'I… well-I-'
'Right. Nothing, as usual. So I came in and cleaned up yet another mess.'
'Why didn't she just have an abortion?'
'And end up like her?' said Jane, motioning to Tippi. 'And it's not quite as easy as you think, Danny. I contacted her. Told her that it would be okay. That I understood what had happened and didn't hold it against her.'
'How did it happen?'
'Apparently you picked her up, I believe in a bar. You must have been extremely charming to convince her to have sex that quickly. Or perhaps it speaks to the class of woman you were attracted to.'
He put a hand to his forehead. 'I don't remember any of it. I swear.'
'So you don't remember Sean King bringing you home?'
'King? Sean King? He knows?'
'He found you in the car with her. And he's never said a word about it to anyone.'
'So that's why you befriended him?'
'That was one reason, yes.'
He looked sharply at her. 'Were there other reasons?'
'Don't you even dare ask me that.'
'I'm sorry, Jane. I'm sorry.'
'Wright called me back about a month later. She'd missed her period. Then she'd found out for sure that she was pregnant. She was certain you were the father. She hadn't had sex with anyone else. In fact, you were her first, she said. I believed her. She didn't want any money or anything. She was just scared, didn't know what to do. Much like Tippi Quarry. Tuck and Pam were living in Italy at the time. She had gotten pregnant, but had miscarried. She didn't tell anyone other than me and Tuck. And the fact was that the baby was yours, even if you had it by a woman other than your wife. I couldn't just let it go to a stranger, because I knew Wright wasn't going to keep it. It was still your blood. I made an arrangement with Wright, and eight months later she traveled to Italy. I met her there. When the baby was delivered I took it to Pam and Tuck. When Pam came home later everyone just assumed the little girl was hers.'
'You kept all that from me?'
'Considering what you've tried to keep from me over the years, I'd say I have a lot of ground to make up.'
'But why all this for-'
'For a baby you got by screwing another woman? Like I said, she's your blood. She's your child, Dan. One of us had to take responsibility for it. And that one was me. It's always been me!'
'You never told them? Tuck and Pam? That Willa was mine?'
'How could I? Go up to him and say 'Oh, by the way, dear brother, this is Dan's bastard child. Would you like her?' And Diane Wright never met Pam or Tuck. She just assumed I'd lined up someone to take the baby. I never wanted her to know Willa's new identity for obvious reasons. But Sean King found out that Pam only gave birth to two children. That's why I had to keep the kidnapper's letters from everyone and try to cover things up.'
'I don't understand.'
'If they found out Willa was adopted, people might start digging, Dan. Like your political enemies. They could locate Diane Wright, maybe figure it out. Tie you to having sex with her and me arranging her baby, your baby, to go to my brother. There is no spin you can put on all that. Your career would've been over.'
'I see. I am very fond of Willa,' said the president. 'I always have been. Maybe I sensed a connection with her.'
'She's smart and good and sweet. And I would do anything to get her back safely.'
The president looked at Tippi. 'But we had nothing to do with her ending up like this.'
Jane wiped her eyes with a tissue. 'I did. She called me in a panic when she found out she was pregnant. She couldn't tell her parents, she said. They wouldn't understand. She also didn't want to carry it to term. I couldn't blame her since you forced yourself on her. Abortion was the only option. I couldn't have her go to a hospital or a real physician. Something might have come out. Her parents might have been contacted. It had to be done quickly and quietly. I knew of someone who could do it. I even drove her there and dropped her off. I paid for the procedure and gave her money for a cab home. The idiot obviously botched it. I… I never knew that this had happened, though. I never followed up. I guess I never wanted to follow up. I just wanted to forget all about it.'
'A tragedy all around,' the president said numbly, still looking down at Tippi.
'We should do this,' Jane said. 'And then get out of here. And get Willa back.'
'Honey, if Waters is right about what he told us in the chopper, then we won't be getting Willa back.'
'What do you mean?'
'He wants to kill us. This Quarry fellow. He may try to do so when we leave here.'
'How can he? We're surrounded by an army. We're always surrounded by an army.'
'I don't know, but if that was his intent all along? He'll certainly try.'
'So what are you saying?'
'That we need to focus on us surviving this. If there is an assassination attempt and it fails he'll know about it. He'll kill Willa, if she's not already dead. But then he'll also try to reveal what happened. We have to be prepared for that. We have to concoct an alternative. Whatever proofs he might think he has, I know my people can counter them. He's just one man. I have an army of spin masters.'
'He may be only one man, but look what he's done so far.'
'That doesn't matter. It only matters how it ends. Now let's do what Quarry asked us to do and get out of here.'
They stood in front of the bed and held hands.
Jane spoke first. 'I'm sorry, Tippi. I never intended for this to happen. I'm truly sorry.'
The president cleared his throat. 'I hope you will forgive me for what I did to you. I… it's not enough to say that I don't remember, or that I wasn't myself. It was my responsibility. And I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. I'm sorry too, Tippi. Deeply, deeply sorry.'
Jane lightly touched Tippi's hand. The president started to do the same thing, but then apparently thought better of it and withdrew his fingers.
They turned to the doorway.
The HRT squad was a few feet away, Foster, Waters, and the Secret Service team right behind them, all poised to act on a second's notice. In the bunker Carlos clearly saw the couple on the monitor.
He punched the single button on the remote. This caused two things to happen simultaneously.
The left side of the doorjamb was blown out as a nearly two-inch-thick metal door hidden in the cavity of the wall there sprang forth, powered by a hydraulic propulsion system concealed in the wall behind the lead sheathing. This action sealed the First Couple in the room.
Then, inside the room, there was a hissing sound. Around the perimeter of the interior were holes carefully precut into a metal lining underneath the subfloor. This was what the HRT drill had hit, not the cement, but a second subfloor hidden away in a cavity of the foundation. Inside this cavity were a series of connected metal cylinders containing nitrogen gas. They had been hooked to the splitter cable Quarry had run up through the PVC pipe in the foundation, and then triggered by the remote. The gas rose up through the holes in the metal and then passed through the narrow gaps in the floorboards. The tanks were under great pressure and deployed their contents with force. Soon the small space was filled with nitrogen gas.
Nitrogen occurs naturally, but it also depletes oxygen and in certain circumstances can be lethal. Humans exposed to unsafe levels of the gas don't feel any pain. They lapse into unconsciousness quickly and without really realizing what is happening. They are never aware that in a very few minutes they will suffocate as the oxygen is displaced. For this reason countries that were rethinking bringing back the death penalty were looking at deploying nitrogen in a gas chamber because it worked so quickly and painlessly.
They would do well to have studied Sam Quarry's model, since the man from Alabama had built the perfect execution chamber disguised as a shack.
Tippi's life support system included an oxygen converter and oxygen tank that together fed a mixture of pure and room-mixed oxygen into the ventilator trach tube and from there into her lungs. The mixture was very carefully calibrated, only now there was no oxygen left in the room. And the amount of pure oxygen coming from the tank wasn't nearly enough to make up the difference. In her terribly weakened condition, she expired almost immediately. The monitor screeched this result as she flatlined. Her hell on earth was finally over.
