She countered, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but a half-hour ago you had no idea Russia had attacked Lithuania. Do you know they haven’t attacked Poland?”
Chastened, Caruso turned to leave the cockpit.
Reid called after him. “We’ll be landing in Brussels in three hours. You guys should get some rest.”
Caruso looked back at her. “Brussels? Why are we going to Brussels?”
Country snapped his fingers. “In all the excitement I forgot to tell you. Give Gerry a call, he needs you boys in Belgium.”
68
Jack Ryan, Jr., stood at gate C3 at Dulles International Airport, waiting to take a five-fifty p.m. Lufthansa flight to Brussels. He was dressed in a suit and tie and he carried a roll-aboard, more to follow his cover-for-action appearance as a businessman on a business trip than for any operational reasons. He probably wouldn’t wear the suit on the ground in Brussels; he fully expected that once he got to his hotel he would change into neutral-tone adventure clothing so he could follow his target through the city in a low-profile fashion that was also comfortable and warm. This was going to be a one-man show, after all, so he needed to be ready for anything.
The televisions at the gate were all displaying CNN, and all the reports were talking about nothing other than the Russian action in Lithuania. One journalist had just relayed unconfirmed reports that American Army forces were on the ground to the east and west of the capital, which, if true, surprised Jack, since the news had spent most of the past two days talking about how his father’s attempt to get NATO troops into Lithuania had failed so miserably.
Jack wondered if his father was unilaterally helping to defend Lithuania. It sounded like something he might do. Jesus, Dad. Good luck with that.
The gate agent asked any families traveling with children to board the plane. Jack was in first class; he would be called soon, so he stood up and pulled out his phone to open the boarding-pass app, but when he looked down at it he saw that Gerry was calling.
He closed his eyes.
At first he considered not answering it, but he couldn’t just ghost his way out of his job. He knew he’d be fired, but he also knew Gerry would not physically prevent him from going to Europe. It wasn’t like he could scare up cops to pull him off the flight and take him to the White House to confront his father.
Could he?
Jack answered, tried to pass off a casualness in his voice that he did not feel, because he knew this was the moment when everything he had built for himself in his five years with The Campus was about to come crashing down.
“Hi, Gerry.”
“It’s your lucky day, Jack.”
Jack didn’t feel so lucky. “How’s that?”
“Ding and Dom are leaving Vilnius as we speak. I just got off the phone with them, informed them of your situation. They will meet you in Brussels as soon as you get there. You have a green light to conduct a surveillance package on Salvatore.”
Jack’s knees weakened to the point that he reached out and put a hand on the wall. His brain felt the rush of new information, and he tried to process it as quickly and cogently as he could. He’d be relieved in a moment, but for now it was all about acting relaxed on the phone to Gerry. Finally, he coughed out a measured response. “Okay. Glad to hear the boys are away from that war zone. That’s the most important thing.”
“Right,” Gerry said.
There was a silence over the line. Jack looked up and saw that the monitor at the gate read: “First class, welcome to board.” He said, “Was there something else, Gerry?”
After a pause, the director of The Campus said, “I know where you are, Jack. I know what you are about to do.”
Jack closed his eyes again. Damn it. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, I really am. I don’t want to be here, but I am sure I am doing the right thing.”
“For the operation, perhaps. But not for the long-term good. You are running the risk of exposing yourself.”
Jack said, “The only thing that matters is the op. The minute this organization’s mandate involves watching out for me because of who I am, that’s the minute I need to leave The Campus. There is too much at stake in this mission to turn The Campus into a babysitting service for the President’s son.”
Gerry’s southern drawl remained soft and calm, but there was an edge to it. “Go to Brussels. Do what you have to do, keeping in mind that Ding Chavez is the operational commander on this op. When you get back… we’ll sit down and talk.”
“Yes, sir. Good-bye.” Jack hung up and got in line, boarded the 777, and took his seat in first class. As soon as he was situated, he pulled out a notebook and began making notes about the op to come. Chavez could walk in and run the op, but he’d need Jack to get him up to speed.
Jack Ryan, Jr., realized this might well be his last operation with The Campus, so he wanted to make it count.
President Jack Ryan had never spoken with Belarusan president Semyonov; he’d seen little reason to. Belarus had chosen its role in world affairs — they were puppets of the Russians. Ryan didn’t necessarily blame them, they were culturally and anthropologically related, they were a bordering nation with no ability to protect themselves from their bigger neighbor, and Belarus’s western neighbors’ long-seated problems with the governments of Minsk and Moscow had fomented enough mistrust that it made sense Semyonov would look to the east, not to the West, for protection.
There was a U.S. embassy in Minsk, the two governments did have diplomatic relations, but Ryan had not wanted to give the Belarusan vassal state the political clout of direct talks with the highest level of the American government.
But none of that made a damn bit of difference to Ryan for the purposes of this phone call. He was willing to talk to the Belarusan president, and he was about to play hardball.
This wasn’t diplomacy; this was war.
As soon as the translator confirmed Semyonov was on the line, President Ryan gave a quick and polite-enough greeting, which was returned by the Belarusan president through his translator, along with a short statement about how concerned Belarus was about the reports of the arrival of American marine and air forces near his sovereign territory.
Ryan wasn’t having any of it. “President Semyonov, I did not call you to listen to your criticism. I called you to talk. You have allowed twenty-five thousand Russian combat troops into your nation for the sole purpose of attacking a peaceful neighbor. Perhaps two peaceful neighbors. You have every right to let anyone in your country you choose, but I feel it is my responsibility to inform you of the potential consequences of your actions. I have already given my military forces an order about their rules of engagement in this crisis. I have told them that the moment any missile, rocket, aircraft, or bullet is fired or launched from inside the Belarusan border, American forces are cleared to fire on any military target within Belarus. That does not mean they will destroy a single missile launcher and then stop. No, Mr. President. It means the moment a single missile launcher fires on my forces from your nation, all my forces are cleared to engage any and all military targets within Belarus. We will make no distinction between Russian and Belarusan forces, Russian and Belarusan equipment, Russian and Belarusan command and control. We will target your bridges, highways, and airfields if we deem them military targets.
“You have chosen an allegiance in this, Mr. President, and you must accept responsibility for what will happen to your nation if your partner threatens the forces of the United States, or our allies the Lithuanians.”
The Belarusan president clearly thought the American President had been calling to ask for his help to blunt Russia’s passage through his nation, to offer him something to get him to deny the Russian military its freedom of movement.