be;;;;;;;;;;;;;bbbbATX-PH0
Created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik
TOM CLANCY'S OP-CENTER TOM
CLANCY'S OP-CENTER: MIRROR IMAGE
TOM CLANCY'S OP-CENTER: GAMES OF
STATE TOM CLANCY'S OP-CENTER:
ACTS OF WAR TOM CLANCY'S
OP-CENTER: BALANCE OF POWER
Created by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg
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caret ,Tom, Clancys
Op-Center
BALANCE
OF
POWER
Created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik
BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK
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TOM CLANCY'S OP-CENTER: BALANCE OF
POWER
A Berkley Book I published by arrangement with
Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and SandR
Literary, Inc.
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley edition I May 1998
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Copyright 'a9 1998 by Jack Ryan Limited
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Jeff Rovin for his creative
ideas and his invaluable contributions to the preparation of the
manuscript. We would also like to acknowledge the
assistance of Martin H. Greenberg, Larry
Segriff, Robert Youdelman, Esq., Tom
Mallon, Esq., and the wonderful people at The
Putnam Berkley Group, including Phyllis
Grann, David Shanks, and Elizabeth
Beier. As always, we would like to thank Robert
Gottlieb of The William Morris Agency,
our agent and friend, without whom this book would never have
been conceived. But most important, it is for you, our
readers, to determine how successful our
collective endeavor has been.
comTom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik
Tom Clancy's
Op-Center
BALANCE
OF
POWER
ATX-UL1024 0213kslash caret
Spain
"You were way out of line," Martha Mackall said.
She was openly disgusted with the young woman standing beside her
and it took a moment for her to calm down. Then she
bent close to Aideen's ear so the other passengers
wouldn't hear. "You were out of line and reckless. You know
what's at stake here. To be distracted like that is
inexcusable."
The statuesque Martha and her slight assistant,
Aideen Marley were holding a pole in the aisle
near the front door of the bus. Aideen's full,
round cheeks nearly as red as her long hair, she
tore absently at the moist towelette she
clutched in her right hand.
"Do you disagree?" Martha asked.
"No," Aideen said.
"I mean, good lord!"
"I said no," Aideen repeated. "I don't
disagree. I was wrong. Totally and completely
wrong."
Aideen believed it, too. She had behaved
impulsively in a situation that she
probably should have ignored. But like Aideen's own
overreaction a few minutes before, this dressing-down
from Martha was excessive and punitive. In the two
months since
2 OP-CENTER
Aideen had joined Op-Center's Political and
Economics Office, she'd been warned more than
once by the other three staff members to avoid
crossing the boss.
Now she saw why.
"I don't know what you needed to prove," Martha
went on. She was still bent close to Aideen. There was
anger in her clipped tone. " "But I never
want you doing it again. Not when you're touring with me.
Do you understand?"'"
"Yes," Aideen said contritely.
God,
she thought,
enough already.
Aideen had a flashback to a brainwashing seminar
she'd once attended at the U.s. embassy in
Mexico City. The prisoners were always dunned
by their captors when they were at their weakest emotionally.
Guilt was an especially effective doorway.
She wondered if Martha had studied the
technique or came by it naturally.
And almost at once, Aideen wondered if she were being
fair to her boss. After all, this
was
their first mission together for Op-Center. And it was an
important one.
Martha finally looked away-but only for a moment.
"It's unbelievable," she said, turning back.
Her voice was just loud enough to be heard over the powerful
engine. "Tell me something. Did it ever occur to you
that we might have been detained by the police? How would
we have explained that to our Uncle Miguel?"
Uncle Miguel was the code name for the man they were
here to see. Deputy Isidro Serrador.
Until the women arrived for their meeting at the
Congreso de
BALANCE OF POWER 3
los Diputados, the Congress of Deputies, that
was how they were supposed to refer to him.
"Detained by the police for what?" Aideen asked.
"Frankly, no. That did not occur to me. We were
simply protecting ourselves."
"Pro
tecting ourselves?" Martha asked.
Aideen looked at her. "Yes."
"From whom?"
"What do you mean?" Aideen asked. "Those men-was
"Those
Spanish
men," Martha said, still bent close to Aideen. "It
would have been our word against theirs. Two American
women crying harassment to
policemen
who probably do their own share of harassing. The
policia
would have laughed at us."
Aideen shook her head. "I can't believe it would
have gone that far."
"I see," Martha said. "You know that for sure. You
can guarantee it wouldn't have."
"No, I can't," Aideen admitted. "But even
so, at least the situation would have been-was
"What?" Martha asked. "Ended? What would you have
done if we'd been arrested?"
Aideen looked out the window as the stores and hotels
recently partaken in one of Op-Center's
computerized WaSP'S-WAR Simulation
Projects-a mandatory exercise for members of the
diplomatic staff. It gave them a feeling for
what their colleagues had to endure if
diplomacy failed. Casualties greater than the
mind could process. That exercise was easier than this
one.
"If we'd been arrested," Aideen said, "I would
4 OP-CENTER
have apologized. What else could I have done?"
"Not a thing," Martha said, "which is exactly my
point-though it's a little late to be thinking about it."
"You know what?" said Aideen. "You're right. You're
right"dis"
She looked back at Martha. "It's too late.
So what I'd like to do now is apologize to you and
put this behind us."
"I'm sure you would," Martha replied, "but that's not
my style. When I'm unhappy, I let it out."
And out and out,
Aideen thought.
"And when I get real unhappy," Martha added,
"I shut
you
out. I can't afford charity."
Aideen didn't agree with that policy of
excommunication. You build a good team, you fight
hard to keep it; a wise and effective manager
understands that passion needs to be nurtured and
channeled, not crushed. But this was a side of Martha
she'd simply have to get used to. As
Op-Center's Deputy Director, General
Mike Rodgers, had put it when he hired her,
Every job has politics. They just happen to be more
pronounced
in
politics.
He went on to point out that in every profession, people have
agendas. Often, only dozens or hundreds of people
are affected by those agendas. In politics, the
ramifications from even tiny ripples are
incalculable. And there was only one way to fight that.
Aideen had asked him how.
Rodgers's answer had been simple.
With a better agenda.
Aideen was too annoyed to contemplate what
Martha's agenda was right now. That was a popular
topic of discussion at Op-Center. People were divided
as to
BALANCE OF POWER 5
whether the Political and Economics Liaison
worked hard doing what was best for the nation or for Martha
Mackall. The truth, most felt, was that she was
looking out for both.
Aideen looked around the bus. She could tell that some
of the people gathered around her were also unhappy, though that had
very little to do with what was going on between the young woman and
Martha. The bus was packed with people returning to work after
the afternoon lunch break-which lasted from one o'clock to four-as
well as camera-carrying tourists. A number of them
had seen what the young woman had done at the bus
stop. Word had spread very rapidly. The riders
nearest Aideen were pressing away from her. A few
of them cast disapproving glances at the young woman's
hands.
Martha remained silent as the brakes ground
noisily. The large red bus stopped on Calle
Femanflor and the two women got off quickly.
Dressed as tourists in jeans and windbreakers, and
carrying backpacks and cameras, they stood on the
curb of the crowded avenue. Behind them, the bus snarled
away. Dark faces bobbed in the windows, looking
down at the women.
Martha regarded her assistant. Despite the
reprimand, Aideen's gray eyes still had a glint
of steel beneath her lightly freckled lids.
"Look," Martha said, "you're new in this arena. I
brought you along because you're a helluva linguist and
you're smart. You have a lot of potential in
foreign affairs."
"I'm not exactly new at it," Aideen replied
defensively.
6 OP-CENTER
"No, but you're new on the European stage and
to my way of doing things," Martha replied. "You like
frontal assaults, which is probably why
General Rodgers hired you away from Ambassador
Carnegie. Our Deputy Director believes
in attacking problems head on. But I warned you about
that when you came to work for me. I told you to turn
down the heat. What worked in Mexico is not
necessarily going to work here. I told you when you
accepted the position that if you work for me you have to do
things my way. And I prefer end runs. Skirt
the main force. Finesse the enemy rather than launch an
assault. Especially when the stakes are as high as
they are here."
"I understand," Aideen said. "Like I said, I may
be new at this type of situation. But I'm not
green. When I know the rules I can play by them."
Martha relaxed slightly. "Okay. I'll buy
that." She watched as Aideen tossed the tattered
towelette into a trash can. "Are you okay? Do you
want to find a restroom?"'"
"Do I need one?"
Martha sniffed the air. "I don't think so." She
scowled. "You know, I still can't believe you did what
you did."
"I know you can't and I'm truly sorry," Aideen
said. "What else can I possibly say?"
"Nothing," Martha said. She shook her head
slowly. "Not a thing. I've seen street fighters
in my day, but I have to admit I've never seen that."
Martha was still shaking her head as they turned toward the
imposing Palacio de las Cortes, where they
BALANCE OF POWER 7
were scheduled to meet very unofficially and very quietly with
Deputy Serrador. According to what the veteran
politician had told Ambassador Barry
Neville in a very secret meeting, tension was
escalating between the impoverished Andalusians in the
south and the rich and influential Castilians of
northern and central Spain. The government wanted
help gathering intelligence. They needed to know from which
direction the tension was coming-and whether it also involved the
Catalonians, Galicians, Basques, and
other ethnic groups. Serrador's fear was
that a
concerted effort by one faction against another could rend the
loosely woven quilt of Spain. Sixty
years before, a civil war, which pitted the
aristocracy, the military, and the Roman Catholic
Church against insurgent Communists and other anarchic
forces, had nearly destroyed Spain. A modern
war would draw in ethnic sympathizers from France,
Morocco, Andorra, Portugal, and other nearby
nations. It would destabilize the southern flank of
NATO and the results would be
catastrophic-particularly as NATO sought to expand
its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.
Ambassador Neville had taken the problem
back to the State Department. Secretary of State
Av Lincoln decided that the State Department
couldn't afford to become involved at this early stage.
If the matter exploded and they were shown to have had a
hand in it, it would be difficult for the United States
to help negotiate a peace. Lincoln asked
Op-Center to make the initial contact and ascertain
what, if anything, the United States could do
to defuse the potential crisis.
8 OP-CENTER
Martha zipped her blue windbreaker against the sudden
chill of night. "I can't stress this enough," she
said. "Madrid is not the underbelly of Mexico
City. The briefings at Op-Center
didn't cover this because we didn't have time. But as
different as the various peoples of Spain are, they
all believe in one thing:
honor. Yes, there are aberrations. There are bad
seeds in any society. And yes, the standards aren't
consistent and they definitely aren't always
humanistic. There may be one kind of honor among
politicians and another kind among killers. But
they always play by the rules of the profession."
"So those three little pigs who insisted that they show us
around when we left the hotel," Aideen said
sharply, "the one who put his hand on my butt and
kept it there. They were acting according to some kind of
honorable sexual harassers' code?"
"No," Martha said. "They were acting according to a street
extortionists' code."
Aideen's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"
"Those men wouldn't have hurt us," Martha said. "That
would have been against the rules. And the rules are that they
follow women, pester them, and keep at it until
they get a payoff to leave them alone. I was about
to give them one when you acted."
"You were?"
Martha nodded. "That's how it's done here. As for the
police you would have gone to, many of them
collect kickbacks from the street extortionists