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Marion found that a little hard to believe.
    ‘Rose sent over a draft of the statement at 10pm last night,’ said Livingstone. ‘That’s the first I heard of it. I spoke to him right away and then I spoke to him again first thing this morning and he said the president was going to do it and if I had any suggestions for the draft, I better get them in. That line about thanking our allies, you can thank me for that.’
    ‘Is that the best you could do?’
    ‘Yes, it was. There were a bunch of other lines that didn’t make it. Personally, I’m just glad that one did.’
    Ellman was silent. She knew as well as anyone that Livingstone had become an increasingly less important figure in the two years that the administration had been in office, but treatment like this was utter contempt. And it was visible. The details weren’t important – whether the statement had been sent to him at 9pm or 10pm didn’t matter – but anyone watching would know that while Livingstone had been running around trying to build a coalition, the White House had been planning something entirely different. Power in foreign affairs rests with the president. It’s shared by the secretary of state only to the extent that people believe the secretary speaks with the president’s voice. People had already doubted that of Bob Livingstone. Now there wasn’t even a doubt.
    If she knew it, Marion realized, Bob would know it even better. She understood he must be hurting. But he was a loyal servant. Even to her, privately, he was unlikely to admit how hurt he must be.
    ‘What does he gain from this, Bob? Is this a premeditated act to cut us down? I don’t understand how that serves anyone’s interest.’
    ‘The way Gary explained it to me, Marion, is that Pressler wanted complete surprise. The LRA has enough communications capability to know what’s going on and he wanted them thinking we were slowly building a coalition and they had months to build up supplies and hide themselves out.’
    ‘Did you know this?’ asked Ellman incredulously.
    ‘Not till yesterday.’
    Ellman laughed.
    ‘It’s plausible,’ said Livingstone.
    ‘Sure. And they thought we couldn’t keep it secret.’
    ‘I guess they figured it might affect the way we went about talking to our allies.’
    Marion shook her head. She wondered whether the secretary could possibly believe what he had just said. She liked Bob Livingstone, he was a good, decent man. But he wasn’t hard enough. He gave the benefit of the doubt. He didn’t fight the turf wars.
    ‘The operation’s already begun,’ said Livingstone. ‘Apparently we’ve had drones doing surveillance for two days.’
    ‘What’s the rush?’
    ‘Come on, Marion. You know as well as me. The president wants hits before November 6.’
    ‘And for that he’s prepared to tick off just about every one of our allies?’
    ‘Let’s be fair. Most of them were all talk.’
    ‘But there are ways to do it, Bob!’
    ‘Yeah, I know. I just think … with the midterms coming up, he’s not prepared to be seen as a president who gets a go-ahead and then messes around. He wants to be seen as decisive. Go in there, get it done. There’s a lot at stake in these midterms, you know that.’
    Marion didn’t know whether Livingstone really thought that any of this could justify the way the president had acted or the damage he had done to the ability of the State Department – and Livingstone personally – to be effective. Maybe he did, or maybe it was a rationalization to preserve a little dignity in the demeaning situation in which he found himself.
    ‘Marion, I’m sorry about this. I wish I could have stopped it. I know you’re exposed. After me, you’re probably the person most exposed by all this.’
    ‘It’s the whole department, Bob. The president’s got to realize that. He’s got to realize what he’s done.’
    ‘Well, he’s done it.’
    Ellman thought about what a fool she looked. She thought about the kinds of