decorated their front gates with pictures of them. The top of a bride’s carriage was draped with a tiger blanket to protect the newlyweds from evil spirits. Women wore a decorative brooch with tiger claws to fend off bad spirits. Rich patriarchs once sat on pillows embroidered with tiger images.
Tigers meant power and courage.
If you talk about the tiger, the tiger will appear. And if you want to catch a tiger, you have to go to the tiger’s cave.
His mother taught him those wisdoms.
And he knew what she meant.
The word tiger stood for “adversary.” Or “challenge.” Or anything that seemed out of reach. What a wonderful woman. She’d loved him for who he truly was, unlike his father who wanted him to be something else. He’d spent a lifetime cultivating a worldly personality that seemed unfazed by politics. Few to none knew what he thought or who he was. For him causes would not be taken up with the apparent randomness his family liked to show. His words would not be laughed at or ignored. On its current path North Korea seemed doomed to end by either coup, revolution, or mere ineffectiveness.
He would break the cycle of ridicule and failure.
And be something the world would rightly fear.
SIXTEEN
W ASHINGTON , DC
Stephanie sat at the conference table, Harriett across from her, the hard copies of The Patriot Threat left them by the secretary of Treasury spread out before them.
“I’m going to have a long talk with our U.S. attorney in Alabama,” Harriett said. “He never mentioned that this fugitive was a writer.”
“And you never mentioned anything about Kim or that Treasury specifically wanted Cotton at that money transfer.”
“Which, as I’ve already said, was a big mistake on my part.”
“You have to realize your silence placed Cotton Malone in unnecessary danger.”
“Are you always so impertinent to your bosses?”
“Only when my people are on the line.”
Harriett smiled. “I assure you. I learned my lesson.”
It was approaching midnight in DC, which meant dawn would be coming to Italy soon. Luke had reported that Cotton wanted him back at 7:00 A.M. The cruise ship debarkation could be their break.
She shuffled through the pages, the book’s introduction promising “amazing and startling revelations.” A quick glance at the table of contents revealed a few chapter titles. “Historical Non-Perspectives.” “Can the Courts Be That Stupid?” “A Warning to the IRS.” “Political Questions No One Wants to Answer.”
“This is some kind of tax evader’s manifesto,” she said. “Which makes sense, considering Howell’s criminal problems. But the copyright date is after his conviction. So he wrote this while a fugitive.”
Several spots were marked with paper clips. She found the first tagged section and read.
One of the mysteries of the 1920s was how Andrew Mellon managed to remain Secretary of the Treasury for nearly eleven years, through three different presidencies. One line of thought deals with the fact that Mellon was the first public official to actively engage the Internal Revenue Service as a weapon against political enemies. Audits were routinely conducted to harass opponents. Criminal charges were sometimes brought, as were civil trials in administrative tax courts, all designed to pressure Mellon’s enemies. Perhaps he was deft enough at retaliation that even presidents feared him. A modern-day analogy would be J. Edgar Hoover, who managed to retain control of the FBI through six administrations. Some say Hoover’s infamous secret files played a major role. Just as with Hoover, several investigations into Mellon’s activities ensued and there were even calls for his impeachment, but none ever materialized to anything substantive.
One story persists, though. Which may, more than anything else, explain Mellon’s longevity. In February 1913 Philander Knox was the outgoing Secretary of State. A month later a new president (Woodrow Wilson) would
Tigers meant power and courage.
If you talk about the tiger, the tiger will appear. And if you want to catch a tiger, you have to go to the tiger’s cave.
His mother taught him those wisdoms.
And he knew what she meant.
The word tiger stood for “adversary.” Or “challenge.” Or anything that seemed out of reach. What a wonderful woman. She’d loved him for who he truly was, unlike his father who wanted him to be something else. He’d spent a lifetime cultivating a worldly personality that seemed unfazed by politics. Few to none knew what he thought or who he was. For him causes would not be taken up with the apparent randomness his family liked to show. His words would not be laughed at or ignored. On its current path North Korea seemed doomed to end by either coup, revolution, or mere ineffectiveness.
He would break the cycle of ridicule and failure.
And be something the world would rightly fear.
SIXTEEN
W ASHINGTON , DC
Stephanie sat at the conference table, Harriett across from her, the hard copies of The Patriot Threat left them by the secretary of Treasury spread out before them.
“I’m going to have a long talk with our U.S. attorney in Alabama,” Harriett said. “He never mentioned that this fugitive was a writer.”
“And you never mentioned anything about Kim or that Treasury specifically wanted Cotton at that money transfer.”
“Which, as I’ve already said, was a big mistake on my part.”
“You have to realize your silence placed Cotton Malone in unnecessary danger.”
“Are you always so impertinent to your bosses?”
“Only when my people are on the line.”
Harriett smiled. “I assure you. I learned my lesson.”
It was approaching midnight in DC, which meant dawn would be coming to Italy soon. Luke had reported that Cotton wanted him back at 7:00 A.M. The cruise ship debarkation could be their break.
She shuffled through the pages, the book’s introduction promising “amazing and startling revelations.” A quick glance at the table of contents revealed a few chapter titles. “Historical Non-Perspectives.” “Can the Courts Be That Stupid?” “A Warning to the IRS.” “Political Questions No One Wants to Answer.”
“This is some kind of tax evader’s manifesto,” she said. “Which makes sense, considering Howell’s criminal problems. But the copyright date is after his conviction. So he wrote this while a fugitive.”
Several spots were marked with paper clips. She found the first tagged section and read.
One of the mysteries of the 1920s was how Andrew Mellon managed to remain Secretary of the Treasury for nearly eleven years, through three different presidencies. One line of thought deals with the fact that Mellon was the first public official to actively engage the Internal Revenue Service as a weapon against political enemies. Audits were routinely conducted to harass opponents. Criminal charges were sometimes brought, as were civil trials in administrative tax courts, all designed to pressure Mellon’s enemies. Perhaps he was deft enough at retaliation that even presidents feared him. A modern-day analogy would be J. Edgar Hoover, who managed to retain control of the FBI through six administrations. Some say Hoover’s infamous secret files played a major role. Just as with Hoover, several investigations into Mellon’s activities ensued and there were even calls for his impeachment, but none ever materialized to anything substantive.
One story persists, though. Which may, more than anything else, explain Mellon’s longevity. In February 1913 Philander Knox was the outgoing Secretary of State. A month later a new president (Woodrow Wilson) would
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