems. Easy to say we should share the problem-solving. I didn’t see him describing the mechanism.’
‘That’s his point. If the mechanism isn’t there, we have to create it. If you’ve got shared problems, you have to share the problem-solving. There’s no alternative.’ Marion picked up her glass and took a sip of the remaining wine. ‘We have a president who’s in the middle of a crisis that would test anyone – I’m not saying it’s easy – but in terms of mobilizing the support of our greatest global rival, he just isn’t doing it. Again, you know, I’m not saying it’s easy, but if we don’t change the way we go about it, we’re in trouble.’
‘So you think they did something with Fidelian?’
‘I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.’ Marion let out a long, weary sigh. ‘My experience from working in two administrations and seeing how things work at this end is, who the hell knows? They may not know themselves. Sometimes things just happen. They think we won’t let the bank fail, they think we will but it won’t matter, they think their investment fund will make some money, they think they can show how strong they are … who knows? All of the above and none of the above. Somehow they end up doing it.’
‘Or they did it specifically to influence our elections.’
‘That’s possible as well.’
‘And the implications of that are huge.’
‘True. That’s why we lost half our net worth today, remember? But they didn’t
necessarily
do it to influence our elections. And the only voice in this administration who’s trying to put a little moderation into the debate is Bob Livingstone. And Bob …’ Marion didn’t need to say the words. Dave knew that she liked the secretary of state but that she had seen him progressively marginalized over the last two years by Gary Rose and John Oakley until he had lost any influence he might have started with. ‘And Doug Havering,’ she added, ‘has turned into a kind of White House mouthpiece in the department because he figures Livingstone will go in the second term and he’s jockeying for his own position. Everyone’s jockeying for the second term but the way we’re going I wouldn’t be too sure we’re going to get past the first.’
Dave was silent, watching her.
‘And I don’t count for anything, Dave.’
‘Honey, that’s not true.’
‘It is. My position had cabinet status under Obama. Not under Tom Knowles. You know, I don’t care about cabinet status. I knew from the start I wasn’t going to have it. The point is the way this president governs and where the advice comes from that he values. I can’t get anything to him without it going past Rose. Believe me, I’ve tried. Bob should be able to, but I don’t know if even he can any more. And that’s frightening, Dave. Right now that’s a frightening situation.’