Selikoff straightened, surveyed the room and began to speak but was quickly cut off.
‘Mr Selikoff, you have to be elected by the American people to make speeches from this platform,’ roared Lucas. ‘Leave the room and remove yourself and your agents from this building.’ He ordered the Capitol Police to escort the Homeland Security agents from the room. Uproar ensued, with members of Congress jumping to their feet, shouting and pointing. Selikoff gave a signal to his men, one of whom reached down to pick up Anastasia’s bag and remove the computer.
‘Put that down,’ said Lucas, now holding the microphone to his lips. ‘Return that to Mrs Hisami.’
They took no notice.
‘Thank you, Mr Chairman and Members of Congress,’ said Selikoff. ‘We will not trouble your proceedings further. We have got what we came for and we will doubtless speak with Mrs Hisami later.’
With that, the five men marched from the room with Denis’s computer, pursued by journalists and TV cameras. Near the door they passed a man wearing a suit that Samson immediately recognised. No one in Washington wore a suit like that. It was Peter Nyman, who turned with an expression of grim satisfaction, but he did not register Samson with his beard.
Samson’s eyes went to Mila Daus, who was leaning forward so that Mobius could speak to her ear. She appeared utterly composed, though was also plainly mystified by what she had just seen. And that interested Samson. He remembered Zillah Dee being categorical that Mila Daus and the government were not working in concert and that they were ignorant of each other’s agenda. She didn’t get up and leave because, like everyone else in the room, she wanted to know what would happen next.
Samson went to Anastasia and crouched down beside her so he couldn’t be seen from the back row by Daus. ‘What do we do now?’ she demanded. ‘They’ve got everything.’
‘You have your notes, and they can’t access the information on the computer.’
‘But the proof!’ she hissed. ‘We don’t have the complete dossier and we don’t have the proof.’
‘Daus is here with Mobius. She’s to your right, at the back. All Ulrike’s people are here, so we can still spoil her bloody day. Go to it. I’m here for you.’
Harry Lucas had brought the gavel down several times. Samson went to his seat. Lucas boomed, ‘This committee will come to order!’ The noise died down. ‘What we have just witnessed is a constitutional outrage, the like of which has never been seen in the history of the Republic. The Ranking Member Mr Speight and I will need to consult the Speaker about the violation of Congress and the challenge to America’s democracy. I propose we adjourn.’
He was about to take the views of both parties when Speight interrupted. ‘If I may, Chairman?’ Lucas nodded. ‘I think it would be advisable to find out why Homeland Security believed it was necessary to storm in here and seize Mrs Hisami’s property before our eyes, and to enquire about the laptop they removed and what is contained therein.’ The slow, modulated Southern voice stilled the room better than Lucas’s gavel and, since every member was asking themselves exactly those same questions, a quick consultation produced a vote to remain in session.
But Lucas insisted that he must confer with the Speaker, leading figures in both parties and the Capitol Police. In the meantime, Room 2172 was in lockdown. People could leave but they would not be allowed back. If they wanted to use the bathroom, that was too bad – they would have to forego attendance at the session. As the only witness, Anastasia was offered the members’ facilities.
She hoped to meet Speight on the way to the washroom but saw no one. Unsurprisingly, Shera Ricard the freshman Democrat Congresswoman representing California’s fourteenth district, who had taken money from both Denis and Mila Daus, had made herself scarce that day.
She had a pee, then sat on the lavatory with the lid down. The hand holding her phone shook. She’d expected Speight to touch on the massacre, for he had hinted as much on the phone, but she had no idea how painful it would be to admit to Denis’s most guarded secret so soon after his death, a secret that she was only just beginning to process. Though it was obvious from Denis’s precise account on the laptop that these were things that he had prepared himself to admit, it still felt rotten and disloyal. She had trashed her husband’s reputation for good, yet the revelations about Daus’s network that justified doing this were now lost. Without the computer and painstaking detail of Denis’s files, no one would believe it. Her testimony was basically useless. But then it occurred to her that the reason she was in this state was Mila Daus. Denis’s death, her kidnap, even the loss of her baby, were all directly Daus’s doing. Samson was right – they could at the very least expose her.
She heard voices as two people entered the bathroom. She withdrew her legs so they couldn’t be seen and waited. There was a sound of a tap running, then she heard a woman say, ‘Senator Speight says to tell you that it’s all going to plan.’ There was a murmured response which she didn’t catch. Then she heard the door open and close. The sound of the hand dryer followed. She waited. As soon as she heard the door a second time, she rushed from the stall to look down the corridor. A woman in a floral dress with pale blue cardigan, who had been standing behind Speight for most of the hearing, was walking back to Room 2172. Who had she been talking to? What did it mean when she said it was all going to plan? She went back and rinsed her hands in warm water, noticing an odd mixture of perfume and staleness in the bathroom and returned to the committee room.
Lucas was in position and consulting with the
