The Sins of the Fathers

Chapter Sixteen

June 2064

The White House

Washington DC

"Claudine...why are you pandering to these disgusting people?" Sean Fletcher asked the Secretary-General in exasperation, stopping her in the middle of listing a number of things that the British might agree to do, to make amends, if the Deacon investigation was halted and the allegations buried for evermore. "They know Deacon is onto something and they are doing everything they can to stop him getting at the evidence, which is hidden in a state-run institution that we all know...we fucking know...is brutally abusing the human rights of over two million women...and you are considering letting them get away with it?"

"Mr President...we are talking about a mature nation state...with a stable and democratic government, with a clear public mandate to deliver a manifesto you and I both abhor...but they are also a nuclear power, a rich country with no debts and well-resourced armed forces with which to defend themselves." Madame Delacorte sniffed, not appreciating his language or being interrupted in full flow. "They are used to living behind their thick velvet curtain...to being something of a pariah...so they are quite prepared to double down and hide from the world, with Hycanil to stop anyone going too far? As you know, we can huff and we can puff as much as we like...but we cannot force them to do much...can we?"

"Madame, you know that they are guilty...we have to use this situation to demand human rights improvements at the very least...real ones...and we have to take Symonds, and anyone else who knew about the vaccine in twenty-twenty-one, down...once and for all?" Fletcher insisted, his fists clenched and his temper barely under control, even if he had always known he would have to have that conversation sooner or later.

"Our mission statement is to 'Maintain International Peace and Security. Protect Human Rights. Deliver Humanitarian Aid. Support Sustainable Development and Climate Action for the sake of all mankind,' Mr President...it is not our job to force regime change...or bring down individuals?" Delacorte sighed with equal determination, because Fletcher was getting isolated on the wrong side of the argument currently being thrashed out within the United Nations Security Council, as far as she was concerned. "Human rights are firmly in our sights as always but peace and security have to come first...they always have...you know that...and the Chinese will also make concessions if we accept the current position?"

"And you think you can keep it all quiet?"

"Our suggestion is a carefully worded statement, solving the riddle of the source of Covid and confirming that it broke out as a result of a simple mistake? Everyone is very sorry...and Symonds takes his share of the blame...the rest we forget?"

"The trouble is I have a very good memory, Madame?" Fletcher said, standing up in a fast release of energy that startled the French diplomat, because she could obviously see that he was extremely angry. She watched him walk to the window and stare out across the grounds and chose her words with care, looking for a compromise.

"Mr President...this agreement goes nowhere without your signature, at this stage...we all need to support a peaceful solution that includes a promise not to go to the media?"

"At this stage? Meaning that it is June, and come next January, you will have a man in this office that will have his pen out in a flash to sign whatever you want him to sign, to save his British friends?"

"That is the reality, Mr President?"

"Claudine...I wouldn't want your job for all the money in the world...keeping every nation happy is quite impossible...and I fully understand why we are being pushed in this direction over this?" He suggested, turning back to face her, hands in trouser pockets and his head slightly cocked to one side, as if he was deep in thought. "Quite honestly, I don't know how the American people would react to the news that Drew Symonds let a billion people die...I just think that it would be bad, but I might be wrong? But I think if they ever saw that clip of Symonds saying that the pandemic did us a favour by killing off the old and the sick, whilst his daughter is being punished right beside him, that there would be anger...and anger makes this world less peaceful and certainly less secure?"