James BeauSeigneur - In His Image James

"And is it possible that a more pernicious hour could have been chosen by the Italian ambassador for making his charges, than at the very moment that the incursion into Pakistan had begun? Charges whose only result was to undermine the structure of authority, incite derision, and weaken the esprit de corps of our forces when the leadership and guidance of General Brooks was most critically needed?

"And so, what began with the incursion of a few thousand troops has grown into what must be considered a full-fledged war between two peace-loving regions, and which threatens the borders of a third, China. And ironically, though the drought which led to the war has now lessened, still the war goes on, prolonging the famine by diverting resources and energy into fighting instead of into planting crops."

For twenty-five minutes this went on. Moore held nothing back. His intent was to ascribe to Christopher as much responsibility for the war as he possibly could. All of his charges hinged on Christopher's inability to produce conclusive evidence proving that General Brooks was responsible for the losses of equipment and supplies incurred by the WPO. In the four days Moore had bought for him, Brooks had done an excellent job of covering his tracks beneath heaps of shredded documents. As for Moore's charges that Christopher was responsible for the continued hostilities in the region, history proved this a dubious conclusion. Since 1947, when Pakistan was carved out of what had been northern India, the two countries had been at war three times and at the brink of war on a dozen other occasions. That a war, once started, would continue and expand was no more surprising than that a brush fire once lit will continue until it has consumed everything around it. And if there was a threat to China it was a well-deserved one, for China's arms merchants had very quickly accepted the offers of hard currency from the Pakistani government. Even Moore's charge that Christopher had taken control of the WPO into his own hands had only a little more than a trace of truth. Although Christopher was consulted regularly on the WPO's efforts, from the outset he had placed Lieutenant General Robert McCoid in charge of operations.

Still, Moore was making his point convincingly. And it was an address for which much preparation had been made. In the weeks prior, General Brooks' supporters and later Brooks himself had heavily lobbied members of the Security Council and other influential

U.N. members. Moore's goal was clearly not just to force a vote to restore General Brooks to power, but to so humiliate Christopher that he would not be able to maintain his position as Europe's Alternate to the Security Council. Key to the plan's success was that those who had engineered Christopher's election were apparently no longer a factor: Alice Bernley was dead and Robert Milner had not been seen since her funeral. But removing Christopher was just a part of Moore's plan.

Lithe months which had followed Moore's unsuccessful bid to be elected Secretary-General, every other imaginable candidate had been considered but none could muster the unanimous support of the Security Council. Moore had seen to that. As the possibility of a consensus lessened, the frequency of the attempts also decreased, and the rotating position of Security Council President had come to be treated as acting Secretary-General. It was Moore's intent that it remain that way until he could make a renewed bid for the office himself. But it would have to come soon, and Moore knew it. If the status quo remained for much longer the Security Council might decide to make it a permanent arrangement. In preparation for the renewed bid, Moore was doing favors wherever he could, trying to appear as fair and as diplomatic as possible. Except, of course, to those who got in his way. Moore considered Christopher to be in the latter category.

In a slightly different category was Nikhil Gandhi. He was not inflexible, but so far Moore had found his price to be too high. Giving him what he wanted would mean alienating others. Moore would have preferred the election of Gandhi's chief rival, Rajiv Advani, as Primary to the Security Council. Advani and Moore had gotten along well as Alternate members. Advani was now India's prime minister, but Moore had no doubt that he would prefer being India's Primary… should anything unfortunate happen to Nikhil Gandhi.

Kruszkegin and Lee presented a bigger problem for Moore. Both had served many years with Secretary-General Jon Hansen and both had grown to distrust Moore in the last year. Lee and Kruszkegin talked frequently, and both had come to the conclusion that Moore must never become Secretary-General. If Moore was patient, he could hope that Lee would retire soon. Kruszkegin, however, could be expected to be around for at least five or six more years. And Moore was not that patient.

When the vote came, it was a humiliating loss for Christopher. He had defended himself well when it came his turn to speak, but in the end only Lee, Kruszkegin, and Ruiz of South America voted to sustain Christopher's emergency powers over the WPO. Christopher remained in his position as Chairman and titular head of WPO, but General Brooks was restored to his position as commander of the actual forces.

Decker Hawthorne watched the vote on closed-circuit from his office in the U.N. Secretariat building, then hurried across the street to Christopher's office at the Italian Mission to be there when he arrived. Christopher was obviously angry and frustrated – two emotions he almost never displayed.

"Well, did you see it?" Christopher asked in a sickened tone as soon as Decker walked in.

"I saw," Decker answered, the anger in his own voice tempered by a desire to be as comforting as possible.

"The worst part is that it's my own damn fault!"

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Decker said consolingly. "Moore has been at this game a lot longer than you."

Christopher didn't seem to take much consolation in that. "How could I have been so stupid as to have gone to Moore and told him that I was going to launch an investigation of General Brooks? I must have been out of my mind!" Christopher paced as he spoke.

"It may not have been the smartest thing, but I'm sure that your intention was to do the right thing. You simply gave Moore the benefit of the doubt," said Decker.

"I gave him a hell of a lot more than that!" Christopher fumed. "I gave him four days of warning. It's no wonder I couldn't prove anything: General Brooks had four full days to destroy the evidence. I made a total fool of myself." Christopher shook his head introspectively. "It's no wonder Gandhi and Fahd voted against me, but Tanaka and Howell?" he said, referring to the ambassadors from Japan and Canada, respectively. "Are they blind? Don't they see what Moore is? He'd bring the whole world down around him if he thought that when it was all over he could stand at the top of the heap of rubble and declare himself king!

"You know, it never made sense to me that when the voting on a new Secretary-General first began, that Moore seconded the nomination of Ambassador Tanaka. And then later, when the West Africans rejected Tanaka, Moore was there to suggest Kruszkegin as a compromise candidate. It seemed so out of character for Moore to be promoting anyone but himself. I thought maybe I had been wrong about him: Kruszkegin would have made a great Secretary-General. So when things worked out that Moore was nominated, it worried me at first but then I almost got used to the idea. Well, it took me a long time to realize it, but I'm convinced that the only reason Moore seconded the nomination of the Japanese ambassador and later supported Kruszkegin was to build a base for his own nomination. I don't think he had any intention of helping Kruszkegin or Tanaka. It was all part of his plan to be elected Secretary-General himself." Anger burned in Christopher's eyes. He stopped and stared out his window. Outside, freezing rain fell on the street-blackened remains of the snow that had fallen three days earlier. "I've got to get away from here for a while," Christopher said.