“In about an hour,” Collins said, checking his watch. He handed the waiter his glass, still mostly full. “I don’t need that if I want to be coherent later. Just wetting the whistle.” He turned back to Kate and Stone. “I had a word with Marty this afternoon. He is disinclined to accept an appointment to the Senate.”

Oh, shit, Stone thought. So much for that idea.

“But that’s tonight,” Collins said. “Who knows what he might think tomorrow night after a fresher overnight poll comes out.”

“Marty has a tendency to go where the wind blows him,” Kate said.

Collins laughed. “Tell me, Kate, is there a message you’d like me to deliver?”

Kate looked at him for a moment, puzzled, then she laughed. “I have nothing to offer Marty,” she said, “unless Stone can come up with another movie star.”

“I don’t believe I can,” Stone said.

“Then I don’t suppose you know a likely porn queen?”

“I do not.”

“It’s just as well,” Kate said. “Otherwise, we’d be awash in the testosterone of American white males over thirty-five.”

Ann joined the group. “Governor, I’m hearing rumors of unrest in your delegation.”

“Never believe rumors, Ann,” he replied smoothly.

Everyone chatted for a while, occasionally listening to a speaker drone on.

Governor Collins stood up. “I’m afraid I must be going or they’ll start getting nervous backstage.”

Kate walked him to the door and, before he left, he whispered something in her ear. Kate closed the door behind him and came back into the room.

“Come on, Kate,” Ann said. “What did the governor have to say?”

Kate smiled. “He said that he told Marty Stanton that his offer of the Senate seat will expire five minutes after the end of the first ballot.”

Then the door opened again and the president of the United States entered the suite.

Chapter 16

Everybody stood, and Will Lee shook every hand before sitting down.

“We weren’t expecting you,” Kate said to her husband.

“I wasn’t coming,” Will replied, “then I thought to myself, why should my wife have all the fun?” He ordered a bourbon and sat down, facing the convention floor. “I hope this is better than the football game on TV,” he said.

“You must have had the press all over you downstairs,” Ann said.

“No, I left the motorcade a couple of blocks up the street and arrived downstairs in a single SUV. Nobody twigged.”