Line of Succession

“The reading clerk will call the roll.”

“The state of Alabama. Mr. Price…”

Sixteen past noon. Another eight or ten minutes, and out. The thing was not to look like you were in a hurry. Ask the guard on the way out where the men’s room is.

“The state of Mississippi. Mr. Bailey…”

He could almost feel it ticking between his ankles. His watch: twelve-nineteen. It was due to go off at twelve-forty; all of them were. Get out at twelve-twenty-five, he thought. That’ll give me fifteen minutes to get clear. Linc will have the car ready by the corner of the New Senate Office Building, and Darleen’s got the Oldsmobile parked up on Te

Martyrs are cheap, Stratten had drummed into them. Any stupid head can be a martyr. We’ve got to prove you can do it and get away with it. That’s the whole point, isn’t it. Not just that you can attack the Establishment, but that the Establishment’s powerless to do a thing about it.

The bird next to Bob Walberg was giving him an odd glance. Bob straightened his face and pretended to jot a shorthand note in the pad on his knee.

“The roll call discloses that four hundred and twenty-seven Representatives-elect have answered to their names. A quorum is present. Now the next order of business is the election of a Speaker of the House of Representatives for the Ninety-fifth Congress. Nominations are now in order.… The chair recognizes Mr. Breckenyear of Louisiana.”

“Mr. Clerk, as chairman of the Democratic caucus, I am directed by the unanimous vote of that caucus to present for re-election to the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-fifth Congress the name of the Honorable Milton C. Luke, a Representative-elect from the State of Co

“The chair recognizes Mr. Wood of California.”

“Mr. Clerk, as chairman of the Republican conference and by authority, direction, and unanimous vote of that conference, I nominate for Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-fifth Congress the Honorable Philip Krayle, a Representative-elect from the State of New York.”

“The Honorable Milton C. Luke, a Representative-elect from the State of Co

“The State of Alabama. Mr. Price.…”

Bob Walberg looked at his watch and looked up across the gallery. Sandra was watching him.

It was time. He stood up, apologizing sotto voce to the lady beside him; he placed his briefcase on the seat, as if to save it for his return, and made his way out into the aisle past the lady’s knees, and turned up to the back of the gallery. The uniformed guard watched him approach. Bob Walberg whispered in the guard’s ear and the guard pointed and whispered something which Bob Walberg didn’t catch, but he nodded and thanked the guard and slipped out.

12:30 P.M. EST The East Portico afforded the best exit from the Capitol because you could head right out Maryland or Pe

He kept fighting the impulse to reach into the car and snatch up the microphone and bleat into it: has anybody found anything? They would let him know if they did.

He looked around again, turning a full circle on his heels, and now he began to develop an interest in the spruce-green Plymouth that had pulled up at the curb below the New Senate Office Building. It had a young man in a self-conscious Afro at the wheel and white wisps of exhaust flailing from its tailpipe. Lime automatically noted the license number in his pocket pad and this time he succumbed to the urge to reach for the microphone.

“Dispatch, this is Lime.”

“Go ahead Lime.”

“Have you got a squadrol on Maryland Avenue between here and Stanton Square?”

“Hold on.… Car Five Niner, you on Maryland? Whereabouts? Okay, stand by.… Hello Lime?”

“Right here.”

“Affirmative your query.”

“Request you hold your car on Maryland until further notice from me.”

He heard Dispatch relay the message to Car 59 and re-experienced the irritation he always felt when dealing with vehicular patrols: you had contact with Dispatch but not with other cars and therefore everything had to be relayed through Dispatch. It was the only method that made real sense but nevertheless it was a

Lime said into the microphone, “Convey this to Car Five Niner, please. A ‘Seventy-two Plymouth four-door, blue-green, license New Jersey Samuel Bravo Dog Three Three Four. If that car comes north on Maryland with more than one person in it, I want it stopped.”

“Affirmative Lime.… Car Five Niner——”

Lime handed the microphone to the driver and turned to look up at the Capitol steps. Chad Hill was coming down two steps at a time, not out of any visible urgency but simply because that was the way he liked to move. When Lime had asked for his transfer out of NSA and they had shunted him over to Secret Service he had not succeeded in bringing any of his own people with him and he had been forced to pick an aide from among strangers. Having hired Chad Hill he was able to find no plausible reason to fire him; but Hill had an unca

Chad Hill reached the car and gave him a pained look. “We’ve eyeballed everybody in the visitors’ gallery and the uniformed boys have done a second go-round on packages and handbags.”

“Nothing?”

“Not a damn thing.”

“What about the press gallery?”

Hill’s head jerked back. “My God. I never thought of that.”

Neither did I until just now. Lime said gently, “Do it then.”

“Yes sir.”

Chad Hill turned to trot away and Lime’s glance rode up past him to the top of the steps. Lime said, “Never mind, Chad.”

“What?” Hill was swinging back.

A middle-aged black woman had emerged at the Portico and Lime had a feeling that was Beulah Moorehead from Los Angeles, and he was sure of it when the Walberg twins loped out behind her.

Lime talked fast. “Get inside—tell our people to get to the PA mikes and clear the building. I’m calling the bomb squad. On the run, now.”

Lime put his hand into the car window and the driver slapped the microphone into it. Two more people emerged at the Portico and trotted down the steps behind Mrs. Moorehead and the Walbergs. They were slanting north as they came down the wide steps—heading generally in the direction of the green Plymouth—and Lime barked into the mike, “Bomb Squad, Dispatch. Make it fast. I’ve made five suspects leaving the building. Tell Bomb Squad to start looking in the press galleries in both chambers. I’m having the building cleared now. Tell Car Five Niner to remain on station to pick up that green Plymouth if it gets away from me. Out.” He tossed the mike in past the driver and wrenched the door open. “Come on with me.”