Read Ultimatum for Free Online
Authors: Matthew Glass
when the Ronne Ice Shelf collapsed! What the fuck did he try to do differently afterwards?” Eales turned and looked back. The house where they had met the president had long disappeared from view. “What a piece of shit.”
Benton didn’t disagree.
“He never had a chance with the Chinese,” said Eales in the same disgusted tone. “They would have played him like a cat with a mouse. But that’s Mike Gartner for you. Hold the whole country to ransom for seven months just to try to keep his sick butt in the White House.”
Benton nodded. That was exactly what he thought. That was exactly why Gartner had kept everything secret.
They rode on in silence.
Or was it? Benton saw the image of Mike Gartner thrusting out his hand toward him, the same hand with which he had signed the Kyoto 3 treaty in Santiago. He heard him saying that it was easy to talk from the sidelines, when you didn’t have to get things done. And Art Riedl, explaining their strategy. It was a strategy, Benton had to give them that. And he could almost have believed their reasoning if everything in their past didn’t show they were as much a pair of lying, deceitful, conniving bastards as anyone they could possibly have come up against on the Chinese side.
No, it was a strategy that just happened to fit the unilateralist prejudices of Mike Gartner and his entire administration. And one which conveniently might have allowed him to pull off a miracle win in an election he had all but lost.
“Get the details,” said Benton.
Eales nodded. “I’ll get with Riedl for a briefing. I want to see exactly what they offered.”
“And talk to the navy woman as well. Directly. Don’t trust Riedl.”
There was silence again. Joe Benton tried to come to grips with the numbers he had heard, what it would mean for his presidency. Most of the damage was inevitable, even if rapid cuts in emissions could be negotiated. Gartner had mentioned a fivefold increase in the impact. If Benton had thought he was facing a challenge with the scale of relocation he had known about, now that looked almost easy.
What would this do to his plans? Day one, behind the desk in the Oval Office, what should he do about it?
Eales’s thoughts had gone in the same direction. “Do you want to bring Angela in on this?”
Benton thought for a moment. “No. I don’t think so. Not yet, anyway. Not before I figure out where this is going.”
“I agree,” said Eales. “And we keep Jodie away from it.”
That hardly needed an answer. The last person Joe Benton wanted involved at this point was his communications director.
Day one wasn’t far away. This would affect everything, his legislative program, the economy, his foreign policy. Benton knew that he urgently needed to start thinking through the implications. But he didn’t have a team on board yet, not one to which he could confide information of this sensitivity.
Yet of the people who could help him, there were two, at least, who had already agreed to join his administration.
~ * ~
Thursday, November 18
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Jackie Rubin and Alan Ball came in by the front door. The senator wasn’t too worried if they were seen arriving at his Georgetown home by press who were watching the street. Although he hadn’t made any announcements yet, Rubin had agreed to leave the House of Representatives to become director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Alan Ball was slated to be the national security advisor. They arrived at eleven p.m. The Bentons had just returned from a dinner for the Health Advocacy Forum, an activist organization they had supported for years.
Heather showed Ball and Rubin in. The senator was taking a call from Hugo Montera, a New Jersey lawyer he wanted as his Secretary of Labor. When the call was finished he joined them.
Rubin was in her forties, with an earnest, expressive face
Benton didn’t disagree.
“He never had a chance with the Chinese,” said Eales in the same disgusted tone. “They would have played him like a cat with a mouse. But that’s Mike Gartner for you. Hold the whole country to ransom for seven months just to try to keep his sick butt in the White House.”
Benton nodded. That was exactly what he thought. That was exactly why Gartner had kept everything secret.
They rode on in silence.
Or was it? Benton saw the image of Mike Gartner thrusting out his hand toward him, the same hand with which he had signed the Kyoto 3 treaty in Santiago. He heard him saying that it was easy to talk from the sidelines, when you didn’t have to get things done. And Art Riedl, explaining their strategy. It was a strategy, Benton had to give them that. And he could almost have believed their reasoning if everything in their past didn’t show they were as much a pair of lying, deceitful, conniving bastards as anyone they could possibly have come up against on the Chinese side.
No, it was a strategy that just happened to fit the unilateralist prejudices of Mike Gartner and his entire administration. And one which conveniently might have allowed him to pull off a miracle win in an election he had all but lost.
“Get the details,” said Benton.
Eales nodded. “I’ll get with Riedl for a briefing. I want to see exactly what they offered.”
“And talk to the navy woman as well. Directly. Don’t trust Riedl.”
There was silence again. Joe Benton tried to come to grips with the numbers he had heard, what it would mean for his presidency. Most of the damage was inevitable, even if rapid cuts in emissions could be negotiated. Gartner had mentioned a fivefold increase in the impact. If Benton had thought he was facing a challenge with the scale of relocation he had known about, now that looked almost easy.
What would this do to his plans? Day one, behind the desk in the Oval Office, what should he do about it?
Eales’s thoughts had gone in the same direction. “Do you want to bring Angela in on this?”
Benton thought for a moment. “No. I don’t think so. Not yet, anyway. Not before I figure out where this is going.”
“I agree,” said Eales. “And we keep Jodie away from it.”
That hardly needed an answer. The last person Joe Benton wanted involved at this point was his communications director.
Day one wasn’t far away. This would affect everything, his legislative program, the economy, his foreign policy. Benton knew that he urgently needed to start thinking through the implications. But he didn’t have a team on board yet, not one to which he could confide information of this sensitivity.
Yet of the people who could help him, there were two, at least, who had already agreed to join his administration.
~ * ~
Thursday, November 18
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Jackie Rubin and Alan Ball came in by the front door. The senator wasn’t too worried if they were seen arriving at his Georgetown home by press who were watching the street. Although he hadn’t made any announcements yet, Rubin had agreed to leave the House of Representatives to become director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Alan Ball was slated to be the national security advisor. They arrived at eleven p.m. The Bentons had just returned from a dinner for the Health Advocacy Forum, an activist organization they had supported for years.
Heather showed Ball and Rubin in. The senator was taking a call from Hugo Montera, a New Jersey lawyer he wanted as his Secretary of Labor. When the call was finished he joined them.
Rubin was in her forties, with an earnest, expressive face
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