Instead of opening up her bronchioles, the repeated dosing now seemed to send them into spasm, smothering her. Another dose and she knew her nervous system was going to explode into a full-blown, grand mal seizure. She managed one final glare at her nemesis, hoping that image of his face might stay with her into the hereafter. Then she closed her eyes tightly and waited to die.

CHAPTER 52

Any word about her?" Gabe asked.

Stoddard shook his head.

"Mark Fuller from Internal Affairs says it's too soon to be worried."

"That's nuts. Something's happened to her."

"He says tomorrow morning he'll start putting people on it."

"I don't want to wait any longer than that."

"First thing tomorrow. I'll check on it myself."

"Good enough. I hear you carry some weight around here."

"I'm counting on you to keep it that way. Now, what are we up against?"

It took most of two hours for Gabe and Stoddard to work out the details of the plan that would, in just over twenty-four hours, separate the President of the United States from a grave threat to his health and possibly to his life. In the process, he would also be separated from his wife and from the presidency itself. Vice President Tom Cooper, a major suspect in Gabe's eyes, would assume the duties of the office, though hopefully not for long.

Once Stoddard was ensconced in a place of absolute security and safety, Gabe would speak with the First Lady and tell her where her husband was. Gabe would also enlist her help in quickly mobilizing the force that would raid the nanotechnology laboratory adjacent to Lily Pad Stables-the lab indirectly responsible for the death of her physician and the transient episodes of insanity that had been threatening to destroy her husband.

With luck, the scientists in the lab, once they were isolated and interrogated by professionals, would cooperate. With luck, investigators would quickly determine who had hired them and who was paying them. With luck, whoever was poisoning Stoddard and controlling the transmitter would be arrested. And finally, with luck, those ultimately responsible would be brought down.

"Two days," Gabe said. "Hopefully less. With the whole world looking for you, we need you out of sight for two days. Can The Aerie accomplish that?"

"You may have read or heard about my grandfather, Bedard Joe Stoddard. He made a fortune in mining, patents of all kinds, and manufacturing by being uncompromising in his business practices and in his opposition to the unions. Some would and did say ruthless opposition. Like many geniuses, B.J. was more than a little eccentric. And also like many geniuses, there were detractors who felt he often crossed over that invisible line between eccentricity and madness."

"Most of my family simply skipped the eccentric step," Gabe said.

"Well, at some point B.J. decided he needed a refuge that was both isolated and secure. That's why he built The Aerie-modeled stone-by-stone after a medieval castle in northern England he once visited and photographed. He brought in trainloads of foreign laborers-mostly the Chinese who had worked on the railroads. He designed the maze of dirt roads leading into the forest himself. Most of them simply stopped, or became endless loops. The roads that eventually would make it up to The Aerie were and are a closely guarded secret."

"But they're marked on the map you gave me."

"I don't think there are more than a half a dozen copies of that map in existence, so take good care of it."

"If the press finds out that's where you were hiding, there'll be more gawkers making their way up there than to the Grand Canyon."

"Hopefully, they'll all get lost in the forest. The whole project took eight years to complete," Stoddard went on. "Decades later, my father spent many more years upgrading the place, adding to B.J.'s bizarre collection of medieval weapons and instruments of torture, and increasing security there. He once told me that in the event of a nuclear attack, I was to eschew the bunker here at the White House and get the heck up to The Aerie, which he called the safest place in the world."

"Sounds like just what the doctor ordered," Gabe said, realizing only after he had invoked the platitude that it was actually funny. "How often does your father use the place?"

"Essentially never. He's much more into entertaining and wheeler-dealing on his yacht. It's been a long time since I was last there, but even then the place had fallen into pretty sad disrepair."

"Sounds perfect for us," Gabe said.

"It is perfect-especially if you get off on cobwebs plus the arcane and macabre. Wait until you get a load of it."

"I'm aimin' to do just that before it gets dark tonight. Now, I need two things from you."

"Name them."

"I want your promise to hole up here with Carol. For the time being, please, please tell her as little as possible. She may not believe that this business is as serious as it is, but she never got to watch Jim Ferendelli die like I did. Also, Lily Sexton was her friend. It may take some doing for her to believe Lily's involvement in all this. I don't know the range of those transmitters, but I don't want to take any chances on losing my only patient. I don't know what killed Lily, either, but if someone wants you dead, being a patient in a hospital is only slightly safer than sleeping on a firing range."

"You think she was a loose end?"

"As soon as Ferendelli made contact with me and I got away, I think the rules might have changed from 'make Drew look crazy' to 'make Drew be dead.' That's why I'm so worried about you."

"I appreciate that."

"Okay then, back to Carol. Clear everyone out of this apartment. No help, no valets, no Secret Service agents. Have her intercept anyone who makes it past the agents downstairs and watch them as they go back down in the elevator. Any argument from anyone, even someone like Magnus, and she needs to call the Palace Guards immediately."

"You have my word. What's the second thing?"

"Money. Cash. I'll need lots of it, and maybe a few wallets to stick it in. Can you do that?"

"I have a reliable banker at First Washington Trust. I'll give you a check and make a phone call."

"Just don't tell him why."

"I don't think I'll have to. Walter really belongs in one of those banks in Switzerland or Grand Cayman. He loves the chance to be discreet almost as much as he loves having people know how discreet he is."

"Then you're going to arrange for our evening ride, yes?"

"As soon as you leave, I'll set things up. We've got some damn fine horses out at the stables near Camp David."

"I want it to get dark an hour or so after we disappear. At first we'll need to see what we're doing, but then I want to make it as difficult as possible for the people who are looking for you."

"Now, why would they want to be doing that?"

"Beats me. You're only the president. Drew, I know this has got to be hard for you. It's tough getting bossed around when you're used to being the capo del capo. But please believe me, we're doing the right thing-the only thing."

"Why can't we just-?"

"Just what? Arrest everyone? It was horrible watching Jim collapse and stop breathing the way he did. He could have had a hundred Secret Service men around him, a thousand, and the outcome would have been the same."

Stoddard drummed his fingertips together, and Gabe could tell that he was scanning every possibility for how he might deal with the threat to his health and life and still remain president.

"You have the map I drew marking where you should leave the ATV?" he asked finally.

"Right here."

"Remember, I haven't been there for years, so there's no vouching for accuracy."