53
Pyongyang, North Korea
“Is everything all right, Ambassador?”
“It’s fine, Emma. Everything is fine.”
But clearly, everything was not fine. Emma Broddle had gotten to know Ambassador Lee well in the past few days. Ethan Lee had joined the stalled peace talks in Pyongyang quite recently. And Emma had learned quickly that he was someone who’d seen and done it all. Almost nothing seemed to faze him. He handled the North Korean generals without blinking.
But the phone call he’d just received had definitely shaken him. He had nearly turned white, before quickly recovering.
They were sitting outside the negotiating room of the interminable peace talks that had been underway in Pyongyang since the day that President Camara had met with the brash, young leader of North Korea on the airport tarmac months earlier.
Ambassador Lee had injected gravitas and a new sense of urgency in the stalled talks, which was likely what the White House had hoped for. But Emma had never seen the ambassador in such a state. The call had affected him deeply.
“You’re certain, sir?” Emma asked. “The call…”
Ethan looked over at the young woman and smiled wanly. “It’s my son Nash.”
“Is he all right?”
“Yes, that was the president. He told me that the Saudi royal family has Nash inside the king’s palace as some sort of a prisoner.”
“But he’ll be all right, won’t he?” asked Emma. “I mean, it’s Saudi Arabia. They’re one of our allies?”
“Yes, but a very dangerous conflict is about to break out in the kingdom,” Ethan said. “And I don’t know what part Nash has in it—or why he’s being held at the king’s palace.”
“Did the president say what might have caused the problem?”
“He didn’t, other than the fact that they were trying to coerce Nash to turn over private information. The Chinese have tried that with his company before. But this is unpardonable. It isn’t something you do to any American citizen in Arabia.”
“Your son will be all right, Ambassador. He will. You’ll see.”
“I certainly hope so.” Ethan stood. “But the president gave me other information, the type I was looking for. And I’m not waiting any longer. We’re going to go jump-start these peace talks. It’s time we concluded a few things.”
“Like making sure that those two prisoners Nash was concerned about, You Moon and Kim Grace, are finally freed?”
“Among other things,” the ambassador said, his eyes flashing angrily. “But first, I intend to find out exactly where the North Koreans shipped nuclear materials to Iran—and why they did so without telling us about it.”