Page 62 of The Last Kingdom

“There being no further business before our council, we will proceed to close for the evening. We shall retire outside to the fire and enjoy some time of fellowship. But first, let us clothe our new brother properly.”

The white robes were removed, then the hood taken away. Black robes were handed to the new member, who began to don them.

Cotton saw the face.

The thief from Herrenchiemsee.

The guy with Luke.

Who worked for Prince Stefan.

Chapter 33

DERRICK LOOKED UP FROM THE TWO PAGES HE’D READ, MENTALLYsorting through the situation, searching for options. Instinct and training cautioned him against saying too much. Was he being played? Manipulated? Hard to say. These folks were way ahead of him. So be smart, give as little as possible, and see what came from that. That always worked in the past. Rash feelings and quick emotions rarely led to anything but trouble. Good choices demanded smart judgment, discipline, and, above all, timing.

Yep. Timing.

“You thought this was just about helping out a friend, protecting our fiftieth state, and getting some leverage on me,” Fox said through the monitor. “Now you know why that deed is vitally important to this country.”

Oh, yeah. He got it.

“Amazing, really,” Fox said. “When the king of Hawaii decided to give his land away, none of it really mattered beyond the simple control of the islands themselves. But, now, that kingdom is a state. A political entity. And if China could somehow wrestle control of that state, they would also have claim to those rare earth deposits. The only reason those minerals haven’t been plucked from the ocean is that they sit in our territorial waters. Believe me, China, Russia, and Japan all want them. But only China discovered an inside track and now they’re trying to exploit that to the fullest.”

“Is this mysterious deed valid?”

“It may not matter. We told the world in 1993 that we stole the Hawaiian kingdom and we apologized. We also said that its monarchy was legitimate and we would respect whatever it did, prior to the coup. Sure, we could take that back, but we’d look like a fool on the world stage. And that we cannot afford. We’ve been challenging Bejing’s dominance over the South China Sea for over a decade, arguing in every tribunal that China’s claim to those waters is void because they have no writings to back anything up. So far, we’ve won that argument. What do you think will happen once all this is revealed?”

He knew the South China Sea dispute was complicated. It involved territorial claims by Brunei, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. It was important because trillions of dollars’ worth of goods passed through those waters each year. One third of the global maritime trade. Eighty percent of China’s energy imports and forty percent of its trade floated across the South China Sea. Fishing and oil drilling rights were also at stake. Control those waters and you controlled all that trade. Right now they were deemed international. But China had become creative and started building islands to gain a foothold. The United States objected and a United Nations tribunal ruled against China’s staking a claim. He recalled a CIA briefing memo on the subject that specifically noted that not a shred of documentary evidence existed to support China’s ownership of those waters. Now, here they were, on the hunt for a document that could establish a valid legal claim to Hawaii.

Fox was right.

This stink would be hard to get off your shoes.

“They’ll ram everything we’ve said about the South China Sea down our throats,” he told Fox.

“Precisely. We’d be the world’s greatest hypocrite. I can already hear it. ‘America says one thing, does another when it’s their nuts in the vise.’ Not to mention the legal implications that deed will have on every land title in Hawaii. Our real property laws are clear. You need an unblemished chain of title. That deed is a fatal break in the chain. The litigation will be endless. When the Hawaiian king deeded that land away, he owned it all. It was his personal property to do with as he saw fit. That’s one of the joys of being a king.”

None of that sounded good.

“The Germans are a thorn in our side,” Fox said. “They’d love to stick it to us. We can’t allow them to make a deal with the Chinese. They already are too close for comfort. If they make this happen, both China and Germany will be impossible to deal with.”

“So we need to put a spur in their saddle?”

“Something like that.”

He stared at the screen. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to forget about screwing with me. It’s not worth it. You have literally brought a knife to a gunfight. I’ll save you the trouble. Do this, win this, and I’ll be in your debt. How you want to use that debt is up to you. I’m not going to insult you with a promise of a promotion. Let’s do this for the country, then see where we go from there.”

Okay. That made sense.

“I read your personnel jacket,” Fox said. “And Trinity told me all about you. You’ve had a great career. What you did to stop torture is admirable. I never was in favor of any of that. Pointless. Impose enough suffering on someone and they’ll tell you whatever you want to hear.”

He was surprised at the admission.

“People think they know me,” Fox said. “They don’t. I can be an ass. Tough to deal with. Sometimes full of myself. But I’d never torture anybody for any reason. I agree with Obama on that one. You did good helping to end it.”

“It cost me.”