Executive Intent

“In other words, Debbie: If China doesn’t want us to inspect those ships, they’re not going to get inspected,” Kai summarized.

“That’s pretty much it, General…I mean, Kai,” Carlson said. “Again, it’s pretty standard all over the world-it’s no different than what we do. Ships on the high seas have always had a special ‘hands-off’ designation-don’t mess with them until they come into your home waters or you observe them doing something illegal.

“Now, China is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which bars countries from distributing nuclear weapons and materials or to induce nonnuclear weapon states from acquiring them,” Carlson went on. “If you knew that those missiles were nuclear, and China was transporting those missiles to a nonnuclear weapon state, and you could convince the International Atomic Energy Agency of this, they could request an inspection of the ship. Not impossible, but extremely unlikely of China cooperating, unless you had a Polaroid of the nukes being unloaded in a nonnuclear weapon state.”

“The ships are bound for Tanzania.”

“ China does a lot of business in sub-Saharan Africa, especially the business of buying oil fields and farms to import energy and food,” Carlson explained. “They bring in a lot of manufactured goods in return. Nothing out of the ordinary yet. Tell me, Kai: What’s going on with these ships?”

“We’ve been monitoring several new Chinese antisatellite and antiship missile sites being constructed all over the world,” Kai explained, “and I think this convoy is carrying another one. Obviously such a site puts us in danger, and I’d like to find out if that’s what we’re looking at here.”

“Perfectly understandable,” Carlson said. “Unfortunately, all we can really do is watch those ships and watch when they start off-loading cargo to see what they’re carrying.”

“What if they were going to transit the Suez Canal? Can you ask Egypt to search the ships?”

“The Constantinople Convention guarantees free access to the Suez Canal to all ships of all nations, even nations at war with Egypt,” Carlson said. “The Suez Canal Authority, which operates the canal, has the right to inspect all vessels using the Canal, but only for specific purposes and in specific locations-the inspections are usually limited to paperwork checks of logbooks, manifests, and crew documents, unless there’s a request by Interpol. Over twenty-one thousand vessels use the Canal every year, and the SCA just doesn’t have the manpower to inspect the holds and spaces of every one. It would take an army of inspectors an entire year to inspect a U.S. aircraft carrier going through the Canal, even if we ever allowed it.”

“I’m impressed by your breadth of knowledge about this stuff, Debbie.”

“Not as impressed as I am talking to a guy in a space station orbiting the Earth, Kai,” Carlson said. “I’m a bureaucrat in a little office in Washington -you’re hundreds of miles above Earth floating in space.”

“Anytime you’d like to come up and check it out, Debbie, you’re welcome.”

“Are you serious?” The schoolgirl voice was back big-time.

“You don’t need to be a NASA-trained astronaut to travel in space these days-just be healthy enough to withstand the trip up here, and be patient until a seat opens up on a spaceplane.”

“How healthy is that, exactly?”

“Do you like roller coasters?”

“Sure.”

“Think you can ride one for ten minutes?”

“Ten minutes?”

“It’s not that much pressure, but it’s on you for a long time,” Kai said. “There’s a lot of noise and shaking, but it’s not too bad. And it’s both positive and negative-you have to put up with the deceleration part, too, for ten minutes during reentry, like when a Metro train is pulling into a station.”

“Doesn’t sound like that much fun anymore.”

“It’s worth it once you get up here. You can’t beat the view, that’s for sure.”

“I’ll think about it, Kai,” Carlson said. “You’ve got me very intrigued.”

“Good. We’d love to have you. And about those Chinese ships…?”

There was a slight pause; then: “Wellll…I can ask around and see if any of my contacts have trusted persons in Dar es Salaam that can give us some firsthand information on what’s in those ships when they start to unload. No guarantees.”

“That sounds fine, Debbie. Thank you.”

“You can really get me a ride up to the space station, Kai?”

“Clear it with your boss, get me an e-mail from your doctor saying you’re in good health, promise your family won’t sue me or the U.S. government if you burn up on reentry, and we’ll set it up.”

“I can’t believe it!”

“Believe it. Space travel is not just for jocks anymore. We’d love to have you.”

“I can’t wait! Thank you! Thank you!” And with squeals of joy still audible, she hung up.

Seeker looked at her boss with extreme skepticism. “You’re giving joyrides and tours of the station now, sir?” she asked.