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“Once Zorin is dead, it will not matter what you know.”
A car engine suddenly roared to life.
The sound originated on the far side of Kelly’s house.
Then a pair of headlights found the street and raced away at a high rate of speed. The shadow with the rifle whirled left and sent a loose spray of bullets in the car’s direction, scattering the fire, hoping surely for some kind of hit.
* * *
Cassiopeia leveled the gun and shot the man shooting at the fleeing car, dropping him to the ground.
The gunfire stopped.
Silence returned.
“I was hoping you were still breathing,” Cotton said.
She lowered her gun. “I thought you were supposed to be watching my backside.”
He started running toward their parked vehicle. “As pleasant a prospect as that may be, we need to go after that car. I assume Zorin and Kelly are inside it.”
And she agreed.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Stephanie sat with Danny Daniels, alone, in the Oval Office. Osin was gone with a pledge that their talk never happened. Edwin Davis had retreated to his office, and Luke had headed to his apartment for some sleep. Midnight had passed, which meant Danny was now in his last full day as president of the United States.
“It’s almost done,” she said to him.
He rocked in his chair, quiet, and uncharacteristically sullen. “I don’t want to go.”
She smiled. “Who does?”
“Lots of folks made it this far and didn’t know what the hell they were doing. So they were eager for it to end. I enjoyed the job.”
“You were a good president. History will be kind.”
And she meant that.
“How does it feel to be unemployed?” he said. “I’ll be joining you real soon.”
“Not the way I envisioned going out.”
“Me either, but you know I couldn’t interfere. Besides, what good would it have done? The Billet is gone. Those fools think they know more than you and me and everyone else. Remember, Fox was a governor.”
She caught the sarcasm. The new president came straight from a governor’s mansion with some administrative experience, but little to no international exposure. He’d campaigned on a platform of semi-isolationism, sensing that the country was tired of policing the world. He’d won by a solid majority in the popular vote and an even wider margin in the electoral college, which had made her wonder if public sentiment was indeed shifting. To think that America could exist independent of what was happening around the globe, no matter how far away or how remote things might appear, bordered on idiocy.
Those days were over.
“You take your eye off anybody for more than a minute,” Danny said to her, “and they’ll stab you in the back. The Middle East, Asia, China, now Russia. They’re all rearin’ up their ugly heads. And our allies? Hell, most times they’re worse than enemies. Give me, take me, buy me, bring me. That’s all they ever want.”
She smiled, recalling the first time she heard him utter that phrase. Years ago, during another battle, one of their first, before they both realized how they felt about each other.
“Where’s Pauline?” she asked.
“Gone. But she’ll be back Monday for the swearing-in on Capitol Hill. Our final public appearance together as man and wife.”
She heard the failure in his voice.
“Everything upstairs has been packed and shipped to Tennessee. Pauline went on a few days ago, supposedly to handle the relocation. She’s anxious to start her new life and, I have to say, I was eager to see her go. It’s time to move on.”
“When will you divorce?”
“In a few months. Once no one gives a rat’s ass about me or her. Nice and quiet. Like how Al Gore did it. Crap happens, and people understand. No one cares about some ex-vice-president or president.”
She understood his remorse. Decades ago her own marriage unraveled to the point that she and Lars lived apart for years. That would have probably still been the case if he hadn’t hanged himself from that bridge in France. Eventually, with Cotton and Cassiopeia’s help, she came to understand why that happened, but its finality still brought a great sadness to her heart.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” she said to him.
“I’m a night person. You know that. And I haven’t slept for crap the past month or so. I don’t like where this country is headed. It’s scary. And I wonder if that’s my fault.”
“Because you did a good job protecting everyone?”
“We made it look too easy.”
Which she knew it wasn’t. The new president seemed 180 degrees away from Danny. But that was the thing about American politics. Its pendulum swung with predictable regularity, nothing ever lasting long, as if the country liked to continually try new things, yet complained constantly that everything seemed to stay the same. No way to please the masses and she wondered why anyone would even try. But Danny had not only tried, he’d succeeded.
“You did your job,” she said. “And kept this country safe, without breaching civil rights.”
“We had some challenges, didn’t we?”
She smiled at him. “You do know that you can still be useful. Your life isn’t over.”
He shook his head. “My successor is a rookie.”
“In thirty-six hours he’ll be president of the United States.”
“He’s never dealt with anything like this. And the people he’s hiring are not the sharpest tacks in the box. That scares me, too.”
“It’s not our problem,” she said.
“I hate that this happened to you,” he said. “I never would have involved you if I thought they’d fire you.”
He sounded as though he really meant it.
“You’ve been nothing but straight with me since the first day we met,” she said. “And let’s get one thing clear. I do only what I want to do, and you know that. I chose to make the moves I did, so I pay the price.”
He smiled at her as he kept rocking.
“Is Luke’s Mustang totaled?” he asked.
“Just spare parts now.”
“He loved that car.”
She wondered who he was talking to. He seemed a million miles away. “You’re tired.”
“No, I’m worried. Something’s happenin’ here. I can feel it. And it’s not good. You don’t get an SVR station chief waltzing into the White House and divulging state secrets every day. Five nuclear weapons are hidden around here somewhere.”
“It’s not like in the movies. Those things need care, and it’s been a long time.”
“Yet this Zorin keeps plowin’ ahead. That worries me.”
“The Russians were never known for smarts.”
“But they are one tough competitor.”
She allowed a moment of silence to pass before breaching protocol and asking, “What about us?”
His gaze focused on her. “Is there an us?”
“If you want there to be.”
“I want.”
A few nerves jerked along her forearms. Unusual, to say the least. She was glad to hear the admission, and she hoped the possibilities perked his spirits some over the next day and a half.
“After the swearing-in, I’m headed back to Tennessee,” he said. “My little house in the woods. You’re welcome to join me.”
“How about you get divorced first.”
He chuckled. “I thought you might say that. But you can come for a visit, right?”
“And end up on the front page of some tabloid? No thanks. I’ll wait until you’re a free man.”
“What are you going to do now?”
She hadn’t given it much thought. “I have a pension coming to me, so I think I’ll collect. Then I’ll see who might need the services of an ex-intelligence-officer with experience.”
“I imagine there’ll be many takers on that offer. How about this? Don’t make a decision on what to do until you run it by me first.”
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