Land of the Gods

CHAPTER THREE

Disregarding the charged political atmosphere surrounding her, Alex Reeve pushed her wheelchair slowly along a corridor outside the Cabinet Room. It seemed like forever since her father had become President of the United States but she would never get used to living in this place. It was nothing like in the movies, but a mostly quiet, boring place of work populated by straight-faced bureaucrats and steely Secret Service agents.

She was heading for the Oval Office to see her father when Agent Brandon McGee called out to her from behind. She turned and smiled, but there was no reciprocation. He looked concerned and anxious as he walked over to her.

“Hey, Brandon.”

“Alex, hi. We need to talk.”

She twisted her head as her eyes narrowed. “What about?”

“In private.”

“We can go to my apartment in the Residence.”

He thought about it, then shook his head. “I think we need to go for a drive.”

She gave a nervous laugh. “What’s going on, Brandon?”

He leaned over, flicked the brake off her wheelchair and moved around behind her to grab hold of the push handles. “We’ll talk when we’re on the road.”

He wheeled her along the corridor, each second getting closer to the Office of the Vice President. “Are we going to see Faulkner?”

A pause.

“No, no we’re not. Besides, he’s not here. He’s at his private residence. I checked with his Secret Service detail less than an hour ago.”

He steered her to the right and headed toward the main entrance to the West Wing.

“Why would you do that?”

“On the road, Alex. We’ll talk on the road.”

“You’re making me nervous.”

He showed his pass to the door security and they stepped outside. Parked up on the circular drive was a black Secret Service Escalade. A light drizzle fell as McGee pushed down the brakes on the chair and opened the passenger door. Lifting Alex into the vehicle he paused to scan the building for something and then hopped into the driver’s seat and fired it up.

He accelerated around the sweeping drive and headed to the northeast gate. Passing another layer of security he pulled out onto Pennsylvania Avenue and headed west to the river. The traffic was heavy and progress was slow, and inside the Escalade the atmosphere was sombre as the windshield wipers moved across the rain-streaked glass.

“Why the cloak and dagger, Brandon?”

“Your room could be bugged.”

“Huh?”

“You room, back in the Residence.” He shot her a serious glance. “There’s a good chance it’s bugged.”

“You can’t be serious?”

“I am serious. I swept this car just before getting you so I know it’s safe.”

“But my room?”

“Sorry.”

“Who would do such a thing?”

Brandon sighed.

“Not my father?”

“No, not your father. President Brooke is a good man.”

She frowned. Her heart started to quicken in her chest. She wondered if she was having a minor panic response. They’d gotten worse since she was back in the chair. “Then who?”

The word fell from McGee’s lips like an anvil hitting a concrete floor. “Faulkner.”

For a few seconds, she didn’t know what to say. When she’d had the time to process the information, she still couldn’t bring herself to believe it. “You can’t possibly mean Vice President Davis Faulkner?”

“I mean precisely him,” he said in his rounded baritone voice.

“Holy shit. I’d heard vague rumors about a plot but nothing was confirmed.”

“It is now.”

“That’s against the law, Brandon.”

“Oh yeah,” he said, steering the Escalade neatly around the roundabout at Washington Circle. “Big time.”

Now the confusion and fear was giving way to anger. “What the goddam hell for?”

“This is difficult, but it looks like he’s trying to move against your father.”

She opened her mouth to speak but no words came.

“I know what that must sound like, but I just had to tell you, and now before things get out of control.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

McGee cruised the Escalade past the Swedish Embassy and Bangkok Joe’s, signaling to take the exit ramp down to Canal Road. Checking his mirror, he narrowed his eyes. Was that Chevy Suburban following them? He drove for another minute or two and then pulled off at the Abner Cloud House. Sweeping around in the gravel car park, he watched the Suburban cruse past them to the west. He pulled into a parking space with a view of the Potomac River, killed the engine and sighed deeply.

“I mean Faulkner’s planning to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and remove your father from office.”

In the enclosed space of the SUV, his words sounded ridiculous. “What the fuck?”

“I know what it sounds like, but my intel is good.”

“Who?”

“One of Muston’s security detail. I’ve known him since we were in the army together.”

Muston was Faulkner’s Chief of Staff. “This just gets worse… so he’s in on it too?”

McGee nodded. “Looks that way, yeah.”

Alex ran her hands over her face and into her hair. She was struggling to make sense of it all and had a million questions pulsing in her brain and giving her a migraine headache. “But why?”

“That’s the part we don’t know. We all thought Faulkner was a dog with no teeth, but now we know different. Kusumoto thinks it’s part of a wider conspiracy.”

“Kusumoto?”

“She’s my army buddy on Muston’s detail. Suzie Kusumoto. She comes from Chicago just like me. That’s why we got to be buddies in the army.”

Alex tightened her hands into iron fists and smashed one down onto her dead legs. “A wider fucking conspiracy? Jesus fucking Christ, Brandon!”

The big man shook his head in sympathy at the shock she must be feeling. “I know, Alex. I know.”

“What else do you know?”

“Not much. Suzie says she thinks Faulkner’s either working with someone else or even working for someone else.”

“The Vice President of the United States works for the American people and my goddam father, Brandon!”

“Not on this occasion.”

“And who is this mysterious third party?”

“We don’t know. Suzie’s vague because Muston is a very careful man. Some of these guys talk when their security’s in the room and some don’t. Muston’s the sort who doesn’t, so she’s only got this information through overhearing tiny fragments of conversation and observing his behavior.”

Now she rubbed her temples. She realized she’d been staring at the rain sliding down the windshield for several minutes without blinking. “This is just nuts. Does my dad know?”

“Not yet.”

She turned to him and wrinkled her face up. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Brandon, but why the fuck not?”

“Apart from you and the President, I don’t know who I can trust and I decided to talk to you about it first. Remember, your father isn’t in any mortal danger. This isn’t a threat to the life of the President. This is a political move against him.” He turned to her and twisted his lips in uncertainty. “In other words, way above my pay grade.”

“But invoking the Twenty-Fifth?” She looked puzzled. “He hasn’t done anything to merit that. No way can that son of a bitch use the Constitution to get into the Oval Office. No frigging way.”

McGee checked the mirror. A big black Cadillac CT6 pulled into the car park and crunched on the gravel as it pulled up beside them. Tinted windows. He checked his weapon in the holster but said nothing to Alex.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” he said. “Suzie thinks this is the real deal and there’s a good chance it’s going to happen soon, as in the next day or two. That’s why I came to you now.”

She felt dizzy. She had to control her breathing to stop hyperventilating. She did what she always did, forming her lips into a small oval and blowing the breath out in long controlled bursts with her eyes closed. When the dizziness had subsided, she opened her eyes again and noticed that her cheeks were flushed. She had to fight the panic.

“We have to tell my Dad right away,” she said, fighting to control her breathing. “And I need to tell Joe Hawke, too!”