chapter 61
CAPITOL HILL
LONSDALE did the walk of shame back to her office from the committee room. Only those who really knew her could have guessed that she was on the verge of cracking. She was a professional politician, after all - a woman who could look happy after three straight months on the campaign trail. What was a little two-minute walk from the Judiciary Committee room to her office? She'd almost snapped three times, though, twice at a couple of her incompetent staffers who couldn't read her emotions for shit, and once at a fellow senator who had rushed up to her to find out what happened behind the closed-door session. Each time Lonsdale looked like a petite version of the Heisman Trophy with her hand extended palm-out to keep would-be tacklers at bay.
When she finally made it to her office suite, she slid through her private door and walked right past a half dozen senior staffers who knew her well enough to keep their mouths shut. She breezed through the small reception area with a plastic smile on her face and entered her office. A split second later the heavy wooden door slammed shut.
All eyes turned to Wassen. He looked with a heavy dose of trepidation at the door his boss had just gone through and knew she was waiting for him and only him. If anyone else dared go through that door, they would get their head bitten off. Ralph Wassen motioned for everyone to get back to work, and then he very carefully opened the door and slid in, closing it behind him. Lonsdale was on the long couch - her shoes off, her feet up, and a cigarette in her hand. Wassen noticed that she hadn't bothered to turn on the smoke eater, which he took as another bad sign.
He crossed the room, turned on the machine, and then went and joined his boss in the seating area. He took one of the ultramodern armchairs with the big chrome base and said, "What in the hell happened?"
Lonsdale didn't bother to look at him. With her head tilted back, she looked up through a cloud of smoke and said, "Probably the worst day of my life."
Wassen thought of her dead husband. "Worse than the day John died?"
"No," she answered frankly. "No... not worse than that. It was the most embarrassing failure of my political career," she corrected herself.
"What in the hell happened?" he asked again.
"They all turned on me. They pissed right down their pants legs."
"Why? What did Rapp say?"
Lonsdale rocked her head forward and looked at Wassen for the first time. "He did basically what you told me he would do. Not exactly the same, but the same general theme. He scared the piss out of all of them. Made them think we're in danger of being attacked, and if they don't let him loose so he can break as many laws as he wants, he's going to blame us when we get hit."
Wassen swallowed. "So where does it go from here? We've been flooded with calls. Are you going to open it up to the press at two?"
Lonsdale took a long drag and then, after she'd exhaled, began laughing hysterically.
"What's so funny?"
"There isn't going to be any hearing this afternoon. At least not in front of my committee."
Wassen was stunned. "How is that possible?"
"That little shit," she said, "put the fear of God into all those little pussies I serve with. He wanted to have a public hearing this afternoon. He was willing to admit to hitting and choking and electrocuting that damn terrorist in front of a roomful of cameras, and he was going to say he did it all to protect us against an imminent attack by some phantom terrorist cell. And then he gave them a second option, which was to refer the entire matter back to the Intelligence Committee, where things could be handled in a more secret manner."
"And?"
"My own damn party ran out on me. There was a heated thirty-minute debate on the matter, a vote to refer it back to the Intelligence Committee, and it was over."
"How did the vote break?"
She waved her hand dismissively. "It wasn't even close. It was seven to one before it even got to me, and that was on my side of the aisle."
Wassen winced and asked, "Anything else?"
She had her head all the way back again. She groaned and said, "Ted Darby whispered in my ear, at one point, that if I didn't calm down and begin acting reasonably, he would make sure my chairmanship was taken away from me."
"Oh my God," Wassen mumbled. Ted Darby was perhaps the most powerful man in the entire Senate and not someone who was prone to making empty threats. "So where do you go from here?"
"I don't know. I suppose I can go after him when he comes before the Intel Committee, but I don't think I'm going to get much support."
Wassen looked at his watch. It was a few minutes past noon. She was already late for her lunch appointment. "I hate to do this to you, but you have a lunch date with Joe Barreiro."
Lonsdale grabbed her forehead with her free hand and said, "I can't do it. No way. I don't think I could hold it together. I'll end up saying something that could land me in hot water with the Ethics Committee. Hell... probably even the Justice Department." She paused for a moment and then started laughing. "Wouldn't that be something? After all this, I'm the one who ends up getting indicted."
"You're not going to get indicted. Do you want me to go in your place?"
"No." She waved her hand. "Just cancel it."
"Bad idea."
"Why?"
"Barreiro doesn't like getting stood up. He's likely to write something really nasty about you, and from what it sounds like, the last thing you need right now is some bad press."
"You're right."
"What should I tell him?"
"Tell him my party has abandoned me. That they no longer care about government employees following the law."
"How about I tell him that Rapp brought some disturbing information before your committee, and you have decided that, for the sake of national security, you would refer the entire matter to the Intelligence Committee, where it can be handled with sensitivity."
"Take credit for it?" she asked in near total exasperation.
"That's the general idea."
"No way in hell. This thing will turn someday, and I'll be standing there looking at all these gutless bastards... and we'll all know whose fault this was."
"Fine." Wassen stood. "Would you like me to tell him the vote was eighteen to two? Let me guess: the only other person to join you was our stalwart communist, Chuck Levine?"
"Do you really think I need this right now?"
"What you don't need is more bad press than you're already going to get."
"Fine... I don't care," she said without looking at him.
Wassen looked down at her and hesitated to bring to her attention that he had warned her about this. He wanted to say to her, And what happens if Rapp is right? How will you handle it when all of your colleagues look at you with derision? But he couldn't. Not now, while she was so thoroughly beaten. It would be cruel. He would wait for a few days to pass and then try to talk some sense into her. And in the meantime, he would give Barreiro a version of the events that would make his boss look more moderate.