Free W. E. B. Griffin - Presidential Agent 07 by Covert Warriors Page A

lights dimmed twice as a signal that something was about to begin. The lights went up—really up, to provide lighting for the cameras—and a line of people filed onto the stage.
    Vice President Charles W. Montvale came first, followed by Secretary of State Natalie Cohen. Montvale took up a position immediately behind the podium, where he would be on the right of the President when he appeared, and Cohen took up a position to the left of the podium. Next came Truman Ellsworth, the director of National Intelligence, and then A. Franklin Lammelle, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and finally Generals Naylor and McNab. They took up positions to the left and right of the podium.
    Presidential press secretary John David “Porky” Parker stepped to the podium and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.”
    Everybody stood.
    There came a roll of drums, and the sound of fifes playing “Hail to the Chief.”
    President Clendennen marched purposefully onto the stage. He was a short, pudgy, pale-skinned fifty-two-year-old Alabaman who kept his tiny ears hidden under a full head of silver hair. As he marched past the dignitaries, just how short he was momentarily was made clear; he was shorter than even Natalie Cohen. Then he reached the podium and stepped onto a hidden platform that made him appear taller than everybody.
    “Good morning,” the President said. “Thank you for coming.”
    Danton grunted softly. Good morning, Shorty. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
    The President’s voice was deep and resonant.
    I’ll give him that . He sounds like what people want a President to sound like. And when he’s standing on his little stool, he looks presidential.
    “Most of you,” the President began, “thanks to the zealous— perhaps too zealous—reporting of a distinguished journalist writing for one of our more distinguished newspapers, are aware of a tragic incident that took place yesterday in Mexico. Three of our fellow Americans were found shot to death. A fourth American is missing.”
    And who were these people? Did they have names? What were they doing in Mexico?
    “Let me begin by stating that I have no more sacred duty as President and Commander in Chief than the protection of the lives of my fellow citizens, wherever they might be.”
    Aside from not getting impeached, and maybe even getting reelected.
    “And let me confess, as Zeke Clendennen, private citizen, that I am as outraged as anyone in our great nation about what happened outside Acapulco yesterday. I really understand, and sympathize with, those who think—as did one of Andy McClarren’s guests last night on The Straight Scoop —that we should send in the Marines as we did to Veracruz in 1914 and ‘teach them a lesson they won’t soon forget.’”
    Sure you do, Zeke.
    “But I am no longer Zeke Clendennen, private citizen. And as President and Commander in Chief, I have a responsibility to our great nation as a whole.
    “There are parallels—as I’m sure you all know—between what happened yesterday near Acapulco and what happened in Tampico in 1914.”
    Most of the clowns in the White House Press Corps have no idea what happened in Tampico, or, for that matter, where it is.
    “And there are considerable differences.”
    No shit? Give me a for-instance, Zeke.
    “The nine American sailors arrested in Mexico in 1914 were not arrested by a legitimate Mexican government, but by a Mexican dictator, a self-appointed general, Victoriano Huerta. President Woodrow Wilson publicly referred to Huerta as ‘false, sly, full of bravado, seldom sober, always irresponsible, and a scoundrel.’
    “It should go without saying that the United States did not recognize dictator Huerta or his so-called government.”
    Then how come we recognize Hugo Chavez? Isn’t he a dictator who’s false, sly, full of bravado, seldom sober, always irresponsible, and a scoundrel?
    “The exact opposite situation exists