Ultimatum (13 page)

“What was that you were saying before lunch, Daddy?”

Joe turned. It was Amy.

“Nothing, honey.”

“I’m not ten years old, Daddy.”

“It’s nothing. Things always cost more than you think, that’s all. You say five billion over five years, and it ends up being ten.”

Amy looked at him skeptically.

Joe smiled. “When are you going back to Stanford, honey?”

“When you stop changing the subject.”

“You coming back to Washington for New Year’s?”

“You’re worried about something, aren’t you? Is it Mr. Montera?”

“A little.”

“You think he did something wrong?”

Joe shook his head.

“They’re going to roast you over it. We don’t need that right now, do we?”

“No,” murmured Joe. “We certainly don’t.”

He put his arm around Amy’s shoulder. He had always felt a deep, instinctive connection with Amy. Not that he didn’t love Greg. But with Amy it was easy, natural. Sometimes, with Greg, it seemed to him that whatever he did only served to drive his son further away.

“Hugo’s a good man,” said Joe. “He’ll make a good secretary. I need good people. The country needs good people in Washington.”

“But they’re going to roast you, Daddy. All the way to the confirmation hearings. It doesn’t look good, what he’s accused of. Even if he didn’t do anything wrong, it doesn’t look good.”

Joe gazed at the last golden sliver of the sun, almost gone now.

“You know, your mom told me, if I wanted her to, she’d give up her job. She said it’s not worth all the vitriol that’s flying around out there in press-hate land.”

“And what did you say?”

“Yes it damn well is!”

Amy laughed.

Joe Benton chuckled as well. He looked at his daughter. “So are you coming back to Washington for New Year’s?”

Amy shrugged.

“Is there someone there, at Stanford?”

“Daddy!”

“What?”

“Nothing.” She gave him a kiss. “Merry Christmas, Daddy.”

“Merry Christmas, Amy.”

~ * ~

Tuesday, January 4

Benton Transition Headquarters,

Lafayette Towers, Washington, D.C.

There were two new faces in the room. Joe Benton wanted to keep knowledge of the ESU data to as small a group as possible, including only those who had an essential contribution to make either to the analysis or the strategy. He still hadn’t involved Angela Chavez. And after discussion with John Eales, he had decided against involving Andrea Powers, his nominee for secretary of environment, on the grounds that her contribution would come later, in enforcement. But Ben Hoffman was present. Benton had decided they couldn’t go much further without his chief of staff knowing what was going on, and he also knew that Ben’s conciliatory style would be valuable. Particularly with Larry Olsen present, the other new joiner in the group. This would be the first time he had brought Olsen and Alan Ball together for a substantive policy discussion, and Benton wasn’t sure what to expect.

“Everyone have a good New Year’s?” he asked. “Jackie, Alan, I’ve invited Larry to join us for obvious reasons. Sorry, Jackie, do you know Larry?”

“We introduced ourselves while we were waiting.”

“Okay. Larry, I apologize in advance for what you’re about to hear. I couldn’t tell you before, and you’ll understand why when you hear it. I mean, I could have told you, but then I would have had to shoot you. Ben. . .” The senator smiled ruefully. “What can I say? Here’s another complication to add to the list.”

Hoffman shrugged uncomplainingly.

“Okay. Let’s get going. John, can I ask you to bring Larry and Ben up to speed?”

Eales cleared his throat. “November tenth,” he began, “Senator Benton got a call from President Gartner.”

Ben Hoffman looked at Benton in surprise. Benton glanced at him, then turned back to Eales.

For the next fifteen minutes, Eales gave a summary of the senator’s conversation with President Gartner and his own subsequent briefings with Art Riedl and Dr. Richards. The senator glanced at Larry Olsen a few times as John spoke. There wasn’t a flicker of surprise or emotion on Olsen’s face. Just concentration.

Eales finished.

“All right,” said the senator. “Jackie and Alan and I have had a couple of discussions about this but we haven’t got too far. I’m looking at the people in this room as my core team on this unless anyone thinks we need to bring someone else in.”

He waited for suggestions.

“So no one else knows?” asked Hoffman.

“No one but the people in the administration, which we believe are restricted to the president, Art Riedl and Ed Steinhouser, and I guess there must some of their aides who know at least part of it.”

“And the top couple of people in Dr. Richards’s unit,” added Eales.

“So what we need now is a plan.” Benton paused. “Larry, you need some time to think about this or do you think you can discuss it now?”

“I think I’ve pretty much got a grasp of it.”

Benton nodded. He pretty much thought Olsen would have.

“All right. January twentieth, what do I do?”

“Senator,” said Olsen, “can I ask who were Gartner’s people actually talking to on the Chinese side?”

“Chen somebody or other,” said Eales.

“Here in Washington? Chen Liangming?”

“That sounds right.”

“And who was talking with him from our side?”

“Art Riedl.”

Olsen raised an eyebrow. He glanced at Alan Ball and smiled in disbelief. Alan Ball watched him stonily.

“Okay,” said Benton. “Let’s talk about a plan. Do we talk to the Chinese government, do we not talk to them? If we talk to them, how do we talk to them? What do we start with? What’s our road map?”

“I’ve written a paper with some thoughts on how we use this to regain our leadership role in the Kyoto process,” said Ball. “I’ll get a copy to Larry and Ben.”

“Okay, but do we really believe that’s what we should do?” said Benton.

“What?” said Ball.

“What I’ve seen in your paper, Alan. That we go to the international community and say we have a problem—here’s the data—and now let’s make sure Kyoto solves it.”

Alan Ball narrowed his eyes. “Do I believe it? Which part, Senator?”

“Any part. Every part. I want to test that. John, what about you? Do you believe it?”

“I think there are alternatives,” said Eales.

“That we don’t go to the international community?” said Ball. “That we don’t say Kyoto’s the place to solve it? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Those are alternatives,” said Eales. “Maybe we should test them.”

“Didn’t Gartner already do that?”

“Good point,” said Benton. “Still, I don’t know that I’d accept Mike Gartner as the best test of anything, particularly in the circumstances in which he was trying to do a deal with the Chinese.”

Ball didn’t reply. His glance moved from the senator to Eales, trying to work out whether something had been agreed between them.

“Larry?” said Benton. “What are your thoughts. Do we take this into Kyoto?”

“That’s one option,” said Larry Olsen.

“What’s the other?” inquired Ball.

“Do it outside Kyoto.”

Alan Ball pretty much expected that. He knew he’d have to fight Olsen over this. It was the insinuation in Benton’s questions that really worried him.

“Nleki’s still pushing for a declaration of support,” said Hoffman. “Half the EuroCore’s demanding it now as well.”

Benton nodded. Ever since he announced Olsen’s nomination, the demands for him to confirm his support for the Kyoto process had grown stronger. “Larry,” he said, “can you explain what you mean?”

“I mean, we talk to the Chinese directly.”

“In Kyoto,” said Ball.

“Outside it,” said Olsen.

“You mean in parallel?” said Ball.

“Or as a substitute.”

“What else?” said Benton. “What other alternatives do we have?”

“We don’t talk to them.”

“How does that get us anywhere?” demanded Alan Ball.

“They know the facts just like we do. According to what John just said, they suffer along their southern coast like us. So we hold out. We wait for them to come to us.”

“You got a couple of decades up your sleeve?” said Ball.

“Another option: we develop a coalition with a range of other partners that leaves the Chinese out in the cold.”

“Why will it be different from every other coalition we’ve tried?”

“Because we’ll actually do what we say we’re going to do.”

“And China gets left doing exactly what it wants to do. You reward them for their misbehavior. You think you’re going to shame them into compliance?”

“No.”

“Then why do you want to take that route?”

“I don’t,” said Olsen. He smiled. “I was asked for alternatives, Alan. Like I said at the start, I say we talk to them.”

Alan Ball gazed silently at Olsen.

“Great,” said Ben Hoffman. “Looks like we’re in violent agreement.”

Joe Benton waited a moment to see if anyone had anything to add. “So it’s talk to them within Kyoto, or talk to them bilaterally. Is that right? Whatever way we go, we agree we should be talking to them.”

Olsen nodded. Ball nodded grudgingly as well.

“Senator,” said Rubin, “last time we talked about whether you were going to cover this in your inaugural or continue to deal with this covertly for at least a time. Can I ask what you’ve decided?”

Benton wanted to hear Olsen’s thoughts on that question.

“Ideally,” said Olsen, “I’d like the flexibility we’ll get from dealing with this covertly in the first instance. That leaves going public with it as an instrument in our hands, and we can use it when we feel it will provide the kind of pressure we need. But they’ll be watching what you say. Whether or not you cover it in the inaugural will send an important message.”

“What will it say if I do?”

“You’re upping the ante.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You’re frightened of something.”

“Or he just doesn’t know yet,” said Ball. “They might interpret it like that.”

“True,” conceded Olsen.