Pippa came in, looking chastened.
Family dinners were eaten in this room, usually early in the evening. The food was always simple. Tonight they had a salad followed by pasta with tomato sauce, and fresh pineapple for dessert.
At the end of the meal Pippa said: ‘Okay, I’m going to tell Mr Newbegin that I’m sorry I was a pain in the ass.’
‘Good decision,’ said Pauline. ‘Thank you for listening.’
Gerry said: ‘But say “pain in the neck” instead.’
‘You got it, Daddy.’
When Pippa had gone, Pauline said: ‘I’ll take my coffee in the West Wing.’
‘I’ll tell the kitchen.’
‘What will you do tonight?’
‘I have an hour’s work to do for the foundation. When Pippa’s finished her homework we’ll probably watch TV for a while.’
‘Great.’ She kissed him. ‘I’ll see you later.’
She walked back around the colonnade then through the Oval Office and out the other side. Next to the Oval Office was the Study, a small informal room where Pauline preferred to work. The Oval Office was a ceremonial room that people walked into and out of all the time, but when the president was in the Study she was mostly left alone, and no one came in without knocking and waiting for an answer. With a desk, two armchairs and a TV screen it was really quite cramped, but Pauline liked it and most previous presidents had felt the same.
She spent three hours making phone calls and preparing for the next day’s business, then she returned to the Residence. She went straight to the Master Bedroom. Gerry was already in bed in his pyjamas, reading Foreign Affairs magazine. As she undressed she said: ‘I remember being fourteen. I was a hellion. Hormones have a lot to do with it.’
‘You may be right,’ he said without looking up.
She could tell from his tone of voice that he meant the opposite. She said: ‘Do you have another theory?’
He did not answer the question directly. ‘I presume most of the kids in the class are going through hormonal changes. But Pippa is the only one acting up.’
They did not actually know whether others in the class were misbehaving, but Pauline refrained from making a merely argumentative point. Mildly she said: ‘I wonder why?’ She thought she knew the answer. Pippa was like her, a born crusader. But she waited for Gerry’s opinion.
He said: ‘In a fourteen-year-old, behaviour like this may be a sign that something is wrong.’
Pauline said patiently: ‘And what do you think is wrong in Pippa’s life?’
‘She may want more attention.’
‘Really? She has you, she has me, she has Ms Judd. She sees her grandparents.’
‘Maybe she doesn’t see enough of her mother.’
Pauline thought: So is it my fault?
Of course she did not spend enough time with her daughter. No one who had a demanding full-time job could be with their children as much as they would like. But when she was with Pippa it was quality time. Gerry’s remark seemed unfair to her.
She was naked, and she could not help noticing that Gerry had not watched her undress. She slipped a nightdress over her head and got into bed beside him. She said: ‘Have you thought this for some time?’
‘It’s just an ongoing subterranean worry,’ he said. ‘I don’t mean to criticize you.’
Yes, but you did, she thought.
He put down his magazine and turned off his bedside lamp. Then he leaned over and kissed her lightly. ‘I love you,’ he said. ‘Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight.’ She turned out the light on her side. ‘I love you too.’
It took her a long time to get to sleep.
CHAPTER 4
Tamara Levit worked at the American embassy in N’Djamena, in the suite of offices that formed the CIA station. Her desk was in the communal area: she was too junior to have a room of her own. She talked on the phone to Abdul, who told her that he had made contact with a people smuggler called Hakim, and she was writing a short report on this towards the end of the afternoon when she and all the staff were summoned to the conference room. The Head of Station, Dexter Lewis, had an announcement.
Dexter was a short, muscular man in a rumpled suit. Tamara thought he was clever, especially in operations involving deceit. But she thought he might be dishonest in everyday life too. He said: ‘We’ve had a great triumph, and I want to thank you all. I have a message here that I’d like to read to you.’ He was holding a single sheet of paper. ‘“To Colonel Susan Marcus and her squad, and to Dexter Lewis and his intelligence team. Dear colleagues, it is my pleasure to congratulate you all on your victory at al-Bustan. You have struck a vital blow against terror and saved many lives, and I am proud of you. Yours sincerely” –’ he paused dramatically, then finished – ‘“Pauline Green, President of the United States.”’
The assembled team burst into cheers and applause. Tamara felt a flush of pride. She had done plenty of good work for the Agency, but this was the first time she had been involved in a big operation, and she was thrilled that it had been such a success.
But the person who most deserved President Green’s congratulations was Abdul. She wondered whether the president even knew his name. Probably not.
And the mission was not over. Abdul was still in the field, still risking his life – and worse – by spying on the jihadis. Tamara sometimes lay awake thinking about him, and about the mutilated body of his predecessor, Omar, whose life’s blood had soaked into the sand.
They returned to their desks, and Tamara recalled Pauline Green. Long before Pauline became president, when she was running for election as a Chicago congresswoman, Tamara had been a volunteer organizer in her campaign headquarters. Tamara was not a Republican but she admired Pauline personally. They had become quite close, Tamara had thought, but attachments formed in election campaigns were notoriously temporary, like cruise-ship romances, and the friendship had not continued after Pauline got elected.
In the summer after Tamara got her master’s she had been approached by the CIA. There had been nothing cloak-and-dagger about it. A woman had phoned and said: ‘I’m a recruiter for the CIA and I’d like to talk to you.’ Tamara had been hired by the Directorate of Operations, which meant working undercover. After her introductory briefing at Langley she had done a residential training course at a place they called the Farm.
Most CIA officers went through their entire careers without ever using a gun. They worked in the US or heavily guarded embassies and sat in front of screens, reading foreign newspapers and scanning websites, gleaning data and analysing its significance. But there were some, working in countries that were dangerous or hostile or both, who went armed and occasionally became involved in violence.
Tamara was no wimp. She had been captain of the women’s ice-hockey team at the University of Chicago. But until she joined the Agency she had known nothing about firearms. Her father was a university professor who had never held a gun. Her mother raised money for a group called Women Against Gun Violence. When the trainees were each given a 9mm automatic pistol, Tamara had to watch the others to figure out how to eject the magazine and rack the slide.
However, she was pleased to discover, after a little practise, that she was an unusually good shot with any kind of weapon.
She decided not to tell her parents this.
She soon realized that the Agency did not expect everyone to finish the combat course. The training was part of the selection process, and a third of the original group dropped out. One very ripped man turned out to be terrified of physical violence. In a bomb-threat simulation using paintball ammunition, the toughest-looking of the guys shot all the civilians. Several people simply apologized and went home.