The
White House
Saturday, August 28,
10:36 A.M.
Time Remaining on
Extinction Clock: 97 hours, 28 minutes
J. P. Sunderland closed his phone and
sighed, then cut a covert glance at Vice President Bill Collins,
who was sitting at his desk with his head in his
hands.
Sunderland cleared his throat. “That was
Mike Denniger, my man inside the Secret Service.”
That made the Vice President jerk his head
up. “Did anything happen to the President?”
“That hopeful look on your face doesn’t
speak well of the depth of your compassion,” Sunderland drawled.
When Collins’s only response was a glare, he said, “Denniger said
that there’s been a lot of quiet conversations between Linden
Brierly and the doctors. He wasn’t privy to the conversations, but
he got the impression the doctors were arguing with Brierly. My
guess is that someone got to Brierly to try and hurry up the
process of waking up the President.”
“That’s got to be Church.”
“Not through official
channels.”
“He doesn’t use official
channels.”
“No, I guess he doesn’t.”
They sat in silence as seconds fell from the
clock in handfuls. Finally Collins said, “So, what’s our move? Wait
until the President is awake and pissed off and then throw him the
scapegoat, or should we play it like we figured out that we were
duped and go to the Attorney General first? Lay out the story for
him, keep him on our side.”
Sunderland considered. Despite the calm
expression on his face, he was sweating heavily. He absently patted
his pocket to make sure the bottle of nitro tablets was
there.
“There’s still a chance-an outside chance of
course-that we’ll still nab MindReader before the President is
awake and in power,” said Sunderland. “Even if Brierly bullies the
docs into doing something, we probably still have six, seven hours.
So. let’s use the time.”
“To do what? Cross our
fingers?”
“Might help.”
Collins almost laughed.
“Christ.”
“Denniger will give me a heads-up if things
start happening at Walter Reed. If it looks like this is totally
played out, then you can call the AG. It’s the best way, Bill. If
you move too soon you look weak, if you let the President slap you
down you look criminal, but if you save the day in the eleventh
hour you’re a goddamn hero.”
“And if we snag MindReader in the
meantime?”
“Then you’ll very quietly become the richest
Vice President in history.” Sunderland mopped his smiling face.
“Either way, you can’t lose.”
“Christ, don’t say that,” Collins snapped.
“. You’ll jinx me.”