“I’ve already spoken with your advisor at FSU. I’m offering you an internship in the new Tampa facility, close to your mother’s home. Your job will be to head up Mick’s treatment team, with a permanent position and full benefits waiting for you after you graduate.”

The offer brings tears of relief. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I feel bad. I should have never assigned Mick to you in the first place. You’ll make a fine psychiatrist one day, but you weren’t ready for a patient as manipulative as Michael Gabriel. Your father’s death, the turmoil your family’s gone through—all of this is my fault. I knew better, but I took a chance. I saw in you a strong woman who would be the perfect addition to my staff, but I rushed your development. I’m sorry, Dominique. Give me the chance to make it up to you.”

He extends a thick palm.

Dominique stares at it for a long moment, then shakes the offered hand.

DECEMBER 6, 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C.

Vice President Ennis Chaney looks up from the report, acknowledging the president’s National Security staff as they file into the White House war room and take their places around the oval conference table. A half dozen military and science advisors follow, filling the extra folding chairs lining the perimeter of the room.

Ennis closes the document as the president enters, the secretary of state in his wake. Borgia bypasses his own chair to address Chaney. “You and I need to talk.”

“Mr.Secretary, if we can begin?”

“Yes, Mr.President.” Borgia finds his place, giving Chaney a perturbed look.

President Mailer rubs his bloodshot eyes, then reads from a fax. “This afternoon, the United Nations Security Council will issue a statement, deploring the testing of pure-fusion weapons as being contrary to the de facto moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons and to global nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear-disarmament efforts. Further, the Council is seeking immediate ratification of a new resolution designed to close the loophole on pure-fusion technology.”

Mailer holds up a report labeled UMBRA, a code word used to classify files beyond TOP SECRET. “I’ll assume everyone has reviewed this document. I’ve asked its author, Dr. Brae Roodhof, Director of the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, to join us this morning as I’m sure all of us have questions we want answered. Doctor?”

Dr. Roodhof is in his early fifties, a tall gray-haired man with a tan, weathered face and calming demeanor. “Mr.President, ladies and gentlemen, I want to start by stating emphatically that it was not the United States who detonated this pure-fusion weapon.”