December Ultimatum (24 page)

The carol singers lined his steps down towards the waiting Lincoln by the newly-brushed red carpet, and the statue of George Washington.

‘God rest you merry, Gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay,

Remember Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas Day.’

‘My name is Mary,’ said the little girl as she gave the President a posy of holly and ivy.

‘I know,’ he said.

‘How do you know?’ asked Mary.

‘Santa told me,’ said the President, and the cameras found tears in the President’s eyes as he knelt down on one knee and kissed her cheek.

‘What will you do if there’s a leak, Mr President?’

‘There won’t be, Tom.’

‘What if one of the
Okinawa
survivors suspects? What if things are pieced together?’

‘They won’t be. Help yourself to malt. God, but you’ve earned it.’

‘But what will you do if—’

The President filled his cut-glass tumbler, a gift from the merchants of Waterford. ‘Tom, five minutes drive from here is a dead old man in a bath tub of cold water, a man who couldn’t face, the facts and wouldn’t take the blame. But that’s for tomorrow, Tom . . . that’s for tomorrow.’ They drank without a toast, simply lifted their glasses and smiled. And the Christmas tree outside the windows of the Oval Office suddenly lit the snow-covered lawn with its red, white and blue lights.

About the author

Michael Nicholson is one of the world’s most travelled and most decorated television foreign correspondents. He has braved 18 war zones over the past 40 years, picking up a host of awards. Michael is a familiar face in Britain’s homes as a former anchor of ITV’s Evening News and a correspondent for long-running current affairs series Tonight.

He has won numerous British and international awards for his reports – from Biafra, Cyprus and Vietnam – and has twice been named the Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year. For his coverage of the Falklands War he was given the prestigious Richard Dimbleby Award by BAFTA. In 1991, Michael was awarded the OBE for his reporting of the Gulf War.

His books include The Partridge Kite, Red Joker, December Ultimatum, Pilgrims Rest, Across the Limpopo and his memoir A Measure of Danger. His book Natasha’s Story, the gripping account of how he bought an orphan from war-torn Bosnia home to the UK, was made into the Hollywood film Welcome to Sarajevo in 1997.

PUBLISHING INFORMATION

PUBLISHED BY APOSTROPHE BOOKS LTD

www.apostrophebooks.com

ISBN: 9781910167724

FIRST PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN IN 1983 BY ROBSON BOOKS LTD.

Digital edition produced in 2014 by Apostrophe Books Ltd.

Copyright © Michael Nicholson 1983.

Michael Nicholson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Apostrophe Books Ltd Reg. No. 7612239

Cover image: public domain illustration.

Cover design by Jamie Downham.