Consent To Kill

"I don't know." She raised her chin in defiance. "And neither do you. I think the Americans practice great restraint in this awful war."

"The Americans, with their arrogance, have brought this on themselves."

"You better be careful." Claudia raised her voice. "You're begi

The mere mention of her socialist deadbeat friends sent Gould's temper flaring. The last thing they needed was a shouting match that ended with the hotel calling the police, so he checked his temper and in as calm a voice as he could muster said, "Everybody is killing each other. Each side tries to take the righteous high ground, and all we've done is sit in the middle and profit."

"It's a hell of a way to make a profit." She looked out the window and shook her head.

It was obvious she was disgusted, but Gould couldn't tell if it was with him or herself. "Claudia, I'm sorry." Part of him wanted to scream at her to go turn herself in if it bothered her so fucking much, but that wouldn't solve a thing. He lowered his head, and even though he didn't mean it, he said, "I'm sorry, I let you down."

With that he put on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and picked up the car keys sitting on the desk.

"Where are you going?" Claudia asked.

"I'm not sure." He grabbed a Chicago Cubs baseball cap he'd purchased at a truck stop yesterday evening and slid into his te

"I thought you wanted to get on the road."

He detected a bit of nervousness in her voice, which was what he wanted to hear. "I get the feeling you'd rather not be around me right now." Gould grabbed the door handle and said, "I'll be back in time to check out. If you decide you'd like us to go our separate ways I'll understand." Before she could say anything Gould opened the door and was gone. Pregnancy or not, he felt he had to do something to snap her out of her current emotional state. Yelling at her would only make things worse. Passive-aggressive was the better path to take. A subtle threat to leave would force her to look at more than just the last twenty-four hours. She knew he loved her, but she also knew he had the lone wolf gene in him. A little solitude and the thought of raising their child all on her own would get her thinking rationally again.

42

Irene Ke

Where the president would fall in this regard, Ke

If they wanted to avoid the inevitable they had just two options. The first would be to incarcerate him, but Ke

During the night Ke

How the father had learned of Rapp's role in his son's downfall was unclear, but Ke

Ke

"How are you holding up?"

"Fine."

"I know you are, but how are you holding up?" It was a question from one friend to another.

"I've been better," Ke

"How's Mitch?"

"He's pretty beat up, but the worst of it is behind him…at least physically."

Haik was the steady type of thinker every president needed-pragmatic, disciplined, and cautious. There wasn't much that ruffled his feathers. "How did he take the news of his wife?"

Ke

Haik nodded as if he'd anticipated the answer and then he leaned back and draped an arm over the back of the couch. It was clear that he wanted to say something, but that he was trying to figure out where to start. "Irene, we've always been straight with each other, so let me tell you what's going on here this morning. Right now the president is in his private dining room finishing up a meeting with the vice president, Secretary of State Berg, Attorney General Stokes, and Director Ross."

Even though she was surprised Ke