O’Connor and Addis were usually allies in the political battles fought within the Hanover camp. “The long and short of it,” Hanover had once said of them. Rarely had they disagreed. A few months back, he had argued for abandoning a Secretary of Labor nominee after a network revealed the man had not disclosed his previous treatment for manic depression. O’Connor had urged Hanover to stand by his old college chum. The President dumped the nominee—and his popularity dipped a few points in the polls. Addis sent O’Connor a single black feather, with a card that read, “I’ve eaten the rest of the damn bird.” A few weeks ago, the two had worked together to stage a meeting where union officials, human rights activists, and environmentalists could share with Hanover their criticisms of the proposed China trade accord. But that session had not won over the President. After months of consideration, Hanover had sided with those Cabinet members, aides, and fund-raisers pushing for the treaty, under which U.S. corporations would gain more access to Chinese labor, consumer, and financial markets and China’s trade status would not be subject to those painful yearly reviews.

“Saw you go in,” O’Connor said. “Thought I’d give you a few minutes.”

“Feels like a tomb.”

“The whole friggin’ building feels like a tomb—or would, if there weren’t so many security freaks running around. Like being in the embassy in Lagos, when the friggin’ Nigerians were about to storm in.”

O’Connor had been in the Peace Corps in Africa. After that, she founded what she called a “health-care empowerment center” for low-income women in rural Minnesota. At a conference on health care services, she met Margaret Mason Hanover, then the First Lady of Louisiana, and immediately became a friend and adviser.

“They’re just overcompensating,” he said. “They lost him and can’t do anything about it. This is how they grieve.”

“And how do we?”

“I haven’t gotten to that item on the agenda yet.”

O’Connor guided Addis around the corner. A security detail with attack dogs passed by.

“You rode back with Mumfries?” she asked.

He nodded.

“You think the changes will come soon? Or will he sit on them?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Brew’s going to try to stay on.”

“Probably.”

“Prove after all these years he’s not just a Hanover appendage.”

“Maybe.”

“What should we do? Yeah, I know, it’s ghoulish to be talking like this. But we’re just going to turn the whole store over to Mumfries? Imagine what happens to the President’s program when he gets done with it. He reamed us on the tax bill, telling the committee what we were going to do. Man, he pushed for their environmental cuts. Remember that lovely interlude? And you can forget China—he’ll make it worse. And in two weeks he’ll waltz into Chicago, grab the nomination, and he’ll—”