Page 483 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

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Maria managed to avoid Jasper Murray almost until the end of President Bush's European visit.

She had never met Jasper. She knew what he looked like: she had seen him on television, as everyone had. He was taller in real life, that was all. Over the years she had been the secret source of some of his best stories, but he did not know that. He only met George Jakes, the intermediary. They were careful. It was why they had never been found out.

She knew the whole story of Jasper's being fired from This Day. The White House had put pressure on Frank Lindeman, the owner of the network. That was how a star reporter came to be exiled. Although with the turmoil in Eastern Europe, plus Jasper's nose for a good story, the assignment had turned out to be a hot one.

Bush and his entourage, including Maria, ended up in Paris. Maria was standing in the Champs-Elysees with the press corps on Bastille Day, July 14, watching an interminable parade of military might, and looking forward to going home and making love to George again, when Jasper spoke to her. He pointed to a huge poster of Evie Williams advertising face cream. "She had a crush on me when she was fifteen years old," he said.

Maria looked at the picture. Evie Williams had been blacklisted by Hollywood for her politics, but she was a big star in Europe, and Maria recalled reading that her personal line of organic beauty products was making her more money than movies ever had.

"You and I have never met," Jasper said. "But I got to know your godson, Jack Jakes, when I was living with Verena Marquand."

Maria shook his hand warily. Talking to reporters was always dangerous. No matter what you said, the mere fact that you had had a conversation put you in a weak position, for then there could always be an argument about what you had actually said. "I'm glad to meet you at last," she said.

"I admire you for your achievements," he said. "Your career would be remarkable for a white man. For an African American woman, it's astonishing."

Maria smiled. Of course Jasper was charming--that was how he got people to talk. He was also completely untrustworthy, and would betray his mother for the sake of a story. She said neutrally: "How are you enjoying Europe?"

"Right now it's the most exciting place in the world," he said. "Lucky me."

"That's great."

"By contrast," Jasper said, "this trip has not been a success for President Bush."

Here it comes, Maria thought. She was in a difficult position. She had to defend the president and the policies of the State Department, even though she agreed with Jasper's assessment. Bush had failed to take leadership of the freedom movement in Eastern Europe: he was too timid. But she said: "We think it's been something of a triumph."

"Well, you have to say that. But, off the record, was it right for Bush to urge Jaruzelski--a Communist tyrant of the old school--to run for president in Poland?"

"Jaruzelski may well be the best candidate to oversee gradual reform," Maria said, though she did not believe it.

"Bush infuriated Lech Walesa by offering a paltry aid package of a hundred million dollars, when Solidarity had asked for ten billion."

"President Bush believes in caution," Maria argued. "He thinks the Poles need to reform their economy first, then get aid. Otherwise the money will be wasted. The president is a conservative. You may not like that, Jasper, but the American people do. That's why they elected him."

Jasper smiled, acknowledging a point scored, but he pressed on. "In Hungary, Bush praised the Communist government for removing the fence, not the opposition who put the pressure on. He kept telling the Hungarians not to go too far, too fast! What kind of advice is that from the leader of the free world?"

Maria did not contradict Jasper. He was one hundred percent correct. She decided to deflect him. To give herself a moment to think, she watched a low-loader go by bearing a long missile with a French flag painted on its side. Then she said: "You're missing a better story."

He raised a skeptical eyebrow. That accusation was not often leveled at Jasper Murray. "Go on," he said in a tone of mild amusement.

"I can't talk to you on the record."

"Off it, then."

She gave him a hard look. "So long as we're clear on that."

"We are."

"Okay. You probably know that some of the advice the president has been getting suggests that Gorbachev is a fraud, glasnost and perestroika are Communist flummery, and the whole charade is no more than a way to trick the West into dropping its guard and disarming prematurely."

"Who gives him this advice?"

The answer was the CIA, the national security adviser, and the secretary of defense, but Maria was not going to run them down when talking to a journalist, even off the record, so she said: "Jasper, if you don't know that already, you're not the reporter we all think you are."

He grinned. "Okay. So what's the big story?"

"President Bush was inclined to accept that advice--before he came on this trip. The story is that he has seen the reality on the ground here in Europe, and has altered his view accordingly. In Poland he said: 'I have this heady feeling that I'm witnessing history being made on the spot.'"

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