"Wait a minute. I don't want him killed."
"They are capable of applying pressure without terminating him."
"I wish someone would do that to the Secretary-General of the UN. He tried to hold me up for back dues before he would stick his oar into the water."
"I will instruct my people to fly to Ottawa."
And the line went silent.
The President picked his coat off the bedpost and drew it on. Of all the perils that had loomed on the international horizon-a fractured Russia and an increasingly belligerent China-this was the one he never saw coming.
It was a good thing no one knew he had a hand in creating it.
Chapter 29
In his office on the thirty-eighth floor of the United Nations Building overlooking the East River, Secretary-General Anwar Anwar-Sadat was fielding telephone calls.
Strange things were happening in the world. The call to roll back the two-hundred-mile limit seemed to be resonating in certain world capitals.
From Argentina a thickly accented voice was telling him that his was the first sane voice heard on the subject in decades.
From South Korea there were plaudits. Japan appeared interested. Of course, they would be. Their fleets plied the seven seas voraciously, often encountering resistance and sanctions.
From other quarters, of course, came dark threats. Russia had been claiming dubious management rights over disputed waters, and Moscow was irate. Likewise Burma, or whatever the current name was, engaged in raffling off their coastal fishing rights, was being unpleasant.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was particularly upset, if her telephonic screeches were any indicator.
Anwar Anwar-Sadat excused himself in the middle of her unrelenting vitriol and stood up.
It was the turning point, but it was very strange. All he had done was make a speech. It wasn't even a very good speech, although it was delivered with conviction. With force. Obviously that was why it had resonated so.
His chief aide buzzed him very soon after the first wave of calls to inform him, "A Miss Calley to speak with you."
Anwar Anwar-Sadat perked up. "Really?"
"Yes. She is not on the list, but she sounded so sure of herself, I said I would see if you were in."
"I will take the call," Anwar Anwar-Sadat said eagerly.
Taking his chair, he cleared his throat twice very noisily because he seemed to have raised a bothersome frog, then took up the receiver. "This is Secretary-General Anwar Anwar-Sadat speaking," he said, his voice a quavering purr.
"Good of you to take my call, my Anwar," a cool female voice said crisply.
He all but gasped. "It is you?"
"It is I."
"I have longed for this moment."
"And for another moment, nearing soon."
"You are in New York?" he said joyously.
"No. But you are coming here."
"I look forward to our first meeting. I must say that I very much admire your voice."
"And I yours."
"It is-how shall I put it?-uplifting." He tittered.
"I will accept that as the compliment of a gentleman, and keep my innuendo to myself."
She was charming. Her voice was a husky contralto. Sexy, yes, but not sluttish. It did not quite go with his mental image of a blond goddess, but in fact, it was an improvement. It was a very capable voice.
"I am very excited about the reception to my speech," he said.
"The world's ears are turned in your direction, my Anwar."
"Although my duty calls for me to be here, I will come to your city wherever it may be."
"Ottawa. Come tonight."
"We will laugh, we will dance and we will dine on one another's charms," Anwar Anwar-Sadat tittered.
"And we will confer with the Canadian minister of fisheries," said Mistress Kali.
Anwar-Sadat's face quirked as if bee-stung.
"That does not sound very ...romantic."
"We will have our little romance, you and I. But your words have struck a chord. The minister of fisheries has struck a like chord in his own nation. I thought you two should meet."
"Whatever for?"
"To plot your dual strategy."
"I do not have dual strategy."
"No. You have a unified strategy. My strategy."
"And after this meeting, what shall I look forward to?"
"What would please you, my Anwar?"
"Something new. Something extraordinary."