First Daughter

This interested Jack immensely. "I searched everything after her accident," he said. "I couldn't find anything."

Alli's fear returned full force. "Maybe I'm wrong. It's only a hunch. I mean she never said anything to me directly."

Still, it was something to ponder, Jack thought. Maybe he'd overlooked something.

"C'mon, let's go," he said, getting out of the car. When she'd joined him, he took her down the alleyway and around behind the buildings on Kansas Avenue. They had to be careful as they approached the rear of the FASR building, as it was lit up like an airport runway, crisscrossed by federal agents in flak jackets, riot helmets, and assault rifles loaded with rubber bullets.

Jack moved them back into the shadows of the hulking warehouses on their right, crouched down, making their way past the activity. As they moved farther down, the light continued to fade until they were once again engulfed in deepest shadow. At the back of the building that used to house the Hi-Line, they crept along until they reached what looked like a windowless wall. Jack moved his fingertips along the wall until he found the join he was looking for, the outline of the door Gus's detective clients used to come and go without being seen.

Slipping a credit card out of his wallet, he slid it into the join on the left side. A moment later, though Alli heard no sound at all, he gripped the join with the tips of his fingers and the door opened outward.

They slipped in together and Jack immediately closed the door behind them. They were in almost complete darkness. Ahead of them was a thin line of warm light coming through the crack between an i

Stepping up to the door, Jack turned the knob and, opening it, crossed the threshold. Chris Armitage whirled around, grabbing for a length of pipe.

Jack said, "Down, boy. You could get yourself killed that way."

Armitage had the look and posture of a hunted animal. "How the hell did you find us?"

As he said this, Jack looked behind him at Peter Link, asleep on the sofa. "Let's just say that I know these buildings were the haunts of bootleggers in the thirties, complete with escape routes to outwit the police."

Armitage's mouth twitched sardonically. "Seems nothing much has changed since then." He sighed, put aside the pipe. "I suppose they enlisted you to take us in."

"I had to dodge a Secret Service detail to get in here u

Armitage's eyes opened wide. "Good God."

"Chris Armitage, this is Alli Carson, the soon-to-be First Daughter. Alli, Chris is the co-head of the First American Secular Revivalists."

"What's left of it," Armitage said. "Hey, Alli." Then, to Jack: "Why on earth did you bring her here?"

Jack smiled. "I thought you and she ought to meet."

"My organization has just been smeared by the President of the United States with the help of the Russian president." Armitage let go a bitter laugh. "This is hardly the time for a get-together."

"I don't see that you have anything better to do," Jack said.

Armitage nodded. "I can't argue there." He lifted an arm. "Sorry I don't have much in the way of conveniences to offer you." He pointed at a half fridge. "There're Cokes in there, a couple of cartons of juice. And frozen food."

Jack and Alli shook their heads as they sat on facing chairs. Armitage perched on the edge of the sofa.

"How's Link?" Jack asked.

"Out like a light, as you can see." Armitage ran a hand through his hair. "He'll be okay. Thanks for asking. Thanks for everything."

Jack waved away his words. "I'd like to ask you about a former member of FASR. A man you know as Ro

"Oh, him." Armitage rubbed his chin. "Interesting guy, actually. Very smart, very intense. And he'd done his homework-he knew all the ins and outs of every argument we're propounding. He was so well versed, in fact, that Peter and I wanted him to make some personal appearances with us, you know, to get the word out."

Armitage opened the half refrigerator. After offering them a drink, he took out a can of Coke, popped the top. "Above all, Kray had a quality about him-he was quite charismatic. That was another reason we wanted him to take a more active role. But he turned us down." He gulped down some soda. "He told us he could only spare us a couple of days a week. Plus, he said he was strictly a behind-the-scenes type of guy."

"Did you believe him?" Jack said.

"Interesting question. In a fu

"In what way?"

Armitage rolled the soda can between his palms. "He had no tolerance for people who didn't do things his way-and at the speed of light. He pissed off more than his share of coworkers because he didn't seem to have an inhibitor switch. Whatever was on his mind, no matter how harsh, he'd just say it. I recall one time, I brought him into the office to talk to him about the effect he was having on the people he had to interact with. 'Good,' he said. 'Maybe they'll get their act together.'»

"I'd like to fill out my mental picture of him," Jack said. "Would you mind describing him to me?"

"Not at all." Armitage thought a moment. "To begin with, he was a good-looking guy, but in an interesting way. Dark, smoldering-and charismatic, as I said. He was tall and slim. He was in good shape. He looked like he was in his late forties, but I got the feeling he was older than that, certainly in his mid-fifties."

Jack's mind was engaged on two levels. While he was using Armitage's description to build a mental picture of Kray, he was watching Alli for signs of anxiety or nervousness. After all, the man Armitage was describing had abducted her and held her captive for a week. But she seemed oddly detached, as if her mind was far away.

Armitage swallowed the last of the Coke, set the can aside. "I think he was actually popular with the women. The men felt they had to defend themselves against him."

"Did you know," Jack said, "that Ro

"What? No. Of course not." Armitage looked and sounded genuinely shocked.

"Do you vet people-do background checks?"

"Sure. We don't want anyone with a record to be on our rolls. But frankly, it's rudimentary at best; we're all chronically overworked."

Jack nodded in sympathy. "I imagine he was counting on that. I doubt those two names are the end of Kray's deception." He turned to Alli. "What d'you think?"

"Alli," Armitage said, "you know this man?"

Panic gripped her with such force that for a moment she could scarcely catch her breath. "A friend of mine did," she squeaked. "Jack's daughter, Emma."

"I wonder," Jack said in a perfectly neutral voice, "whether you don't know him, as well."

Alli's panic escalated to an almost intolerable pitch. It was all she could do not to jump up and run out of the room. "Me?" He knows, she thought. He knows Kray took me. "I never met him."

"Haven't you recently been with someone who fits Chris's description of Ro

Alli said nothing, but Jack observed a certain tension take hold of her like an invisible hand.

Jack shrugged. "Perhaps I'm mistaken." He turned his attention to Armitage, who had been following that byplay with a certain confused interest. "We'd best decide what to do with you and Peter. You two can't stay holed up here forever."

Alli was thrust back into the midst of her mental battlefield. On one side was Ro