Chapter 53
The secretary of defense’s administrative assistant, whom Meredith knew, looked at her with a raised eyebrow as the two Japanese men exited. She was holding her materials in one hand, her coat and purse in the other. She looked quite the country bumpkin, she knew, in the blue jeans and flannel shirt. She looked up and saw Stone open his office door.
Two Japanese men stepped out, smiled, and gave her an awkward glance. The three men shook hands, and the two Japanese departed. One of the men looked at Meredith lustfully, his eyes undressing her with the evil look of a hyena sensing carrion.
She heard an awkward exchange about getting satisfaction and beasts of burden and watched the SecDef reenter his office.
“Sir, I just need a couple of minutes about Secretary Rathburn,” she said.
He held up a hand and closed his door behind him. She turned to Latisha White, the secretary, and mouthed the word, “Please.”
“You come dressed like that, it must be important,” Latisha said. She buzzed the secretary, and a few minutes later he reappeared, asking, “You are?”
“I’m Mr. Rathburn’s assistant, Meredith Morris. I need to talk to you.” The urgency in her voice convinced Stone to give her a standing audience just inside his closed door. “Sir, I think we’ve got a concern over this entire revolution—” she was nervous. Her words were not working.
“Of course we’re concerned. Now if you’ll let me get on with the business of resolving this crisis—”
“No. Please. I’ve done some research. I think Japan is behind this whole thing. They’re providing weapons—”
“What!” Stone screamed. He had enough. “I’ll have you know that the Japanese ambassador just came in here and offered to solve the entire affair for us in the next two days without firing a shot.”
She was confused. Why would they do that? There had to be a motive. They would never offer to do such a thing. It was unprecedented.
“It’s a trick!” she said, holding up her hand.
“Get out!” he exclaimed, but then held her shoulder and said, “Wait.”
He walked over to the intercom and said to Latisha, “I’ll be receiving a briefing from Ms. Morris for the next fifteen minutes. Can you please hold all calls and readjust my schedule accordingly. He looked at Meredith and hissed with a sideways glance, “First, I want to know about Keith, uh, Secretary Rathburn. When did you last see him?”
Keith? Meredith wondered. Rathburn’s first name is Bart.
“Sir, I put him on the Gulfstream in Palau hours before they landed in Manila. I should have been on that plane but the DACOWITS group trumped me.” Her voice trailed off as she considered the possibility that she could have been killed in Manila.
“So, we don’t know for sure that he’s captured,” Stone said.
“I think that’s established, sir. The rebels have contacted us with demands. We’ve seen grainy photos taken with cell phones. I think it’s true.”
She watched Stone consider her comments and nod, indicating she should continue. So, she proceeded to give Stone her analysis and the reasoning behind it. Stone admitted that she had uncovered something, but he was so confused by Takishi’s visit that he was having a hard time meshing Meredith’s bold analysis with what he actually knew.
“There certainly seem to be some inconsistencies, but why would they offer to resolve the issue for us?” he asked.
“How did he say he was going to do it?” she countered.
“He said they could deal with Commander Talbosa and get our people out of there. If he can do it, I don’t care what he’s got up his sleeve,” Stone said, flatly.
“Unless it’s nuclear weapons,” she replied, trying to scare him. He stared at her.
“Not possible,” he said. “Their constitution prevents any production of nuclear or offensive weapons. I’m sure it’s just a snafu in the shipping log.”
Frustrated, she dropped her head on his conference table and stretched her fingers out as if to choke somebody.
“Do we know for a fact what’s on those ships?”
“I don’t need to know. The Japanese have been a good and faithful ally for almost sixty years,” he said.
“Because they needed us,” she replied. “Before that, Americans were dying because they bombed the hell out of Pearl Harbor with no warning. Can’t you see it?”
She slammed her fist into his conference table.
“It’s the perfect crime. They start the revolution. Then they ask us to back down while they handle it. Next thing you know, they own the Philippines.” She had not come to that conclusion until then. It was so obvious, though. Especially after reading Matt’s paper, it all made sense.
“That’s preposterous,” Stone said. As the notion took hold, however, Stone thought, Holy shit.
“Sir, you okay?”
“Anything else, Meredith?” Stone asked without emotion.
“No, sir,” she said, looking away and grabbing her materials. She walked out of the office and passed Latisha, whom she thanked.
Meredith trudged to her office, where she thanked Mark for his quick response earlier that afternoon. The office was a zoo, everybody working hard on the crisis. She guessed that it was good news if the Japanese ambassador could get the Americans out of the Philippines. Then the U.S. could wash its hands of the entire ordeal.
But she knew nothing was ever that simple.
Chapter 54
Meredith walked into Rathburn’s office and sat down at his desk. There was the usual assortment of photos of the political appointee with various administration dignitaries as well as foreign leaders.
She picked up one framed picture of Rathburn with his wife and two boys. They were leaning together, all dressed in white, with the chrome stanchion of a sailboat behind them. The smooth waters reflected in the picture made her believe that the photo had probably been taken while they were sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.
She sighed and twirled around in the chair, looking through the yellowish tinted window.
She thought about Japan, the Philippines, Iraq, and Afghanistan. What did they all have in common?
Nothing. So separate them, she thought to herself. First came Afghanistan, and now this weird, almost myopic drive to get into Iraq. The country wants to kick some ass, so they look primed for a good ass kicking, she thought. Not enough juice to squeeze out of Afghanistan to satiate the appetite.
“Enough for what?” she whispered.
And now there is this Philippine revolution, uprising really. So, where did that come from? Did our intelligence not see this coming?
She remembered her discussion with Matt and everything he had told her about Japanese soldiers on the island of Mindanao. She coupled that information with her newfound intelligence about the ten missing ships.
Something was out there floating around, and she thought she had it nailed. Japan was going to be the aggressor somewhere, and the Philippines made sense to her.
But why would they start a war just so they could fight it? How could they be that confident that America would not intervene in a significant way?
Unless they had assurances.
She tapped her finger against her lip, thinking. Chess moves. Everything was choreographed, orchestrated, she determined.
But who was doing it?
Everyone knew that that troll Fox and self-aggrandizing Diamond were poking and prodding their way to get everyone hooked into Iraq. There was no question about their intentions.
But was there a countermovement? Were there people in the U.S. government who believed that going into Iraq was off the mark?