a difference to our country, and you can only do that from the top.’
‘And that’s what this Operation Olympus is all about? Making a difference?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, big time.’
‘Do you think that it will happen without Paul Dias?’ Mary asked.
‘It has to, although it will be a lot, lot harder. Paul is a good man; relatively young, intelligent, tough and with the kind of moral backbone that has been sadly lacking in modern leaders of this great country of ours. He’ll make a fine president one day...if he pulls through.’
‘Yeah, and Ann will make a fantastic first lady, too. Talking of which, have you set eyes on the present incumbent recently?’ Mary asked with a wicked twinkle in her eye.
Adam Themison knew his wife well. Although there was not a malicious bone in her body, she could not hide her distaste for the president’s wife, at least when they were alone. It was even a greater effort when they were in public.
‘She is occasionally dried out and wheeled out, when it can’t be avoided,’ he said. ‘Fortunately, Posey has a very attractive VP to stand in for his wife, when needed. And that, incidentally, has happened all too frequently recently. Tongues are beginning to wag.’
‘Oh, Posey’s safe enough. Peta Hopeit is after his job, not his wife’s,’ Mary said.
‘Not even as a stepping stone?’ he suggested.
‘You really are a naive old sweetie,’ she said, laughing.
‘You will have to explain that.’
‘Oh God! Peta plays for the other side…’
‘You mean…you mean she is a lesbian?’ he asked incredulously.
‘Oh, well done, Einstein. That’s exactly what I mean.’
‘But she has got a twenty-odd-year-old son…’
‘Yeah, and what a problem he has turned out to be. Lack of a father’s influence, some like to think,’ she said.
‘I thought the boy was at Harvard?’
‘Allegedly – on and off. And no one knows who his father is. That must leave a scar?’
‘How do you know all this? You always avoid Peta Hopeit. Why do you do that, by the way?’
‘Oh, come on, sweetheart! Peta is absolutely gorgeous. I fade into the wallpaper next to her. A gal has her pride, you know.’
‘My darling, you glow from the inside far more than the Peta Hopeits of this world could ever do. But how do you know all this anyway? Or are you just surmising?’ he asked.
‘Oh, no, it’s all from my very informed sources,’ she replied firmly.
‘Am I allowed to know the identity of your informed sources?’
‘Sure, they are the ladies of the CWGC…’
‘Oh, how I hate acronyms, and I can’t remember that one. What does it stand for?’
‘The Cabinet Wives’ Good-works Committee, more accurately known as the Cabinet Wives’ Gossip Club. It’s really a lunch club, but you wouldn’t believe what we learn…’
‘This is beginning to sound dangerous. How do you know you are not being recorded?’
‘Because Ari Kratos always has the restaurant swept for electronic bugs, or whatever, before we get there, and we always have a private room. Didn’t he tell you? Apparently, it’s a long-standing tradition since well before you became AG,’ Mary said.
‘There are a few women in Cabinet, are their husbands invited to your lunches?’
‘You must be joking. We are not that liberated. Anyway, they would stifle our non-business conversations, which is most of them.’
‘When did you last meet?’
‘Yesterday, and it was a particularly interesting lunch, as it happens, mainly because of the Paul Dias situation. I was sitting next to whispering June Nyckson…’
‘Whispering?’
‘Yeah, June is rather shy and never talks to the table, like most of us. If she has anything to say, she holds a napkin to her mouth and whispers to the person sitting next to her.’
‘I see,’ Adam said, slightly amused by the goings on at the wives' club. ‘And what did she whisper to you yesterday?’
‘She asked me if I had heard about Operation Olympus and wondered if it was connected to Paul Dias’s accident.’
‘She did what!’ Adam yelled, jumping up and spilling the coffee he was holding.
‘It’s all right, darling. I said I knew nothing about it, which I don’t really.’
‘No, neither should she. Did anyone else hear her?’
‘I don’t think so. Why are you so upset about it?’
‘Because we think that it wasn’t an accident that nearly killed Paul. Someone must have leaked the purpose of the Cabinet meeting and wanted to prevent him from making his presentation.’
‘Wow! It must be important,’
‘It certainly is. In fact, it's so important that only a few of us know about it.’
‘And those few obviously include Secretary of State Chuck Nyckson…’
‘No! That is very much the point; they don’t…’
‘Then how did whispering June know?’
‘Exactly! Did you see her talking to anyone else? Do you kind-a-mingle before taking your seats at the table?’ he asked.
‘Oh, yeah, we have a cocktail – or two in her case. Now let me see…Yep, now you mention it, I saw her talking to the Ploutonos woman…’
‘Would I be right is assuming that you don’t get on with Ina Ploutonos?’ he asked.
‘Damned right. It’s incredible that she can walk at all with the weight of all the jewels she always wears. I mean, to flaunt wealth like that…’
‘Thank you, that is most helpful,’ Adam said.
‘Is it?’
‘Oh, yes – I assume Ann Dias wasn’t there?’
‘No, she spends all day at the hospital, poor woman…’ she began but stopped when she heard a car crunching up the drive.
‘Ah! That reminds me. Ann did say that she couldn’t understand why Paul chose to walk from his office to the White House. He hadn’t told her that he was going to do that. And the driver who picked him up from their house was his usual driver. She knew that because Paul had left the laser pointer he was going to use in his presentation, and she raced after him and remembers speaking to Albert, Paul’s regular driver.’
**
In 1880, the English Queen Victoria had two desks made of oak timber from the British Arctic exploration ship HMSResolute that had been stuck in arctic ice until it was eventually recovered by American seamen. The Queen kept one desk for herself and gave the other to President Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th President of the United States of America.
President Posey placed his elbows on the famous Resolute desk in the Oval Office, clutched his hands together and rested his chin on his fists, while he contemplated the two people standing in front of him.
‘I’m afraid it hasn’t helped us at all, Mr. President,’ Ari Kratos, the Director of the FBI, drawled in his Midwestern accent. ‘When we got the white van out of the river, the Tesla was inside it all right, but it was empty…’
‘Empty? What had you expected?’ Posey asked.
‘Perhaps