Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) (54 page)

“We will
continue to have diplomatic relations with the Martian state, while not
recognising the legitimacy of that state.  We will embrace the practical
necessity of maintaining relations in the hope of building on those with a
legitimate Martian government at such time as one may come to power, and we
hope very much that that will be the case in the future.

“We owe the
people of Mars, who we still consider to be citizens of the USAN, the
protection that all Americans deserve and expect.  To that end we will be
commissioning the construction of six new carriers, built to the specification
of the modified
Aloadae
.  All such vessels will now be known as
‘Ares Class’.  We will not abandon the true patriots of Mars.

“Finally, I
would like to say to you all that
myself
and Mrs
Cortes will be watching the streams of the rescue tomorrow, as I’m sure many of
you will be, and we will be praying for a positive outcome to this terrible
situation.

“Thank you,
good night.”

Venkdt made a
stream that night, too.  He expressed regret at having to cripple
Ephialtes
,
explaining that there was no other option open to him.  The warmongers of
Earth had sent a military instrument to deal with a diplomatic crisis, and
Mars’ hand had been forced.  He said that he too would be following the
streams, and that he hoped for a successful resolution to the
Ephialtes
incident.

He made a
succession of thanks.  To the Martian people for believing in him, and for
believing in themselves.  To Maya Foveaux and her MSS, for organising the
rescue attempt at short notice and with minimal resources.  And to his
supporters on Earth, from whom he claimed to have received many thousands of
messages of support.

He spoke
about the asteroid belt, so close to Mars and ripe for exploitation.
 There were practically limitless resources in the belt and the people of
Mars were perfectly placed to seek them out and further add to Mars’
wealth.  This truly was a great time to be a Martian.  Many great
things awaited them.

He finished
up by saying that Mars was now free from the military intimidation of the USAN,
and that the new Martian state could get on with going about its business, re-establishing
trade and other links with the home planet.  Venkdt looked forward to the
massive growth he expected in the economy, and he hoped that Mars would soon be
able to welcome even more newcomers who might come to the planet seeking to
make their fortunes, and who would add to the growing prosperity of all
Martians.

White was
surprised to be called to a private meeting with the president at the New White
House.  He had taken the impression from Brennan that he was out of
favour, and the way things had panned out he could understand why.  He
decided that he didn’t mind being frozen out.  He always took the long
view; what people think and say varies from moment to moment, and the fact that
Cortes was seething at him now didn’t necessarily mean he would remain that way
indefinitely.  White expected the whole thing to come off the boil over
the next few months, and he would be able to reassert his influence and go back
to trying to rein in the president’s excesses.

The way White
saw it, his play, even though it had gotten out of hand, seemed to have worked
out.  Conflict with Mars had been avoided, and they were now in a position
where they had to rely on diplomacy.  Of course, he never anticipated the
destruction of the two carriers, and he would never have condoned or
commissioned such things, but politics is a messy business and through some
shrewd manoeuvring and a bit of luck things had ended up where he wanted
them.  Part of the price was that he would be out of favour for a while,
but that was well worth paying.

On entering
the Oval Office White was surprised to see Cortes in an apparently buoyant
mood.  “Come in, Gerard,” he said, waving White over.  He gestured to
the sofas.  “Shall we sit here?  I think it would be more
comfortable.”

“Of course,”
said White, following Cortes over and taking a seat.

“Gerard,”
said Cortes, clapping his hands together, “I expect you’re wondering why I
asked you here.”

“I assumed it
was to do with the Mars thing?” said White.

“Well, sort
of,” said Cortes, smiling.

“So what is
it?” said White.

“Where to
begin?” said Cortes.

“Brennan said
you wanted me to lay low for a while.  To stay out of your way.”

“Certainly
that, yes, Gerard,” said Cortes, “but there’s so much more, too.”

White saw the
excitement dancing in Cortes’ eyes.  He had never seen the president like
that before, except at the height of the war.  When the president knew he
had an overwhelming advantage over an enemy he got animated.  The knot,
which had been slowly forming in White’s stomach, tightened.

“Okay, let’s
start here,” said Cortes.  “Do you know someone by the name of Rodney
Sherman?  Well, don’t answer that, because I know you do.  Some of my
core Secret Service detail have been in conversation with Mr Sherman, and Mr
Sherman has been persuaded to make a full and frank disclosure about his and
your involvement in the
Otus
incident.”

“Now just
wait a minute,” said White, “Rodney Sherman is a business associate of mine,
and I know he’s mixed up in some pretty shady stuff but what’s he saying about
Otus
?”

Cortes looked
at White and smiled.  “Don’t even bother, Gerard.  We know
everything.  You’ll just be embarrassing yourself, okay?”

White looked
at him and knew that continuing with the denials was pointless.

“We never
meant for it to happen like it did.  The
Otus
thing was Sherman’s guy getting out of hand.  You have to know I would
never have been party to a terrorist act like that.”

“I’m sure
you’re right, Gerard.  It doesn’t seem like your style, so I’ll give you
that one.  But it did go down like that, and that makes you guilty of
treason, doesn’t it?  On top of mass murder, I mean.”

“No,” said
White.  “All we were trying to do was stop another war.  Sherman’s
guy got out of hand.  He’s the traitor.”

“No, no,”
said Cortes, “he was just following orders.  Illegal orders, crimes
nonetheless, but
your
orders.  Traitorous orders against the
government you swore to serve.”

White sat
deflated.  He was backed as tightly into a corner as he had ever
been.  There was no way out.  “So what are you going to do? 
Take me in?  How about a show trial?  I bet you’d like that.”

Cortes waved
a hand.  “No, nothing like that.  Just relax, we’re not going to do
anything with you.  You spoke to Peter, he told you what we want.  Go
to your speaking engagements, open a library here and there, be the voice of
reason for the media when they’re on my back about whatever it might be. 
Good times.”

“So that’s
it?  You accuse me of high treason, of murdering tens of USAN military
personnel, and tell me you’re going to let it slide?”

“Well, not
let it slide exactly.  We have it all on you, if we need it, which I hope
we won’t.  I’m sure you see the nature of our little compact.”

White stared
at Cortes, unsure what to say.  He thought he had never seen the president
so happy.

“That’s it,
you can go now,” said Cortes.

White
stood.  Usually under these circumstances he would automatically shake the
president’s hand.  On this
occassion
, he didn’t
even say goodbye.

As he reached
the door and put his hand out to open it White heard the president call after
him.  “Oh, Gerard, one more thing.”

White turned
to face him.

“I was sorry
to hear about Madeline.  Please accept my sincere condolences.”  He
grinned so hard it looked like his face might split.

“Hi, Dad,”
said Christina, kissing Venkdt on the cheek.

“Hey, kid,”
said Venkdt in reply.

“I brought some
food, is that okay?”

“Sure, what
is it?”

“I picked up
some of that salmon.  Remember, the stuff you told me about?”

“Oh, yes, I
remember.”

“I’ll have
the kitchen prepare it.  How are you?  I saw your stream.”

Venkdt sat
back down in his armchair.  “I’m great.  Tired, but great. 
You?”

Christina
took off her coat and threw it on the sofa.  She sat next to it. 
“I’m great, work is good.”

Venkdt
nodded.  “You want me to take care of that fish?” he said, tapping his
comdev.

“That would
be great.  I thought we could eat together.”

A drone came
into the living room and Christina placed the wrapped salmon on it.

“Just like
last time, please,” said Venkdt and the drone left.

“I really
liked what you said.  You hit just the right tone.  Positive, but not
gloating.”

“Oh,” said
Venkdt, “I didn’t really think about it like that.  I just said what I
thought.  I am worried about those people.  I hope we get up there in
time.”

“I’m sure
it’ll be fine, Dad.  Kostovich has it all worked out.  That’s what he
does.  It’s terrible, obviously, what happened, but I’m sure it’s going to
be okay.”

Venkdt
nodded.

“And now
we’re home free.”

“Yes,” said
Venkdt.  “I wish it could have happened some other way, but you’re
right.  We’re beyond their reach again.  All that stuff I said in the
streams is true.”

Christina
nodded sympathetically.

“You know,”
said Venkdt, “A lot of times it’s easy to take things for granted.  To
just assume that something is just the way it is, and that it has always been
and will always be that way.  But it’s often not the case.  The first
people who came here were risking their lives on a long, dangerous and
uncomfortable journey.  Many hundreds of the people after them, too. 
You know, this planet is a hostile place.  It’s not like Earth, where you
can go outside and roam about.  This planet is frigid.  No flora or
fauna, no atmosphere to speak of, breathable or otherwise, and desperately
cold.  But people came here and made it work.  With ingenuity and
graft they made a home here.  They built something.  Where there were
problems, they found solutions.”

“I know,
Dad.  It’s amazing,” said Christina, not really listening.

“This was not
an easy place to come to.  There were myriad problems and difficulties, so
many reasons to not do it.  But they came anyway, and here we are now with
the future wide open to us.  We have the resources here, we have the
asteroid belt,
we
have a fully established and
functioning colony.  You’re right.  It’s amazing what has been
achieved here.  Just amazing.”

“Will you be
watching the streams of the rescue?”

“What?”

“Will you be
watching the rescue tomorrow?”

“Oh,” said
Venkdt.  “Probably.  I might go by Kostovich’s mission control
centre.”

“It’s going
to be fine,” said Christina.  “You might want to be there when they bring
them back.  It would be a great photo-op, you posing with the
grateful survivors.”

“I don’t
think so.  Those people will have been through enough without having to
pretend to look pleased to see me.  I just hope they’re okay.”

“Let’s not
dwell on that now, though.  Let’s just have a nice bite to eat
together.  Even the president is entitled to a night off every once in a
while.”

“Yes,” said
Venkdt, “I’ll check the fish.”

There was no
answer at Zelman’s house.  Her PA said she’d had a lunch date but nothing
booked in for the afternoon.  She had received a message in the morning,
but apart from that she hadn’t heard from her all day.

White tried
the restaurant where the lunch was.  She had left there in the early
afternoon.  It was now four.

Zelman had
disabled tracking on her comdev.  White thought about asking one of his
Secret Service detail to override her security settings remotely, but didn’t
want them to see his panic.

White put the
name ‘Madeline Zelman’ into the news aggregator on his comdev, and left her
another voicemail.

A while later
the aggregator flagged up a news story about an accident on the
Stemmons
Freeway.  A car had crashed, blocking two
lanes.  It was understood that Madeline Zelman, the noted philanthropist,
had been in the wrecked car and had died in the fire.  There were no
suspicious circumstances.

The time of
the accident was given as 15:05.  White had finished his meeting with
Cortes shortly before 14:30.

Usually White
could stride right into the New White House with minimal checks.  Sensors
picked up his comdev, which was biometrically coded to him, and allowed
entry.  Any security or Secret Service agents were happy to let him by on
facial recognition alone, happy that the scanners were checking his comdev in the
background.