Page 76

ctive."
The sea bass was now in her mouth so Stealey just shook her head forcefully.
Holmes took a swig of wine. "Unless you're a lesbian, Peggy, I think I'm in a better position to judge this one. She's a good-looking woman trust me."
Even though she wanted to argue with him, she knew it was unwise to let her hatred of her boss's wife be known. "Just a difference of opinion that's all." She took a sip of water and then stabbed a green bean with her fork. "So we have a deal."
Holmes looked at Jones and wondered if they'd bothered to include the president in any of these discussions. "Robert's on board with this?"
"Absolutely. You know he hates the little weasel."
"All right, I know they're a bad fit, but I want to hear it from him personally."
"Why?" Jones took a sip of wine. "You don't trust me?"
"I trust you I just want to make sure he's thought this all the way through. It isn't every day the president bounces his vice president off the ticket."
"It's been done before," Jones replied airily, trying to stress that it was no big deal.
Holmes knew it had, but it had to be done right. "I said I think it's a good idea. It just needs to be handled right. The last thing we need is Baxter airing our dirty laundry during the middle of a campaign because he feels we gave him the shaft."
"We are giving him the shaft," said Stealey. "And I don't see how he'll view it any other way."
"The party is bigger than any one person," said Jones. "He'll understand that, and if he doesn't, we'll just have to make it clear that if he decides to go crying to the press we'll bury him."
"You're absolutely right," said Holmes. "We play to his party loyalty, and if he doesn't get on board we'll let it be known that things could get really tough. It's absolutely crucial, though, that we get him to go quietly."
Holmes reminded Jones of something and she pointed her fork at him. "Do you know who else needs to go?"
"Who."
"Mitch Rapp. That's who."
Holmes almost choked on the piece of New York strip that he was trying to chew. When he'd chased it with gulp of red wine he said, "What are you talking about?"
"You know who Mitch Rapp is don't you?"
"Of course I do. He's a walking legend, and he's married to that beautiful NBC reporter Anna Rielly."
"Have you ever met him?"
"No, but what's your point? Why in the world would the president want to get rid of him?"
"The man is a ticking bomb," answered Jones. "Sooner or later he's going to embarrass this administration, and I don't mean some little scandal I'm talking full-blown Congressional investigation people being fired and people ending up in jail."
She had gotten the chairman of the DNC's attention. Holmes set his fork down and wiped his mouth with his white linen napkin. "You're going to have to give me specifics, Val."
"I could go on for hours, but for starters, you're not going to believe what happened at the White House this morning. We're sitting in a National Security Council meeting and out of nowhere he starts attacking Peggy."
"About what?"
"He demands that we start torturing the American citizens that we arrested yesterday in connection with the terrorist plot."
Holmes was immediately suspicious of how Jones was relaying the facts. "Val, Mitch Rapp is a pretty serious guy. I doubt that he just out and out demanded that we torture American citizens."
"He pretty much did," Stealey weighed in.
"That's not even the half of it." Jones looked at Stealey. "Peggy, I was waiting to tell you this. Remember when the president, Kennedy, Rapp, and I left the meeting?"