Nori's Delta (Delta Team Three #1) - Lori Ryan Page 0,32

the military support the US government would provide.

He was looking for more than she’d offered of course, which she’d expected.

“Training won’t do us any good. Your people don’t know the region, they don’t know what we can accomplish. My men know this country, this land. They know how to fight. I need to see more weapons and technology from your government if we are to make this happen.”

Eleanor had a feeling the men standing guard outside the door would beg to differ with his statement. They fought in this region. They knew exactly what was involved.

Still, she was focused right now on keeping peaceful talks with Demir and moving things forward. When she needed to, she would argue the point with him. For now, she had other goals.

“We can discuss the support my government might be willing to provide when we’ve talked about a few other topics. We need to discuss the hostages you’re holding.”

She very carefully didn’t say she was willing to negotiate for their release. The US had made a careful distinction between negotiating with hostage takers and communicating with them. Communication was okay. Negotiation was not. Still, she wanted him to know that his action or inaction where they were concerned would affect the outcome of these talks.

He eyed her steadily, his face a blank and unreadable mask. “With the right incentive, I could be persuaded to release the US citizens.”

“France and the UK are our allies,” she reminded him.

“So you are here to speak for all three nations now?”

Eleanor didn’t let him rattle her. She smiled. “I speak for the US but I must consider the ways that any agreement we might reach here will affect all of our relationships, and that includes the relationships with our current allies. Surely you can’t expect us to throw over current allies for new ones. Were we so fickle, no one would want to align themselves with the US.”

She purposefully kept the possibility of them reaching an agreement here as just that: a possibility.

She went on. “In fact, I would think you would want to see our loyalty to those we have pledged to if you’re going to enter any kind of agreement with us.”

He smirked. “I’m not so naïve as to think you won’t also be pledging your backing to King Barrera and his so-called-president. The United States will be hedging its bets where Kazarus is concerned.”

Eleanor knew that Demir saw the president of Kazarus as nothing more than a puppet of the ruling monarchy, and he appeared to be correct in that assessment. From what their intelligence could gather, the president of Kazarus stood up and said what King Barrera wanted him to, when he wanted him to, and where he wanted him to.

Demir went on. “Your government will back both parties in Kazarus, making sure it has an ally in the event of either outcome of this war.”

“My government will put its weight behind those it believes will do the most good for it in the long term. At the moment, that’s looking like your party. We’d like to see a functioning successful democracy in place. We’d like that government to be strong enough to stand up to the terrorist groups preying on the people of your nation, taking advantage of the fact people are hungry and scared.”

She was using some of his own words they’d found in his writings to his people and the speeches he broadcast on the internet. If she was subtle about it, without outright mimicking his words, it would go a long way toward psychologically allying him with her.

“But to support your mission, to put the enormous weight of the US government squarely in your corner, I need to see that you are truly an ally. That means not holding any of our people or our allies’ people hostage for your cause. I need to see that you will be the power we hope you’ll be against terrorism in the region. That you’ll have the strength to stop arms being traded to Al Qaeda and ISIS or other groups that mean us harm.”

She didn’t mention democracy again. The US people had this idyllic view of their government. They wanted to believe the government was going around the world preaching Christianity and democracy and all that. What her government cared about here was stopping the arms trade to terrorists who presented a threat to US citizens. The fact Demir was a Christian looking to put a democracy in place in Kazarus was