remarks we had one of our top speechwriters prepare for you.”
“What? I don’t need a speech.”
“Fear not-no one expects you to deliver it verbatim. Just look it over. After your statement, there will be questioning. You might see something in there you can use.”
“Like what?”
She shrugged. “Who knows? A persuasive argument. A clever turn of phrase. A witty bon mot. You can never tell what you might need when the time comes. Best to be armed with everything that’s available.”
Ben tried to hand the bundle back to her. “I don’t need anyone to tell me what to say.”
“I’d give it a good look-see if I were you.” Director Lehman leaned forward, catching Ben’s eye. He was so tall, he towered over Ben. “Goodness knows I read mine. Several times. I was happy to get the help. Words don’t come naturally to me like they do to you.”
Hmm. Ben reconsidered. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to look the script over just once…
A few moments later, the committee hearing was called to order. The audience, mostly senators, staff, friends of senators, and a few carefully chosen members of the press, rose as the committee members filed into the room.
They took their seats, and the designated chairman for this hearing, Senator Byron Perkins, a Democrat from Arkansas, called the hearing to order. “A proposed witness list has been submitted and agreed upon by representatives of both parties. Do I hear a motion?”
Senator Bening, a Republican from Colorado, jumped in. “I move that the witness list be accepted as drafted, with the possibility of additional witnesses being added if the committee deems it desirable.”
“We have a motion on the table,” Perkins said. “Do I hear a second?”
He did. The motion passed unanimously. And the first witness was called: the newly confirmed Director of Homeland Security, Carl Lehman.
Sobel had suggested that Ben was the emotional choice for the witness stand, but as Lehman strode toward the table at the front of the room, the camera following his every step, Ben realized that it would be impossible for anyone watching him to forget why the country had a new director of Homeland Security-because the previous one had been tortured and killed, probably by the same forces that masterminded the April 19 attack on the president.
Lehman began with his opening remarks. “I may be new to Homeland Security,” he explained, “but I’ve been a member of the law enforcement community almost all my life, first at the state and now at the federal level. I’ve worked with good men and women, hardworking dedicated souls. And we’ve done good work. Put away a lot of bad guys and, I like to think, made this country a little bit safer. But it’s no surprise to anyone that we have constantly been hamstrung by lawyers trying to get clients off on technicalities. People using the Bill of Rights as a Get Out of Jail Free card for some of the most vile criminals who ever walked the face of the earth. The crime, the people, even the welfare of the nation, seem not to matter sometimes. If there is some way to get the accused off, no matter how certain his guilt, these lawyers will use it.”
He turned, adjusting his gaze slightly. Although it made little difference to those on the dais, Ben realized this would have the effect of allowing him to look directly into the camera. He’d be making eye contact with the television audience.
“We now enter what I believe is the most dangerous time in the history of this great nation. Our enemies have a greater capacity for destruction than they did at any previous time. We cannot be lazy, we cannot be indecisive, and we cannot allow hypothetical principles to compromise our safety. That was the route Rome took, and you know the result. After hundreds of years of dominating the world, they fell to the barbarians, a people less civilized, less technologically advanced-but far more brutal. I don’t want to see that happen to America.”
Ben knew the fall of the Roman Empire was much too complex to pin on a single cause, but he had to admit this was an effective piece of rhetoric, one likely to score well with the home viewer.
“Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. That’s all this amendment is about. In times of great need, we will give the law enforcement community the powers they need to maintain domestic tranquillity-just like the Constitution says. In a perfect world, the privileges found in the Bill of Rights would be absolutes and there would be no need for this bill-but we do not live in a perfect world. When the choice is between an abstract principle and the survival of this nation”-he paused, letting the words have their intended effect-“I choose survival. I hope the members of this committee feel the same. I strongly urge you to recommend that this amendment go to the floor for a vote by the full Senate, and I hope you will do so as soon as possible. No one can know how much time we have. Or how little.”
A few senators asked Lehman questions, but they led only to reiterations of the position he had taken in his opening statement. His feelings were clear. There was no point in browbeating a sincere and intelligent witness. Ten minutes later he stepped down. The somber mood he had created permeated the room. The gallery was silent as he took his seat next to Ben.
Ben knew the lackluster questioning did not in any way mean that the committee was convinced-he was certain some of the Democrats still intended to oppose. That was what he was here for.
Was he sure he was doing the right thing? he asked himself for the millionth time. He had thought so when he agreed to do this. He still thought so. And yet, when he heard the director talk about the Bill of Rights as an implicit security threat, a cold shiver ran up his spine. He was talking about fundamental American civil liberties. The philosophical cornerstone of the nation. The American invention that, slowly but surely, was in fact spreading across the world. Could he really be sure-?
One thing he could be sure about. He knew what Christina thought.
In the past, he had always relied on her instincts. Now, in the early days of their long-delayed marriage, he was directly opposing them. It didn’t feel good.
And then he thought of Mike, lying in that hospital bed, barely breathing. He thought of the sorrow in his sister’s voice as he spoke to her for the first time in years. He thought of the terror in the eyes of the people in Oklahoma City when the attack began. The mother holding her dead child. The bullet-ridden corpse of the first lady…
What would Mike want?
Did he really need to ask? Mike was law enforcement, a dedicated cop who spent half their time together griping about defense attorneys and the laws that made it so difficult to catch and convict criminals. He knew what Mike would want.
“Thank you, Director Lehman,” Chairman Perkins said. “I think you’ve given us all something to think about.” He glanced down at the itinerary on his desk. “And for our next witness…the chair calls Senator Benjamin Kincaid.”
Tracy Sobel gently touched Ben’s shoulder. “Are you ready?”
Ben drew in his breath, then slowly released it. “I’m ready.”
23
“I -I can’t breathe,” she gasped, barely able to speak. “You’re killing me!”
The man did not respond. His lips pressed together as he tightened his grip around her throat.
“You’re-choking-” The color drained from her face. She tried to struggle, but it was useless. Her arms were fastened behind her, and he was directly on top of her. “Please-please-”
The man pressed his thumb against her trachea, cutting off the flow of air to her lungs.
She opened her mouth as if to speak, but the blockage of her air passage made it impossible. All that came out was a creaking noise, a whisper of what she was trying to say: “…strangling…me…”
He bore down on her with even greater force, watching as her eyes rolled back into her head. All the color drained from her face and she looked almost vampirish, like a body that might be found in the coroner’s office under
