She removed the unit and answered.

"I need you back here now," Danny Daniels said. "Where are you?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

So she did.

"You're right. That is unbelievable."

"Yet it happened."

"All the more reason for you to be here. Stay put. I'll send a car to get you."

"What's happening?"

"We're going to have a chat with the next president of the United States."

Luke entered the house, immediately struck by its cozy, rustic appeal. He guessed it rambled for maybe fifteen hundred square feet over two levels. Begyn propped his rifle beside a club chair and knelt before the hearth, where he lit a fire, flames licking at the kindling, then consuming the split logs, orange light flickering through the room.

"I held this until you got here," Begyn said. "It's cold out there."

And raining, but that was not the point. "Your daughter said you left the house yesterday evening to come here," Luke said. "That's not a coincidence."

"I had no idea people would invade the house."

"I didn't say that you did. But now that you've brought it up, tell me about the Tallmadge journal."

Sue had retreated to the windows, where she gazed out past the venetian blinds, as if on guard, which bothered him.

He removed his coat.

"This is a nightmare," the older man said. "One that I thought was long over."

There it was again. A reference to something in the past.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear," he said. "I need information and I need it quickly."

"What are you going to do?" Sue asked. "Arrest us?"

"Sure. Why not? We can start with the three men you killed. Self-defense or not, we'll let a jury decide. Just the allegations, though, will end your military career."

"No need to threaten," Begyn said.

"What was so important that Peter Hedlund tried to protect it? And what have you been diggin' up outside?"

So far he'd asked four questions and received no answers.

"Mr. Daniels-"

"Why don't you call me Luke," he said, trying to relieve the tension.

Begyn eyed him hard. "Mr. Daniels, all of this is quite difficult for us. It involves the society, and that has always been private. I'm the president general of the society. Its head. I owe it my allegiance."

"Then you can explain all of that to the FBI, the Secret Service, and the CIA, who will all want to question you and examine all of the society's records."

He allowed that threat to sink in.

"Dad, you need to tell him whatever it is," Sue said. "There's no point in keeping any more secrets. Look where it's got you."

Begyn stared across the room at his daughter. That was the first thing she'd said Luke actually agreed with. Maybe reality was finally setting in. Every high came with a low, and killing was never easy, no matter who you were.

His host motioned toward a doorway and led the way through it. They stepped into a long, narrow kitchen with windows that pointed out toward the bay. A small room opened off to the right, where a glass door led outside. Wind buzzed just past its frame, jostling the rain that continued to fall.

A mudroom.

His boyhood home in Tennessee had one, which he and his brothers had made good use of. Lying on its hardwood floor atop a layer of newspaper was a plastic box caked in mud.

"I dug it up," Begyn said.

Luke bent down and eased up the lid. Inside lay bundles of opaque plastic wrapped around what looked like books and paper.

"What are these?"

"Secrets that Peter Hedlund thought he had to defend."

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT.

Stephanie slipped into one of the chairs surrounding the oval table within the White House Cabinet Room. Nineteen others guarded its perimeter, but only a few were occupied. Present was the current president and the president-elect, along with the incoming attorney-general-designate and Bruce Litchfield, the current acting AG. Edwin Davis was likewise there, along with Cotton and Cassiopeia, both of whom she was glad to see. There'd been no time for pleasantries. She'd walked straight from the car that had found her on 7th Street to the conference room.

This was her first time inside the room, where for decades presidents had met with their cabinets. She knew the story about the table, bought by Nixon and donated to the White House. The president always sat at the center of the oval, opposite the vice president, with his back to the Rose Garden, his chair a few inches taller than the others. Cabinet members were assigned places according to the date their department had been established, the oldest seated closest to the president. Each administration selected portraits to adorn the walls, designed surely to offer inspiration. Right now, Harry Truman, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt kept watch. But she knew those would most likely change in the coming week.

With no vice president here, President-Elect Fox sat opposite Danny. Everyone else chose sides depending on their boss. She moved to the end of the oval at Danny's right, Litchfield between her and the president, while Cotton and Cassiopeia assumed neutral ground at the oval's opposite end.

After a flurry of introductions, Fox said, "You mentioned this was urgent."

She caught the dismissive tone of How could anything be urgent at this late hour in your term. And the demeanor. Like a schoolmaster encouraging a slightly backward pupil. But Danny seemed to keep his cool. She knew he and Fox were nothing alike. Physically, Danny was tall, broad-shouldered, with thick bushy hair and piercing eyes. What had one observer noted? A great flint-eyed hulk of a man. Fox was short, pinched, pursed, and solemn with ash-gray hair and watery blue eyes. From what she'd read, he considered himself a northeastern intellectual, a financial progressive but social conservative. Danny was southern to the core and totally pragmatic. Pundits had tried to pigeonhole him for years, but none had ever been successful. To her knowledge the two men did not know each other, and compounding their estrangement was the fact that they were of opposite parties, neither owing the other a damn thing.

"We have a developing situation," Danny said. "One this idiot sitting next to me was aware of, but decided wasn't our problem."

She smiled at his reference to Litchfield, who could say nothing.

"I understand," Fox said, "how you could be irritated that we okayed the firing of Ms. Nelle, but we had an agreement that everything would be okayed by my people, especially at this late hour."

"Last I looked Litchfield works for me. And your bird dog was all over things, issuing orders to stand down. Contrary, I might add, to my direct instructions."

Litchfield sat confident in his chair.

"He did what I told him to do," the AG-designee said. "I would have terminated her next week anyway."

"Go screw yourself," Stephanie said.

Fox, Litchfield, and the new AG looked her way. Even Cotton seemed a little shocked. Cassiopeia just smiled.

"I assume wounds heal better when not constantly reopened," Fox said to her. "My apology for that comment."

And if her disrespect offended him, Fox did not show it. Instead, he turned his attention back across the table to his equal. "Why are we here?"

Danny explained everything he knew about Zorin, Fool's Mate, and the 20th Amendment. She added what she'd learned at Kris Cox's house, and Cotton filled in what had happened in Siberia and Canada. Since Danny had said nothing about what had just happened in the park, she followed his lead and kept that to herself.

Fox sat back in his chair when they finished. "None of that sounds good."

"Welcome to my world," Danny said.

Fox glanced at his AG-designee, then at Litchfield, asking either for his opinion.

"We don't know a whole lot," Litchfield said. "Most of it is speculation. Seems the most important questions are first, whether thirty-year-old nuclear devices are still here, and second, whether they're viable."

"The Russians definitely think the bombs are here," she said. "They designed the things to last. So we can't take the chance that they're not workable."

"But you don't know they exist," the new AG said. "It could all be nothing, a wild-goose chase. A misdirection by Moscow for something else."

"We can't take that chance," Danny said.

Fox seemed intrigued. "What do you want me to do?"

"Let's move the inauguration to an undisclosed location. You take the oath there at noon, as the Constitution requires, then we don't have a problem."

No one said a word.

Finally, Fox shook his head. "I appreciate what you're saying. I really do. But moving the swearing-in at this late hour would only raise a million questions, and there's no way we could keep this under wraps. At this point we don't even know if it's a credible threat. The first month of my administration would be consumed with the cable news channels analyzing, speculating, and guessing about what we did. We'd never get on message. I can't start my presidency with that hanging over me."

"Would you rather be dead?" Edwin asked.

Which was a fair question, and coming from a man with a mind that cut like a diamond, the question should be taken seriously.

"Is everyone who works for you insubordinate?" Fox asked Danny.

"Not to me."

Fox smiled.

"At a minimum," Danny said, "move the vice president's swearing-in to another location. That way you're not both in the same spot."

"And how do we do that without raising the same questions? Everything is set for noon tomorrow with both of us taking the oath together."

Cotton had sat uncharacteristically quiet, watching the two giants spar. She realized that the decisions Danny wanted made suffered from the weakness of no hard evidence to support them. Fox, and rightly so, would want details to persuade him to follow the plan without adding variations of his own. But she wanted Cotton's assessment, so she asked him, "You've spoken to Zorin. You were there with Vadim Belchenko. Is this real?"

"These men are on a mission. No question."

"Then by all means," Fox said, "play this out. Do your job. But we're not delaying or changing the inauguration until you have something concrete. A true, genuine, verifiable threat. Surely all of you can see the wisdom in that? And besides it all happens tomorrow right here, in the White House. Where else would any of us be safer?"

She knew what he meant.

The Constitution mandated that the outgoing president's term end precisely at noon on January 20. Usually, that wasn't a problem. The ceremony occurred in public, outside the Capitol, high on scaffolding, with millions watching. But when January 20 fell on Sunday things had long been different. The new president and vice president would take the oath on Sunday, as required by the Constitution, and then a public celebration, which included a retaking of the oath in the more familiar public setting outside the Capitol, took place the next day.

"I checked," Fox said. "Since 1937, when the 20th Amendment took effect, three times this has happened on a Sunday. Tomorrow will be number four. I can't control the calendar or change the Constitution, but I can stick to the plan. And that we'll do, unless something drastic is discovered."

"Is that show so important to you?" Danny asked.

"That's not fair. You had two inaugurals, both extravaganzas I might add. Now it's my turn."

"You're making a mistake."

"But that assumes you're right about this. What if you're wrong and I go along with it. Then I look like a fool, following your lead, chasing shadows. Surely you can see that. And by the way, you're not all that popular with my supporters."

Stephanie was proud of Danny. He hadn't lost his temper or his cool. Understandable, given he'd moved with darting ease through political mazes for most of his life. Never had she seen him troubled by confrontation. Instead, he thrived under pressure, seeming to draw strength from it.

"I will do this, though," Fox said. "Bruce, prepare me some legal background on the 20th Amendment and the Presidential Succession Act. I confess to not being an expert on either. That way, if this materializes into something credible we'll be ready to make informed decisions."

Litchfield nodded.

"In the meantime, the rest of you keep working at what you're doing," Fox said, "and let's see what develops. I'm not oblivious to what you're saying. I just want more before I act. And we have time to make changes, if need be."

Fox pushed back his chair and he and his AG-designee stood.

Danny pointed at Litchfield. "Take this one with you. The sight of him makes me sick."

Litchfield stood.

"But before you go," Danny said. "You need to remedy something."

Litchfield glanced at Fox.

"What the hell are you lookin' at him for?" Danny said. "Don't think for one moment I won't fire your ass right here, right now. Talk about drawing attention to things."

Litchfield bristled at the insulting tone, but wisely held his tongue.

"Think about that press conference," Danny said to Fox. "It'd be a doozy."