“Very nearly,” Stone lied. “Do it now, Ed, and it will be over. She won’t need him or Willingham. Tell Otero if he throws his delegates to Kate, he’ll be in the good graces of the next president. Or if he sticks it out with Willingham, he’ll be number one on Kate’s shit list. And tell him anything else you can think of.”

“I’ll call you back,” Eagle said.

Stone picked up the binoculars and trained them on the New Mexico delegation. Eagle had taken Otero into an aisle, a few steps away from the others. Ed was looking down at Otero and Otero was looking at the floor with an ear cocked toward Ed. Otero was shaking his head vehemently.

“Oh, shit,” Stone said, lowering the binoculars. “Where are we in the ballot count?”

“Projecting one thirty-one,” Ann said. “This is not good, Stone. Somebody is making a lot of promises to delegates who committed to Kate.”

Stone raised the binoculars again. Otero and Eagle were gone. He swept the New Mexico delegation; they were not there. Where the hell were they? New Mexico would be called on in a minute or two. Then he spotted them: they were striding toward the Virginia delegation, and Willingham had just seen them coming. “Something’s going on,” Stone said, half to himself.

“What? What’s going on?” Ann asked.

“Powwow at the Virginia delegation. Ed and Otero are over there. Ed is doing all the talking.”

—

KATE LOOKED OVER Will’s shoulder at the chicken-scratching on his pad. “What does all that mean?” she asked.

“I’m a little confused,” Will said. “We seem to be three or four votes behind where we should be at this point. Where the hell is Sam Meriwether?”

“With the Georgia delegation,” Kate replied.

“See if you can get him on the phone.”

Kate called the number and put the phone on speaker.

“Kate?”

“Sam, Will’s worried about the delegate count.”

“He should damn well be worried,” Sam replied. “By my projections, we’ll be three votes short of the nomination. And if that happens, then Otero and Willingham will join forces on the second ballot and take the nomination. Oh, and Otero is over at the Virginia delegation right now with Willingham. They’re cooking up something.”

“Sam,” Will said, “drop everything and get over to Virginia. See if you can break up whatever they’re thinking about.”

“I’ll call you back,” Meriwether said.

“Will, I’m sorry I ever did this,” Kate said, resting her forehead on his shoulder.

“You just hang on, sweetheart, it’s not over yet.”

“I just have this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach.”

“Have a bourbon and Alka-Seltzer—that always works for me.”

—

“NEW MEXICO!” the chairman was shouting.

Stone watched as a New Mexican he didn’t know stood up and took the microphone. Otero was nowhere in sight.