James Grippando - Born to Run

“But he took the ED medication anyway?” said Harry.

“It was a time-released dosage, good for thirty-six hours. I presume he wanted to be ready whenever she showed up.”

Harry fell quiet again, but he seemed satisfied that he was finally getting the straight dope.

“So, how do we deal with this toxicology report?” he said.

“Fortunately,” said the president, “the medical examiner doesn’t plan to release it for another week.”

“It will leak before then. We need a plan.”

The president smiled. “I like the way you say we .”

“I have no choice,” said Harry. “The media will undoubtedly feast on this. Since I was with the vice president on the night he died, I am going to spend a lot of time answering questions about something that has very little to do with my qualifications to be vice president.”

“Are you okay with that?”

Harry paused, thinking. It didn’t take long. “Here’s the way I see it. I can decline the nomination and be accused of having arranged for Phil to come to Florida and bed his former White House intern. Or I can accept the nomination, and be accused of the very same thing.”

“You’re a smart man, Harry Swyteck.”

“Or a fool for having gotten back into this game.”

“Do I take that to mean that you’re in for the long haul?”

“Only if you can assure me that putting Agent Madera on the vice president was for national security reasons, as you said, and not simply to cover up a potential scandal.”

“You have my word on that.”

The two men looked each other in the eye, and the president searched for that certain body language that said lies were unacceptable-unless they were believable.

“Then I’m still in,” said Harry. “With one caveat.”

“Name it.”

Harry turned deadly serious. “No more ticking time bombs like Chloe Sparks. No more secrets of any kind. Or not even Agent Madera will be able to stop me from kicking your ass.”

The president smiled, even though Harry didn’t.

“Fair enough, my friend.”

They shook on it, the president applying his famous double touch, shaking with his right hand while applying his left to Harry’s right shoulder.

The president said, “While we’re on the subject of security, I feel we should talk more about this anonymous e-mail Jack received. You still seem concerned about that.”

“Anyone who claims to have the power to bring down the president sounds like a nut case to me,” said Harry. “With my son on the front line, concern is probably a good word.”

“I can understand that. I know the FBI has given you assurances about Jack’s safety, but in the world of personal protection, I trust no one more than Frank. I’d like to arrange for him to be assigned to you.”

“I appreciate the gesture. But that’s not really necessary.”

“I insist. He has experience on the vice presidential side of things with Phil, so it’s an easy transition. We’ll make the reassignment first thing in the morning.” The president took one last swallow of coffee. “You look tired, Harry. Go to bed.”

“I am beat. Thank you, sir.”

Harry said good night to both the president and the new special agent in charge of vice presidential protection, and then he left through the north door. Agent Madera remained behind with the president. Neither seemed eager to be the first to speak, each waiting for the other’s reaction.

“You told him too much,” said Madera.

“He’ll be fine. Harry Swyteck wants to be vice president in a bad way. Much more than he lets on. Now that he’s in the loop about Chloe Sparks and Phil Grayson, he has no choice but to toe the line.”

“You trust him that much?”

“I do now that you’re on his security detail.”

“Nice touch, the way you couched it in terms of personal safety.”

“I’m sure he sees through that. The only question is how far he can see.”

President Keyes rose and stepped toward the window. Surrounding city lights gave the south lawn a warm glow on a cold December night. “Do you think…”

He stopped himself.

“Do I think what?” said Madera.

“I have this unsettling suspicion about his son.”

“He does seem a bit too friendly with Paulette Sparks since coming to Washington.”

“Not to mention Marilyn and Elizabeth Grayson.”

“All on the heels of that e-mail.”

The president leaned against the window frame, his back to Agent Madera as he spoke to his reflection in the pane of bullet-resistant glass. “It could be paranoia on my part. But I’m beginning to wonder if Jack has already figured out that Phil Grayson having sex with an intern has absolutely nothing to do with the power to bring down the Keyes administration.”

“That would be our worst fear,” said Madera.

He shook his head, speaking in a solemn voice. “You want to know my worst fear, Frank?”

Agent Madera did not respond.

President Keyes was a student of history, and in times of stress, snippets of White House history seemed to rise up from the floorboards to haunt him.

“Did you know that President Garfield was brought to this very room after he was shot in the summer of 1881?”

“Is that what keeps you up at night, assassination?”

“Of sorts,” he said, turning to face him. “My worst fear is that the entire world is about to know what the Greek knows. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

The Greek was the last customer of the night at Mahoney’s Pub. He walked past the empty booths and pulled up a stool at the Formica-topped bar.

“What’ll it be, old man?”

The bartender was young, short, and skinny-the complete opposite of the Greek, who was an imposing figure even when seated.

“Shot and a beer,” he said.

The beer was dinner. Or breakfast. Whatever worked at 1:00 A.M. for a guy with a huge problem on his mind and who couldn’t sleep. Alcohol touched his lips only when the back pain flared up-something he’d dealt with for almost fifty years, ever since those thugs had thrown him off an apartment building in Nicosia to watch him splatter like a watermelon. The doctors had told him he was lucky to be alive, lucky not to be paralyzed. They obviously didn’t know Demetri Pappas. Luck had nothing to do with it. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It was a cliche, but the Greek lived by it. Swimming in the Mediterranean Sea had whipped his body back into shape. A mile a day for over forty years. Then cycling. Seventy miles in a single day had been commonplace in his prime. Finally, he was ready to run. He’d finished eight marathons in his lifetime, and he was determined to run another before he hit seventy. He still smiled at reruns of that old TV show, Ironside. The Greek should have been that guy in the wheelchair. Instead, he was Iron man .

The bartender set him up. He downed the drinks quickly.

“’Nother round.”

The Greek’s brain was buzzing, but he was still thinking clearly. He never let himself drink to the point of intoxication, never did anything to cloud his judgment. Especially when it was decision time.

Plan A was dead-literally. Chloe Sparks had totally conned him. He should have known that serious money from the Inquiring Star was out of the question when the editor had refused to negotiate and handed him off to a young reporter. Plan B had seemed like a better idea. What politician wouldn’t pay a king’s ransom to launch himself overnight from second-in-command to head of state? It certainly would have worked that way in Cyprus-and not just because Shakespeare had written of such false loyalty in Othello.