The Janson Directive - By Robert Ludlum Page 0,249
desk rang quietly, the quietness of the ring somehow lending it additional significance. It was the line reserved for White House communications.
He picked up the phone. It was the president.
"Listen, Paul, I've gone over and over it with Doug here. This address Demarest's giving before the General Assembly - there could well be an implicit ultimatum here."
"Sir?"
"As you know, he asked for the control codes to the entire Echelon system. I put him off."
"Put him off?"
"Blew him off. I think the message he's sending is pretty unambiguous. If he doesn't get what he wants, he's going to appear before the General Assembly and set an explosion. Lay the thing out, with the whole world hanging on his every word. That's just a surmise. We could well be wrong. But the more we think about it, the more we think it's a credible threat."
"Ergo?"
"I hope to God he's hit by a thunderbolt before he can stand up and give that speech."
"Now that sounds like a plan."
"Barring that, I've decided to meet with him just beforehand. Capitulate. Give in to his first round of demands."
"Are you scheduled to make an appearance at the U.N.?"
"We'd left it unclear. The secretary of state will be there, along with the U.N. ambassador, the permanent representative, the trade negotiator, and the rest of the tin soldiers we always send. But if we're making this ... barter, it'll have to come from me. I'm the only one with the clearance and authorization to do this."
"You'd be putting yourself in harm's way."
"Paul, I'm already in harm's way. And so are you."
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO MEET from around the world, hundreds of national leaders to assemble in "dialogue of civilizations" By Barbara Corlett
NEW YORK - For most native New Yorkers, the convergence here of hundreds of foreign heads of state and high-ranking ministers prompts one big worry: will the motorcades make the problem of traffic gridlock worse? In the U.S. Department of State and in diplomatic circles elsewhere, however, loftier concerns are the order of the day. There are hopes that the 58th General Assembly meeting will lead to substantial reforms and a heightened level of international cooperation. U.N. Secretary General Mathieu Zinsou has predicted that it would be a "watershed moment" in the history of the troubled organization.
Anticipation has been bolstered by rumors of a possible appearance before the General Assembly by the revered philanthropist and humanitarian Peter Novak, whose Liberty Foundation has been compared to the United Nations in its global reach and even its diplomatic achievements. The U.N. is owed billions of dollars from member nations, including the United States, and the Secretary General makes no secret of the fact that the consequent salary freezes and cutbacks have made it difficult to recruit and retain high-caliber employees. Mr. Novak, whose munificence has been the stuff of legend, may have concrete proposals for easing the U.N.'s financial crisis. Top-ranking U.N. officials suggest that the Liberty Foundation's director may also propose a joining of forces with the U.N. to coordinate assistance to those regions most afflicted by poverty and conflict. The reclusive Mr. Novak could not be reached for comment.
Continued on page B4.
It would all happen tomorrow, and what happened would depend on how good their preparations were.
One foot in front of the other.
Janson - officially an outside security consultant hired by the Executive Office of the Secretary-General - had spent the last four hours wandering through the United Nations complex. What had they forgotten? Janson tried to think, but mists kept closing in on him; he had slept very little in the past few days, had been trying to sustain himself with black coffee and aspirin. One foot in front of the other. This was the civilian reconnaissance mission upon which everything would depend.
The U.N. complex, extending along the East River from Forty-second Street to Forty-eighth Street, was an island unto itself. The Secretariat Building loomed thirty-nine stories; in the skyline of the city, celebrated landmarks like the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building were skinny protuberances by comparison - trees beside a mountain. What distinguished the Secretariat wasn't its height so much as its enormous breadth, greater than a city block. On either side of the building, the curtain wall of blue-green Thermopane glass and aluminum was identical, each floor demarcated by a black row of spandrels, its symmetry interrupted only by the irregularly spaced grilles of the mechanical floors. The two narrow ends were covered with Vermont marble - a concession, Janson recalled,