Nothing new from SORGE today? van Damm asked. It's quite a disappointment to learn what things are really like.ĭo they? Robby Jackson asked, just before Arnie van Damm could.Īnd they think it's decent speculation, but not something to bet the ranch on. You know, out in the fleet we used to think-well, we used to hope-that decisions made in this room here were based on solid data. I just can't forget the motto of the whole intelligence community: 'We bet your life.' It's lonely out there with a fighter plane strapped to your back, risking your life on the basis of a piece of paper with somebody's opinion typed on it, when you never know the guy it's from or the data it's based on. That's the fundamental problem dealing with them. But do they see things in the same way that we do? No, they do not. Sir, that's not a question with an easy answer. And she headed back to the secretaries' room, closing the curved door behind her. There are some limitations on that power, but we don't fully understand what they are, and therefore it's hard for us to enforce or to exploit them. They're kings because they have absolute power. It was already very different from ours long before Marxism arrived, and the thoughts of our old friend Karl only made things worse. Look, these guys are kings from a different culture. We have a bunch of good people, but the problem is in getting them all to agree on something when we need an important call. Not to their people, especially, but sure as hell to the guys who make the decisions.Īnd they're the ones who control the guns, van Damm noted. The only way to get them back in touch will involve some pain. They're just out of touch with the rest of the world. Ryan figured it was his background as a fighter pilot to be first in things. I see trouble, Jackson said, before anyone else could. Ryan took one out, along with the pink butane lighter stashed inside. She fished in her pocket and pulled out a fliptop box of Virginia Slims. And there's no way I was going to offer them MFN anyway, unless they decide to break down and start acting like civilized people. Things will quiet down if the other side has half a brain, Adler said hopefully.Īround the coffee table, there were the usual half-humorous snorts that accompany an observation that is neither especially funny nor readily escapable. Ellen he called loudly enough to get through the door. The President knows, because he's the President, right? Then I become President, and I don't know a damned thing more than I knew the month before, but everybody out there-Ryan waved his arm at the window-thinks I'm fucking omniscient. So, I translated the battle with the Helvetii and slept that night. But I still had to translate half a page of Caesar's goddamned Gallic Wars, and I saw the President on TV, and I figured things were okay, because he was the President of the United Goddamned States, and he-had to know what was really going on. I remember wondering if the world was going to blow up. Robby, back when I was in high school, I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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