Lincoln Moss hung his head in shame, clapped his friend on the back, apologized for doubting him, and promised never again to underestimate his genius.

The $10 billion a year tripled the day La Natural engaged the new face for La Natural, a model by the name of Amalie Laurent. Lincoln had met her a year or so earlier, and on Gabe’s advice, Lincoln wooed her, wined, and dined her, gave her everything a woman could want, then married her the day he turned forty-two.

The wedding was so over the top it was televised live all over the world. Women sat glued to their television sets admiring the top model’s flawless beauty, which she said came from La Natural. There were those who said Princess Diana’s wedding was tawdry compared to Amalie Laurent’s.

A year to the day after he and his bride returned from their honeymoon on the island of Mustique, Lincoln got down to the serious business of grooming Gabriel Knight for the presidency of the United States. Two years later, Lincoln Moss announced to the world that he was going to manage Gabriel Knight’s campaign for the highest office in the land. It took four years of steady-as-you-go politicking. He left no stone unturned. He worked tirelessly, campaigning seven days a week and making sure that all photo ops showed Amalie flanked by Gabe and himself. And that’s how Gabriel Knight had sailed into the White House the year before Lincoln Moss turned fifty.

The media stewed and fretted when Lincoln was given no titles, no special perks, and all he would say was that he didn’t want anything other than the President’s friendship. They did notice, however, that Lincoln wore out the carpet leading to the Oval Office with his frequent visits. And they noticed when he sat in on briefings, not that he ever uttered a single word. Anytime a crisis threatened, Lincoln was the first one in the Situation Room. It was also said but not proven that the President and Lincoln had personal cell phones that not even the Secret Service was privy to. Then they started to whisper about Moss’s little black book of secrets, but no one would or could confirm that there was such a book.

In the beginning, Ted Robinson and Maggie Spritzer of the Post very often wrote op-ed pieces and lengthy articles on Lincoln Moss as they tried to figure out if there was something no one was seeing besides themselves. As Maggie said time and again, “He’s got to have something on someone, and I do believe there is a little black book,” with which Ted agreed completely. From time to time, they questioned their own suspicious-reporter instincts and were inclined to give up their quest for a story when they couldn’t come up with anything they felt was newsworthy. So they simply shelved the effort as they waited for a break, or, as Ted put it, a mistake on the part of kingpin Lincoln Moss. It was just a matter of time, he said over and over, because everyone makes a mistake at some point. Ted was rarely, if ever, wrong. And when Maggie Spritzer agreed with him 100 percent, you could take it to the bank.