by Steve Berry
Tensions eased but did not dissipate.
“President Daniels will not want his private life exposed,” he said. “There has never been a hint of scandal regarding him or his wife. America believes them to be the perfect couple. Can you imagine what the twenty-four-hour news channels and the Internet would do with this? Daniels would forever be known as the cuckold president. He’ll never allow that to happen. Gentlemen, we can use this.”
He saw that the other three did not necessarily agree.
“When were you going to tell us?” Cogburn asked again. “Edward is justified in being angry. We’re all angry, Quentin.”
“There was no sense speaking of it until I was sure that it could be used. Now, I am sure.”
Surcouf stepped to the bar and filled a glass with bourbon. Hale could use one himself, but decided a clear head would be better.
“We can quietly apply pressure and stop these prosecutions,” he said. “As I told all three of you a month ago, there’s no need to kill a president. The talking heads on television and bloggers of the Internet will do it for you. This president has shown us no courtesy. We owe him nothing, unless he wants to accommodate us now.”
“Who is the woman you’re holding in the prison?” Cogburn asked.
He’d wondered when they’d finally ask. “The head of an intelligence unit within the Justice Department called Magellan Billet. Stephanie Nelle.”
“Why do we have her?”
He could not tell them the truth. “She was becoming a problem for us. Investigating.”
“Isn’t she a little late?” Bolton asked. “We’ve been investigated to death.”
“I saw her watching the execution from a cell window,” Cogburn said.
Finally. One of them had paid attention. “My hope was that it would send her a message.”
“Quentin,” Surcouf said, “do you have any idea what you’re doing? It seems like you’re headed in three different directions. Taking a hostage could bring even more heat on us.”
“More so than trying to kill a president? And I truly hate to keep harping on that, but not a soul knows my prisoner is here, besides us. Right now, as far as they are concerned, she is simply missing.”
Of course, he did not include Andrea Carbonell in that disclaimer. Which brought to mind the second traitor. If that person existed, he or she could well know of Stephanie Nelle’s presence. But if that was the case, why hadn’t anyone acted to save her?
The answer to that inquiry reassured him.
Surcouf pointed at the recorder. “You could be right, Quentin. Daniels may not want this made public.”
“And the price for our silence is quite reasonable,” he said. “We simply want the American government to keep its word.”
“There’s a chance Daniels won’t give a damn,” Bolton said. “He may tell you to stick it up your ass, like they did the first time you went begging.”
He resented the comment, but there was something else that required mentioning. “Did you notice an omission during that taped conversation?”
“I did,” Cogburn said. “No name. Who’s the man the First Lady is messing around with?”
He smiled. “Now, that’s what makes this so intriguing.”
WYATT STEPPED INSIDE MONTICELLO WITH THE FIRST TOUR group of the day. He’d learned that visitors came in bunches of thirty, escorted by a guide who explained each room and answered questions. He noticed the guides were mainly older, volunteers most likely, and groups stayed clustered, spaced about five minutes apart.
He stood in what the guide called the entrance foyer, just inside the east portico. The spacious two-story room cast the appearance of a museum-which had been Jefferson’s intention, the guide explained-displaying maps, antlers, sculptures, paintings, and artifacts. The second floor was visible through a semi-octagonal balcony. Thin, closely spaced balusters topped by a mahogany rail protected the outer edge. Everyone’s attention was directed to Jefferson’s dual-faced clock, displaying time and day of the week, its cannonball-like weights traveling through holes in the floor to the cellar. He feigned interest in two Old Master paintings and the busts of Voltaire, Turgot, and Alexander Hamilton while absorbing the layout.
They drifted into a sitting room adjacent to the hall.
Jefferson’s daughter, Martha, and her family had used the cramped space as their private living quarters. He retreated to one corner so the rest of the group could enter the next room on the tour before him. He noticed that the guide would wait and close the door of the preceding room before addressing the group in the next. He assumed that was so the tour behind them could enjoy their visit uninterrupted.
“This is Jefferson’s sanctum sanctorum. His most private place,” the guide told the group in the new space.
Wyatt studied the library.
Many of the walls remained lined with shelving. In Jefferson’s time, the guide explained, they would have been fronted by pine boxes, stacked one atop the other-folios at the bottom, followed by quartos, octavos, duodecimos, with petit-formats on top. Nearly 6700 volumes at its peak, all of them eventually sold to the United States to form the Library of Congress after the British burned the capitol in 1814, destroying the nation’s first collection of books. Tall windows that opened like doors led out to a louvered porch and greenhouse.
But what drew Wyatt’s attention lay at the far end.
A semi-octagon lined with windows.
What the guide called the cabinet.
He spied a writing desk, a revolving leather chair, an astronomical clock, and Jefferson’s famous polygraph that duplicated letters as they were drafted. An architect’s table fronted one of the windows. Among a profusion of scientific instruments on a side table lay the cipher wheel. Maybe eighteen inches long. Its carved wooden disks were about six inches in diameter, resting beneath a glass lid. The guide was droning on about how Jefferson spent much of his morning and late afternoons reading and answering correspondence in the cabinet, surrounded by his books and scientific instruments. Few were allowed here, save those close to the former president. Wyatt recalled what he’d read at the visitor center about glass doors, openness, and no secrets, realizing that it had all been an illusion. In reality, there were a great many private spaces in this house, especially here in the south wing.
Which were about to come in handy.
The tour continued into Jefferson’s bedroom, which rose double-height, at least eighteen feet to a skylight, joined with the cabinet by an alcove bed. The next room beyond that was the large parlor, located in the ground-floor center, with windows and doors facing the rear yard and west portico. The guide dutifully closed the bedroom door after the last visitor entered the parlor. Oil portraits dominated the cream-colored walls. Crimson draperies crowned its tall windows. English, French, and American furniture sat intermingled.
He reached into his pocket and found a flash bomb. Discreetly, he freed the igniter and, while the guide explained about the works of art on the walls and Jefferson’s admiration of John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Francis Bacon, he bent down and rolled the explosive across the wood floor.
One. Two. Three.
He closed his eyes as a burst of light and smoke flooded the room.
He already held a second surprise, so he yanked its igniter and dropped it on the floor, reaching for the knob that opened back into the bedroom just as another swoosh of thick air terrorized the parlor.
MALONE RODE WITH THE ESTATE MANAGER ON THE TWO-LANE road that wound up the mountainside. Traffic moved only one way, rounding the house at the summit, then working its way back down, past Jefferson’s grave, to the visitor center.
“We were lucky to get the wheel back,” the manager said. “Nearly everything Jefferson owned was sold after his death to pay his creditors. Robert Patterson, the son of the man who was Jefferson’s longtime friend, bought the wheel then from the estate. His father had helped Jefferson make it, so there was a sentimental attachment. The elder Patterson and Jeffer
son shared a love of codes.”
Malone made the connection with what Daniels had told him. The son Robert Patterson had worked for the government and provided Andrew Jackson with his father’s cipher. Apparently, he’d also suggested incorporating the wheel into the decoding process. Since there was only one in the world, which Patterson himself owned, Old Hickory probably rested easy knowing that the Commonwealth would never decipher a thing.
“Jefferson stopped using the wheel in 1802,” the manager said. “It was resurrected in 1890 by a French government official and used for a while. Then again, during World War I, the Americans brought it back, and it was utilized for coding until the start of the Second World War.”
They rounded a bend and approached a small paved lot, devoid of cars. One of the shuttle buses was just easing away after depositing more visitors. The house’s main entrance stood about a hundred feet away.
“Nice to be with the man in charge,” he said. “Gets you real close.”
“It’s not every day the White House chief of staff and the head of the Secret Service conference call with you.”
The manager switched off the engine.
Malone stepped out into the bright morning, the late-summer air dry and warm. He stared up at the mansion and its distinctive dome, the first ever, he knew, constructed above an American house.
A flash momentarily illuminated some of the house windows.
Screams came from inside.
Another flash.
Someone bolted out the front door.
“There’s a bomb inside. Run.”
FORTY-FIVE
CASSIOPEIA AND EDWIN DAVIS STOOD ALONE, AT THE FAR END of a parking lot, beyond which more visitors were arriving by the carload.
“I want to know about you and the First Lady,” she said to him.
Defeat clouded Davis’ face. “Now you see why it had to be you working on this?”
She’d already understood that fact.
“When the Secret Service told us who they had in custody, I convinced the president to involve you both. It wasn’t a hard sell. He has great trust in both you and Cotton. He hasn’t forgotten what you did for him last time. I knew Pauline would instantly become a suspect, since only a handful of us knew of the trip that far in advance, so any investigation of her had to be controlled.”
“You knew she was the leak from the start?”
“The idea of her saying something to someone made sense.”
“When did your relationship with the First Lady start?”
A wave of uneasiness passed between them. She knew this was tough. But he’d involved her and she had to do her job.
“I came to the White House three years ago as a deputy national security adviser. I met Pauline… the First Lady… then.”
“Don’t worry about correctness,” she said. “This is just you and me. Tell me what happened.”
“I do worry about it.” A wave of anger flashed across his face. “I’m mad at myself. Never have I behaved in such a manner. I’m sixty years old and have never placed myself in such an awkward situation. I’m not sure what’s come over me.”
“Welcome to the club. Have you ever been married?”
He shook his head. “I’ve had precious few relationships in my life. Work was always the most important thing. I was the person other people turned to in time of trouble. A steady hand. Now-”
She reached out and lightly grasped his arm. “Just tell me what happened.”
His defensiveness seemed to abate. “She’s a terribly unhappy woman and has been for a long time. Which is such a shame, because she’s a good person. What happened with her daughter profoundly affected her. She just never dealt with it.”
And neither had Danny Daniels, she thought.
“She rarely travels with the president anymore,” Davis said. “Differing schedules, which isn’t unusual. So there were times when he was gone that she and I would visit with each other. Nothing improper, mind you. Nothing at all. Just a lunch or a dinner where I’d keep her company and we’d talk. She likes to read, mainly romance novels. That’s something few know. The steamier the better. Shirley would sneak them to her.” He smiled. “They bring her joy, and not because of the sex. That isn’t the allure. It’s the happy endings. They all end on a high note, and that she likes.”
He was relaxing, opening up, as if he’d been living on his raw nerves far too long.
“We talked about books, the world, the White House. There was no reason to pretend with me. I was the closest person to the president. There was nothing I didn’t know. Eventually, we explored Mary, her husband, and her marriage.”
“She made it clear to me that she blames the president for everything.”
“That’s not true,” he quickly said. “Not in the way you think. Maybe in the beginning she did blame him. But I think she came to realize that was foolish. Sadly, a part of her died that night with Mary. A part that could never be reclaimed, and it’s taken her decades to understand that loss.”
“Were you a factor in that understanding?”
He seemed to feel the hint of criticism in her words.
“I tried hard not to be. But when I was promoted to chief of staff, we spent more time together. Our discussions progressed to ever-deeper topics. She trusted me.” He hesitated. “I’m a good listener.”
“But you were doing more than listening,” she said. “You were empathizing. Relating. Drawing something equally beneficial, for yourself, from her.”
He nodded. “Our conversations were a two-way street. And she came to know that.”
She, too, had wrestled with those same emotions. Sharing yourself with someone was tough business.
“Pauline is a year older than me,” he said, as if that mattered in some way. “She jokes that I’m her younger man. I have to confess, I like it when she says that.”
“Does Daniels have any idea?”
“Heavens, no. But like I said, absolutely nothing improper has occurred.”
“Except the two of you have fallen in love.”
Resignation filled his face. “I suppose you’re right. That’s exactly what happened. She and the president have not been man and wife for a long time, and they both seem to have accepted that. There’s no intimacy in their relationship. And I don’t mean in the physical sense. There’s no sharing of each other. No vulnerabilities exposed. It’s as if they’re roommates. Colleagues. With a physical wall between them. No marriage can survive that.”
She knew what he meant. Never before had she been intimate with anyone on the level she was with Cotton. There’d been men, and she’d shared some of herself, but never all. To reveal your hopes and fears, trusting that another person will not abuse them, involved a huge leap of faith.
And not only for her, but for Cotton, too.
Yet Davis was right.
Intimacy seemed the mortar that bound love together.
“Did you know about Quentin Hale’s connection to Shirley Kaiser?” she asked.
“Absolutely not. I’ve only met Shirley once, when she came to the White House. But I know Pauline talks to her every day. Without her, she would have folded long ago. If Pauline would tell anyone about the New York trip, it would have been Shirley. I also know that Shirley knows about me. That’s why I needed you on this one. I figured things could rapidly get out of hand.”
Which had happened.
“Now Quentin Hale knows,” she said. “But, interestingly, he hasn’t done a thing with the information.”
“When he met with me that day in the White House, he surely knew. That get-together was probably a way for him to see if he had to play the trump card.”
She agreed. That made sense. As did something else. “I’m convinced that Hale has Stephanie. Though she was looking into Carbonell, it involved the Commonwealth, too. There’s no doubt about it now.”
“But if we act imprudently, we risk not only exposure and embarrassment for all concerned, but Stephanie’s life.”
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“That’s true but-”
An alarm sounded from the visitor center.
“What now?” she said.
They raced back toward the cluster of buildings and into the estate manager’s office.
Concern filled the manager’s assistant’s face. “Some sort of bomb went off in the main house.”
FORTY-SIX
WYATT’S TOYS HAD DONE THE TRICK. PANIC NOW REIGNED INSIDE the mansion. People screaming, shoving, trying to escape. He’d used a modified mixture that added smoke, which only amplified the effects. Thank goodness he’d shipped a supply to New York, since he’d been unsure just what would happen once Cotton Malone entered the picture.
He’d retreated into Jefferson’s bedroom and jammed a chair under the doorknob. He knew another tour would be making their way from the sitting room into the library, then the cabinet. He stepped lightly across the room’s plank floor toward the bed. He recalled the guide earlier babbling about how Jefferson would rise as soon as he could see the hands of an obelisk clock that sat across from the bed. A crimson silk counterpane-sewn to Jefferson’s specifications, the guide had pointed out-covered the mattress, which filled an alcove between the bedroom and the cabinet. He crawled onto the bed and carefully peered around the edge, past arches, to see people in the library, about twenty feet away. The guide seemed to be assessing the unusual situation and, upon hearing the screams from the other end of the house, asked for everyone to stay calm.
Wyatt tossed a light bomb their way, jerking his head back just as the flash and smoke appeared.
Shouts came as fear set in.
“This way,” he heard a voice say over the commotion.
He glanced back and saw the guide leading the group through the smoke, out the louvered doors, into the adjacent greenhouse and fresh air.
He turned his attention to the cipher wheel.
Which rested two feet away.
MALONE STOOD INSIDE MONTICELLO’S TWO-STORY ENTRANCE hall. Smoke billowed from open glass doors at the opposite end, followed by screams and yells that signaled something had just happened to his left.
