Ordinarily, he enjoyed the average citizen’s belief that the president could do more or less anything he wanted, like somesort of wizard in a fantastic suit. The reality was significantly less impressive. But you couldn’t tell the Oracle that.
He looked at the screens mounted all around the room—twelve apocalypses, and the other options weren’t much prettier. He shiftedhis gaze across the faces of his advisers, all brilliant men and women, all with enormous power and experience, none of whichwas doing him a good goddamn. The only person offering him any sort of lifeline was, of course, the fucking Oracle.
“I can try to get word to his people,” Green said.
“Good,” the Oracle said. “Look, do this, play your role, and you can spin it so that it looks like you saved the world. Idon’t care—I really don’t. But do it right, and it should help you get that second term, cancer or no cancer.”
“Will it?” Green said.
“What?” came the Oracle’s voice, sounding genuinely puzzled.
“Will I win?” the president asked.
A lengthy pause from the other end of the line.
“You will,” came the answer. “If you help me. How long will it take you to make contact with Törökul?”
The president exhaled loudly.
“No time at all,” Green said. “We know exactly where he is. We’ve got a Special Forces team out in the mountains keeping himunder surveillance.”
“Wait, why?” the Oracle said. “If you know where he is, why don’t you just—”
“Because we can’t find the damn missile,” the president broke in. “The goddamn Sword. He’s got it hidden somewhere in themountains, and his people have orders to launch it if Törökul is killed or captured.”
Another pause from the Oracle’s end of the phone.
“All right—the Special Forces team can get to him?” the Oracle said. “It’s important that someone conveys to Törökul thatI just want to speak to him. He needs to know he’ll be released once we’re done.”
“Of course,” the president answered. “We don’t want any misunderstandings, believe me. I have Tony Leuchten on the groundthere. You remember him?”
“Rings a bell,” the Oracle said, his tone bone-dry.
“I bet. He’ll get it done. What will you say to Törökul?”
“Wait and see,” the Oracle answered.
“Listen, you arrogant little . . .” the president began.
He took a breath.
“Ah, fuck it. When will you be ready?”
“Not long.”
“All right, I’ll give the orders. I’ll call this number when it’s all set up. You know what you’re doing?” the president said.
“Absolutely,” the Oracle answered.
The phone went dead.
Chapter 43
The Coach took back her phone without a word, her expression impressed, and full of questions she had apparently decided notto ask. For the moment.
Will looked out the window. The helicopter had just completed a steep climb up a mountain range, and as they crested the peak,a city came into view. It sprawled next to a deep blue lake, with a cluster of skyscrapers near the center and endless suburbsscattered across a broad plateau.
Will was doing his best to ignore Grunfeld. The man had his pistol resting lightly on one leg, pointed roughly in Will’s direction.His finger wasn’t on the trigger, but Will had absolutely no illusions that he had any chance of getting his hands on thatgun.
“Is that it?” Will asked, nodding toward the window.
“That’s it. Denver,” the Coach answered. She made a show of pulling up her sleeve to look at her watch, a slim-banded, elegantthing. “This will all be very public. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I do,” Will said.
Across the cabin, Leigh was in the far seat against the window, surrounded by three of the Coach’s men. She had her arms crossed,staring straight ahead, boring a hole through the chest of the mercenary seated opposite. She looked tiny in comparison toher guards, but all attitude, all defiance.
Will’s confidence faltered a few degrees. If he was wrong . . . But no. It was too right.
And if it wasn’t, then he and Leigh would both be dead, and there was never anything he could have done about it. Not at anysingle point since the day he was born.
“All right, Denver. Time to get a bit more specific about your plan, Mr. Oracle,” the Coach said.
“Hold on,” Will said. “Just give me a minute.”
“Sure thing. How about this. You’ve got twenty minutes to show me something before I call this whole thing a bad investmentand shove you both out the door over the Rockies. Take your time.”
Will swallowed.
“Leigh,” he said. “I need your help.”
Leigh blinked. She turned. She’d been all but comatose for the ride thus far, but seemed to dial herself back to life at thesound of Will’s voice. She flashed him a quick, faint smile.
“Shoot,” she said.
“I need the biggest TV station in Denver,” Will said.
Leigh raised an eyebrow.
“Okay . . .” she said. “You want KUSA. They’re the NBC affiliate.”
“Do you know where they’re located in the city?”
“They have a headquarters building just outside downtown. It’s this weird round-looking thing.”
“Could you recognize it from the air?”
“I think so,” Leigh said. “It’s just up the road from the Denver Country Club. Find that and I’m sure I could spot it.”
“They’ll have some sort of satellite linkup, right? A way to get footage out beyond Denver?”
“Of course. Even the smallest local stations can do that. But why do you need a TV station, Will?”
Will gave Leigh a placating gesture and turned back to the Coach.
“Tell your pilot to look for the country club. A golf course. Leigh will direct him from there. And I need you to make a callfor me.”
The Coach tossed her phone to Grunfeld.
“Eighteen minutes,” she said. “Use them well.”
Will turned to Grunfeld.
“Dial information,” Will told the man. “Get . . . what was the station, Leigh?”
“KUSA,” she said.
“Right. Ask for their direct line, then call them and tell them that you’ve got the Oracle, he wants to make a statement,and he’ll be landing on their roof in ten minutes.”
The Coach reached out and put her hand on Grunfeld’s forearm, keeping him from lifting the phone.
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“Do it,” Will said.
The Coach leaned forward.
“Will, you’ve clearly decided
