Ambassador Lee Yun-Mai of China called the meeting to order and soon the issue of the selection of the new Secretary-General was brought to the floor. As expected, the nominees were Ambassador Jackson Clark of the United States and Ambassador Albert Moore of France. The vote was taken in the customary manner by a show of hands. Ambassador Lee called first for those supporting the nomination of Ambassador Clark. Immediately the Canadian Ambassador, representing the North American region, and the Ecuadorian Ambassador, representing the South American region raised their hands. It was just as Moore had planned; he could almost taste the victory he longed for. Then slowly, without allowing his eyes to meet the stunned gape of Moore, the Saudi slipped his hand upward. From the comer of his eye, Moore's attention was drawn by his chief of staff, Gerard Poupardin. Even across the room the single word on his lips was as clear as a shout: "Goodman," he said, under his breath.
"That son of a bitch!" Moore said, though no sound left his lips.
From Moore's left, the door to the Security Council chamber flew open and a tall blonde woman in her early forties rushed in. Undistracted, Ambassador Lee noted the count of hands: three regions supported the ambassador from the United States. Without pause she called for those supporting Ambassador Moore. What Moore saw only intensified his despondence. Including his own, only five hands were raised: Ambassadors Kruszkegin of Northern Asia and Lee of China had chosen to abstain. Unlike Ambassador Fahd, Kruszkegin looked directly at Moore while Lee counted. Filled with rage, Moore turned to face Christopher, but Christopher was not there.
Quickly Moore's eyes scanned the room for Christopher but to no avail. Moore looked back at Poupardin, his eyes asking the question of Christopher's whereabouts. Poupardin pointed. In a corner of the great room, Christopher stood talking with Jackie Hansen, who had arrived during the vote with an urgent message. Moore's rage went unnoticed or at least unacknowledged by Christopher, who was listening to Jackie and quickly scanning the contents of the message she carried. Even as he read the dispatch, he began to move resolutely toward Ambassador Lee.
Contrary to Moore's assumption, the actual reason for the shift in votes was that Ambassadors Fahd, Kruszkegin, and Lee had learned of the promises Moore had made in order to get the vote of the Indian ambassador. They felt that it was not in their interest to have a Secretary-General who was under the obligations Moore had placed himself. Lee and Kruszkegin's response was to abstain; Fahd chose instead to support the American for whom he had voted earlier. None of this would ever be known by Moore. And what was about to unfold would make him absolutely certain that the whole situation had been Christopher's doing.
Christopher finished reading the note and proceeded directly across the room to Ambassador Lee. Handing her the dispatch, he whispered something and she began reading. As she did Christopher went back to his seat and stood in order to be formally recognized. All eyes watched as she read. When she finished she struck her gavel and declared that no consensus had yet been reached, and the selection of a new Secretary-General would be postponed for two weeks. She then turned her eyes toward Christopher and said, "The chair recognizes the ambassador from Italy."
"Madam President," Christopher began, addressing Ambassador Lee, "as you have just read in the dispatch, within the last hour a contingent of approximately twenty-seven thousand Indian infantry have crossed their mutual border with Pakistan in apparent response to continued border crossings by Pakistani refugees seeking food. They appear to be headed toward the three U.N. relief camps. In response to the incursion, United Nations forces under the direction of Lieutenant General Robert McCoid have engaged the Indian forces."
The room erupted. Members of the media tried to move to get a better shot of Christopher as he spoke; several staff personnel hurried from the room. Both the ambassador from Saudi Arabia, representing the Middle East, and the ambassador from India attempted to be recognized by the chair. But Ambassador Lee refused to recognize anyone and Christopher continued. "No report of casualties is yet available, but Indian troops in the area outnumber U.N. forces by six to one. General McCoid has ordered reinforcements into the area, but their arrival is not expected for several hours and the General warns that such movement will weaken U.N. strength at other points along the border."
Christopher completed his report to the Security Council and then, exercising his right as an Alternate member, proceeded to make his request to remove General Brooks and to take emergency authority over the WPO. It probably would not have made any difference if he had made the request four days earlier. Still, these new events would make it much more complex and difficult to correct the problems.
Wednesday, August 21,2019 – Israel
Scott Rosen was not sure how he knew it, but there was no doubt in his mind that he was supposed to be here. On a grassy hill on the northern shore of the sea of Galilee near Capernaum, he sat and waited, though not at all sure of what it was he was waiting for. He had been there for nearly an hour just sitting and waiting, and now the sun was beginning to set. The terrain around him formed a natural amphitheater with acoustic qualities that allowed a person on the hillside to clearly hear someone speaking at the bottom of the hill.
According to the local tour guides, this was the spot where Jesus had taught his followers.
When Scott arrived there had been tourists walking the slopes around him but as evening set in he had briefly been left nearly alone. Now, over the last fifteen minutes, a steady flow of people, all men, had begun to fill the hillside. But these were not tourists; there were no cameras, no binoculars, no yapping tour guides. In fact, though their number grew into the hundreds, and then thousands, no one spoke at all. Each man simply found what seemed like a good place and sat down.
Over the next few minutes the trickle became a flood: now thousands arrived every minute. And still not an utterance was heard. Scott saw several people he knew. The first was Rabbi Eleazar ben David, to whom he had talked a few days earlier about Joel. Then he saw Joel – his hand and wrist in a cast, the result of their last meeting. Joel had searched Scott out from among all the men on the hill and smiled broadly when he found him. Scott returned an anxious smile, and Joel sat down nearby. Neither said anything.
At the end of an hour there were more than a hundred thousand, and still no one spoke. Soon there were no more arriving and the crowd's attention turned toward some movement at the bottom of the hill. Two men stood up and one of them began to speak. His voice was deep and rich and measured. Scott was too far away to see him clearly, but he could be heard by all. Scott recognized the voice at once. It was Saul Cohen.
Standing at Cohen's side, the other man remained silent as he looked up at the crowd and thought back to that pivotal summer day when he and his brother and father had fished these very waters two thousand years before.
Chapter 25
Old Enemy, Old Friend
Sixteen months later: December 8,2020 – Northern Israel
The frigid, rain-starved ground cracked beneath the weight as the old man walked along at a steady, purposeful pace toward the west. Even his gaunt appearance and wind-dried skin did not reveal the man's true age, which was thirty years beyond what anyone might have guessed. As he crested the top of a small hill, he could see, still some miles distant, the silhouette of the gold-domed Bohd'l temple above the terraced city of Haifa which marked the end of his trek. After fourteen days in the Galilasan wilderness he looked forward to a few days of regular meals, human contact, and a much-needed bath. The nearly- empty pack on his back had been overstuffed with dried fruits and nuts when he started. His canteens, now empty, had added quite a bit of weight to his initial load two weeks earlier.