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He crossed the room, turned on the machine, and then went and joined his boss in the seating area. He took one of the ultramodern armchairs with the big chrome base and said, “What in the hell happened?”
Lonsdale didn’t bother to look at him. With her head tilted back, she looked up through a cloud of smoke and said, “Probably the worst day of my life.”
Wassen thought of her dead husband. “Worse than the day John died?”
“No,” she answered frankly. “No…not worse than that. It was the most embarrassing failure of my political career,” she corrected herself.
“What in the hell happened?” he asked again.
“They all turned on me. They pissed right down their pants legs.”
“Why? What did Rapp say?”
Lonsdale rocked her head forward and looked at Wassen for the first time. “He did basically what you told me he would do. Not exactly the same, but the same general theme. He scared the piss out of all of them. Made them think we’re in danger of being attacked, and if they don’t let him loose so he can break as many laws as he wants, he’s going to blame us when we get hit.”
Wassen swallowed. “So where does it go from here? We’ve been flooded with calls. Are you going to open it up to the press at two?”
Lonsdale took a long drag and then, after she’d exhaled, began laughing hysterically.
“What’s so funny?”
“There isn’t going to be any hearing this afternoon. At least not in front of my committee.”
Wassen was stunned. “How is that possible?”
“That little shit,” she said, “put the fear of God into all those little pussies I serve with. He wanted to have a public hearing this afternoon. He was willing to admit to hitting and choking and electrocuting that damn terrorist in front of a roomful of cameras, and he was going to say he did it all to protect us against an imminent attack by some phantom terrorist cell. And then he gave them a second option, which was to refer the entire matter back to the Intelligence Committee, where things could be handled in a more secret manner.”
“And?”
“My own damn party ran out on me. There was a heated thirty-minute debate on the matter, a vote to refer it back to the Intelligence Committee, and it was over.”
“How did the vote break?”
She waved her hand dismissively. “It wasn’t even close. It was seven to one before it even got to me, and that was on my side of the aisle.”
Wassen winced and asked, “Anything else?”
She had her head all the way back again. She groaned and said, “Ted Darby whispered in my ear, at one point, that if I didn’t calm down and begin acting reasonably, he would make sure my chairmanship was taken away from me.”
“Oh my God,” Wassen mumbled. Ted Darby was perhaps the most powerful man in the entire Senate and not someone who was prone to making empty threats. “So where do you go from here?”
“I don’t know. I suppose I can go after him when he comes before the Intel Committee, but I don’t think I’m going to get much support.”
Wassen looked at his watch. It was a few minutes past noon. She was already late for her lunch appointment. “I hate to do this to you, but you have a lunch date with Joe Barreiro.”
Lonsdale grabbed her forehead with her free hand and said, “I can’t do it. No way. I don’t think I could hold it together. I’ll end up saying something that could land me in hot water with the Ethics Committee. Hell…probably even the Justice Department.” She paused for a moment and then started laughing. “Wouldn’t that be something? After all this, I’m the one who ends up getting indicted.”
“You’re not going to get indicted. Do you want me to go in your place?”
“No.” She waved her hand. “Just cancel it.”
“Bad idea.”
“Why?”
“Barreiro doesn’t like getting stood up. He’s likely to write something really nasty about you, and from what it sounds like, the last thing you need right now is some bad press.”
“You’re right.”
