“What the hell does that mean?” Penn called after him, but Johnson kept walking. He turned to Strasky. “What the hell does that mean?”

Strasky changed the subject and pointed to a sign on the far wall:UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. “We should go take a look at our new home.” Behind them, the check-in desk was beginning to get frantic. Cameron was again launching into his welcome speech.

The sign for the House Chamber was not a slapdash last-minute handwritten affair. On the contrary, it was engraved in gold letters on a stained dark wood sign that measured two feet by four feet. It topped a set of heavy double doors with reinforced glass in the upper third of the panels. Penn pulled the right-hand door open to reveal a steeply sloped lecture hall with a stage at the bottom. Each of the seats—he guessed that there were at least 435 of them—were padded like movie theater chairs, and each was equipped with a desk that folded down to the side. The stage itself was laid out in a pattern that roughly simulated the real House Chamber in the Capitol, though without the well, and absent the seats normally occupied by clerks and other staff—none of whom would be invited to this particular party.

“I read in the briefing book that Hilltop routinely used this space for conventions and sales meetings and such,” Penn explained. “The folks who attended lectures here never dreamed that they were sitting in the House Chamber.”

“I’ll bet the decorations were different,” Strasky quipped.

Large television screens dominated the back of the stage, each displaying the Great Seal of the House of Representatives. Behind the Speaker’s seat, the flags of all branches of the military flanked Old Glory. Other television screens—a dozen or more of them, all showing the same image—hung from the ceiling from strategic locations that would allow everyone in the chamber to have an adequate view.

“I don’t get the armed services flags,” Strasky said. “That’s executive branch. Seems more relevant to their bunker than to ours.”

“Look at the right-hand wall down there,” Penn said. Draped there on the wooden paneling was a television-ready backdrop of the White House. A similar backdrop of the U.S. Capitol dominated the opposite wall on the left. “I’m second in line to the presidency. If something happens to the president and vice president, I’m the guy. The flags and the backdrops just show how prepared this place is for every plot twist.”

“It’s a pretty bare-bones operation,” Strasky said.

Penn didn’t respond. A rush of emotion pressed behind his eyes as he slowly descended the steps toward the well, such as it was. Jesus, this is really happening.

“You okay, boss?” Strasky asked.

“Is anything okay today?” Penn replied. “I’m scared to death.”