The Sins of the Fathers

Chapter Thirteen

The Rosen House

Sanibel Island

Florida

"Mr President...I am sorry to disturb your weekend?" Claudine Delacorte said as soon as her face appeared on the screen in the den, Jacob's old office. He noted that she was dressed for work, and looked like she was in her office.

"You won't be the first or the last to do so, Madame Secretary-General...I assume that you have some news for me?" Fletcher shrugged, happy to be interrupted and curious to find out what had her in New York on a Saturday. Delacorte liked her holiday home in the Hamptons too much to give it up easily.

"Good news...very good news...Andrew Symonds and the Chinese have admitted that the mistakes were made...they insist that Covid was not released, but somehow escaped them in a freak accident...a Chinese laboratory assistant was responsible." She said, with a perfectly straight face. Fletcher admired her for it, she was good at the pretence. "Obviously...this is what was always expected...so it is very much old news...the council will discuss reparations and life goes on?"

"Really? Just like that? I think I need a few more details than that, Madame?"

"Of course...and you will receive all the details they have, in due course...but we are very satisfied with the confession...after all these years, there is no need for the hunting of witches Mr President...an old man has admitted mistakes on his watch, and the Chinese government have supported his version of events...and he did go onto develop the Hycanil vaccine?"

"We have evidence to the contrary, Madame?" Fletcher sighed, twirling a pen between his fingers. "We have our witness who will testify that it was common knowledge amongst the senior people in the Christian Democratic Alliance...you must investigate this?"

"Of course, our investigation will continue, Mr President...but with the agreement of the British government, we would like to shift the focus towards the individuals accused of such serious abuses of their system?" Delacorte responded, and Gideon Palmer, sitting out of the range of the camera, almost gasped in surprise. "They have suggested that you work closely with Bishop Osborne, who will be asked to lead a full enquiry their end and recommend how the Holy Order should be restructured to prevent such abuses reoccurring in the future. And the church too, Mr President...they are promising meaningful change?"

"We will happily work with Bishop Osborne...but my initial reaction is disappointment that you are sweeping the big issue under your carpet again, Madame?" Fletcher said, whilst Palmer closed his eyes, trying to work out what was happening. It was telling that Delacorte had mentioned reparations. Every country had been paying billions for the Hycanil vaccine for forty years or more, but those were old deals, negotiated by leaders who were long since retired in most cases. Current governments would focus on the present and not worry too much about the past, and they would want to renegotiate their contracts going forwards. That was where the real votes were. They still needed Hycanil, because Covid was still an annual threat. Several nations had tried to cut back on the annual vaccination programmes, and the virus had hit them all hard, forcing them to resume. So, they could not afford to punish the British beyond the reasonable. And everyone would be worried about the Chinese. Delacorte had made it crystal clear that both the Brits and the Chinese had made their confessions, and the international community would not want to seriously fall out with Beijing. And she was right about the virus emanating from Wuhan being old news. That was exactly what the world had always believed anyway, so any attempt to make the confessions public would be a fairly damp squib in the media.

"No, Mr President...this is not what we are doing...our objective here is to keep the peace and ensure international cooperation continues in hot spots such as North Korea...you must accept that the intervention of the Chinese government does change things?" Delacorte said with an air of finality. She did not want to say much more, and there was not much more that Fletcher could say. Delacorte promised to send full details of the confessions to him and he promised to contact Sebastian Osborne, and then they signed off.