The Washington Decree_A Novel Read online

  ALSO BY JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN

  STAND-ALONE NOVELS

  The Alphabet House

  THE DEPARTMENT Q SERIES

  The Keeper of Lost Causes

  The Absent One

  A Conspiracy of Faith

  The Purity of Vengeance

  The Marco Effect

  The Hanging Girl

  The Scarred Woman

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street

  New York, New York 10014

  Copyright © 2006, 2009 by Jussi Adler-Olsen

  Translation copyright © 2017 by Steve Schein

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  DUTTON is a registered trademark and the D colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Names: Adler-Olsen, Jussi, author. | Schein, Steve, translator.

  Title: The Washington decree : a novel / Jussi Adler-Olsen ; translated by Steve Schein.

  Other titles: Washington Dekretet. English

  Description: New York : Penguin Random House, 2018. | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017045636 (print) | LCCN 2017047896 (ebook) | ISBN 9781524742546 (ebook) | ISBN 9781524742522 (hc)

  Subjects: LCSH: United States—Politics and government—Fiction. | Political fiction lcgft

  Classification: LCC PT8176.1.D54 (ebook) | LCC PT8176.1.D54 W3713 2018 (print) | DDC 839.813/74—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045636

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  Dedicated to Elisabeth and Lennart Sane

  for their great contribution and indispensable confidence

  CONTENTS

  Also by Jussi Adler-Olsen

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Disclaimer

  Epigraph

  Foreword

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  Appendix

  About the Author

  The legislative developments in The Washington Decree are based on already existing presidential decrees as well as existing federal agencies and institutions whose purpose, among other things, is to assure the implementation of these decrees in critical situations. The list of decrees and institutions can be found at the back of the book.

  “All over the world, particularly in the newer nations, young men are coming to power—men who are not bound by the traditions of the past—men who are not blinded by the old fears and hates and rivalries—young men who can cast off the old slogans and delusions and suspicions.”

  —John F. Kennedy, speech upon being nominated as candidate for president at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, July 15, 1960

  “Let work in public administration be a proud and interesting career. And let every man and woman who works in any area of our national government, in any branch, at any level, be able to say with pride and with honor in future years: ‘I served the United States government in that hour of our nation’s need.’”

  —John F. Kennedy, State of the Union speech to Congress, January 29, 1961

  FOREWORD

  If there’s one thing about world history that is certain, it’s that nothing is certain. Nothing is eternal and nothing’s imperishable. Today’s hero is tomorrow’s bad guy; mighty empires come and go. Everything is a series of epochs: the Phoenician Empire, the Roman Empire, the Pharaoh’s Egypt, the French Empire, the Ottoman and Byzantine Empires, the Grecian cradle of democracy—all world powers that disappeared.

  Sometimes it takes hundreds of years; other times it’s from one day to the next.

  Who could have imagined that a single shot in Sarajevo would provoke a world war that resulted in millions of deaths? That Adolf Hitler could get away with murdering the entire leadership of his SA Corps in a single night? That a superpower like the Soviet Union and the entire Eastern Bloc could collapse so quickly? Who would have thought that a single event on the eleventh of September 2001 could totally change the world’s stability? And who, with knowledge of the Hundred Years’ War, the Inquisition, and the Crusades, could have been able to predict that the main cause of war and unrest in the twenty-first century, fed by a widening gap between the world’s rich and poor, would once again be religion—Christianity versus Islam—where twelve drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, published in a tiny Western country with five million inhabitants, could unite the entire Muslim world in its rage?

  In 1975, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge emptied all of Cambodia’s cities from one week to the next, and an unprecedented reign of terror became reality. Since then, similar radical upheavals have taken place all over the world—in Indonesia, Khomeini’s Iran, Milošević and Karadžić’s Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Idi Amin’s Uganda. People have been persecuted, deported, and purged; laws and the judicial system have been disregarded. At the same time, so-called civilized states have attempted to guard themselves against such situations with all the means at a democracy’s disposal: legislation, legal principle, rules, and regulations.

  In Europe—despite the British wish for a Brexit—we seek peace through our cooperation in the European Union, which is why new states, after careful consideration, keep being invited to join.
Our politicians say this is the surest way towards stability in our part of the world. The question is whether one forgets that we’re creating a superpower in the wake of all these peaceful intentions, a superpower that must eventually challenge other superpowers culturally, economically, and even militarily. It’s difficult to see how Russia, China, or a prospective future confederation of Arab or Muslim states would benefit from an expansionist EU policy.

  George Washington, the first president of the world’s current sole superpower, once stated that one can trust a nation no further than its own interests dictate, and that no responsible statesman would deviate from this rule—that national interests are stronger than ideology. In spite of these words—and in spite of the fact that history shows that long-term stability in the world is an illusion—Washington’s successors to the presidency have attempted to assure such stability time and again, and today many oppressed people and nations have the United States to thank for a better life, at least in part. But at the same time, in recent years, the United States has undergone a series of constitutional “adjustments” that the White House itself has called “the biggest restructuring of the federal government since 1947.” A restructuring of constitutional mechanisms that, in the wrong hands and under the wrong conditions, could have unpredictable consequences—consequences that could easily result in situations very reminiscent of those that the US military has felt itself obliged to rectify around the world in the past.

  With the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), President George W. Bush saw to it that all security agencies in the United States were brought together and coordinated under one administration. The crucial difference between this setup and similar security systems in Stalin’s Soviet Union and Hitler’s Third Reich lies in how the DHS is intended to be used in regard to its country’s own citizens. Although the department was created in the wake of 9/11 to secure the United States against terrorists from abroad, it can also handily be used to monitor and control its own people.

  In The Washington Decree, unfortunate circumstances cause the president of the United States to lose his good judgment and, despite his best intentions, unwittingly set a chain of events in motion that rapidly lead to a situation where the DHS, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the military are vulnerable to misuse, and all constitutional guarantees are revoked.

  We’ve seen this kind of situation arise before, and it will arise again. And it can happen suddenly, before you know it.

  —Jussi Adler-Olsen, 2007

  CHAPTER 1

  Autumn 1992

  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

  Even though she was still only fourteen years old, Doggie knew: Just as every adventure has a beginning, it also has an ending. In Doggie’s case the ending couldn’t have been worse.

  * * *

  —

  It all began with Governor Jansen’s office sending Virginia’s biggest local television station a suggestion for a new quiz show, plus the capital to get it off the ground.

  It was to be a geographical quiz where everyone who could correctly name China’s most populous city was invited to participate. The TV station went for the idea.

  After the initial elimination round, only forty-eight participants were left, and among them—quite sensationally—was a fourteen-year-old girl. The excitement rose for four weeks: Both the sponsor, Leatherman Auto Tires, and Governor Jansen’s campaign office wanted to get their money’s worth.

  The first programs were broadcast in the afternoon, but the show quickly found its way into prime time. A good three-quarters of Virginians followed the event on their TV screens. This was a new viewer record.

  Throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, people bet on the outcome. Each had his or her favorite. But most, by far, backed the girl with the dimples, who was also the youngest contestant: Dorothy Curtis, also known as Doggie.

  Three weeks and three episodes later, Virginia’s TV audience finally got their three winners—and what winners they were! Governor Jansen beamed like a Hollywood star, the host had his wages doubled, and the newspapers went crazy. With the exception of a blonde with silicone breasts and full hips who lost out in the last round (but instead got her own talk show on which to display her attributes), the winners couldn’t have been more popular.

  First prize went to Rosalie Lee, a big African American woman from New York who happened to be in Virginia for the first time, visiting her sister Josefine. Rosalie was a showpiece of a woman, with pearly teeth, roaring laughter, and winks to the audience, and few could match her talent of using so much time to answer a question that the audience was about to go crazy.

  Only one point behind her came T. Perkins, a pale-faced, practically albino sheriff who came from one of the smallest counties in the northwestern part of the state. A man who, in his youth, had been one of the nation’s best dart players. And finally, in an impressive third place came Doggie Curtis, the girl with the dimples. What a triumph! The winners couldn’t have been more different, and everyone involved with the show was pleased. How could any part of the population feel overlooked with those three? It simply wasn’t possible.

  * * *

  —

  The lucky winners couldn’t believe it when they heard their prize being announced live on the show. Along with the graduated cash jackpots came nothing less than a trip to the other side of the world for the three of them.

  For Doggie especially, it was all unreal and incredible. They were to travel to China with Governor Bruce Jansen, his staff, and an official Chinese delegation. They’d be entering a closed world, and everything would be paid for.

  It sounded like a fairy tale.

  * * *

  —

  Doggie’s father was proud about his daughter being so bright, but not about her prize. He was a right-wing Republican and hated Bruce Jansen, who was “old money” and a Democrat besides.

  “Jansen? That swine?” he yelled at her. “You don’t plan to participate in a PR stunt like that, advancing the ambitions of that fucking untrustworthy Democrat, do you?!” He forbid her going, and Doggie’s mother was forced to use all her powers of persuasion to make him change his mind.

  As fate would have it, this was the last time Doggie heard them quarrel. Her parents were divorced just five months later, a divorce that descended into a fight over money and custody of their child. Doggie ended up being installed in her mother’s house with her mother’s maiden name.

  * * *

  —

  In a way her father was right. It was all a PR stunt, but so what? Governor Jansen was a clever man. He’d taken three ordinary people and made them everybody’s darlings, and via them, invited Virginia’s entire population of seven million souls along to a far-off, enigmatic land. It was practically the only thing folks talked and read about. School newspapers, ladies’ magazines, and even Doggie’s father’s boring hotel business newsletter wrote about it. And everyone wanted to talk with Doggie. She’d been approached by twenty-one of Virginia’s thirty-four newspapers, either for interviews or to publish the last month’s entries in her diary.

  It was quite an achievement: Bruce Jansen had embraced the entire population all at once, and vice versa. He may have been calculating, but a swine he was not. He was quite fantastic, actually.

  * * *

  —

  Doggie’s heart was pounding as she bid her mother farewell and ascended the portable stairway to the huge airplane, glittering in the sunshine. She’d flown at least twenty times within the States, plus to Mexico and Puerto Rico, but never in a plane that size. It was a little frightening.

  When she reached her seat, Sheriff T. Perkins was already in the next seat by the window, looking sleepy and absentmindedly cleaning his fingernails with the point of a gilded dart. Governor Jansen’s wife, Caroll Jansen, came over and patted her on the cheek. “You’re a clever girl, Doggie,” she said. �
��It was wonderful, you winning third place. Just magnificent. I think we’re going to have a fine time together, we two.” She nodded graciously to a few of the passengers and sat down a couple of rows forward, between her husband and his indispensable right hand, Thomas Sunderland.

  Then Rosalie Lee came blustering down the aisle. She gave everyone a hearty greeting and planted herself next to Doggie, her bulk flowing over onto Doggie’s seat. She immediately emptied a giant paper bag of Coca-Cola cans, crackers, chips, and a great variety of candy bars and began offering goodies to all her neighbors. It had been like that in the TV studio, too. No one in Rosalie Lee’s company was going to go hungry if she had anything to say about it.

  Chewing away on her portable feast, she entertained Doggie with talk of New York, her little apartment in the Bronx, and her three wonderful sons, finishing with peals of laughter as she described how she’d kicked her loser of a husband out of her home, ass first.

  Rosalie’s unrestrained laughter woke Sheriff T. Perkins up a bit, and he looked around in bewilderment. He was pretty easygoing—slept now and then and didn’t say much. He’d clearly been the most knowledgeable of the three quiz winners, but even though Rosalie Lee had sometimes seemed slow-witted, appearances were deceptive. Her brain was capable of changing gears suddenly and leaving everyone in the dust, and that was how she wound up winning the contest.

  A couple of hours later, a young man who’d been sleeping since takeoff leaned his head towards the row of prizewinners in front of him. “Wesley Barefoot.” He presented himself with luminous teeth. “Well, looks like we’re going to be together the next couple of weeks. Maybe you know my mother—she’s Governor Jansen’s secretary.” The three shook their heads politely.

  “Congratulations, by the way,” he continued. “I watched all the episodes, just like everybody else. You were all brilliant!”