Normally, after a brief stay at the temple, he would be off again for another week or two in the wilderness, but this time there were other tasks which required his attention. For over a year, since the cremation of his close friend and confidante Alice Bemley, Robert Milner, the former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, had lived the life of a monk, going off into the wilderness of Israel for up to three weeks at a time before returning to the civilization of the Baha'i temple. His only companion on these journeys was the Tibetan, Master Djwlij Kajm, Alice Bernley's former spirit guide. During Bernley's cremation Djwlij Kajm had come to Milner and spoken to him in Bernley's voice. Up until that time Milner had known the Tibetan only through Alice, his channel to the physical world. Now Milner knew him in a much more intimate way. Over the last sixteen months, Master Djwlij Kajm had taught and trained Milner for the work to be done. Finally, on this most recent journey, Milner had completed his spiritual apprenticeship and had received into himself a guiding spirit who united with his own and the two had become one. The mission that called Robert Milner out of the wilderness at this time would take him in a few days to the city of Jerusalem, where he would await the arrival of Christopher Goodman and Decker Hawthorne.
New York
"We cannot afford to compound our mistake by letting this go on any longer!" French Ambassador Albert Moore declared as he brought his fist down on the table before him. Nearby, Moore's chief of staff, Gerard Poupardin silently surveyed the reactions of the other Security Council members. From his perspective, the address seemed to be going well. "It has been nearly sixteen months since this body voted to give emergency authority to the ambassador from Italy to personally direct the operations of the World Peace Organization. At that time we were assured by the ambassador that he had substantial evidence to corroborate his charges of corruption by the WPO's commanding general. No doubt the decision of this body came in part as a result of the incursion of Indian forces into Pakistan and in part because of our shared concern for the plight of the Pakistani refugees. And yet now, sixteen months later, we have still been given no concrete evidence of any complicity in, nor culpability for, any wrongdoing of any sort by General Brooks. Indeed, while the losses of materiel have dropped dramatically, there is every reason to believe that this has been solely due to new security measures which General Brooks was in the process of implementing even as Ambassador Goodman stood before this body requesting emergency authority to place General Brooks on administrative leave, and then took direct control of the WPO into his own, far less-experienced hands.
"And is it possible that a more pernicious hour could have been chosen by the Italian ambassador for making his charges, than at the very moment that the incursion into Pakistan had begun? Charges whose only result was to undermine the structure of authority, incite derision, and weaken the esprit de corps of our forces when the leadership and guidance of General Brooks was most critically needed?
"And so, what began with the incursion of a few thousand troops has grown into what must be considered a full-fledged war between two peace-loving regions, and which threatens the borders of a third, China. And ironically, though the drought which led to the war has now lessened, still the war goes on, prolonging the famine by diverting resources and energy into fighting instead of into planting crops."
For twenty-five minutes this went on. Moore held nothing back. His intent was to ascribe to Christopher as much responsibility for the war as he possibly could. All of his charges hinged on Christopher's inability to produce conclusive evidence proving that General Brooks was responsible for the losses of equipment and supplies incurred by the WPO. In the four days Moore had bought for him, Brooks had done an excellent job of covering his tracks beneath heaps of shredded documents. As for Moore's charges that Christopher was responsible for the continued hostilities in the region, history proved this a dubious conclusion. Since 1947, when Pakistan was carved out of what had been northern India, the two countries had been at war three times and at the brink of war on a dozen other occasions. That a war, once started, would continue and expand was no more surprising than that a brush fire once lit will continue until it has consumed everything around it. And if there was a threat to China it was a well-deserved one, for China's arms merchants had very quickly accepted the offers of hard currency from the Pakistani government. Even Moore's charge that Christopher had taken control of the WPO into his own hands had only a little more than a trace of truth. Although Christopher was consulted regularly on the WPO's efforts, from the outset he had placed Lieutenant General Robert McCoid in charge of operations.
Still, Moore was making his point convincingly. And it was an address for which much preparation had been made. In the weeks prior, General Brooks' supporters and later Brooks himself had heavily lobbied members of the Security Council and other influential
U.N. members. Moore's goal was clearly not just to force a vote to restore General Brooks to power, but to so humiliate Christopher that he would not be able to maintain his position as Europe's Alternate to the Security Council. Key to the plan's success was that those who had engineered Christopher's election were apparently no longer a factor: Alice Bernley was dead and Robert Milner had not been seen since her funeral. But removing Christopher was just a part of Moore's plan.
Lithe months which had followed Moore's unsuccessful bid to be elected Secretary-General, every other imaginable candidate had been considered but none could muster the unanimous support of the Security Council. Moore had seen to that. As the possibility of a consensus lessened, the frequency of the attempts also decreased, and the rotating position of Security Council President had come to be treated as acting Secretary-General. It was Moore's intent that it remain that way until he could make a renewed bid for the office himself. But it would have to come soon, and Moore knew it. If the status quo remained for much longer the Security Council might decide to make it a permanent arrangement. In preparation for the renewed bid, Moore was doing favors wherever he could, trying to appear as fair and as diplomatic as possible. Except, of course, to those who got in his way. Moore considered Christopher to be in the latter category.
In a slightly different category was Nikhil Gandhi. He was not inflexible, but so far Moore had found his price to be too high. Giving him what he wanted would mean alienating others. Moore would have preferred the election of Gandhi's chief rival, Rajiv Advani, as Primary to the Security Council. Advani and Moore had gotten along well as Alternate members. Advani was now India's prime minister, but Moore had no doubt that he would prefer being India's Primary… should anything unfortunate happen to Nikhil Gandhi.
Kruszkegin and Lee presented a bigger problem for Moore. Both had served many years with Secretary-General Jon Hansen and both had grown to distrust Moore in the last year. Lee and Kruszkegin talked frequently, and both had come to the conclusion that Moore must never become Secretary-General. If Moore was patient, he could hope that Lee would retire soon. Kruszkegin, however, could be expected to be around for at least five or six more years. And Moore was not that patient.
When the vote came, it was a humiliating loss for Christopher. He had defended himself well when it came his turn to speak, but in the end only Lee, Kruszkegin, and Ruiz of South America voted to sustain Christopher's emergency powers over the WPO. Christopher remained in his position as Chairman and titular head of WPO, but General Brooks was restored to his position as commander of the actual forces.