Now he was in despair over his personal misfortune, but he was not really worried about Sherhaben and its Sultan. The worst that could happen would be economic sanctions. The American CIA would mount covert operations to displace the Sultan, but this might be to his advantage.

So he was profoundly shocked by Kennedy's carefully articulated speech.

"You must listen closely," Francis Kennedy said. "In three hours you will be on a plane to Sherhaben to bring my message to your Sultan personally.

Mr. Bert Audick, whom you know, and my national security adviser, Arthur Wix, will accompany you. And the message is this. In twenty-four hours your city of Dak will be destroyed."

Horrified, his throat constricted, the ambassador could not speak.

Kennedy continued: "The hostages must be released and the terrorist Yabril must be turned over to us. Alive. If the Sultan does not do this, the state of Sherhaben itself will cease to exist."

The ambassador looked so stricken that Kennedy thought he might have trouble comprehending. Kennedy paused for a moment and then went on reassuringly. "All this will be in the documents I will send with you to present to your Sultan."

Ambassador Waleeb said dazedly, "Mr. President, forgive me, you said something about destroying Dak?"

Kennedy said, "That is correct. Your Sultan will not believe my threats until he sees the city of Dak in ruins. Let me repeat: the hostages must be released, Yabril must be surrendered and secured so that he cannot take his own life. There will be no more negotiations."

The ambassador said incredulously, "You cannot threaten to destroy a free country, tiny as it is. And if you destroy Dak, you destroy billions of dollars' worth of American investment."

"That may be true," Kennedy said. "We will see. Make sure your Sultan understands that I am immovable in this matter-that is your function. You, Mr. Audick and Mr. Wix will go in one of my personal planes. Two other aircraft will accompany you. One to bring back the hostages and the body of my daughter. The other to bring back Yabril."

The ambassador could not speak, he could scarcely think. This was surely a nightmare. The President had gone mad.

When he was alone with Bert Audick, Audick said to him grimly, "That bastard meant what he said, but we have a card to play. I'll talk to you on the plane."

In the Oval Office Eugene Dazzy took notes.

Francis Kennedy said, "Have you arranged for all the documents to be delivered to the ambassador's office and to the plane?"

Dazzy said, "We dressed it up a little. Wiping out Dak is bad enough, but we can't say in print that we will destroy the whole country of Sherhaben. But your message is clear. Why send Wix?"

Kennedy smiled and said, "The Sultan will know that when I send him my national security adviser I'm very serious. And Arthur will repeat my verbal message."

"Do you think it will work?" Dazzy said.

"He'll wait for Dak to go down," Kennedy said. "Then it sure as hell will work unless he's crazy."

TO IMPEACH THE President of the United States in twenty-four hours seemed almost impossible. But four hours after Kennedy's ultimatum to Sherhaben, Congress and the Socrates Club had this victory well within their grasp.

After Christian Klee had left the meeting, the computer surveillance section of his FBI special division gave him a complete report on the activities of the leaders of Congress and the members of the Socrates Club.

Three thousand calls were listed. Charts and records of all the meetings held were also part of the report. The evidence was clear and overwhelming.

Within the next twenty-four hours the House and Senate of the United States would try to impeach the President.

Christian, furious, put the reports in his briefcase and rushed over to the White House. But before he left, he told Peter Cloot to move ten thousand agents from their normal duty posts and send them to Washington.

At this same time late Wednesday Senator Thomas Lambertino, the strongman of the Senate, with his aide Elizabeth Stone and Congressman Alfred Jintz, the Democratic Speaker of the House, were meeting in Lambertino's office.

Sal Troyca, chief aide to Congressman Jintz, was there to cover up, as he often said, the asshole of his boss, who was an idiot manqu6. About Sal Troyca's cunning there was no doubt, not only in his own mind but on Capitol Hill.

In that warren of rabbity legislators, Sal Troyca was also a champion womanizer and genteel promoter of relationships between the sexes. Troyca had already noted that the senator's chief aide, Elizabeth Stone, was a beauty, but he had to find out how devoted she was. And right now he had to concentrate on the business at hand.

Troyca read aloud the pertinent sentences of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, editing out sentences and words here and there. He read slowly and carefully in a beautifully controlled tenor voice: " 'Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments' "-in an aside to Jintz he whispered, "That's the Cabinet"; then his voice grew more emphatic-" 'or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to… the Senate and… House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.' "

"Bullshit," Congressman Jintz yelled. "It can't be that easy to impeach a President."

"It's not," said Senator Lambertino in a soothing voice. "Read on, Sal."

Sal Troyca thought bitterly that it was typical that his boss did not know the Constitution, holy as it was. He gave up. Fuck the Constitution, Jintz would never understand. He would have to put it in plain language.

He said, "Essentially the Vice President and the Cabinet must sign a declaration of incompetence to impeach Kennedy. Then the Vice President becomes President. One second later Kennedy enters his counterdeclaration and says he's OK. He's President again. Then Congress decides. During that delay Kennedy can do what he wants."

Congressman Jintz said, "And there goes Dak."

Senator Lambertino said, "Most of the Cabinet members will sign the declaration. We'll have to wait for the Vice President-we can't proceed without her signature. Congress will have to meet no later than ten P.m.

Thursday to decide the issue in time to prevent the destruction of Dak.

And to win we must have a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate. Now, can the House do the job? I guarantee the Senate."

"Sure," Congressman Jintz said. "I got a call from the Socrates Club, they are going to lean on every member of the House."

Troyca said respectfully, "The Constitution says, any other body the Congress may provide by law. Why not bypass all that Cabinet and vice-presidential signing and make Congress that body? Then they can decide forthwith."

Congressman Jintz said patiently, "Sal, it won't work. It can't look like a vendetta. The voting public would be on his side and we'd have to pay for it later. Remember Kennedy is popular with the people-a demagogue has that advantage over responsible legislators."

Senator Lambertino said, "We should have no trouble following procedure.

The President's ultimatum to Sherhaben is far too extreme and shows a mind temporarily unbalanced by his personal tragedy. For which I have the utmost sympathy and sorrow. As indeed we all do."

Congressman Jintz said, "My people in the House come up for reelection every two years. Kennedy could knock a bunch of them out if he's declared competent after the thirty day period. We have to keep him out."