Pia waited in the service alley behind the Cincinnati Hilton. After ten minutes, a white-haired Secret Service agent stuck his head out the fire exit. He was an older guy with a youthful countenance. He waved her into a concrete stairwell.
“I’m Dan.” He led the way upstairs at a strong pace. “Catherine will meet you on the landing. Kevin and Tony paused the video feeds but the shift changes soon. You need to be out of there in under five minutes.”
“That’s all I need,” Pia said.
“I’m sick of his victory tours,” Dan said. “So your visit is a welcome distraction. What’s your business with the President-Elect?”
“I’m going to ask him to resign.”
“Great idea. Do you have some leverage to encourage him?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Pia didn’t want to elaborate, but he waited for her, and she felt obliged. “Dad had some incriminating records, but the corroborating evidence was scooped up by the Feds and locked away. Starting today, getting rid of him is my top priority.”
“How do you expect to do that?”
“You don’t want to know.” The truth was, Pia didn’t know. But she owed it to her dad and her country. She would find a way.
“Fine.” Dan stopped on a landing and regarded her a moment. “This is an incredibly risky visit. Good thing my former co-workers vouched for you.” He resumed the climb. “There’s an agent doing rounds who would blow the whistle if she saw you. Her name’s Ellen—blonde, middle-aged, nice lady, but a big Roche fan and a stickler for the rules.”
“Understood.”
When they reached the forty-ninth floor, Dan was breathing as if they’d taken a stroll in the park. He checked with his partner over their comm link. “Catherine, how about pizza and beer after our shift?”
Pia heard his earbud squawk.
“Code.” He turned to Pia. “We need a minute. Ellen is still on the floor.”
A few seconds later, he opened the stairwell door and waved her through. An attractive, dark-haired woman waved to her from halfway down the hall.
The woman led her to the double door in front of a large suite. The agent whispered, “I’m Catherine, nice to meet you and all that. I’ll give you a 30-second warning. If you aren’t out of there in time…” Catherine gave her a once over. “Just get out of there when I say.”
Catherine waved a keycard over the latch. It clacked open. Catherine stayed at the door, her gaze swiveling from the hall to the suite.
Pia went in.
When she turned the corner from the foyer into the sitting room, she found President Hunter sitting in President-Elect Roche’s lap. Hunter’s finger was in the middle of stroking the man’s chin when they both turned to face Pia.
Hunter stumbled to her feet and smoothed her skirt. Roche stood with clenched fists.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” Roche roared. “Guard!”
Catherine ignored his call.
“Good to see you two are still … active.” Pia approached the pair.
“Security!” Roche’s face flared red.
Hunter backhanded his chest. “She owns them.”
“Impossible. They’re the best in the world. They’d never take a bribe.” Roche looked past Pia’s unmoving shoulders. “Security!”
Hunter smacked him again. “When Alan Sabel decided to protect his daughter from your men, he staffed Sabel Security entirely with retired Secret Service agents. They’re incorruptible. But every single one of them knows, in the back of his mind, that if he gets sick of this job, he’s welcome at Sabel.”
“Done whining?” Pia put her foot on a chair.
“You owe me $100 million.” Hunter scowled. “I released Sabel Industries from the exclusive government contracts. You’re going open-market now. You stand to make billions. Time to pay up. I have campaign debts I need to retire.”
“Four years ago, you burned Dad.” Pia frowned back. “Sucks, huh.”
“What do you want?” Roche snarled at Pia.
“A truce. Leave Stefan Devoor and his children out of our disagreement.”
Hunter’s mouth fell open. “Chuck’s people would never hurt—”
“I offered you a chance to get in on this.” Roche picked up his cane. “You chose to play with fire. Whatever nonsense you’re talking about, you can only blame yourself.”
Pia pulled her phone and played a video. A man held in police custody identified himself as Brad from Roche Security. “He was shooting at Stefan’s front door.”
“Oh, my god, no.” Hunter fell back into a chair. “That couldn’t be. Chuck, tell me—”
“My people are contracted out.” Roche glared up at Pia. “She probably hired my people and did this as a publicity stunt.”
“Montgomery County will subpoena Roche Security records,” Pia poked him in the chest. “Think up a better lie.”
“What did you mean about a truce?” Hunter asked.
“You can come after me all you want, but things will get worse for you if you involve innocent children.”
“You’re just like Popov and Yeschenko, you know that?” Roche shouted as he swept a lamp off the side table. “You guys think I’m stupid and impotent. Well, news flash, I’m not. I’m the President of the United States.”
“President-Elect,” Hunter said.
“Who cares?” Roche’s voice rattled the windows. He faced Pia and tipped up as tall as he could. “You came after me. So. Right back atcha, bitch.”
Catherine poked her head around the corner from the foyer. “Sixty seconds, ma’am.”
“Hey, wait a minute. You threatened me.” Roche grabbed Pia’s arm and turned her to face him. “You said things would get worse. What do you mean?”
“We have Strangelove’s notes about Flight 1028.”
“Big deal. We tracked down the Puerto Ricans who did it. On my Inauguration Day, they’re going to get droned.”
“We have the router logs, actual proof of who—”
“Forget it, Pia,” Hunter said. “We can’t escalate anything with the Russians without risking nuclear war. The public wants revenge. We’ll give them some. They’ll feel better.”
Roche snarled, “Is that all you’ve got? Powder logs?”
“No.” Pia pulled up her phone again and played the recording of Roche, Hunter, and Watson planning to throw the election. When it stopped, no one spoke for a few seconds.
“Oh, my god,” Hunter said.
“It’s nothing.” Roche paced the room. “It’s illegal. She can bring us down with that, but only by ruining her precious reputation. We’d drown her in the press: Big Brother is alive and well and running Sabel Industries. No one is safe. She’d never get another dollar of business after she gets out of jail. Go ahead, put it on YouTube. I’ll call it a hoax.”
“Take the truce,” Hunter said.
“Yeah. Sure, why not? Truce on Devoor.” Roche stuck out his bottom lip. “But I’m getting even with you for killing Watson. Tell that goon of yours, Jacob, to watch his back. Or maybe I’ll send someone after that half-breed girl.”
“Chuck!” Hunter screeched. “She could be recording this.”
“I didn’t kill David Watson.” Pia displayed a photo on her phone. “I watched him die.”
“He would never commit—” Roche stopped when he came close enough to the picture to see what it was. A smug-looking Watson held his undated pardon next to his face.
Roche turned away, and Hunter stepped in. She said, “That idiot. Why did he show you that?”
Catherine peeked around the corner. “Thirty seconds, ma’am.”
“He got cocky on Attu Island,” Pia said. “Told me everything. The night he died, I paid him a visit. I tried to trick him into repeating his confession. He bragged about the pardon, then figured out what I was recording him. He said he’d rather die than implicate you.”
“Good man.” Roche paced back. “That’s loyalty.”
Hunter covered her mouth as she inhaled in shock. “How did he die?”
“He pulled a pistol out of his desk and put it in his mouth.” Pia stared hard at Hunter. “I tried to talk him down. I told him you two weren’t worth it. But he knew.”
“Knew what?” Hunter asked.
“If he wouldn’t talk, I’d put him down.”
“Oh my god” Hunter backed up a step. “Why?”
Pia stepped forward, towering over the President. “Someone paid him to kill Lloyd Aston.”
“What did he tell you?” Roche shouldered Hunter aside. “Some lie about us being involved?”
“Pozdeeva detailed your meeting in the park. Watson confirmed it.”
Hunter and Roche looked at each other, then back at Pia.
“Look, Pia, I’m sorry I ever got involved in that.” Hunter’s hands trembled as she reached out. “It’s one of the biggest regrets—”
“Don’t apologize to her,” Roche shouted, slapping Hunter’s hand. “We did what we had to do at the time. Popov would’ve skinned us if we turned him down. Besides, Aston was stupid.” He faced Pia. “What do you want?”
“I want my democracy back.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Catherine stepped into the room. “Excuse me, ma’am. You need to go. Now.”
“You resign.” Pia looked at Catherine, who waved anxiously. She turned and crossed to the agent.
Roche followed her.
“You’ve made a powerful enemy.” He stopped in the foyer. “Rest assured, the minute my hand touches the Bible on Inauguration Day, Feds will be swarming into Sabel Industries with search warrants for everything. We’ll find the snuff films your bodycams recorded when you murdered Popov. We’ll hang you and everyone who works with you.”
Pia looked over her shoulder at him. She wanted to fire back that she had Pozdeeva’s files and would run down every shell company that laundered money in his refineries. It was too early to play that card. Someday soon. She kept her mouth shut and followed agent Catherine.
“I worked hard to earn my reputation for being cruel and vindictive to losers. It keeps them from coming back.” He raised his voice as she strode away. “Yeah. You can run now, girly. But you can’t hide from me. Not anymore. I’m the President of the United States of America.”
The End