Covert One - 05 - The Lazarus Vendetta by Robert Ludlum

Author:Robert Ludlum
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Thriller
Published: 2010-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

Covert One 5 - The Lazarus Vendetta

Chapter Twenty-Six

The White House

“I understand you very well, Mr. Speaker,” President Samuel Adam Castilla growled into the phone. He looked up and saw Charles Ouray, his chief of staff, poke his head into the Oval Office. Castilla motioned him inside with a wave and then turned back to the phone. “Now it's time for you to understand me. I will not be stampeded into any executive action I think unwise. Not by the CIA or the FBI. Not by the Senate. And not by you. Is that clear? Very well, then. Good day to you, sir.”

Castilla hung up, resisting the urge to slam the phone down in its cradle. He rubbed a big hand over his weary face. “They say Andrew Jackson once threatened to horsewhip a fellow off the White House grounds. I used to think that was just Old Hickory on a wild-eyed tear, letting his famous temper get the better of him. But now I'm mighty tempted to follow his example.”

“Are you receiving more helpful advice from Congress?” Ouray asked drily, nodding toward the phone.

The president grimaced. “That was the Speaker of the House,” he said. “Graciously suggesting that I immediately sign an executive order naming the Lazarus Movement a terrorist organization.”

“Or?”

“Or the House and Senate will enact legislation on their own initiative,” Castilla finished.

Ouray raised an eyebrow. “By a veto-proof majority?”

The president shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, we lose. Politically. Diplomatically. You name it.”

His chief of staff nodded soberly. “I guess it doesn't matter much whether an anti-Lazarus bill ever really becomes law. If it passes the Congress, our increasingly shaky international alliances will take another serious hit.”

“Too true, Charlie,” Castilla said, sighing. “Most people around the world will see a law like that as more proof that we're overreacting, turning paranoid and panicked. Oh, I suppose a few of our friends, the ones worried by those bombs in Chicago and Tokyo, might cheer quietly, but most folks will only think we're making matters worse. That we're pushing an otherwise peaceful group toward violence—or that we're covering up our own crimes.”

“It's a terrible situation,” Ouray agreed.

“Yes, it is.” Castilla sighed. “And it's about to get much worse.” Feeling trapped behind his desk, he stood up and crossed over to the windows. For a short time he stared out across the South Lawn, noting the squads of heavily armed guards in helmets and body armor now patrolling openly around the grounds. After the Lazarus Movement attack in Tokyo, the Secret Service had insisted on tightening security around the White House.

He looked back over his shoulder at Ouray. “Before the Speaker dropped his little legislative ultimatum on me, I had another call—this one from Ambassador Nichols at the UN.”

The White House chief of staff frowned. “Is something up inside the Security Council?”

Castilla nodded. “Nichols just got wind of a resolution some of the nonaligned countries on the Council are going to propose. Basically, they're going to demand that we open all

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