God's Crusade

Part Twenty-Six

"President Rosen is suddenly squirming just a little, Kieran," Charles Buckingham told Radcliffe, grinning as he put his telephone back in its cradle. "Only a little, because despite the screaming in Washington and the media, the polls suggest that throwing a terrorist into a convent for life is a rather popular move."

"She should ignore it; she only has a few more months to go...she will never face the electorate again in her own name." Kieran replied as an underling placed a tray of coffee on the desk and hurried off to leave them in private.

"She has been told that one of the hard drives containing evidence against Miss Hamilton was tampered with, remotely as I understand it, right under the noses of the FBI...I don't know what that means, let alone whether it is possible?"

"Computers are largely a mystery to me too, Charles."

"Good job you got your hands on a Californian whiz kid then, I suppose?" Charles laughed brightly, pouring the coffee.

"He is English, although he worked in California, and I think he is about to join the cause for real actually..."

"Good...it would appear he has been useful to us."

"Sorry Charles...I do know that this sort of thing bothers you..." Kieran began, but Charles dismissed it, with a wave of his hand, as if it did not matter anymore. "But yes, I am told the man is talented...he wrote a lot of successful code, whatever that is, in the past for people like Facebook and Twitter, and he used to be responsible for keeping snoopers out...so he seems uniquely qualified to work in the opposite direction sometimes...I am sure you find it all a bit...distasteful?"

"My feelings are becoming quite irrelevant, but doesn't it bother you?" Buckingham asked lightly, turning it back on his right hand man. His feelings were irrelevant because he knew he would not be around for much longer. Like Sharon Rosen his time had come and gone. He asked the question because he wanted to be sure of his potential successor. As sure as anyone could be he supposed, because you could never be truly sure.

"Our enemies must be dealt with, or they will derail our plans...therefore the ends justify the means..."

"Simplistic, but sadly still pertinent, I suppose. I have used the same argument myself very many times."

"And Hughes was guilty of course...he freely admitted that, and his group were becoming increasingly proactive. It was a case of nipping it in the bud before anyone got killed...so no Charles, it does not actually bother me." Radcliffe replied decisively. Buckingham looked at him closely for a moment, clearly remembering the young slightly nerdish man he had first convinced to throw his lot in with the Christian Democrats in 2019. Radcliffe was tougher than he looked then, of course. Twenty odd years later he was not as thin, and his grey hair gave him some extra gravitas and substance. But he still looked like an intellectual, a deep thinker, not a political heavyweight. Buckingham found that disarming because he knew the man was as tough as nails.

"Kieran, you know I am thinking of retiring...but I want to make sure that I leave the party in safe hands..."

"Safe hands or the right hands?"

"One would like to think that they are the same things."

"Charles...I don't know what you expect me to say...I know you thought of Harry as your natural successor, and I am not him of course...but I believe I want the same things." Kieran suggested, sitting back in his chair but tense, not relaxed, as if he knew that he was suddenly involved in a crucial conversation.

"Oh Harry was never really safe...not off the leash... but there was no side to him...no dark corners. I have never had to hold you back as such...it is more a case of working out where the hell you are."