Page 1

1
Brentwood, New Hampshire
Cole Wright is sitting in the rear seat of a black up-armored Chevy Suburban, one of three in a convoy speeding its way down Route 125 in the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire.
Two dark green state police cruisers, lights flashing, are leading this no-frills motorcade, scaled down for the occasion. The presidential limousine—the Beast—is back at the airport, along with the Secret Service counterassault team, support personnel, news media vans, and a fully equipped ambulance.
Three years after the election, Cole still gets pumped from seeing traffic part like magic, even though he’s well aware that it’s for the convenience and safety of the woman sitting beside him—his wife, Madeline Parson Wright, the president of the United States.
He’s just the First Gentleman.
A light drizzle spatters against the bulletproof windows. The agent accelerates to seventy along the two-lane highway.
“Two minutes out,” says Burton Pearce, the president’s chiefof staff. Pearce perches in a rear-facing jump seat across from the First Couple. He’s pale and serious, wearing one of his many identical gray suits. “The Gray Ghost,” staffers call him. The president nods without looking up.
Cole glances over to see theCONFIDENTIALstamps on the pages Maddy is reading as the convoy hums along. He knows those pages represent the biggest political gamble of her administration—ofanyadministration. She should be in the Oval Office working the phones and twisting arms, but instead she’s here with him. A powerful personal show of support.
Maddy puts her briefing packet aside. Cole takes her hand and squeezes it.
She squeezes back. “Don’t worry,” she says. “After all we’ve been through together, we can get through this too.”
The Suburban slows down to make a hard turn behind the police escort. Now the convoy is moving at just forty miles per hour. On both sides of the route, locals hold up crude hand-painted placards.
WE BELIEVE IN YOU, COLE!
STAY STRONG, COLE!
KEEP MOVING, COLE!
He looks out through the tinted side window. Almost game time. He can feel his muscles twitching, his focus narrowing, just like in his days as a tight end for New England—before the blown knee forced him out. He remembers how the tension in the Patriots locker room would build and build almost to the breaking point until the team ran out into the light, and when the cheers of the crowd washed over him, he’d think,Yeah, we’re okay. We’ve got this.
But today?
Today he’s not so sure.
The redbrick facade of the Rockingham County courthouse comes into view. The road is lined with police barricades holdingback hundreds—maybethousands—of onlookers. Up here, some of the signs have a different tone.
SCUM!
MONSTER!
JUSTICE FOR SUZANNE!
“Don’t worry about these people,” says Maddy. “They don’t know what they’re talking about.”
“I don’t care about the people on the road,” says Cole. “I’m worried about the twelve people waiting for me inside.”
As the Suburban slows to a crawl, two women jump out in front and unspool a long banner.
CONVICT COLE WRIGHT! SEND HIM STRAIGHT TO HELL!
Thanks for the kind wishes,Cole thinks.
2
Athousand demonstrators, media people, and curious locals are crowded into the rain-slick parking lot. The convoy is passing through the tall evergreens flanking the pavement leading up to the courthouse when I realize I left my umbrella in my car. Too late.
Rockingham County has never drawn security like this. Uniforms representing every law enforcement department in New Hampshire—from local cops to Fish and Game—are patrolling the courthouse steps. On the roof there’s a detail of men and women in tactical gear and black baseball caps carrying sniper rifles. They’re not even trying to hide. That’s the job of their colleagues, posted in places nobody can see.