The Threat

White looked surprised. “Well, that’s not our area of expertise. I’m sure your military and intelligence people have that covered. On threat reduction, let me talk to Dr. Sola when he comes back. Let’s see if there’s something we can do to move this issue forward. Are you going to Leningrad? I mean, Petrograd? The conference?”

“I’d like to, but I’m not sure they’ll send me.”

“I might be able to do something. To make sure you get invited.”

* * *

The Pentagon. He had a turkey sub and soup in one of the cafeterias off the Concourse, with two colonels. Then, though it hadn’t been on the agenda, they told him their boss would like ten minutes. Dan followed them through polished sunlit corridors around to the Army staff spaces in Wedge One.

The sign on the door of 3D389 said Lieutenant General Thurman Knight, U.S. Army, was the Army’s operations deputy. Most civilians thought the Joint Chiefs directed military operations. But that was actually the job of the combatant commanders, four-stars who controlled all forces, from whatever service, within their geographic area. But the old terminology lived. Each service chief appointed a deputy who worked with the director, Joint Staff, to form the body known as the Operations Deputies, or OPSDEPS in milspeak. They met in sessions chaired by the director, Joint Staff, in his office, or in the Tank, to review major issues before they went up to the Chiefs and then the SecDef.

Knight welcomed him into a better-appointed and larger office than either he’d been in earlier. The general’s dress greens matched his eyes. Huskier than Dan, he moved with the deliberation of a trainer of wolves. The diplomas on his walls were from the War College, the School of the Americas, and the Command and General Staff College.

Dan had looked up Knight’s bio before he came over. The general had been a first lieutenant in Korea, served as an adviser with the Vietnamese and Peruvian armies, and commanded first an airborne brigade and then the 101st Airborne before commanding the Special Operations Command South in Panama. Looking at his chest, Dan read the Distinguished Service Medal, the Purple Heart, the Superior Service Medal with an oak-leaf cluster, the Legion of Merit with an oak-leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with a V and three oak-leaf clusters, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal. He had the rifle and wreath of the Combat Infantryman Badge, a parachutist’s badge of some sort, and Ranger and Special Forces tabs.

For the first time, Dan wished he’d worn his lapel decoration. Knight’s gaze moved as slowly as he did and, when it settled, was hard to meet directly. His grip, complete with a gold VMI ring the size of a handball, was hearty, but his manner warned this might not be a pleasant call.

In his inner office, settled on a sofa so close Dan smelled lime aftershave, Knight didn’t want to discuss the issue items Dan had brought with him. He wanted to talk budget. Specifically, the line items the president’s budget reduced. Dan said he wasn’t on the budget side. The general asked if the president had any idea how hard he was stressing the services. Dan said he presumed De Bari was getting that word during the lunch he had every week with Jack Weatherfield, the secretary of defense, and General Stahl, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

This didn’t seem to be what Knight wanted to hear. He lit a cigar, toasting the cut end with a chrome lighter in the shape of a Maxim gun. Almost as an afterthought, offered one. Dan shook his head.

“Now, correct me if I’m wrong, Lenson. Let’s not make this on any kind of record, all right? But you’re military staff over there, that right? What — an O-6?”

“O-5, sir.”

“Army? Guard?”

“Navy, sir.”

“Well, you’re uniformed service. Academy too, I see.”

“Yes, sir.” Dan wondered if he should quit wearing the ring, since he wasn’t supposed to be in uniform.

“We’re getting concerned over here. It started with this ‘no further discrimination’ bullshit, which wasn’t the way to get on our good side. And it’s gone downhill from there.”

One of De Bari’s first acts on taking office had been to end the services’ exclusion of gays. And part of his platform, responding to the recession, had been what he called a “tailored” cutback of 10 percent per year in military expenditures, down to a 40 percent reduction in the Pentagon’s budget by the end of his term.

Knight said, “This guy’s tuned to the moon, if he thinks what he’s doing is enhancing our national security. Pulling back from Germany, the Horn of Africa, now Korea. Korea! It’s quieted down some now, but now Pyongyang’s out from under the inspection regime, God knows what they’re up to. This is all between us, by the way.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’ve got civilian appointees without the faintest idea what they’re doing. No prior military. Well, you know what I mean. Working with them every day. What do you hear over there? What kind of atmosphere readings are you getting?”