“Where did you find him?” Scarface asked. The first guard answered all his questions succinctly. “Good work. He is a government spy.” He reached inside Seamus’s coat and took his gun. “Who sent you?”

“No one. I sent myself.”

“Liar!” He cuffed Seamus’s chin with the butt of his own gun. It hurt.

“I am not lying.”

“Who else knows you’re here?”

“No one.”

“Liar!” He hit Seamus again.

“I’m telling you the truth.”

“This is pointless,” Scarface said. “And I do not have time to waste. Take him to the sleeping quarters. Strap him down. Make sure he cannot move.”

Seamus didn’t much like the sound of that.

The guards grabbed Seamus by the arms and shoulders. He made a show of struggling, but he knew it was useless.

“Once he is secure, come and find me. I will go find my tools.”

Tools? This was not going to be pleasant.

Scarface grabbed his hair and jerked it back. “I saw what you did to my friends. Men of faith. I will do as much to you and more. You will tell us what we want to know. But I hope you will resist first. Because I want you to suffer as they did. I want you to suffer to your dying breath. Which will not be long in coming.”

Before Swinburne began orating, Ben took the president by the arm and led him gently to the other room. Kyler resisted a little, but not too much. He started to speak, more mindless babble, but Ben hushed him.

“I want you to stay in here,” Ben said. “The jury does not need to see you acting like this during the closings.”

The president pouted. “Don’t wanna be all by myself.”

“Tough. Stay in here and you can sing or rock or whatever. Just don’t get too loud.”

“Are you sending me to my room? I don’t wanna be locked up. I wanna fly free. Free!”

Ben tried to stay calm. “I’m just trying to help. So stay put. At least until you’re feeling better.”

“You’re mean.” The president folded his arms across his chest, then began to sing. “The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout…”

It was just too sad. Ben closed the door and quietly slipped back into the main room.

Swinburne moved a few steps away from his usual spot at the table, to a place directly before the webcam. Ben knew he was looking for a vantage point that would allow him to look directly both into the faces of those present and into the camera for the benefit of those cabinet members watching from the undisclosed secure location.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a sad occasion,” Swinburne began. “We are gathered here to decide whether to retain the elected president of the United States or to remove him, as provided for by the Twenty-fifth Amendment. This is not pleasant for anyone, least of all me. I have worked with and admired Roland Kyler for years. This is perhaps the hardest and most unpleasant task that has ever fallen upon me to perform. But pursuant to the Constitution, this duty falls to the vice president, so I will not shirk from it, even though it gives me no pleasure.”

Ben thought about objecting on grounds of profound insincerity, but decided against it.

“I don’t know what more there is for me to say. This is a case where a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think the spectacle that you have just witnessed will likely linger longer in your memory than anything I have to say. So I will just briefly outline the main points for you to consider, and then I will sit down.”

He continued. “First and foremost, the president’s mental state is clearly unbalanced. I’m not a psychiatrist and I don’t know the proper technical term, but I think we can all agree that what we have just seen is not something anyone should ever see from the president. And the testimony demonstrates that these irrational episodes, to varying lengths and degrees, have occurred many times in the past and with increasing frequency. This is not something we can turn a blind eye toward, not in such troubled times, and especially not in the midst of an enemy attack that puts this nation at dire risk. When it became clear that the emperor Caligula was hopelessly insane, the Praetorian Guard removed and replaced him. I’m sure it gave them no great pleasure, but they did it. We can do no less for our own people.”

Although he had gotten better at reading faces over the years, Ben had no idea what was going on in the minds of those who would cast the deciding votes. They still seemed a little stunned by all they had seen and heard. He knew they were listening, but he had no idea what they were thinking.

“Second, the fact that the president has personal ties to the nation of Kuraq, and a son now behind enemy lines, obviously compromises his ability to render an objective judgment as to what course is best for this nation-which again makes him incapable of performing his duties. You may feel that this is or is not his fault, but he has admitted that so long as his son is in danger, he will only entertain one possible course of action. A president who cannot or will not consider an action that may be in the national interest should not be running the country.

“Third,” he continued, “Secretary Ruiz testified about the president’s extreme single-mindedness-you might say obsession-with regard to Colonel Zuko and Kuraq. Now that we know the truth about the torrid affair in his past, and the love child it produced, that is perhaps more understandable. But it is still true nonetheless. The president is obsessed with taking down the colonel, just as he is obsessed with rescuing his son. Both of these two factors leave him incapable of performing his duties competently.”

Ben got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Some of the cabinet members were nodding in agreement.

“Finally, ladies and gentlemen, we must consider the president’s physical ailments. Diabetes is a serious disease. It is unfortunate that President Kyler was struck with this so soon after taking office-but he was. My son-in-law has diabetes, which is why I know so much about it. It’s debilitating, and it may well be the cause of his current mental infirmities. The president should have resigned as soon as the diagnosis was made.”

Swinburne clasped his hands before him. “We are very fortunate, my friends, that the Constitution has given us a means of ensuring a ready succession from one leader to the next. Every four years, the people vote, and if there is a change in the executive office, the transition is made smoothly and without the threat of upset or revolution. Similarly, the Twenty-fifth Amendment provides for a smooth succession in the event that the president becomes incapacitated-which is exactly the situation we have here. Thank God we can make the necessary change without the sort of upheaval that puts men such as Colonel Zuko into power.”

He leaned forward, balancing himself against the table. “My point is simply this: I know no one wants to do this. But we must. And the Constitution has made it possible for us to do it with as little angst as possible. The Constitution has only been amended a handful of times. The fact that it was amended not long ago to ensure an orderly means of removing a disabled president shows just how serious this matter is. We cannot take risks with the leadership of the nation when a foreign dictator is threatening to kill hundreds of thousands of people. We can’t ever afford to take that risk, because we know America ’s enemies are always looking for an opening. We will not give it to them. Not now. Not ever. So as distasteful as it may be, I ask you to do the necessary thing. Find the president incapable of performing his duties. Let me take the reins. You may or may not agree with what I do, but you’ll know that someone dependable, someone unbiased, and someone sane is making the decisions. And that’s what is most important here.”