The Depths of the Sea by Jamie Metzl

Author:Jamie Metzl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

24

Power, the tool of possibility, swirled with its uneven, shifting current around the annual awards dinner of the Asia Society.

The ballroom of the St. Regis hotel had rarely looked finer. Crystal goblets glistened even in the subdued light. Flowers bloomed from the round tables. Waiters in tuxedoes traversed tight figure eights around the room catering to the needs of the distinguished guests. It was a scene to which Tom Dillon had become accustomed.

Dillon’s eyes fixed appreciatively on Witkowski, whose deep, barreling voice filled the room with a jovial austerity. Though not particularly tall, Witkowski’s confidence dominated the room. Witkowski was telling an opening joke about a man who bets on a lame horse and then tells his incredulous companion that he knows he will win because he owns all the other horses in the race. Although not especially funny, the joke garnered an appreciative chuckle from the audience. Even humor, in Washington, was a function of power.

“Of course,” Witkowski continued, “the man we are here to honor tonight owns the horses in the Washington foreign policy community—my friend, the deputy national security advisor, Thomas Dillon.”

Dillon held his gaze on Witkowski as his boss, showered in the bright light of the television cameras, rattled off the basic facts of Dillon’s career—former partner in the Dillon-Reed investment bank, foreign service officer with tours in Bangkok and Manila, deputy chief of mission in Saigon, national security council senior director and special assistant to the president for Asian affairs, and now deputy national security advisor.

Something in Witkowski’s words made Dillon’s rapid rise seem somehow celestially ordained. Success, Dillon knew, became inevitable only in retrospect. Going forward, it was a function of strategic thought and careful planning.

Dillon felt Meredith take his hand from his lap and gently lift it to the table for others to see.

“It is a tribute to the high esteem with which Tom Dillon is held in Washington that we are also joined tonight by my good friend, Secretary of State Perseus Bohlen.”

The senators, lobbyists, current and former government officials, and others in the crowd stood and clapped for the secretary of state. Bohlen lifted momentarily from his seat and raised his hand slightly.

It always amazed Dillon that all you had to do in Washington to negate an obvious truth was to emphatically state its opposite. Relations between Witkowski and Bohlen had continued to nose-dive as each struggled to win control of the president’s ring. Dillon wondered if he now detected a certain resentment in Bohlen’s face at this humiliation through overenthusiastic praise.

“The man we are here to honor tonight has done so much for United States relations with Asia and with the rest of the world. He has become among the brightest in a sky of stars…”

Dillon wondered if Witkowski was hinting that Bohlen was a dimming star, if one-upping the secretary of state was becoming something of a sport for the fiercely competitive national security advisor.

“It is with great honor that on behalf of the Asia Society I present to

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