THE PRESIDENT LOOKED up from the tablet and leaned back in her chair. “Dear God.”
Steele and Ty exchanged a look, and then Ty started around the desk. “Did you want to see the video . . .?”
“No. I don’t need to see it.”
Ty hesitated, stepping back. “He returned to his office about fifteen minutes ago. I think he’s in a meeting right now with John Olesson and Gary Hronis.”
“I don’t care if he’s in a meeting with the ghost of Ronald Reagan – get him in here now.”
Ty blinked once before turning to leave. “I’ll have him in five.”
Steele watched Ty rush out of the room. “You were right about him. He’s good.”
“Maybe I should make him Vice President.”
Steele couldn’t suppress a smile. When the President looked up at her, though, the smile faded. “Steele, I want you here for this meeting. Knowing Delancy, his first concern will probably be to figure out who followed him, and as good as Ty is, I’d rather have him think it was you.”
“I agree.”
“Now the question is: what do we do with him?”
Steele considered before answering. “I’m almost more concerned with Gillespie. We frankly shouldn’t be surprised at behaviour like this from Delancy, but Gillespie is apparently willing to both endanger his best employees and put the security of our entire complex at risk just to satisfy Delancy’s whims.”
The President nodded, picked up a pencil and tapped it in frustration. “True. Unfortunately, he just killed his replacement. Marissa Cheung would have been the only real choice. And how do we discipline him? Take away his company car?”
“I don’t know, Madame President. I really don’t.”
Steele’s cell phone chirped. She picked it up, heard Ty’s voice. “We’re here.”
She looked up at the President, who nodded. “Okay, send him in. And Ty, you don’t need to wait around.”
The office door opened and Delancy entered, crossing the room and dropping his bulk into a groaning metal chair. “What’s this about? I was in the middle of some important negotiations with—”
The President cut him off. “Sure you weren’t sharing your latest trophy snaps?”
Delancy’s mouth hung open for a split second before he remembered to close it. “Trophy snaps?”
As the President stared coolly at Delancy, Steele brought up Ty’s video on her own phone and held it out for him to see.
“By God, I know this one – this dipshit tried to filibuster a bill I sponsored once.”
“We knew you’d like that one, sir.”
Steele asked, “Do I need to keep going?”
“No, I think I got it.”
Steele stabbed at the phone screen as the sound of bullets popped out of the tiny speaker. Delancy turned his gaze from the phone to Steele and then to the President. “So, what – are you spying on all of us now, or just me?”
With a chill in her voice, the President answered, “No, just you, Bob. You’re the only one who’s been disappearing for long stretches of time with a woman who recently turned up infected with HRV and who’s now dead.”
“Now, that’s not my fault.”
“Really? So you weren’t there when—” The President paused to pull the tablet closer to her and scroll briefly through the report. “—Cheung accidentally stepped to the edge of the loading dock and was scratched on the ankle?”
Delancy’s eyes narrowed. “Well, you got the whole goddamn story, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, Bob, we did.” She pushed the tablet away, rose from her chair and turned furiously on Delancy. “What the hell were you thinking? You put our people in danger – you killed the best analyst we had left – just so you could have your own private shooting gallery? Can you imagine what kind of damage this story could do if it got out?”
Delancy didn’t stand as he shouted back, “Got out to who? In case you hadn’t noticed, we don’t exactly have to worry much about the press any more. Or foreign intelligence. Or some douchebag kid who thinks he’ll be a hero if he gives our secrets away. In fact, about the only thing I can see that we have left to worry about is some zombie king named Moreby, and I hope to Christ he does hear about it! Let him know that not all of us are ready to roll over and hand our country to him just yet.”
“Is that what you think we’re doing, Bob?”
Now he did rise. “All I know is we’ve been down here for weeks now, and all I see happening is you giving out jobs to used-up losers like Ty Ward. Oh, and don’t think I’m so dumb that I don’t know it was him who followed me. That’s his tablet on your desk, Madame President. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to my meeting so that some of us with a little fire in our bellies can figure a way out of this mess.”
Delancy strode from the office.
Steele rose and started after him. “Do you want me to bring him back?”
“No. Let him go.”
Steele closed the door and looked back to see the President sagging into her chair, hand to her chin in her characteristic manner. “He’s right.”
“How so?”
“We have spent too long talking and planning and wasting time, while our enemies have evolved and expanded their hold.”
Steele didn’t like the direction this conversation might take. She prided herself on caution; it was how she’d built her career. She’d never been an impulsive person; she’d always taken time to analyse every possible manoeuvre, every potential outcome. She’d stopped assassins and broken counterfeiting rings that way. When she’d rescued this President, she’d even predicted how many men and women she’d lose in the attempt, and had been off by only one.
She saw a loss of 100 per cent if they took military action against the zombies now.
The President must have seen Steele’s trepidation and guessed rightly at its source. “Don’t worry, Steele, we’re not going to rush into anything. But we need to push Ames Parker harder.”
Steele exhaled in relief. “That we can do.”
“Oh, and send Gillespie to see me. I’m going to tell him that if he can’t get Landen Jones to tell us everything he knows about Moreby, they’ll both be spending twelve hours a day brewing coffee in the cafeteria.”
Steele grinned. “You got it, ma’am.”
As she left the office, Steele still thought they were on their way to a devastating loss, but at least they wouldn’t slowly starve to death buried half-a-mile under the ground and forgotten by history.
If there was any history still to come.