Memorial Day

As they stood staring at the map of Virginia, McMahon decided to turn up the heat. He told one of his deputies to draw up a press release. He wanted the new information on the last sightings to be included, and he wanted it to state that the suspect or suspects were to be considered armed and dangerous. As the woman left, McMahon told her to send it to every news outlet between D.C. and Virginia Beach.

Seventy-One

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Rapp slipped away to consult with Ke

Ke

Rapp had spoken to her about an hour and a half ago just after her small motorcade had crossed the Bay Bridge. Now one of her bodyguards answered her secure phone, and a minute later Ke

"How's Tommy?" Rapp asked.

"Great. Couldn't be more excited. He's ru

Rapp could tell by her voice that she was relaxing. "Good. Make sure you tell him I said hello."

"I will. What's up?" she asked.

Rapp brought her up to speed on the manhunt, and told her about Reimer's conversation with his Russian counterpart. Both pieces of news seemed to give her some comfort. They were the first bits of good news she'd received since finding out the CIA had helped Mohammed Ansari immigrate to the United States. Once that little tidbit was made public, she would be beaten over the head with it even thought she'd only been a junior-level case officer at the time.

Throughout the afternoon one thing had given Ke

She knew that now the president was at this moment returning to the White House aboard Marine One with the British prime minister. They were apparently ru

Rapp had just finished giving her the details of the manhunt when she asked, "What's your gut telling you, Mitch?"

"I think they're holed up somewhere. We're talking about five Middle Eastern-looking men in a part of the country where there's a ton of retired military...if they'd stolen a vehicle we would've heard about it."

"That's if someone saw them."

"That's the other thing. You've been down there. It's not far from the Farm." Rapp was referring to Camp Perry where the CIA trained all of their new recruits. "There's a lot of woods. A lot of dirt roads and trails where someone could disappear."

"And you still think the locals can handle this?" she asked.

"They're our best option right now, but if we find the vehicles abandoned in the woods I'd like to bring in the SEALs and track them."

"Well," she said thinking about the repercussions, "you know how that'll go over."

"I've already had one go around about it, but you and I know it's not even close. HRT is really good in a controlled environment, but not that used to ru

"I agree. We'll cross that bridge when and if we have to. In the meantime keep me posted on any new developments."

"I will."

Ke

"Carl," she said, "would you call Langley and tell them I need a helicopter put on standby."

"Sure."

Ke

"Almost. I know it's a real shock, but we're ru

"So you're on Marine One right now?"

"Yep."

Ke

Seventy-Two

Peggy Stealey arrived at the di

The two entered the White House and were immediately offered a glass of champagne. Stealey took one, but Holmes declined. He'd already declared his intention to avoid the pond scum that they served at these types of things and stick to Belvedere vodka, which of course meant that he'd be tanked by ten. To Holmes any bottle of wine, sparkling or otherwise, was to be avoided unless its price tag had at least three digits prior to the decimal. For an evening like this, four would have been preferred, but Holmes hadn't been consulted. If he had been, it probably would have meant he was expected to pay for it, or worse, provide a dozen cases from his private collection. That would never happen. The only sin worse than drinking a cheap bottle of wine was wasting a good one on people who couldn't appreciate it.