Code Word: Paternity, A Presidential Thriller (31 page)

Chapter 54

Two Weeks Later

 
“Come on, Julie, you oughta come with me!” Ray
gave an encouraging grin.

“No, Ray—really! It’s OK; you should go
alone. You three lived this together; I wasn’t part of it. That’s not, oh, poor
me—that’s just a fact. I’d be a distraction and that would make me feel
awkward. Just go! Don’t keep the president and first lady waiting!”

Said with a smile, but forcefully, his
wife’s words propelled Ray Morales out the door. About forty-five minutes later
he arrived at the main gate of Aberdeen Proving Grounds, where his four-star
identification card produced the snappiest salute the Federal Protective
Service policeman could muster and drew a smile from a waiting Secret Service
agent. It was the agent who had escorted Ray into the White House on his secret
visit, and this time he was much friendlier. They chatted about the Marines and
outfits they had served with, while the agent drove to dockside.

The Martins welcomed him aboard a Hunter
Thirty-six and got it underway expertly. Aware of the president’s preference
for quiet, Ray munched a sandwich, nursed a beer, and didn’t say much. After
maneuvering the boat into the broad mouth of the Gunpowder River,
Rick laid her on a starboard tack and smiled at Ray and Ella.

“Ray, I don’t know exactly where to
begin. Certainly I should start by thanking you for your wisdom and discretion.
You helped me steady myself when I needed it a lot.

You’ve never revealed our meeting . . .
never asked for anything. The country owes you and I owe you.”

“This is where the cowboy hero would say,
‘Aw shucks—t’warn’t nothin’—and really, it wasn’t—but if I may, I’d like to ask
some questions, Mr. President.”

“Go ahead,
Ray—anything!”

“Do you think al-Qaeda did it, or Kim’s
people?

“I don’t know. My best guess is
al-Qaeda.”

“So you went ahead with the nuclear
attack on Sinpo without knowing if Kim was directly involved in the attacks on
us?”

“Yes. Because our attack wasn’t about
punishing the guilty. I wouldn’t have done it for punishment or revenge. It was
to get Kim out, quickly, after all else had failed to do it. I believed
regardless of who was setting the bombs off, getting Kim out of power would
stop the bombing by cutting off the bomb supply.”

Feeling a wind
shift, the president adjusted the boat’s course.

“I had to
convince Ming that if he didn’t remove Kim, I would. Ming knew that invasion of
the DPRK would fail and he knew that I knew it. He also knew that if I had the
stomach for it the United States
could end Kim’s regime using nuclear missiles and leave the mess on China’s
doorstep. The nuclear destruction of their neighbor and ‘younger cousin’ would
be a disaster for China,
sucking them into the chaos no matter how they tried to avoid it. I had to
convince Ming I
did
have the stomach
for that and it took the destruction of Sinpo to do it.”

Morales thought for a moment. “Do you
believe it was Ming who took Kim down? The DPRK announced he was killed at
Sinpo.”

“Well, I don’t believe he was killed at
Sinpo. That’s just too much of a coincidence, unless I were to believe that
China has an agent in here so deep that he could tell Ming Sinpo was the target
and
Ming could somehow maneuver Kim
to Sinpo at the right time. I don’t buy that!

“Ming took Kim down indirectly, by
cutting a deal with Marshal Young-san: get rid of Kim, give up the nukes, and
you’ll have Chinese resources and a free hand to rule. That’s a pretty sweet
package for a thug like Young-san and I’m not surprised he took it. I think
Young-san killed Kim, or ordered it, and had his body deposited in the wreckage
of Sinpo to tie up the loose end.”

As the wind increased, Ella moved across
the slanting cockpit to the high side.
I
wonder if Rick is going to get to what’s really on his mind and soul,
she
thought.

“Now I have some
questions for
you
, Ray,” said the
president.

“Fire away, sir.”

 
“What about me, Ray? Did I do my duty? Did I
save hundreds of thousands of Americans by killing fifty thousand Koreans? Did
I do the right thing? Or was the bombing already over because Kim got cautious
after we intercepted the second bomb? You’ve read the
New York Times
.
Am
I the
bloodiest ruler since Stalin?”

Morales saw a pinched, fearful squint on
the president’s face that reminded him of an iconic newspaper photo of a Viet
Cong guerrilla, his captor’s pistol inches from his temple, moments before being
executed.

Poor
guy!
thought Morales.
He’s really at the center of a firestorm,
some of it fed by people who don’t consider that they might be dead now if he
hadn’t acted. But some also from folks who would have been willing to bet their
own lives that we could get through this without using our nukes; that somehow,
given more time, diplomacy would have worked.

“All I can tell you, sir, is that I would
have done the same. I can say you did your duty. But were you right? Was it the
best outcome? Would somebody else, like Vice President Griffith, have done
better?

“Well, sir, as that Marine instructor I
told you about said, ‘This is about
you
,
Lieutenant. You’re the platoon commander. What are
you
going to do,
now
?’

“You were the one who had the responsibility
and the duty to decide.
You
know if
you made the best decision you could. That’s all you get to know in this life,
except that there’ll be other tough decisions coming along, because that’s what
leaders get. You make ’em and go on.

“You carry the decisions you’ve made in
your rucksack. Some of them are really heavy. For the rest of your life, early
some days and late some nights, you’ll wonder if you could have made better
choices, better decisions. You’ll open that ruck and lay them out. You’ll revisit
them. But you don’t get any do-overs. That’s just the way it is.”

Rick gazed back at him for long seconds,
face still pinched. Then he relaxed, nodded, squeezed Ella’s hand, and eased
the boat onto a broad reach. It left a wake straight as an arrow as it
rollicked through the green-brown waters of the Chesapeake.

***

After dinner, the president and first
lady sat on the porch of the guest house, enjoying the spectacular play of
sunset reflected in clouds over the bay.

“How do you
feel, Rick? What do you think about the things Ray said?”

“About what he said: obviously, that
works for him, as he lives the rest of his life with the decisions he’s made.
It doesn’t for me; it’s too pat.”

“Does it have to
be complicated to work for you?”

“Maybe . . . I
don’t know; I’m just saying how I feel.”

“No, you’re saying how you
think
!” Ella smiled, then grew solemn.

“Rick, how
are
you going to live with the order you gave to destroy Sinpo?”

He leaned forward, elbows planted on
thighs, hands clasped.
“I’m going to focus on the
good that could come out of it and work as hard as I can, for the rest of my
life, to squeeze every bit of progress from it. A better life for Koreans.
Tighter international control of nukes. The end, I pray, of nuclear terrorism.”

“What about the country’s
reaction?”

“I don’t know . . . Ella, should we run
again? Or am I such a symbol of anger and bloodshed that we couldn’t win a
second term and shouldn’t even try?”

“Rick, it’s too
soon to tell! But do you
want
to be
president for eight years?”

“I don’t know.
Nine months ago, I was so sure of everything. Sure that I could thread the
needle and solve any dispute. A few days after Las Vegas I was sure I could lead a
transformation, truly change the course of history for the better.”

He twisted and looked intently into her
eyes. “And it
was
the right
policy—but I couldn’t get it done because of one man, Kim Jong-il, and one
philosophy, bin Laden’s version of Islam. Evil plus unreasoning, undying hatred
stopped me and nearly destroyed America.

“So I’m no longer sure of much. Now, all
I’m
sure
of is that someone—maybe
Kim, maybe Kim and al-Qaeda—destroyed Las
Vegas, and
I
destroyed Sinpo, and because of us about a hundred and thirty thousand people
are dead.”

Ella put her hand on his forearm and
squeezed it hard. “Rick, you can be sure of more than that! You can be sure
that a really dangerous man, Kim Jong-il, no longer rules a country with
nuclear weapons. And you can be sure that never again will a country with nukes
give or sell one to the crazies, because that had consequences as terrible as
the terrorists’ act. And that every country will keep much tighter control over
all nuclear materials. And that the UN will not just debate and watch again if
someone like Kim starts building nukes and missiles.”

Rick shook his head. “No, Ella, other
than the Kim part, I can’t be sure of any of that! I thought the bombing of Las Vegas changed the
world, changed the ways that Ming and other leaders thought about security. I
was wrong—it only changed
my
way of
thinking!”

 
“So you can’t believe in something unless it’s
certain? And nothing is resolved unless it’s resolved forever? Come on, Rick!”
Ella smiled, taking the sting out of her words.

She’s
right. I’m afraid of getting comfortable with what I did, afraid of letting
myself off the hook. But I accomplished a lot and I can acknowledge that
without forgetting what it cost.

“You’re right . . . I didn’t let Steve
Nguyen down. I suppose I let that woman down, but I
did
try to find a way without more killing, and maybe another time
I’ll succeed.

“But how do
you
feel, Ella? You wanted to kill the bombers, very slowly and
painfully, as I recall.”

Ella threw back her shoulders. Her dark
eyes flashed. “Kim’s dead. I hope he died in pain and knowing it was payback
for Las Vegas!
But probably he didn’t; probably he got a quick bullet in the head. Still, I
feel good knowing he was killed for what he did. Same for bin Laden—and I’m
glad he had time to know what was coming!

“But we didn’t get the others. Whoever
planted the Las Vegas
bomb, whoever was waiting for that second bomb—they’re still out there,
somewhere. I want them dead, too!”

Taking a deep breath, Rick plunged,
driven to ask but fearing her answer: “But, Ella, I was also asking how you
feel about
me
. I know there was a
time you thought I wasn’t up to this job, to being president in these
circumstances.”

“Rick, I’ve always thought you were a
good man! I’ve never wavered from that. But you’re a good man born and bred in
a place of law and safety and abundance. You had never in your life been at
physical risk. You had never faced an opponent who didn’t accept the rules and
conventions that you had come to believe governed human life. In all of this
you were like so many Americans. So I
did
fear that you wouldn’t be able to understand that this was kill or be killed,
or, perhaps, would understand but be unable, or unwilling, to kill. Thank God,
I was wrong!”

Rick preened a little. Ella knew the
signs: her husband was about to launch into one of his lectures.
He’s going to be OK!
As her heart
jumped, she suppressed a smile.

“Ella, you
were
wrong! But I understand why. Like I was, presidents are
constrained by their own beliefs, which typically lean toward pragmatism and
compromise, and the beliefs of a small but politically potent group of
Americans who believe that both safety and morality dictate always acting in
concert with others, always following the rules. So presidents are reluctant to
use our enormous military power—and they should be!

“But as a nation we are a fierce,
passionate people, capable of determined action and ruthless—sometimes mindless
and unnecessary—violence. So if you threaten and frighten and kill Americans,
they demand, and will have, your blood.

“Our political conversation can hide that
reality and convince really dangerous people and groups that America won’t
destroy them if they attack. Maybe it goes in cycles, because that’s what led
to Pearl Harbor and to Hitler’s declaration of
war on us a week later. Kim was probably crazy, so it’s hard to be sure, but I
think that’s also what led to Six-thirteen.

“Pakistan’s leaders understood us
and cut a deal that saved them and their country. Kim Jong-il didn’t, and he
and fifty thousand of those he ruled are dead, lives thrown away by their
ruler’s miscalculation like the millions of German and Japanese lives. I killed
them and I’ll be sick over that forever, but now I’m sure I had to . . . I
guess I’m closer to thinking like Ray than I realized.”

“Rick, do you think this is
over
now, with Kim and bin Laden dead?”