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SEA OF SHADOWS 281
The president closed his eyes. “I assume you’re going to petition the
other NATO countries as well …”
“Of course,” Irons said.
“You’ll have trouble getting support,” the president said. “Shoernberg
is claiming that your ships fired first at Gibraltar. Without concrete
evidence, it’ll be difficult to prove that Germany struck the first blow.”
“The German government knew about the biological warfare attack on
my embassy, Frank. They didn’t warn us, and they didn’t do anything to
prevent it. And now they’re selling weapons to the very people who
attacked us.”
“I know,” the president said. “But both of our countries lost a lot of
popularity in NATO when we took on Iraq. Some of our NATO partners
will want to believe Germany’s claim that your ships fired first at
Gibraltar. And you’ll have to reveal your intelligence sources if you’re
going to prove that Friedrik Shoernberg knew about the embassy attack
ahead of time. From what you’ve told me, I suspect you’re not going to be
able to reveal your sources. That’ll give France all the excuse it needs to
side with Germany. Belgium will probably follow Germany on this as
well. Italy could go either way. They gave us nominal support during the
liberation of Iraq, but they’ve bucked us on nearly everything since.
Turkey’s another coin toss. They’re still mad at us because we wouldn’t
let them beat up the Kurds in northern Iraq.”
“Greece will back us,” Irons said. “So will Portugal, and Poland. And
I think we can convince the majority of the others.”
“Maybe you’re right, Emily,” the president said. “Maybe you will be
able to persuade most of the others. But at what cost? NATO is going to
come apart at the seams. Do you really want that?”
“Of course not,” she said. “But the NATO alliance is worthless if we
can’t call upon it to live up to its charter. Either NATO protects its
members, or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, it isn’t an alliance at all. It’s just
a lot of high-sounding words on paper.”
“What if I can take Shoernberg down?” the president asked. He
gripped the phone more tightly as the words came out of his mouth, and he
wished instantly that he hadn’t said them.
“What do you mean?” Irons asked.
The president gritted his teeth. In for a penny, in for a pound …
“Suppose I can take Shoernberg’s regime out of power … That would
remove the threat to your country, wouldn’t it? The German people aren’t
really your problem. It’s Shoernberg and his cronies.”
“How would you go about it?”