“I did, yes.” She said nothing more, waited.
“Callan, I need you to get the Israelis on the right side of this, and do it now. I know your relationship with Mossad; it’s one of the reasons I brought you on board as my VP. We can’t have anything disrupt the talks this week. When they’re not ignoring each other, they’re talking about this COE group’s brazen cyber-attack, and needless to say all the oil-producing countries are scared after Bayway. I heard one of them claiming it was Israel’s fault, that they were behind COE. Perhaps they are, I don’t know. I will not allow this group to screw with my legacy. I won’t have it, I simply won’t.” Bradley sucked in a deep breath. “The Israelis walked out last night. Call that man you know, Ari Mizrahi. Handle this, handle them, or we’re going to have a very long talk when I return.”
“Yes, sir.” Your Eminence. She wasn’t terribly fond of her boss, but she couldn’t deny they had made an excellent political team. She’d brought California, and the female vote, which tipped the scales. Their only major disagreement was foreign policy, the Middle East in particular. She knew firsthand the dangers America, Israel, and the rest of the world faced by a saber-rattling nuclear Iran and their enforcers, Hezbollah, and the rest of the undemocratized Middle East. Bradley wanted a lasting legacy of peace in the region, and he’d made that his number-one priority when he took office. Only a year into his presidency and he’d managed to get all the parties together and actually sitting down at the same table in Geneva. That in itself was quite a coup. He’d even managed to talk Israel into letting the Taliban and the Saudis come to the party. He knew Israel wouldn’t come if he invited Hezbollah, no matter what he threatened, but he managed to get the Iranian mullahs and the president, even the fanatical Colonel Vahid Rahbar, always eager and vicious in his denunciation of Israel and the West. Everyone agreed this was a miracle, and prayed.
But Callan knew it wouldn’t work just as she knew the glory Bradley was seeking would very likely end up being his downfall. And the world’s as well?
No hope for it; at least at this moment, he was her boss. “I’ll talk to them immediately, sir.”
“Do that. I’ll be back Wednesday night for my speech congratulating the Yorktown facilities for moving to clean energy resources, then I’ll go to Camp David for the weekend and get this peace accord written up. It will happen if you do your job, do you understand?”
“Yes, sir, I understand.”
“Good. The heads of state will be in the U.S. next week to do the signing. I want your smiling face both at Yorktown and at the signing, Callan.” He paused for a moment, retrenched a bit. “Look, I know you aren’t on board with my approach, but I truly believe this is the right course of action. I’m showing them the right way, showing them how to save face and save their countries, their countries’ futures. They will come around to reason; I will guide them.”
How can you be so blind? If leaders do sign a peace accord, it’s all for show, the same show that’s been played in the past, to let you preen for a while, let you give them financial incentives, promises that could cripple us, before they strike. Can’t you look at Colonel Rahbar and see the abiding hatred in his eyes? Are you content to ignore what he says about the West? That we’re a blight, vermin, and should be exterminated?
But she couldn’t tell him that, she’d fought with him enough. So he wanted her at Yorktown and at the peace accord signing next week to prove to all the Middle East leaders that the U.S. vice president had finally come to the dark side and agreed America’s enemies were their friends. If it happened.