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Al-Yamani looked down into the box and decided to hear the scientist out. He climbed down from the truck and Hasan followed.
"Explain to me your fears."
"That has no shielding and it is showing signs of severe deterioration. Anything other than brief exposure could be fatal."
"I am already dying."
"But that will hasten your radiation poisoning. In order for us to transport and assemble the weapon it must be properly shielded or it will kill us all."
"How quickly?" asked al-Yamani. All he cared was that they made it to their target.
"Most likely before we reach Washington."
Al-Yamani frowned. "So what do you propose we do?"
"As I said, we need to shield it properly."
"Is that difficult?"
"Not with the right material either lead or depleted uranium will do."
"How long will it take?" Al-Yamani had some extra time built into the schedule but not much.
Zubair thought about it for a minute and said, "A couple of hours."
"Do we have an alternative?"
"Not if you want to take it all the way to Washington."
There was a backup plan to detonate the device in Atlanta, but al-Yamani was not willing to settle for that. Especially after listening to the president this morning.
* * *
Sixty
WASHINGTON,D.C.
It was standing-room-only in the bar at Smith and Wollensky's and every table in the restaurant was occupied. Pat Holmes sat at his usual corner table with his back to the wall looking out onto as much of the restaurant as possible. As chairman of the Democratic Party he needed to see and be seen. On a normal night, a half dozen people would have already stopped by to shake hands and say hello, but not this night.
Holmes had a pretty good idea why, and it involved one of the two women at his table. Valerie Jones had the unique ability to repel people by her mere presence. She was, to put it bluntly, a ballbuster of the first order. Jones had religion when it came to her beloved Democratic Party. So thorough was her commitment that there wasn't a Republican who she liked, and she made no effort to hide her feelings. She even despised independents for their spineless inability to pick sides. Her behavior toward the so-called enemy was more characteristic of a fanatical campaign volunteer than a senior White House official. Her pugnacious reputation caused the more civilized players in town to steer clear of her.
Truth be told, when the cameras weren't around, and if it wasn't election season, the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans got along, and in most cases actually liked each other. Holmes fell into that majority. When he had to, he could get out in front of the camera and accuse the Republicans of outlandish selfishness and incompetence, and then go play a round of golf later the same day with his Republican counterpart.
Sometimes he wondered if the president's chief of staff even noticed that she was so disliked by reasonable people. He doubted it. Jones was a very focused person, who had great organizational skills and uncanny political smarts, but who was severely challenged in the people skills department. At the end of the day, though, he supposed every administration needed someone like Jones-a pit bull to keep people in line.
Peggy Stealey was an entirely different story. She had that star quality about her. She had classy good looks; she was smart as hell; she was cunning, and he guessed very dangerous to be on the wrong side of. He wanted to get her into bed in the worst way, but he'd experienced enough dickteases over the years to know the best way to do that was to make her chase him.
The waiter approached, and before he got too close, Holmes gestured for another bottle of Silver Oak. Given the delicate nature of their current conversation, he didn't want anyone coming within ten feet of the table.
"I have no objection to anything I've heard." Holmes leaned in a bit closer and lowered his voice. "I think it will energize the party."
"I agree," said Jones, as she attacked her steak with a knife.
"Vice President Baxter is a dud," Holmes continued. "Stokes is younger, he's better looking, and he's got a pretty wife. He's a little light on experience, but all in all I think he'd be a nice addition to the ticket."
Stealey was about to take a bite of her Chilean sea bass when her fork stopped inches from her lips. "His wife isn't pretty."
"Sure she is." Holmes grabbed his glass of wine. "She's very attra
