Chapter 3 / Page 1

3


Washington, D.C.
Saturday, November 15, 1997
10:45 A.M. EST

They had been briefed. Obviously, Iraq and Red China were up to mischief. Certainly, those two players were replacing the Soviet Union as the world’s chief troublemakers. The briefing was breaking up. A small, select group would meet to make some decision—probably the wrong one—and check in with CNN to see if anything else were amiss. Brian Stillwell had little time for such antics.

He was surprised when the National Security Advisor told him to stay. The meeting after the briefing came down to the two star general, a CIA spook, someone from the White House, and Lisa Borden, the Deputy Secretary of State.

“Why have you included Mister Stillwell?” asked Lisa.

“Because, we need someone who will tell us the politically incorrect things we need to hear.” The NSA smiled. “He has no love for our president. He thinks you folks at State have made disastrous decisions in the Middle East and China. He’s against the bailout of Russia, and he supports greater defense spending—kind of a nuke ‘em ‘til they glow attitude. He doesn’t really like me. Right now, all we have in this room are people you and I can intimidate. Stillwell doesn’t care.” He paused.

“In addition to all those flaws, Mister Stillwell is one of the top experts on unconventional weapons systems in the country. We know that something was passed from China to Iraq, or perhaps vice versa,” he teased with a knowing look in Brian’s direction. “We think it might be a weapon of mass destruction. Something went wrong during the transfer and a Chinese submarine might be experiencing some sort of poisoning. We saw what appeared to be casualties, and we have a big problem if that madman really does get his hands on weapons of mass destruction.”

Stillwell coughed and said sarcastically, “In case you folks haven’t been following the news, that madman already has weapons of mass destruction.”

Lisa glared at the NSA, but kept her own council for the moment.