Carolyn led Katherine through the White House and up to the private quarters. She glanced at her watch. It read 3:16 A.M. A shiver of apprehension ran down her spine, as they walked through the residence.

They moved to the Treaty Room, which Warner had made his home office. Dark greens, burgundies, and navy wove through the furniture and draperies. Normally, the rich upholstery provided a warm and comforting environment, but tonight Carolyn’s world seemed black and white.

“As a precaution, we’ll use Warner’s computer,” Carolyn said.

Katherine sat at his desk.

Carolyn locked the doors.

Painted deep red, the walls provided a masculine backdrop for the mahogany and cherry wood furnishings.

Katherine logged onto the Internet.

“You’re sure you can retrieve deleted messages from my E-mail?” Carolyn asked.

“Positive.”

“I have to warn you,” Carolyn paced in front of the desk. “I don’t know the contents of the E-mails you may find on my account. I just know that Warner, Richard, and Mark were undoubtedly using it. These messages may be gruesome.”

“I can handle it,” Katherine said, while typing on the keyboard. She worked diligently for twenty-five minutes, then sat back while staring at the monitor.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m just waiting for the machine to catch up. I’m almost in.” She smiled. “Bingo.”

Katherine hit the print icon. The machine whined to life.

Carolyn pulled the first sheets of paper off the printer. She read the text. “The bastards.”

Katherine moved to her side. “What is it?”

She handed her the E-mail documents, each issuing instructions regarding various deceased individuals, and even one ordering Jack’s beating. There were separate messages that appeared to arrange for payment. “They’re all signed with a ‘C’ as if I initiated these orders. Is there any way we can prove that I didn’t?”

Katherine hurried back to the computer and began to type again. “My specialty.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can track the originating computers as well as the message destinations. It all comes back to the IP addresses. Even the firewall programs can be circumvented. That’s why experienced hackers will try to bounce off other computers to hide their identity, but I spent years with the NSA tracking such culprits.”

“The German spy?” Carolyn asked.

“Exactly.” Katherine continued typing. “And our guys aren’t experienced hackers. Odds are they didn’t believe they could be tracked,” she said. “Cain might have known, but he doesn’t strike me as the type to be terribly protective of his clients.”

“Cain is only protective of his money. Richard and Warner would have considered themselves above suspicion.”

Half an hour later, Katherine printed a listing of her findings.

Carolyn’s smile grew as she read the document. It tied Cain, Warner, Richard, Mark, and Edmund together using her E-mail address by identifying the addresses of the computers where the damning messages had originated.

“Now, if Jack can use his files to correlate these messages with all the pertinent dates, we’re on our way to building a case.” Carolyn dialed out on her private cell phone. “Here are the numbers you need to match,” she said to him before listing the dates of the E-mails. Anyone eavesdropping on the call would have no idea the meaning of the numbers.

“Who do you believe actually did the killing?” Katherine asked, when Caroline hung up the phone.

“Winston Cain and his firm,” Carolyn said. “But I can’t prove that.”

“But someone had to pay him. And if those bank transfers were done electronically they may be on one of these computers.”

“You’re brilliant.” This was just like the old days, Carolyn thought when she and Katherine had worked together in the prosecutor’s office.

An hour later, Katherine stood up to stretch.

Carolyn looked up from the documents she’d been reading. Her heart stuttered. “Can’t get in?”

“Relax.” Katherine sat back down. “I’m in Richard’s computer now. It’s just that my eyes are sore from scanning all of his data. Most of it doesn’t apply. I wonder how much trouble I could set into by accessing the vice president’s personal computer.” She glanced at Carolyn, who wasn’t smiling.

“You don’t want to know. That’s why we’re on Warner’s computer, and I wanted you here with me when you did this. Anyone comes in, I’m the one online.”

“But-”

Carolyn held up her hand. “On this, I won’t negotiate.” She looked at her watch. “Besides we’re running out of time. It’s after five.”

A few moments later, Carolyn heard the printer turn on. She glanced up from her work and found Katherine grinning from ear to ear.

Carolyn jumped up from her chair. “What is it?”

“Seems Richard has a penchant for bank accounts in the Caymans. But that’s not the worst part. It appears he invoiced your War On Drugs task force in the name of Winston Cain’s firm for two million dollars. He deleted the document, but I found it anyway. I also reconciled it to the task force’s ledger. It was processed. Since Warner rubber-stamped the budget for over five hundred million, it seems he had no problem getting paid. Guess where I found the funds?”

“The Cayman account?”

“You bet. It was withdrawn the day after the chemical release. I had to hack into the bank’s computer system to verify it.”

Carolyn raised an eyebrow.

Katherine smiled. “Don’t worry. I jogged around a bit using some old tricks. They won’t track us. Unfortunately, there’s no way for me to know who actually withdrew the money.”

Carolyn stepped back and then folded into her chair. “This is incredible.”

“It’s not a smoking gun,” Katherine said. “But it should be enough to finish Young.”

“We’ll see,” Carolyn said. “It all rides on how we handle matters from here on out.” She picked up the phone and dialed.

“I’m sorry to wake you, Mr, Speaker,” she began.

Speaker of the House Jonathan Daniels stood before the joint session of Congress. His rotund presence commanded silence. “Before we take this historic vote, I have been asked to allow a very special speaker to take the floor. Due to the extraordinary circumstances we face today, I do not believe that any of you will object. Ladies and gentleman, without further ado please join me in welcoming First Lady Carolyn Alden Lane.”

A roar of applause thundered through the Capitol as the entire audience rose to their feet.

Carolyn entered the room from the back and moved down the main aisle to the podium. Members of Congress shook her hand and kissed her cheek, offering words of sympathy as she progressed.

It felt like an eternity ago when she’d spent her days speaking in courtrooms, arguing before judges and juries, condemning the guilty, enforcing the laws. And although she had immense experience, with a reputation to back it up, no closing argument could have prepared her for this moment. She found herself again charged with the job of condemning the guilty, arguing for justice – only this time the forum had changed, and the stakes affected her future and that of the country.

She stood before the lawmakers themselves, a group of men and women who were about to radically change the course of history, even though they didn’t know it. Yet.

Carolyn adjusted the microphone to her height and looked out at the packed house.

Richard Young sat alone in his office in the West Wing. Security demanded that leadership separate during joint sessions so as to preserve the chain of command in case of an attack. Even most of his staff was absent, as they worked furiously over at his Ceremonial Office in the Executive Office Building, preparing for his rise to the presidency.