Cut and Thrust (15 page)

S
tone and Ann didn’t get home until well after midnight, and they slept until after eight o’clock, late for them. Ann had turned her phone off the night before, and when she checked her voice mail there was a message from Kate, left only minutes before.

“It’s chaotic over here,” Kate said. “I hope it’s okay if Will and I come over there for breakfast because we’re on our way!”

“Oh, shit,” Ann said, running for the shower. “Kate and Will are probably downstairs demanding breakfast!”

Stone picked up the phone and ascertained that this was true. “Give them whatever they want,” Stone said. “We’ll be down in fifteen minutes.”

They made it in that time to find the Lees digging into omelets on the patio by the pool. They joined them.

“You look very well rested,” Kate said.

“Thank you,” Stone replied, “so do you.”

“I can’t believe how well I slept,” Kate said.

Stone ordered breakfast for him and Ann, then looked up to see Sam Meriwether approaching; he waved him to a chair, and Sam ordered breakfast. “They said at your place that you were over here,” he said to Kate and Will.

“As you see us,” Will replied.

Sam shook his head. “I still don’t know what happened last night. Dick Collins and I ran the numbers over and over, and as best we could figure, we were going to be three delegates short at the end of the voting—Dick said four. Then if we had gone to a second ballot, Otero and Willingham could have taken the nomination. I don’t understand it. Why did they fold when they did?”

“I can enlighten you,” Will said. “I have it from the horse’s mouth—that is, Ed Eagle’s. It went like this: Stone, here, called Ed on the floor and told him to tell Otero that we had the votes to win on the first ballot. Otero didn’t believe it at first, but Ed brought him around, then they went over to Virginia and sandbagged Mark Willingham. That was it: Otero went back to his delegation and conceded, then Willingham folded, too.”

“Wait a minute,” Sam said. “You’re telling me we won the nomination on a
bluff
?”

“That’s what I’m telling you,” Will said. “And I don’t think Stone will deny it.”

“Stone?” Sam said incredulously. “Is that what happened?”

Stone shrugged. “Ann ran the numbers, and somebody had to do something. I’m sorry we didn’t have time to check with you or Kate, Sam, but we had to move New Mexico off the dime before the chairman called on them to vote, otherwise it would have been over.”

“Well,” Kate said, “we couldn’t have that, could we?”

“I swear to God,” Sam said, “it would never have occurred to me to bluff.”

“That’s because you’re such a nice, honest, straightforward man, Sam,” Kate said, “whereas Stone . . .”

“Stone,” Ann said, “you’re blushing.”

“My true character has been revealed,” Stone said.

“And a truer character never lived,” Kate said. “What would you like in the new administration, Stone? Attorney general? Ambassador to the Court of Saint James’s? Appointment to the first vacancy at the Supreme Court? Name it!” Everybody was laughing now.

“Maybe ambassador to Tonga,” Stone said, “or anyplace with good beaches, golf courses, and little work to do.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Kate said.

—

KATE AND WILL
finished their breakfast. “Do you mind if we hang out here for a while, Stone?” Will asked. “Our phones are jammed with calls from people who want something from Kate.”

“Please stay as long as you like, indoors or out,” Stone replied.

Manolo approached. “Mr. Stone,” he said, “there are people calling the house for you.” He handed Stone a sheet of paper with a dozen names of TV and print reporters. “They all want to interview you.”

Stone ran through the list. “Oh, God,” he said.

“Word is getting around about last night, Stone,” Will said.

“What is your advice, Will? Should I talk to these people?”

“My advice is to remain an enigma for as long as you can. You’re going to read and hear a great many reports in the various media concerning the events of last night, some of them less favorable than others. Let the dust settle for a while, then, at some later date of your own choosing, decide who, if anybody, you want to confide in.”

“That’s good advice, Will.”

“If you like,” Ann said, “you can refer all requests for interviews to me and I’ll tell them all, ‘No comment.’”

“Done,” Stone replied.

L
ate in the afternoon, Billy Burnett could no longer contain his curiosity. He drove his cart over to the armory and walked in. Jake, who ran the place, was at his bench working on a disassembled AR-15. “Hey, Jake.”

“Hey, Billy.”

“How’s it going?” Billy was looking around but couldn’t see Harry Gregg anywhere.

“It’s going good. You did a good job breaking in Harry. I thank you for it. It’s taken a load off, you know?”

“Where is Harry?” Billy asked.

“He asked for a couple days off,” Jake said. “He bought a little house in Venice, and he’s doing some work on it.”

“Where in Venice?”

“On the beach—dunno where.”

“How the hell can Harry afford a place on Venice Beach?” Billy asked.

“Not my business,” Jake said. “Harry’ll be back the day after tomorrow. You want something with him?”

“No, I just wondered why he wasn’t here.”

“Anything else I can do for you?”

“Nope. See you around, Jake.” Billy got into his cart and drove slowly back to the office. He found this news troubling. Harry was less than a year out of the army, and he was making sixty grand a year at the armory. How could a recent veteran earn enough money to buy on Venice Beach? Something occurred to him: Harry’s skills were in the use and repair of firearms and in making explosive devices go boom. Who would pay a lot of money for those skills? Well, that was obvious: people who wanted other people shot or blown up. And Harry, only the day before, had made some sort of a withdrawal from a shed used to house explosives.

Billy, back when he was still Teddy Fay, had killed people, but he had never done it for money, and he frowned on the practice. Maybe he should have a chat with Harry. Or, on the other hand, maybe he should just mind his own business. He decided to do that.

—

STONE HAD SPENT
the morning by the pool reading the papers, and it got to be lunchtime. Ed Eagle came over from the house, and they ordered club sandwiches and beers.

“I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls from the media,” Ed said.

“So have I,” Stone replied. “Will Lee’s advice was to lie low, and that’s what I’m doing.”

“Then I’ll do the same,” Ed said. “Anyway, we’re getting out of here first thing tomorrow morning, and they won’t chase me to Santa Fe.”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Stone said.

“I got an odd piece of news this morning,” Eagle said. “I was speaking with a client of mine who has a problem and needs my advice. He’s got a house for sale in Bel-Air, and he got an offer from somebody named Grosvenor.”

“Funny,” Stone said, “I know somebody named Charles Grosvenor who’s looking for a Bel-Air house.”

Eagle stared at him. “Why didn’t you mention that?”

Stone frowned. “Why would I do that? The guy’s a Brit who’s moving to L.A. My office asked me to meet with him, and I introduced him to the managing partner of our L.A. office at a lunch at the Bel-Air.”

“Stone,” Eagle said, “Charles Grosvenor is Barbara’s most recent husband. They live in San Francisco.”

“Can’t be the same guy,” Stone said. “I met his wife and she doesn’t look anything like Barbara.”

“Barbara is very good at not looking anything like Barbara,” Eagle said. “Describe her.”

“Maybe early forties, slim, busty, straight gray hair to her shoulders.” Stone remembered something else. “Uh-oh, American.”

“Where did you last see her?”

“At the Bel-Air lunch a couple of days ago.”

“Barbara likes the Bel-Air,” Eagle said. “She murdered somebody there once. Thinking it was me, she put a bullet in the man’s head as he slept.”

“That’s right, she did, didn’t she? She doesn’t know you’re in town, does she?”

“If she watches TV or reads the papers, she knows,” Eagle said. “You and I are all over them. In any case, she’d know I’d be at the convention—I never miss one.”

“Ed, maybe you should talk to Mike Freeman about a little personal security while you’re in town.”

Eagle didn’t seem to hear him. “Last time, she hired somebody—a stunt man from out at Centurion. He missed, so she killed
him
.” He seemed to remember that Stone had said something. “I’m sorry, did you say something about personal security?”

“I’d be glad to talk to Mike Freeman for you.”

“Let’s think ahead,” Eagle said. “Security at The Arrington is pretty good.”

“Better than good,” Stone pointed out, “especially while the president is here.”

“Right. And we’ll be in your skybox for Kate’s speech tonight, so I should be okay there.”

“Right.”

“And we’re out of here tomorrow morning.”

“If you’re comfortable, then I’ll try not to worry about you.”

“I’m never going to feel completely comfortable, knowing that Barbara and I are in the same town at the same time,” Eagle said, “but I can’t let myself get paranoid about it.”

“Don’t go armed tonight,” Stone said. “You’d never make it into the hall.”

“Don’t mention this to Susannah,” Eagle said. “She’d find Barbara and kill her.”

“You don’t need that,” Stone said.

“I do, but you’re right, I don’t,” Eagle replied.

S
tone and his guests, the Bacchettis, the Eagles, and Ann Keaton, were settled in the skybox while the conventioneers took their seats. Tonight’s program was short.

Promptly at six o’clock the lights dimmed, music swelled, and an enormous screen on the stage came to life. For the next thirty minutes, the audience followed Will Lee from his boyhood in Delano, Georgia, through university and law school, through his tenure as a legislative assistant and later chief of staff to the legendary senator from Georgia, Benjamin Carr, and as counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. There was a brief snip of Will questioning Katharine Rule, a CIA analyst, who was testifying on an agency budget request, their first meeting. The film then followed Kate’s rise at the Agency to deputy director for intelligence, her marriage to Will, and finally to the passage of an act of Congress that allowed him to appoint her director of Central Intelligence. Brief attention was given to some of the crises where she was a principal adviser to the president, then to their travels around the world together, when she acted as both adviser and first lady. Then, as the film faded to black and the room to darkness, a voice proclaimed, “Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States.” As Will Lee strode from the wings and took the podium to wild applause from the audience, the armored glass curtain rose from the floor.

He finally got them quieted. “Fellow delegates, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “I am rapidly running out of occasions where I can address an event this large . . . and this friendly . . . so I have a great deal of gratitude to spread around, and that is best done to a captive audience. Don’t try to make a break for it, the doors are closed and guarded.” Big laugh.

“Most of the people who made it possible for me to be elected to this job, then be reelected, are in this room. I thank you, one and all, for every word of advice you gave, every favor you extended, every dollar you contributed, and every push you gave me toward the presidency. I also want to thank many of my opponents for the office who, with their soaring oratory and loose grip on the facts, made me look better than I had a right to. I could never have done it without their help.” Big laugh. “Far too many of my best friends were unable to be here tonight, summoned to a higher calling. First among them is Senator Ben Carr, that master legislator and brilliant senator at whose knee I learned nearly enough to get me through my Senate years and to the White House. His like will not be heard again on the Senate floor, and I still miss him.

“Now, before I yield the podium, I have three duties to perform: the first is to reiterate a promise I made to the nation not very long ago: I shall support the nominee of my party for the office of president of the United States!” The crowd roared with laughter. When he had calmed them he continued: “My second duty is to place in nomination the name of the man who will be the running mate for our candidate and who will be the next vice president of the United States. He has distinguished himself as a fine state senator, as a brilliant mayor of a major American city, and as an outstandingly effective governor of our most populous state, and he is now ready to take the national stage and occupy the second-highest office in the land. It is my great honor and even greater pleasure to place in nomination for the Democratic candidate for vice president of the United States, the name of the governor of the great state of California, Richard Collins!” Huge roar. Will waited for it to subside, then cupped a hand behind his ear. “Do I hear a second?”

“Second!” the huge crowd shouted.

Will picked up the gavel and hammered it once. “The motion is adopted by acclamation!”

Demonstrations now took place in the aisles, and the band played. Eventually, order was restored.

“I have one further duty,” Will said, “before I slink into the ignominy of lame-duckhood. I must say that this duty gives me the greatest pleasure of my life—so far. It is my great honor to introduce to you a person who has already, in the many years of her public service, done more for her country than have most presidents, and done it quietly, behind the scenes in ways often brilliant, but necessarily concealed, that the public cannot know about for decades to come, who has always put her country first in her life and work, and who now seeks to come into the bright light of an election and seek the highest office in the land—one that she richly deserves.

“My fellow Americans,” Will shouted, “the next president of the United States, Katharine Lee!”

—

KATE WALKED BRISKLY
from the wings, clad in a red suit, setting off her blond hair. She stood at one side of the podium, then the other, waving, pointing at people she knew and those she didn’t, then she returned and stood quietly at the podium until the last of the applause died. She reached forward, pressed a button on the podium, and the thick glass security screen descended into the floor. Kate leaned into the microphone and said, “I never want anything between you and me but air.” And the crowd went crazy again.

Finally, after she had quiet, Kate began to speak, without notes or teleprompter, which had disappeared with the glass screen. “I stand before you a proud but chastened woman, for today I have learned what every nominee for the presidency before me has felt—that accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency is not something that can be taken lightly. It is a heavy responsibility, and I accept it. I accept your nomination!”

Much cheering.

“Next week, we begin this campaign in earnest, and when it is over, Governor Richard Collins and I will have visited every state and told their citizens what we plan to do in office, so I will not give you that long list now. Suffice it to say that we will continue the policies of my brilliant predecessor!”

Laughter.

“We will meet you at the center, where the work gets done!” This had been Will Lee’s campaign slogan. “We will use the Internet and social media to state our proposals in detail, since personal appearances are all too brief. I want every American to know what we stand for and what we won’t stand for!”

The crowd went wild yet again. When the applause petered out, Kate went on.

“But there is something I want every American to hear now,” she said. “The most important question any candidate is asked: ‘Why do you want to be president?’ I want to be president because my upbringing, my education in school, at university and law school, my work as an intelligence officer and my leadership as the director of Central Intelligence, my time in the White House, and my very close relationship with my president and my contributions to his policy decisions—all these have given me a unique set of qualifications, and I want to put those to work, as I have always done, in the service of my country. I want to heal old wounds and break new ground. I want to conduct the necessary and constant rebuilding of our nation while forging ahead in new domestic and foreign policy. And if elected, I want to do what Will Lee has done—leave my successor with a better country than when I started.”

Much applause.

“I ask of my countrymen more than their votes for me, I ask them to give me a Congress that is committed to our ideals as a nation and that will be ready to work hard every day for our people. If my countrymen will do that, then Dick Collins and I, with the support of a hardworking Congress, will give them an even better America!”

Kate stepped back from the microphone and waved to Dick Collins, who was in the wings, to come onstage. They embraced, then clasped hands and waved as the band began to play and the crowd cheered themselves to hoarseness.

—

UP IN STONE’S
skybox he and his guests poured champagne, toasted the new nominees, then sat down to dinner while the crowd below began to drift toward the exits.