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GEORGETOWN MEMORIAL PARKWAY

The press conference began at 11 a.m.

Marcus and Annie didn’t stay to watch. There was far too much to do, and they couldn’t afford to be seen by reporters. Instead, they listened on a local news radio station while they raced back to CIA headquarters.

“Let me begin by saying I’ve already authorized $30 million to be transferred as a down payment, a signal of goodwill that we want all three Americans returned safely and immediately,” Hernandez began from behind the presidential podium in the East Room. “Furthermore, I’ve directed the secretary of the treasury to release the rest of the funds within the hour.

“Yes, there was a good deal of debate within my inner circle as to whether the U.S. should negotiate with terrorists,” Hernandez continued. “I’ve long agreed with the position of my predecessors not to do so. But I’ve also looked into the eyes of the parents of these three dear women—Tanya Brighton, Hannah Weiss, and Mia Minetti—and promised them I would do everything in my power to get their daughters home safely. And I want the American people and the world to know that I am a man of my word.”

Reporters started shouting questions, but Hernandez was not finished.

“To Abu Nakba, let me say this: I expect you to keep your word and immediately release these innocent American citizens, free from further harm. Too much blood has been spilled in our fight against one another. Let this serve as the beginning of a truce between us.”

Marcus had serious reservations about the policy Hernandez was pursuing. He understood the politically fragile position Hernandez found himself in in the first fateful days of his accidental presidency, though he feared paying the ransom could lead to a risk of additional attacks against Americans everywhere. But Hernandez had made his decision. The Agency’s role now wasn’t to question it but support it.

Rather than take questions, Hernandez now made more headlines. Big headlines. He announced that he was nominating Margaret Whitney as his vice president and Robert Dayton as his new secretary of state. He also announced the resignation of Richard Stephens and proudly named Martha Dell as his choice for the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Any one of these would have been front-page news on a normal day, but today was far from normal.

Senator Dayton’s explanation of his decision to join the Republican administration despite his untarnished record as a loyal member of the Democratic Party—combined with his startling revelation that the compound in Libya had, in fact, been the Kairos headquarters and not a school—was a significant moment in helping Hernandez establish some desperately needed legitimacy for his new administration. Both Marcus and Annie also found Dayton’s description of Hernandez as a faithful husband, loving father, patriotic military commander, and loyal friend quite moving. They knew the senator’s words would not calm all partisan passions in D.C., much less the country, but they believed they could very well begin to turn the tide in the new president’s favor.

Even more moving was the profound gratitude Martha Dell expressed to Hernandez for appointing her as the first African American ever to serve as the director of the CIA. Dell recalled the bitter racism she’d experienced growing up in Atlanta and the degradations her single mother had been subjected to as a child in Mobile, Alabama, in the 1950s. She also shared about her grandparents, who’d been sharecroppers in Alabama, and her great-great-grandparents on both sides of her family who’d been slaves.

“No one can ever tell me this country is perfect,” Dell told the reporters. “But nor can anyone tell me this country isn’t changing, isn’t improving, isn’t trying to make things right. We have a long way to go and much to do to truly establish liberty and justice for all. But America is moving in the right direction, and today is further proof.”

“Not a bad way to hit reset,” Annie said as they pulled through the front gates of CIA headquarters.

“Not bad at all,” Marcus agreed.